Are there aliens out there?
Science Channel is exploring that question and more with its third annual "Are We Alone?" week kicking off Sunday, March 2.
STORY: Morgan Freeman on 'Through the Wormhole'
Among the programming is a special premiere episode of Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman airing at 10 p.m. ET/PT on March 5 that will explore the question "Is God an Alien Concept?" In other words, is God worshipped in other worlds, or is religion unique to the residents of Earth?
For Freeman, it's a thought-provoking topic.
"Any discussion about aliens is supposition," he tells The Hollywood Reporter. "It's all fantasy because you have to try and imagine that out of the billions of galaxies, each containing billions and billions of stars, many of which have their own systems, there has to be other life forms. Whether they are like us or not -- the question is, if they are, say, millions of years older than our civilization, what have they learned? And if we ever made contact with them, what would we learn?"
On the topic of God and aliens explored on the special Wormhole episode, he poses the questions: "Is God an essential element for intelligence survival? Would all intelligent beings have a God?"
The Emmy-nominated Wormhole is produced by Revelations Entertainment, the production company Freeman founded with Lori McCreary in 1996. (They're pictured below on the Wormhole set.) Freeman and McCreary, who is head of Revelations, executive produce the series with executive vp factual productions James Younger and vp development Tracy Mercer. For Science, Bernadette McDaid, Rocky Collins and network GM/executive vp Debbie Adler Myers are executive producers with Lindsey Foster Blumberg as coordinating producer.
Science Channel's "Are We Alone?" week kicks off at 10 p.m. March 2, with the premiere of new episodes of NASA's Unexplained Files and also includes four other new programs, including Close Encounters and Alien Planet Earths. The programming will feature world-renowned scientists, leading journalists and alien investigators examining accounts of unusual encounters, strange happenings and possible UFO sightings from around the globe.
"Our viewers' favorite questions are No. 1, what happens when we die, and No. 2, are we alone?" Myers tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We're taking a different, creative way into exploring that topic. It's not just alien programming; it's provocative alien programming grounded in science."
The other "Are We Alone?" programming will include:
-- NASA's Unexplained Files will examine the mysterious and unusual encounters, discoveries, sightings and more that NASA and its employees have come across over the years. New episodes premiere at 10 p.m. on Sunday, March 2, and at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Thursday, March 6.
-- Alien Planet Earths will examine the search for Earth's twin. Using CGI, the program will take viewers on a journey across the Milky Way to explore newly discovered exoplanets and exomoons. It also takes a look at the billion-dollar projects being developed to search for evidence of alien life on these distant worlds. The show premieres at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Monday, March 3.
-- Close Encounters explores the countless UFO sightings that are reported from thousands of regions around the globe. Many of these sightings are documented and investigated. While most sightings can be accounted for by weather patterns, flight schedules or extraordinary imagination, a select few are still considered unsolved mysteries that police investigators, government officials and medical communities cannot explain. The series launches with two episodes at 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on Tuesday, March 4, followed with two more episodes at 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on Friday, March 7.
