Extraterrestrial | |
---|---|
Also known as | 'Alien Worlds Extraterrestrial - Alien Worlds' |
Genre | Astrobiology documentary |
Directed by | Nick Stringer |
Presented by | Armand Leroi (UK) |
Starring |
Simon Conway Morris Chris McKay Seth Shostak Nigel Franks Jim Usherwood |
Narrated by | Armand Leroi (UK) Michael Dorn (US) |
Composer(s) | The Fratelli Brothers |
Country of origin | United Kingdom United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 2 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Sarah Cunliffe |
Producer(s) | Nick Stringer |
Running time | 2 hours with commercials 100 minutes without commercials |
Production company(s) | Big Wave Productions Ltd. |
Release | |
Original network |
Channel 4 (UK) National Geographic Channel (US) |
Original release | January, 2005 (UK) May 30, 2005 (US) |
External links | |
Official website (archived link) | web |
Production website |
www |
Extraterrestrial (also Alien Worlds in the UK) is a British-American two-part television documentary miniseries, aired in 2005 in the UK by Channel 4, by the National Geographic Channel (as Extraterrestrial) in the US on Monday, May 30, 2005 and produced by Blue Wave Productions Ltd. The program focuses on the hypothetical and scientifically feasible evolution of alien life on extrasolar planets, providing model examples of two different fictional worlds, one in each of the series's two episodes.
The documentary is based on speculative collaboration of a group of American and British scientists, who were collectively commissioned by National Geographic. For the purposes of the documentary, the team of scientists divides two hypothetical examples of realistic worlds on which extraterrestrial life could evolve: A tidally locked planet orbiting a red dwarf star (dubbed "Aurelia") and a large moon (dubbed "Blue Moon") orbiting a gas giant in a binary star system. The scientific team of the series used a combination of accretion theory, climatology, and xenobiology to imagine the most likely locations for extraterrestrial life and most probable evolutionary path such life would take.
The "Aurelia" and "Blue Moon" concepts seen in the series were also featured in the touring exhibition The Science of Aliens.
The show's concept shares basic similarities with The Future is Wild. Both series depict imaginary but scientifically-plausible ecosystems and the species that inhabit them, with commentary by scientists. The key difference is that in The Future is Wild the ecosystems represent the possible future evolution of life on planet Earth, while in Extraterrestrial they are designed from scratch based on possible conditions on extrasolar planets.