
Beginning Saturday, August 4th (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) and running throughout the month of August, ABC will be airing 'Masters of Science Fiction' a mini-anthology series featuring the talents of many acclaimed writers, directors and actors. Prof. Stehphen Hawking will provide narraration bookends for each episode of the series. The following episode descriptions are from
STARTREK.COM.
'A Clean Escape' (August 4th) - A dying Dr. Deanna Evans (two-time Oscar nominee and double Emmy-winner Judy Davis; Life With Judy: Me and My Shadows, Marie Antoinette) refuses to believe that her patient, Robert Havelmann (Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Sam Waterston; Law & Order, The Killing Fields), cannot remember the last 25 years of his life. It remains unclear why she has been so obsessed with this particular patient until the final, shocking conclusion that may just have resonance with the current global crisis.
The premier episode is based on a short story by Nebula Award-winner John Kessel (Another Orphan, Buffalo), scripted by Emmy nominee Sam Egan (The Outer Limits, Jeremiah) and directed by Oscar-nominated director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond, For the Boys).
'The Awakening' (August 11th) is set in the middle of a ferocious firefight outside of Baghdad, where U.S. soldiers discover a mysterious body — one that they can't even identify as human. Swiftly, all over the earth, more such creatures appear and begin to communicate. With this contact, the world is forced to choose between peace and destruction.
This episode is based on a short story by Howard Fast (
Spartacus) and written and directed by Michael Petroni (
The Dangerous Life of Altar Boys). It stars Emmy nominee Terry O'Quinn (
Lost,
Stepfather,
Star Trek: TNG) and Elisabeth Rohm (
Law & Order).
'Jerry Was A Man' (August 18th) tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Van Vogel (Golden Globe nominee Malcolm McDowell;
A Clockwork Orange,
Star Trek: Generations,
Heroes; and Emmy nominee Anne Heche;
Men in Trees,
John Q), a wealthy couple for whom pleasure is their only work; mundane or dangerous chores are done by anthropoids. Somehow, Mrs. Van Vogel's dormant compassion is awakened by an anthropoid named Jerry. What traits would prove that Jerry is, indeed, a man?
'Jerry Was A Man' comes from a short story by seven-time Hugo Award winner Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers) and was written and directed by Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Michael Tolkin (The Player, The Rapture).
'The Discarded' (August 25th) stars James Denton (Desperate Housewives), two-time Oscar nominee John Hurt (The Elephant Man, Contact, V for Vendetta, Indiana Jones 4) and Emmy and Tony Award-winner Brian Dennehy (Assault on Precinct 13, Cocoon) in a story of despised minorities forever adrift in the darkness of outer space. As a last resort — born out of their loneliness and despair — they are forced to make an ominous pact with those responsible for their plight, in the hope that they will finally be offered refuge at home on Earth.
This story is based on a short story by seven-time Hugo Award winner, three-time Nebula Award winner and Science Fiction Grand Master Laureate Harlan Ellison (
A Boy and His Dog,
Star Trek, Babylon 5), written for the screen by Ellison and Oscar nominee Josh Olson (A History of Violence) and directed by Jonathan Frakes (
Star Trek: First Contact,
Star Trek: Insurrection).
I'm definitly looking forward to this series. Especially Ellison's 'The Discarded'. Oh and if you didn't catch it in that second link, he has a cameo playing a mutant. Haha... You don't want to miss that.