With drones clotting the skies and Chinese spy balloons overhead, more and more people are starting to talk about UFOs. Are they little green men, aliens with enormous eyes determined to overpower mankind? Or are they something more benign?

At long last scientists are expressing their opinions about the subject. And not only them. Reputable people who’ve actually experienced these objects up close and personal are speaking out. One of them is former fighter pilot Ryan Graves, who not only viewed what he calls UAOs but experienced a close encounter with one of them.

His story, along with scientific and anecdotal opinions are the subjects of PBS’ “Nova" streaming on PBS.org, the free PBS app and some local stations. “Nova” poses the question we’re all asking, “What are UFOs?”

Graves says he was so worried about what he saw in the air that he finally reported what he calls UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena).

“When we first started experiencing this, we did not jump to any type of conclusions,” says Graves. “In fact, we weren't even really talking about it other than with kind of hushed whispers amongst the crew that experienced it. It wasn't until we had an incident where there was a near miss with one of these objects that we kind of came together as a squadron to talk about it.”

Even then they were uncomfortable giving any kind of credence to it. “For me personally, I was just one of the crew that was responding in that very similar way, and that was in the 2014 to 2015 time period. I then left the squadron as per normal and went to a training squadron to teach. And in 2017, a New York Times article came out, and it featured some video and images from my squadron. And I realized at that point the conversation wasn't just dying, it was almost a cry for help because we had no real way to mitigate the issue,” he recalls.

“And that's when I decided to personally speak out about it. I spoke to my colleagues that were still on the East Coast, and I spoke to my colleagues that I was working with at that time and kind of checked myself and said, ‘Hey, you guys remember those objects? Did anyone see them?’ And you know, about eight out of the 12 people, at least in that room, they described seeing the same objects. And the pilots on the East Coast were still experiencing them,” he remembers.

“And that's when I made the decision to try to engage the conversation, to be able to at least provide a little more information so that potentially it could get resolved and mitigated in some way.

My primary concern at the time was that this was a potential adversary that could be spying on our space and on our systems and on our tactics. And that's how I continue to treat this topic. We don't know what these are, but I'm fearful that this could represent a national security issue and, if nothing else, an aviation safety issue."

Mick West, a UFO analyst, author and founder of the website Metabunk, which is dedicated to rational discussions of controversial issues, says, “People seeing things in the sky and thinking they're UFOs or aliens or whatever they think, there's no real harm in that.

“Where the issue really gets to be one of more importance is when we have things like commercial pilots seeing things, military pilots seeing things, and they're either causing distractions for these pilots, or they are perhaps representing a safety hazard.”

Shelley Wright, a professor of physics, astrophysics and astronomy at UC San Diego, says, “When I was an undergrad, I was really interested in life and the universe and getting at the question of are we alone? And I started this topic 25 years ago, and this topic of SETI, which is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. And I was told back then never to put that on a CV or resume. So ... why is it taboo in science? And, slowly, that's dissolved as we learn in astronomy that planets are common,” she says.

“Potentially habitable worlds are common. But yet the culture of science is still slow to catch up to this. The conversation is opening, but it's still slower than I think people think in the science community.”

Terri Randall, who created the documentary airing on “Nova,” says, “Talking to Shelley and some of the members of the NASA study group, I started to talk to them about what could we do to develop ideas or experiments to try to show the audience something more about the science part of this.

“So it was working with people like that, especially with the members of the NASA study group, who are scientists who actually know something about the topic and are interested in the topic and are also interested in helping the public understand more about the topic. So, then I took it from there.”

Actress stars in steamy drama

Eleanor Tomlinson (formerly of “Poldark”) is one-fourth of a steamy quartet that moves into a seemingly bucolic suburb only to find there’s more behind the curtains than a leather couch and a coffee table.

“The Couple Next Door” is a six-part drama costarring Sam Heughan (the hunk from “Outlander”) on the Starz streamer, on demand and on Starz. Tomlinson tells me that she started acting when she was 11. “So you don’t take the word ‘no’ on board. If you want to do something you just do it,” she says.

“I was very much like that. (My parents) were actually really supportive, and my dad’s agent came around, and I was just being really ballsy and insisted she represent me. And she took me on board and in a couple months I got my first job. And within a year I got a film called ‘The Illusionist,’ my first ever movie.”

She says she loves the acting profession. “It’s one of those industries that drives me because I'm so competitive and because I want to do it very much. I couldn’t do it if I didn’t feel the way I do about it. I'm incredibly passionate about it and the roles I take on. It’s that drive that keeps me doing it because I know that for something that makes my heart beat as this does, I must love it. I’ve never wanted to quit.”

Writers undervalued in Hollywood

It’s a running joke in Hollywood that everybody forgets about the writer. In fact, there have been films in which the writer is depicted as an afterthought. But, let’s face it, actors and directors wouldn’t have anything to do if it weren’t for that dialogue scribbled on the page.

One of Tinsel Town’s most successful screenwriters is David Koepp. His scripts for “Jurassic Park,” “Spider-Man” and “Mission Impossible" have set skyscraper standards for others.

He’s written a new film, “Presence,” which opens in theaters on Saturday. The movie stars Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan. It’s about a family that moves into a tidy suburban house, only to suspect that they are not alone.

Steven Soderburgh directs. He and Koepp have worked together before on the thriller “Kimi,” and Koepp has often provided the script for Steven Spielberg movies like “Jurassic Park, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and this summer their latest, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is due.

Koepp tells me why he likes script writing with Spielberg. “The nice thing about working with Steven Spielberg is that you work pretty much only with Steven Spielberg,” says Koepp. “Because of his success, he's able to exclude everyone from the development process. I just firmly believe that the best stuff comes from the fewest number of people in the room. So it's less pressure.”

Adapting another author’s book can be a unique challenge, he says. “They’re there, but you have to ignore them because you don’t really owe the author of the book anything except to maintain the spirit of their work because a 400-page novel just can’t be told in a 120-page screenplay. Most authors know that.”

Eriq La Salle back on duty

Dick Wolf, producer of the successful “Law & Order” series, doesn’t really like it when his characters leave the precinct. In his new series, “On Call,” which is streaming on Prime Video, the cops are out on the beat in Long Beach, California. Here we have a seasoned officer, played by Troian Bellisario. If that name sounds familiar it practically denotes a dynasty in the TV world. Troian’s dad is Don Bellisario, creator or co-creator of such treasures as “NCIS,” “JAG,” “Magnum, P.I.”, and “Quantum Leap.” Troian is married to Patrick J. Adams, costar in “Suits,” and Sean Murray of “NCIS” is the elder Bellisario’s son-in-law.

But the good news is that both Lori Laughlin is back as a police lieutenant and the wonderful Eriq La Salle portrays a sergeant on the 30-minute series. La Salle, who is best known for his medical residency on “ER,” has been producing, writing and directing is also executive producer on this show.

La Salle says, “I like telling stories. I’ll always be in love with acting — it was my first love — but at this point in my life when I left ‘ER,’ it was the same thing. I'm more passionate about the challenges of directing and the control of storytelling.

“A lot of times you can do a good project as an actor, but unless you're a superstar you really lack a certain type of control over it. Not that directors have total control, but they have more control. And if you respond to a story, artists are very protective and selfish about those stories and the character.

“They want that story to be the best it can be. They want their character to be as dynamic as possible. I’ve worked with some very good directors and some extremely incompetent directors and to go to the process of bringing everything you have to contribute to it, to see it messed up in the hands of someone incompetent, it’s painful,” he says.

“Art is about collaboration. So you grow up understanding that and appreciating that. I love people being as excited about something as I am.”

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