Phil Plait on the Yellow Menace IN SPACE!

China’s space efforts [...] uneasy [...] adversary [...] worrisome [...] political will [...] a cause for worry [...] "evil" [...] saber-rattling [...] not entirely friendly [...] motives (...) suspect[...] controlling [...]

working its way to

The consequences of this are difficult to ascertain. We have an increasingly reactionary and jingoistic Congress, for example, which for once may work in our favor.

Or to put it another way, by comparison to Plait Rand Simberg appears to be a moderate on this particular subject.

Exploring Tomorrow: First Contact

Exploring Tomorrow: First Contact

What's interesting about this one is that we can compare it to X Minus One's version of First Contact. I have not checked ahead to see if this will come up again.

Overall I'd say the X Minus One people had better actors but took more liberties with the plot for some reason; the ending in particular feels strained. The Exploring Tomorrow people had weaker actors (and the guy doing the captain really needed to discover his inner volume rheostat) and the pacing seems off but the plot's resolution is truer to the original.

Something that occurred to me years after reading the story for the first time; how do the two groups know the other side didn't leave a nuclear device on a time? Or a galactic range beacon?