Recently, I hooked editor Julia Goldberg--a connoisseur of B-class sci-fi--on the British miniseries Torchwood: Children of Earth. The five-night special serves as the third and presumably final season of the Doctor Who spin-off (best described as an oversexed and homoerotic X-Files set in Wales).

In essence, it revolves around the British response to mysterious, all-powerful junky aliens who want to get high off sucking the life force from the planet's children. Peter Capabaldi, who earned my eternal admiration as the Prime Minister's foul-mouthed communications director in In the Loop, again plays a 10 Downing Street denizen, but this time he's the trembling-lipped civil servant charged with managing first contact with the ETs in their gas-filled containment box.

All that, combined with last week's print piece on the Angel Fire Paranormal Symposium, got me thinking: With one of the only functional spaceport plans in progress, New Mexico Spaceport Authority surely must have crafted a first-contact plan. So, I asked, what's the protocol?

Here's spokesman Robert Sharp's emailed response:

At this time, Spaceport America has not considered or adopted a first-contact plan, but when the project draws closer to completion, it is something that might be reviewed.

Hmmm, what happened to emergency preparedness? Well, I guess all we can do is have faith in Gov Bill Richardson's universally recognized diplomatic skills.