Tuesday, March 5, 2013

"Are We Alone?" Makes a Return Visit on Science Channel Tonight

"Are We Alone?"  Indeed...Science Channel asks this most mysterious question tonight and lucky for us they know how to make some terrific television to try to answer it.  As a follow-up to the tremendously effective two hours they produced last year -- Alien Encounters: The Message and Alien Encounters: The Arrival -- tonight and next week they bring us two more installments under the umbrella theme title of Are We Alone?.   March is -- and was last year, too -- an "Are We Alone?" theme month, though I'm not sure it's so much a month as just a Tuesday evening stunt, but that's plenty good enough.  What really makes this collection of programming special is that these four special are made with the help of the SETI Institute, the foremost authority on the search for alien life, and their participation ensures that these shows are both scientifically accurate and dramatically far-reaching, a perfect combination. 

Tonight's new hour, premiering at 10pm, is Alien Encounters: The Invasion.  If you saw the other two specials, you know that Earth intercepted a message from an alien source -- first contact -- and then in the second hour it was discovered that the aliens were headed straight for our planet.  If you didn't see these two excellent hours, you will have a chance tonight when they are repeated at from 8pm to 10pm, and we highly recommend watching.  Not only will it get you up to speed for the newest special, but these are hours that can stand up to repeat viewing.  They are superb, with believable fictional characters and scenes featured along with real scientists who offer their views on the history-making events taking place. 

No doubt these two new hours -- the fourth one premieres next Tuesday -- will not disappoint.  We've been introduced to several recurring characters who will no doubt be facing the scary reality of alien contact in these newest segments. Science Channel has managed here to combine some of the best scientific minds -- and not only merely brilliant, but enthusiastic and emminently entertaining -- with an appealing semi-documentary look to the dramatic segments that works to increase believability in material that skirts the unknowable. 

Don't miss Alien Encounters 2: The Invasion tonight at 10pm, with an encore at 1am, and last year's Alien Encounters: The Message and Alien Encounters: The Arrival at 8pm and 9pm, respectively, with encores at 11pm and 12 midnight. 

Keep Watching the Skies -- and your TV set!

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