Cool news: Episode 2 of what has been said* to be the greatest TV show ever made, "Phil Plait’s Bad Universe", will air on Discovery Channel on Wednesday, October 6 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern!
W00t!
Episode 2 is called "Alien Attack!", and is my take on whether aliens are out there and whether we should worry about being invaded. If you’ve read my book you have an idea about this already, but there’re some very cool things we did in this episode, including one or two I’m still rather amazed by.
I’m also thrilled to note that the lead-in for BU will be the season premiere of MythBusters! I mean, it’s cool they’re having their season premiere and all that, but wow, I couldn’t ask for a better show to be after. It’ll make for a very fun night for TV. MythBusters airs at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Check your local listings.
In the coming week or two I’ll set up another Twitter giveaway contest; I have some more fun stuff from the show to give to a winner. In a few days there should be clips available, and I’ll tell you a bit more about the show, too.
As far as other ways of watching BU, Discovery Canada has made it official (there’s also some news here) that they’ll be running the first episode on October 3! I also heard that Discovery Asia will be running Episode 1 on November 17th. But that’s all the info I have. I don’t know if it’ll run on Hulu or iTunes or at Omicron Persei 8. If you want to see it and you live somewhere that’s not the US, then please send a (nice!) email to your local flavor of Discovery and see if they’ll run it. Those channels are all separate from DSC here in the States, so they make their own decisions. The Twitter tweeps got Discovery Canada to run it, so the power really is with the tweeple.
So: yay! I think this episode is even better than the first one, and I think you guys will really like it. Don’t forget to tell everyone you know, send out email, tweet, plant hypnogogic suggestions, txt msg ur BFF, and get into a relationship with it on Facebook.
* I just said it.
September 16th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Any word on when they’ll replay the fist show? I had to work that night and I’m apparently one of the last three people in the US without a DVR.
September 16th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
What Butch said – I hope Discovery channel replays the 1st show before I watch the 2nd show – I’ve been combing TV schedules and don’t see a replay date for the first show
September 16th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Sweet! Can’t wait!
September 16th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
If you’re giving away actual alien artifacts I might have to sign up for a Twitter account.
September 16th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Season 2 of the greatest show ever made? Yay, Firefly is back!! Yay!!
What? What?? Oh…..
September 16th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
So Phil, how do you feel about me potentially downloading this show? I don’t have the Discovery channel, don’t live in the U.S., but would still like to see the “greatest show ever made.” Any thoughts?
September 16th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Unfortunately I don’t have cable.
I wish the Discovery Channel would make your program available to us on the internet with out cable. If there was anyway I could watch it in a way that you get credit for I’d do that. I’ll be watching your clips on TDC web site.
September 16th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
How many “Holy Haleakala”s can we expect this time?
September 16th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
My DVR listings only go out 2 weeks. Mustn’t forget!
September 16th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
dang! i have to download it or wait a couple of years before they put the show on the air in Argentina (and you would cry in shame if you see what kind of ufo and pshychic garbage they have been showing over here lately. I guess/hope it is still a good tv channel over there, I mean, it has to be i they are showing Bad Universe, right?)
September 16th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Phil, the one complaint I have is for those of us without cable, there is no way to see it (legally). You should have gone with PBS to reach a much wider audience.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I AM LRRR, RULER OF OMICRON PERSEI 8!
I DEMAND THAT YOUR EARTHICAN TELEVISION SHOW “PHIL PLAIT’S BAD UNIVERSE” BE AIRED ON MY HOMEWORLD. COMPLY OR BE EATEN!!!
September 16th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
I doubt PBS has the funds to put it on and Discovery was the channel that offered to do it.
I would say anyone who has a show is lucky, and of those few or none have their choice of network.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
It’s not on Hulu. Therefore it doesn’t exist.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Does PBS really have a wider reach than Discovery any more? I find that hard to believe, but I have nothing to base that on. Anybody know for sure?
I’ll keep my frozen eyes peeled for a Canadian air date for Episode 2. I’ve been plugging the Canadian premier on my blog, so maybe my mom will tune in too.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Phil, is there a specific office in Discovery Channel we should write to in support of the show? I recorded the episode and watched it on my leisure time. Even had I watched it during broadcast, I don’t count since I’m not a Neilsen family. But I would like to write into support the show.
September 16th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
All I can say is….YES!
I wonder if the show will now regularly show at that time and day.
I can only imagine what we’ll see. I just hope some points that I’ve seen elsewhere will be brought up. Like how silly it is for aliens to send in ground based war machines.
September 16th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Cool!…I’m looking forward to it!
Any word on when the DVD box set of “Bad Universe” will be released?
RE: this next episode, it’s a good bet that Scully and Mulder will be watching.
They were always keen on research.
September 16th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Gotta tell you Phil, my nine year old daughter made me turn off BU after 5 minutes because she got so scared of an asteroid impact. Will I be able to let her watch your Aliens! show?
September 16th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Will this sort of schedule be common (i.e 1 ep. per month) for the foreseeable future?
How many eps. are there anyhow? I was hoping for a weekly helping of “Bad.”
BGC
September 16th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Also looks like many cable-less folks out there haven’t been able to enjoy the show. Kinda surprised nobody has taken the DVR recording and posted it on YouTube…I know its frowned upon and I would never do such a thing!
September 16th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I hope they bleep the word haleakala this time. Mine ears doth bleed.
September 16th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
@ AH
Thanks for the link, just watched the premier episode and it looks good Phil. Hope you keep them coming and if I cannot view the next episodes, I’ll look forward to the DVD’s.
Phil, I was interested in the fact that you didn’t use the Shoemaker/Levy Comet impact on Jupiter as a scale for impact energy and the comet impact in 1908. What is the option on a nearby explosion(s) to nudge a body away from a potential impact.
Sorry to use other means to see the show but cable less are interested in things not available and companies don’t seem to want to give us options that we would sign up for if they were available in our areas.
September 16th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Phil, lobby to get this on Hulu, or iTunes, or *something*! I don’t have cable, but I will pay to watch Bad Universe if I am given the opportunity.
September 16th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Holy Haleakala!
What kind of math functions will you employ for the twitter contest?
September 16th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Excellent!, a nice double birthday present.
Discovery is really giving you a great opportunity, a lead in with their most popular show starting the new season. Good luck indeed.
Your first show was what will happen, this show is what likely will not happen but hope never dies. What can your third show be about that tops that one, two?
September 16th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Glad to hear the second ep scheduled, and even more so that they gave you just about the best slot in their lineup. I was a bit discouraged after they buried the premier on a Sunday night. I told all of my students but no one managed to remember to watch it.
Bad Universe is the best TV show ever made. There, now two people have said it. I mean it, too, I really didn’t want it to end when watching the first episode.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:45 am
Cool. Hope it goes (& rates) well.
Wish I could see it but .. am living in Australia and have no pay TV anyhow so .. I’ll have to wait.
Now y’all know that Omicron Persei is a real star thought to be 1,000 light years away and this is why it was chosen by the Futurama writers for the millennium connection don’t you?
But here’s a trio of things you may not know :
1. BP Piscium the star the BA wrote about recently regarding stellar consumption of a planet or star is *also* 1000 light years away. So had things been a little different Lur might’ve been a “BP Piscean” which sounds nowhere near as cool admittedly.
2. Kaler’s Stars site for it (link to be provided separately) notes that Omicron Per has a proper name – Atik. So Lur and the other Omicronians are the aliens from the Atik!
3. Unfortunately, Omicron Persei / Atik may not in fact be 1,000 light years distant after all being somewhere around 1,500 to 1,000 ly off withj large uncertainities :
Hmm .. maybe they should gone with BP Piscean after all? Or another more accurately measured star but then again, maybe not. Besides at such distances there’s always bound to be some uncertainty and perhaps Omicron Persei really is an even light millennium away.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:55 am
Here’s the link to my source for the above info :
http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/atik.html
& here’s Omicron Persei’s wikipedia page :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omicron_Persei
& if you missed the BA’s article on BP Piscium the other week then this :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/09/14/when-a-star-eats-its-own/
is a link to that.
Hope this is useful / interesting / enjoyable for y’all.
September 17th, 2010 at 6:00 am
I JUST managed to get time to watch the first episode last night. I was a bit irked that they had a commercial for Jesus halfway through. Was that a Discovery channel thing, or maybe a “local” spot? Did anyone else see the Jesus ad?
ETA: Oh, and I really enjoyed the show. I kept checking my DVR to see if any more were coming up.
September 17th, 2010 at 7:54 am
I very rarely watch TV. Bad Universe is the exception. I just want the ability to buy commercial copies so I can show them to my students!
September 17th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Dude, you have a show?
Already on the calendar. Looking forward to it.
September 17th, 2010 at 8:44 am
And in the UK?
September 17th, 2010 at 8:59 am
You totally rocked the first show. I enjoyed it immensely!
September 17th, 2010 at 9:12 am
When does the shiny disc come out?
September 17th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Good! Now they will have enough shows to broadcast a marathon every Arbor Day or some such! I mean, as many times as cable reruns Man V. Food or those stupid cake shows, it would be nice to see something educational for a change.
September 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Alien deep space drive is obvious: It goes forward in space while going backward in time. Thus anywhere is accessible almost instantaneously at a mere few mph.
“Black space suddenly looked horribly wrong as the ship began to slip through progressively decompactified dimensions in exponentiating IPD starflight. A newbie on her first slide down the sharp edge of spacetime swallowed most of a long, long scream.” Uncle Al gets a techno-woodie just thinking about it. Will the crew have problems parallel-dimension parking?
NASA says, “Who wants a Baikonur sleigh ride?”
September 17th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Great show, but you really do need a sidekick. My schedule just happens to be open.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Oh the fact that it’s a Wednesday night sucks! I don’t get home till after 10 pm. Hopefully I won’t miss too much, and maybe we can use IO to record it for later viewing.
I know Discover does DVDs of stuff; PLEASE tell us that Bad Universe will be a boxed set. I’ll buy it!
September 17th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
It’s my night to be in the dorm so I’ll make 20 teenage girls watch it.
September 17th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Hopefully there will be a few less explosions this episode. Having been a member of the Rock Of The Month Club in the sixties, I started to feel really sorry for those bad boys you shot at last time.
September 17th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
#36, #37, #38. I swear, we are all different people…
…or at least, I am.
September 18th, 2010 at 7:49 am
@ ^ alfaniner : We’re all different, some of us are just more different than others!
I’m sure it is just an odd co-incidence. I hadn’t noticed the nom de plums similarity there until you pointed it out.
September 18th, 2010 at 10:16 am
NOOOOOOO this is on at the same time as the new South Park episode!!!!!!! Oh well, I’ll just have to wait a few hours until the episode goes up on the South Park site
September 18th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Phil, what about us in Australia….when do we get the show? The family can’t wait to see both episodes!
I guess we’ll just have to keep re-reading ‘Death From The Skies.’
September 19th, 2010 at 4:17 am
Cool to be considered a nuisance by people producing a t.v. show about their red herrings and straw man estimations. cool.
September 19th, 2010 at 4:37 am
I notice that the “scientists” can change what it is that they know, everytime they find out that what they said they knew before was incorrect or mistaken or contrary to what is found presently to be the case, they think. Its like listening to someone who is thinking outloud, who changes his mind often. As long as what they think does not corelate to anything thought before they thought of it. like the threat to the earth from Asteroids, or comets. or the threat to the earth from distant gamma radiating stars, or from the sun itself. All which have been intimated and thought of before by others who are/were not “scientists”. This drives them batty, and will cause them to write books and launch t.v. shows, debunking and otherwise casting aspersions upon those sources, and preserving their position of Intellectual Dominance of Certainty, which is actually anymans domain.
September 19th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Ill add one more vote to ‘please make this available on the intertubes’
Im cable free also, and I would love to watch this show. It’s a real shame that many TV shows are tempting piracy by simply not allowing any streaming.
September 20th, 2010 at 6:59 am
First episode was great (apart from the annoyingly often repeated “Holy Haleakala”), can’t wait for the next one.
September 20th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
I will be on another trip at the time. Want to know when the third episode will air? Hang on, let me check my travel schedule…just find the next time I will be out of town and that will be it.
September 20th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Well, dang, I don’t have cable, it’s not on iTunes, and Discover doesn’t have it anywhere online.
I guess I’ll never see it!
November 3rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
What the hell, is Discovery Channel trying to kill this show by airing it less than once a month and not saying when the next episode will be?