Discovery’s ‘Curiosity’ explores alien invasions

A television show on Discovery called Curiosity premiered at the beginning of August. The network describes the show as “an adventure of discovery, an expedition to uncover the truths behind life’s most challenging questions.” And the question being posed by the show in the second episode is: “Alien Invasion. Are We Ready?”

Many recent Hollywood movies and television shows have depicted hostile, invading aliens, so it’s not surprising to see yet another show exploring the topic of malevolent extraterrestrials.

Rhett Allain, an Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University, recently interviewed Alan Eyres, the Executive Producer for the Curiosity series. In the interview, Eyres explains that the “Alien Invasion” episode explores the questions of “Where would they come from? How would they get here? What would their weapons look like?,” with the hope that “grounding an entertaining premise in a rigorously scientific ‘war game’ type simulation will both entertain and inform.”

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku and NASA astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild are among the experts who appear in the episode.

The entire interview with Eyres can be read on Wired.com.

Curiosity’s “Alien Invasion” episode premieres Sunday, August 14 at 8 PM E/P.