Saturday, January 14, 2012

"Watchbird" to air on Science Channel

"Stephen Hawking's Sci Fi Masters," a six-part anthology series written by some of the most well-known authors of science fiction, will air on the Science Channel Sundays at 10pm ET/PT beginning February 5.

The series was originally produced by ABC in 2007 as "Masters of Science Fiction," but only four of the episodes aired in the US. Missing from the schedule then was "Watchbird," a cautionary tale about intelligent military drones used for domestic crime control starring Sean Astin and James Cromwell.

Sean Astin as Charlie Kramer

The original Watchbird short story by Robert Sheckley is available free in ebook formats.

Press release / Official series web site

10 comments:

  1. I am sooooo excited!! I have always wanted to see this series. BUT the SCIENCE channel? So do not get that. *pouts* Is it on DVD? I check Amazon regularly *sheepish grin* for Sean "stuff" but have never seen it on there. Is there any hope for those of us that live in, shall we say, 'rural' areas?????? (praeriedikter)

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  2. Yes, you can get it from Amazon:
    http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Science-Fiction-Stephen-Hawking/dp/B001A7GOCA

    You can also pay per view on Youtube:
    http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=QZ9qInCKdXs

    It took forever to show up in this country, so I bought a region 2 DVD years ago!

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  3. THANK YOU!! I got it ordered. I couldn't find that on Amazon when I searched using Sean's name, the title, Stephen Hawkings, etc. Nothing. But was able to find it after typing in the addy you provided. Thanks again.

    Do region 2 DVDs work with our players? There is a region 2 DVD called "Kiss Symphony" and I am SO curious as to what that might be! It says, "starring Sean Astin"...... I have never seen a mention of that project before.

    (praeriedikter)

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  4. P, glad you got the DVD ordered! It's fun to see Sean in his lesser well known roles.

    Most DVD players will NOT play region 2 DVDs, but you can watch them on your computer using the application VLC Player. But Kiss Symphony?? As far as I know, that's about the rock group, and I have NO idea why Sean's name would be attached! Do you have a link to that?

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  5. http://www.amazon.com/Rusalka-Sean-Astin/dp/B000E1P3DE/ref=sr_1_133?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1326644999&sr=1-133


    http://www.amazon.com/Rape-Lucretia-Sean-Astin/dp/B000CIWXQO/ref=sr_1_104?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1326645161&sr=1-104


    http://www.amazon.com/Te-Deum-Sean-Astin/dp/B000BQOR6G/ref=sr_1_96?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1326645235&sr=1-96


    http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Sym-Sean-Astin/dp/B000CQ97S8/ref=sr_1_157?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1326645350&sr=1-157

    Hey, I did it!! Provided links (still working on those darn techie skills). Anyway, there were some other DVDs on Amazon of projects that I had never heard of Sean being attached to so I included those links too. The first link is to "Rusalka", the second is to "Rape of Lucretia" and the third is "TeDeum" with the fourth being "Kiss Symphony". Maybe the first ones are some sort of translations for movies once dubbed into another language but they aren't ringing any bells for me. The last one's title font actually does look like the Kiss logo from days gone by..... I found all of these be using "Sean Astin" to search Amazon. I know you will solve this mystery for us all. Thanks!! (praeriedikter)

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  6. Oh well, they aren't exactly links but at least you have the addy.

    I love watching Sean's projects. I don't go out to amazon very often as it just gets too expensive and God help me if I ever figure E-bay out! I would probably have to get a third job!! :D (praeriedikter)

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  7. P, they did show up as links in my email, so it was easy to check them out. All 4 have the actor credits of Slipstream (Sean, Vinnie Jones and Ivana Milicevic), but the first 3 are clearly operas and then there's the Kiss thing. I think the only explanation is someone screwed up in coding these! I would not recommending buying any hoping to see or hear Sean!

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  8. HEEEEEE!!!! That took you like, what? 32 seconds to clear up?! I could see that some of the DVDs appear to be operas but you never know...Sean could have been a narrator or something!! Hmmm, Sean being the narrator on a DVD about opera....now THAT I would get! Love opera. And, oh! Slipstream! It's been awhile since I've watched that. Thanks so much!! (praeriedikter)

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  9. Received The Masters of Science Fiction DVD today so finally got a chance to see "Watchbird". My goodness, that boy can really act!! Thanks again for helping me get this DVD! (praeriedikter)

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  10. Oh yay, glad you got to watch it! Poor Charlie. :-(

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