This year The History Channel took a break from handing out Vikings drinking horns at Comic-Con and put together an activation for their new drama Project Blue Book. The show is based on real top-secret investigations into UFOs conducted by the US Air Force between 1952 and 1969.
The offsite was located in Comic-Con’s Experience in the Petco Park parking lot (formerly the Interractive Zone), and did not require a badge. We visited in the afternoon on Thursday and the line was relatively short.
Once you reached the front of the queue and registered on their website you were assigned to one of the staff that would make a record of your alien or UFO sighting. This was something completely unique to this offsite this year. The activation was themed like a military base and you were seated on a small camp stool across the table from and actor who asked a series of questions about your alien encounter. After you answered all of the questions your record was sent to an artist to generate a personal sketch of your story. The sketch wasn’t available until 30 to 40 minutes after you left the experience (which was just enough time to get some free DC ice cream so it didn’t seem inconvenient at all).
The second part of the experience was a room where sketches based on UFO or alien sightings were projected onto the walls with audio recordings to accompany them. This part of the walk through was less memorable since it was not interactive. All of the staff and actors did a great job staying in character as they led us through each segment.
The final room was set up as a command center where the sketch artists were working and where we able to send a message to space.
I can’t remember having attended a History Channel offsite like this before. I know my friends and I have attended Vikings boat rides and the Vikings funeral previous years at San Diego Comic Con. The overall presentation and themeing was well done and definitely presented the show in a compelling and fun way. Being able to tell them your “experience” put you in the show and made you part of the drama.
Your visit got you not only a personal sketch, but a lanyard for Blue Book headquarters and a comic (Project Blue Book – Case #1972). I spent the rest of the weekend of SDCC recommending this offsite to other attendees.
My only request for next year would be more air conditioning.
Find out more about Project Blue Book here: https://www.history.com/shows/project-blue-book/about
— Mary Loutzenhiser