By Tom Lohr, South Pole correspondent
A flying saucer touched down at the South Pole Station on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. The alien inside sought not to harm the station crew, but to entertain a group of Polies gathered in the station’s old library under the Dome for the inaugural screening of Science Fiction Film Tuesdays.
The weekly event is the brainchild of Ethan Dicks, a self-proclaimed sci-fi buff. This year’s first screening featured the 1951 cult classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
The old-time science fiction film was a fitting launch for the popular event, as the Dome bears an eerie resemblance to the film’s silvery saucer.
The hallmark Dome is scheduled for dismantling in the near future as Pole’s operations shift to the new elevated station. The Dome, like the movie, has stood the test of time, and both have etched an impression on those who have viewed them.
Dicks is a scientist with the IceCube project concerned with collecting bits of interstellar matter. IceCube, designed to study neutrinos, is beginning to gear up for even bigger operations and will be a mainstay at the South Pole for many years to come.
And as long as IceCube remains, it’s likely Dicks will as well, and the South Pole’s weekly visits from outer space will continue.
