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I have been searching for the name of a short sci-fi film for decades. The story is about a team of scientists who figured out a way to terraform Venus by sending algae plants there in a rocket which changes the atmosphere so that humans can live there. At the end, it works, but the first people that arrive on Venus discover that the algae has killed the native Venusians, a race of worm-like creatures. The final shot (as I remember it) is of an astronaut finding a half-sphere with writing on it, and he says “it wasn't much, but it showed that they were intelligent…”

I saw it on TV in probably the late seventies or early eighties, possible as an HBO short take that they would show to fill time in between movies. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

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  • @TrishLing has identified a discussion elsewhere that appears to be about the same film; forums.syfy.com/index.php?showtopic=2326372
    – Valorum
    Commented Oct 28, 2014 at 0:28
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    I remember that film too. I think it was part of "The Universe and I", a science film series by Kentucky Educational Television from the 1975-77 timeframe. Do you remember another film called "Vectoria", about a man who finds a magic video game about vectors? Or this film (or here) about the interior of the earth?
    – Kenster
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 3:46
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    Kenster, that was a big help. I think that the film was called Mind-Slaughter, and it was an episode of Universe and I. Here is a library entry to it - worldcat.org/title/mind-slaughter/oclc/… - unfortunately, there is a band called Mind Slaughter so I'm going to have to wade through a bunch of that in order to find the film, but at least we've got a title! Thanks everyone!
    – JayWasHere
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 2:13

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Kenster and JayWasHere are correct. The film is "Mind Slaughter", part of the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) series "Universe and I". I remember seeing the short film long ago, and tracked down its identity via the worldcat.org link above. I contacted KET, and they made a copy for me from the archived Betacam tape. I just watched it to ensure it was the film I remembered.

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    I don't suppose that film could accidentally find its way onto youtube...?
    – Kenster
    Commented Feb 19, 2015 at 17:30
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Thanks to everyone on this forum. I had been trying to find out the name of this short film for almost a decade. I saw it in 6th grade in 1988. I just got a copy from KET and posted it on Youtube:

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  • For anybody contemplating watching the film: it's about 18 minutes long, and really pretty good. You can get 95% of what's going on from the audio.
    – DCShannon
    Commented Mar 28, 2016 at 21:16

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