Discovery HD Theater Presents Alien Planet Simulcast and Science of Star Wars
Discovery HD Theater takes extraterrestrial coverage to the next level — to the high definition level as it presents ALIEN PLANET on May 14, 2005 at 8:00 pm, the network’s first ever simulcast event with the Discovery Channel. Continuing its out-of-this-world theme, on May 18 from 8-11:00 pm, Discovery HD Theater will present THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS, a special that reveals various types of “Star Wars-like” equipment in use today and in the development stages. The HD version of SCIENCE OF STAR WARS premieres on the Discovery Channel May 16-18, and is hosted by none other Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and himself (with help from R2-D2). The program will explore the real scientific underpinnings of the STAR WARS franchise.
ALIEN PLANET transports viewers on a high def, virtual mission into the future to Darwin IV, a planet 6.5 million light years from Earth with two suns and 60% gravity. Through computer-generated imagery, animation and visual effects, the planet reveals unexpected and startling (as their names suggest) life forms such as the Daggerwrist, Flying Skewer, Prong Heads, Trunk Suckers and more.
Three probes each with the artificial intelligence of a four-year-old child — DaVinci (aka Leo), Newton (a/k/a Ike), and Balboa, (which explodes on contact with the new planet) — explore the planet, uncovering life forms, processing data, sending it back to scientists on earth. Originally programmed to explore alien pond scum, Leo and Ike find themselves in the path of the enormous Sea Strider (a creature that actually eats from mouths on the bottoms of their giant feet) and gawking at giant Gourd Trees, balanced on tiny stilt roots. Leo and Ike have adventures with “Arrow Tongue” (a life form about the same a size as a T-Rex with a roar like thunder), “Unth” (the planet’s dominant herbivore, named for the sound made when he exhales through dorsal vents) and even get caught in a violent hurricane of salt.
ALIEN PLANET also provides in-depth scientific commentary to explain how life could exist in other worlds. The special features on-camera interviews with Michio Kaku (string theorist, City University of New York), Jack Horner (paleontologist, Montana State University), Stephen W. Hawking (physicist, author, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME), J. Craig Venter (mapper of the human genome) and George Lucas (film maker). These experts and many more mission scientists, biologists, physicists and astrobiologists were consulted on topics as varied as spaceships, planetary atmosphere and life forms to provide the scientific underpinnings of the specials.
THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS offers high definition viewers yet another look at the extraordinary world of outer space. Three hour-long episodes of THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS will be packaged on Discovery HD Theater as “HD from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” Episode one, “Man and Machine,” takes a close look at how robots are currently used to clean the house, walk the dog and identify life in the rubble caused by an earthquake. It examines how droids will soon replace astronauts on dangerous spacewalks and act as flying R2-D2's to people living in space. And the future of artificial intelligence makes Darth Vader possible as scientists give prosthetics a mind of their own.
“Space Cowboys” is the title of THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS episode two, which looks at high tech methods of mobility and communication. The show theorizes that in the near future hovercraft may be commonplace vehicles. Various other vehicles are still in prototype stages, but H2O cars and HyWire cars (hydrogen and by wire) are here today and equipped with technology able to “sense” traffic patterns or danger ahead. This episode poses the question of how tomorrow’s hot rods might look.
ALIEN PLANET transports viewers on a high def, virtual mission into the future to Darwin IV, a planet 6.5 million light years from Earth with two suns and 60% gravity. Through computer-generated imagery, animation and visual effects, the planet reveals unexpected and startling (as their names suggest) life forms such as the Daggerwrist, Flying Skewer, Prong Heads, Trunk Suckers and more.
Three probes each with the artificial intelligence of a four-year-old child — DaVinci (aka Leo), Newton (a/k/a Ike), and Balboa, (which explodes on contact with the new planet) — explore the planet, uncovering life forms, processing data, sending it back to scientists on earth. Originally programmed to explore alien pond scum, Leo and Ike find themselves in the path of the enormous Sea Strider (a creature that actually eats from mouths on the bottoms of their giant feet) and gawking at giant Gourd Trees, balanced on tiny stilt roots. Leo and Ike have adventures with “Arrow Tongue” (a life form about the same a size as a T-Rex with a roar like thunder), “Unth” (the planet’s dominant herbivore, named for the sound made when he exhales through dorsal vents) and even get caught in a violent hurricane of salt.
ALIEN PLANET also provides in-depth scientific commentary to explain how life could exist in other worlds. The special features on-camera interviews with Michio Kaku (string theorist, City University of New York), Jack Horner (paleontologist, Montana State University), Stephen W. Hawking (physicist, author, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME), J. Craig Venter (mapper of the human genome) and George Lucas (film maker). These experts and many more mission scientists, biologists, physicists and astrobiologists were consulted on topics as varied as spaceships, planetary atmosphere and life forms to provide the scientific underpinnings of the specials.
THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS offers high definition viewers yet another look at the extraordinary world of outer space. Three hour-long episodes of THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS will be packaged on Discovery HD Theater as “HD from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” Episode one, “Man and Machine,” takes a close look at how robots are currently used to clean the house, walk the dog and identify life in the rubble caused by an earthquake. It examines how droids will soon replace astronauts on dangerous spacewalks and act as flying R2-D2's to people living in space. And the future of artificial intelligence makes Darth Vader possible as scientists give prosthetics a mind of their own.
“Space Cowboys” is the title of THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS episode two, which looks at high tech methods of mobility and communication. The show theorizes that in the near future hovercraft may be commonplace vehicles. Various other vehicles are still in prototype stages, but H2O cars and HyWire cars (hydrogen and by wire) are here today and equipped with technology able to “sense” traffic patterns or danger ahead. This episode poses the question of how tomorrow’s hot rods might look.
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