Alien Invasion!!!!

I've been thinking a little more about the arrival of the aliens in V the other night and the fact that many people who watched it (including me) seemed to feel that the reaction of the populace in the TV show was . . . how shall we say this . . . WRONG. When the people in NYC started clapping after the V announcement, I literally snorted and shouted (to the empty apartment), "You've GOT to be kidding me." This was preceded by the fact that no one seemed to completely panic as the ships arrived, no one fainted, no one started screaming hysterically, etc, etc, etc.

So, the question then is, how would we react to such an event as a spaceship bigger than our city showing up in our skies? I mean, I got to figure that the initial reaction from everyone would be, "Is this some kind of movie? What are they filming?" But then, when people realize that, wait, the special effects go in after filming, I figure that a good chunk of the populace is going to totally freak out. I imagine it would be totally stunning, and that it would be too big and some people would panic. I think this would be the majority of the general reaction. And I think the panic would run more toward . . . well, running. We've all seen what happens in the movies when the big spaceship shows up. THINGS EXPLODE! So why would they hang around with that hanging over their heads?

Now, the SF geek crowd might react differently. Although I still think I'd run. I mean, I'd be saying I just wanted to get a better view from, say, Pennsylvania, because no reasonable alien would invade Pennsylvania. But I don't think it would be pure panic from the SF crowd. We might be more accepting of the whole concept in the first place for one thing. And I think, in general, that we're more accepting of things that are "different" in some way.

But anyway, in writing this I realize I'm still thinking about this. What do you guys think? How would the world react in this situation?