The Search for Life in Outer Space How would we on planet Earth respond to a message from an intelligent civilisation elsewhere in the galaxy, perhaps a million years more advanced than we are? James Burke and Professor Carl Sagan report from Viking Mission Control in Pasadena as the decision to land is made, and present a documentary assessing the chances of making contact with extra-terrestrial life. With the participation of senior members of the Viking Science Team, and biologists, anthropologists, cosmologists and politicians who have thought about the probability-and the implications for mankind - of that first, contact.