Please consult your local listings to verify this week’s science fiction tinged prime time and weekend TV highlights.
Monday, August 25th
Star Trek: The Next Generation – 7pm-9pm, SciFi Channel
>Data and his evil twin Lore join forces with…the Borg! *dun-dun-duuun*
The Butterfly Effect – 8pm, FX [Movie]
Tombstone – 9pm, History Channel [Movie]
>Nope, not sci-fi but it is full of awesome. I’m your huckleberry.
The Middleman – 10pm, ABCFamily
>Pesky nanobots turn Ida bad. With her mouth, how can they tell?
Tuesday, August 26th
Constantine – 7:30pm, FX [Movie]
>I know this is blasphemous, but I actually liked this movie. Perhaps it’s because I completely divorced it from the comic and made it its own entity?
The Others – 8pm, Chiller
>Short lived series from 2000 about psychically gifted people who investigate odd happenings. Stars Gabriel "The Spirit" Macht, Bill Cobbs, John Billinglsey (Enterprise, The Nine), and Kevin J. O’Connor (Benny, The Mummy) among others.
Smallville – 8pm, The CW (repeat)
>Clark teams up with "future Justice League" members in this episode. Really only worth it to see Lee Thompson Young return as Cyborg.
Reaper – 9pm, The CW (repeat)
>Refresh yourself with the first season’s finale before the new episodes start up.
Eureka – 9pm, SciFi Channel
>I really do like this show, especially now the Sheriff Carter’s daughter isn’t such a stereotypical brat like in the pilot. Ugh.
Psycho – 10pm, Turner Classic Movies [Movie]
Wednesday, August 27th
Spider-Man: The Animated Series – 7pm, Toon Disney
>First of two parts featuring Spidey’s team-up with the X-Men.
MythBusters – 9pm, Discovery Channel
>It was only a matter of time – Jamie and Adam tests the "they didn’t really land on the moon" myth.
Hulu Spotlight: Jack of All Trades
>Campy series stars Bruce Campbell as an American secret agent in the 19th century who teams up with a British agent to stop various bad guys (mostly Napoleon). Oh, and Campbell has a masked vigilante alter ego. It’s nothing but goodness.
Thursday, August 28th
Jeremiah – 7pm-11pm, SciFi Channel
Spider-Man: The Animated Series – 7pm, Toon Disney
>The X-Men team-up concludes. The animation is oddly glossy, but still solid.
Kindred: The Embraced – 8pm, Chiller
>Watch the short-lived vampire show from the beginning.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – 8pm, FX [Movie]
Samurai 7 – 8:30pm, IFC [Anime]
Supernatural – 9pm, The CW (repeat)
>The FANTASTIC season finale replays. So…good…so very good…
Big Trouble in Little China – 9pm, Fox Movie Channel [Movie]
Friday, August 29th
Monty Python’s Flying Circus – 8pm, BBCAmerica
The 10th Kingdom – 8pm, ION
Gunslinger Girl – 8:30pm, IFC [Anime]
Hulu Spotlight: Blacula
>I’m very surprised that this is on the site. Feel free to get your cult movie on.
Saturday, August 30th
Ninja Warrior – 9am-7pm, G4
>It’s not sci-fi but it’s extremely engrossing. Japanese game shows are the best.
Eye of the Beast – 3pm, SciFi Channel [Movie]
>James Van Der Beek fights a giant squid to protect a small town. Perhaps with powers derived from eating spinach.
Strange Invaders – 3:30pm, IFC [Movie]
>A tabloid reporter and a professer search for kidnapped townsfolk in the 50’s.
King of the Lost World – 5pm, Scifi Channel [Movie]
>Arthur Conan Doyle adaption starring Bruce Boxleitner.
The Princess Bride – 6pm, WE [Movie]
>"You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means…"
The Toxic Avenger – 7pm, G4 [Movie]
Primeval – 9pm, BBCAmerica
>A flock of dodos carry deadly parasites. At least they’re also not dropping anvils on folks like Gogo Dodo…
X2: X-Men United – 9pm, FX [Movie]
>I’ll never understand why the studio added the "X-Men United" subtitle. Of course the X-Men are united, they’re a team. Duh.
Sunday, August 31st
Mammoth – 12pm, Scifi Channel [Movie]
>Tom Skerritt, Vince Ventresca and Summer Glau (!) battle a wooly mammoth in a small town. Giant animals really like terrorizing small towns, don’t they?
Fight Science – 2pm, National Geographic Channel [Documentary]
>Super interesting series takes a look at the science behind the superhuman feats of Special Ops officers.
Extreme Tomorrow – 3pm, Science Channel [Documentary]
>A look at how technology could make space travel and colonization of other planets better.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – 4pm, ABCFamily [Movie]
>My favorite part is the wind-up doll scene. 🙂
Jurassic Park – 6pm, SciFi Channel [Movie]
National Treasure – 8pm, NBC [Movie]
>Not exactly science fiction but, hey, everyone likes a treasure hunt.
Ben 10: Race Against Time – 8:30pm, Cartoon Network [Movie]
>Solid live-action adaption of the cartoon directed by Alex "Bill S. Preston, Esq." Winter.
Yup, Constantine is an underrated movie. Perhaps because Keanu Reeves as the male lead gave it a bad rep. Still worth watching just to see the rest of the good cast, including Rachel Weisz, Djimon Hounsou, Tilda Swinton and Shia LaBeouf.
Tamara-
Big props for mentioning that little gem of a show called Reaper. While it did get a little bogged down with the ‘escaped soul of the week’ storyline, Reaper really found its groove post writers strike. Too bad the show doesn’t fit into CW’s new young women target audience strategy and only received a short, 13-episode mid-season renewal.
NBC is actually re-airing a few select episodes of “Chuck” on Saturday’s at 8pm for the next few weekends.
Hmmm… methinks someone at NBC actually used their brains for once.
Now if we could get ABC to give us some “Pushing Daisies” before the new season begins, I might begin to change my overtly negative attitude of the major networks.
I’ll take repeats of “Chuck” (and any others that ended their first season way back in December/January) over anything else they have in their Saturday night stockpile.