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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL’S ALIEN DEEP TAKES VIEWERS TO NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN SHIPWRECKS, WILDLIFE, AND VOLCANOES THAT LURK IN THE DARKEST REACHES OF THE OCEAN.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his amazing new mini-series will be telecast exclusively in Malaysia on National Geographic Channel (Astro, Channel 553) this month, in association with Samsung Electronics.
The ALIEN DEEP. It’s a place in the sea, thousands of metres beneath the surface and hundreds of metres from the first crack of light, where the planet’s last and greatest secrets hide in the cold darkness of endless night. Dr. Robert Ballard, famed explorer who found the Titanic at its final resting place and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, takes viewers into these underwater worlds where no man has gone before.
FOX International Channels announced today that this five part series is airing this month in Malaysia on National Geographic Channel (Astro, Ch 553) in association with Samsung Electronics. Dr. Ballard will be joined on camera by leaders in modern science, like Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and TV personality Bill Nye the Science Guy, as well as professional surfers, fishermen, and boat pilots who understand the sea at an instinctive level. From scientists to surfers, Dr. Ballard and his team will travel the world, seeking answers to questions at the root of earth and humanity.
[pullquote align=”right”]Where did life come from? What made the continents? What is the ocean’s engine? Are rogue waves real? Will men ever call the sea home?[/pullquote]
To find these answers, Dr. Ballard visits breath-taking sites like volcanoes submerged a thousand metres beneath the Hawaiian islands, to shipwrecks on forgotten Ancient Greek trade routes, to cracks in the ocean floor where red-hot magma pours into open water. It is a surreal journey where National Geographic Channel’s cameras catch never-before-seen rock formations, lava vents, and unusual species that call the ocean-bottom home. Dr. Ballard will depend on the knowledge of peer leaders in science to decode the evidence he finds in this bizarre world.
“I want to discover as fast as possible,” Dr. Ballard says. “Because in my lifetime, I will not get the job done. It’ll take generations. So I’m trying to accelerate the rate of discovery. I’m selfish. I want to see it before I die.”
In ALIEN DEEP, Dr. Ballard and his teammates will push the threshold of exploration, braving depths that would crush a state-of-the-art nuclear submarine to bring back images of objects and life forms from places that other scientists long ago deemed impossible for survival. What they find along the way has the potential to alter modern science and archaeology.
New episodes of this mini-series will be telecast every Wednesday on National Geographic Channel
(Astro Ch 553) on the dates and time as listed below:
ALIEN DEEP: FIRES OF CREATION (Wednesday, November 28, 3.15pm)
Dr. Ballard explores the history of volcanoes, Hawaii, and life on earth as he travels from the summit of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii to the crown of its submerged cousin Loihi, a voyage that spans over 5000 metres from top to bottom. His trip – from the lifeless world above the clouds, through the diverse ecosystems on the mountainside, and into the ocean deep – runs the gamut of life on earth. What he witnesses at the end where heat and magma bubble up from the earth’s crust some 900 metres beneath the sea, is a real-time depiction of the birth of the continents and life itself.
ALIEN DEEP: WRECKS OF THE ABYSS (Wednesday, November 28, 9.00pm)
Textbooks say that the Ancients did not have the guts to brave the open sea, out of sight of land and exposed to the elements, but not surprisingly, Dr. Ballard and his crew are out again to rewrite history. In Wrecks of the Abyss, captain and crew sail out into the deep water sea lanes of the Mediterranean in search of ancient shipwrecks that generations of scholars have written-off as impossible finds. “I’m out here trying to prove how adventurous the ancient mariners really were,” Dr. Ballard says, and he is proven right when he discovers two lost ships in precisely the spot his predecessors said they wouldn’t be: in thousands of metres of water, headed from Ancient Greece to ports in the Pharaohs’ Egypt. They are huge discoveries that have the potential to alter our understanding of the ancient world.
ALIEN DEEP: IT’S ALIVE (Wednesday, December 5, 9.00pm)
“I know it’s really hard for people to grasp the concept that the Earth is alive, but we’re on a creature that’s been around for billions of years,” Dr. Ballard says about the heart of his research in It’s Alive. Together, with peer scientists from Britain, Ireland, Iceland, and the U.S., Dr. Ballard searches for the origin of life in the planet’s most unforgiving environment: the darkness and chill of waters thousands of metres beneath the surface. Here, on the slopes of the Mid-Ocean ridges that divide the earth’s tectonic plates, are formations called “chimneys,” where molten lava superheats the ocean, mixing in the nutrients and hardening magma that allows life to thrive against the odds. Watch as a global brain trust searches for clues to life’s beginning in the columns of smoke emanating from these mysterious volcanic formations lining the ocean floor.
ALIEN DEEP: OCEAN’S FURY (Wednesday, December 12, 9.00pm)
What is the killing blow of the perfect storm? Rogue waves. For centuries, mariners have told tales of these supposed super-waves, freaks of nature that emerge from nowhere and swallow whole ships in the blink of an eye; but only in the last two decades have we been able to detect and measure them. Dr. Ballard thinks that rogue waves – and all waves – are getting larger and more frequent on the seas. In Ocean’s Fury, Ballard travels the world in search of the forces behind the motion of the ocean, meeting with scientists and practitioners along the way. He talks to oceanographers, climatologists, river boat pilots, surfers, fishers, and more – all to prove a single point: the ocean is growing more dangerous by the day.
ALIEN DEEP: INNER SPACE VS. OUTER SPACE (Wednesday, December 19, 9.00pm)
Space, we are told, is the “final frontier” but that description discounts the mystery of inner space – the deep sea – where few men have been and modern technology fails as readily as it does in outer space. “We may explore it [outer space], but the future of the human race is right here on planet Earth,” says Ballard. In Inner Space vs. Outer Space, Dr. Ballard takes-on the long-held belief that space colonies will save the earth, as argued by on-air Apollo 11 crewmember Buzz Aldrin. To do so, Dr. Ballard travels to Hawaii to meet with experimental open-water aqua farmers; to California, where fast moving personal underwater vehicle are being developed for future ocean colonies; and Texas and Alaska where oil platforms are being converted into sea colonies and new imaging technology is unlocking resources hidden on the ocean bottom.
ALIEN DEEP is produced for National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) by National Geographic Television (NGT). For NGT, series producer is Gary Johnstone. For NGCI, Executive Vice President and Head of International Content is Hamish Mykura.
About National Geographic Channels International
National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) inspires viewers through its smart, innovative programming that questions what we know, how we view the world and what drives us forward. A business enterprise owned by National Geographic Ventures and FOX Entertainment Group, NGCI contributes to the National Geographic Society’s commitment to exploration, conservation and education through its six channels: National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channel HD, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Wild HD, Nat Geo Adventure and Nat Geo Music.
Globally, National Geographic Channel (including NGC U.S., which is a joint venture of NGV and Fox Cable Networks Group) is available in 435 million homes in 173 countries and 37 languages.
For more information, please visit www.natgeotv.com.
About FOX International Channels
FOX International Channels (FIC) is News Corporation’s international multi-media business. We develop, produce and distribute 200+ wholly- and majority-owned entertainment, factual, sports and movie channels across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa, in 37 languages. These networks and their related mobile, non-linear and high-definition extensions, reach over 1 billion cumulative subscribing households worldwide.
In Asia, FIC operates 27 channel brands including the National Geographic, FOX and STAR brands in 75 channel feeds across 14 markets, reaching more than 550 million cumulative subscribers in Asia Pacific and Middle East. The leading pay-TV network has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia, Middle East and India. For more information, please visit: www.foxinternationalchannels.com
In Malaysia, FOX International Channels operates, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Channel HD, National Geographic Wild, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic Music, Sky News HD, STAR World, STAR World HD, FOX Movies Premium, FOX Movies Premium HD, FOX, FOX Crime HD, FX HD, BabyTV, tvN HD, Channel [V] Taiwan, STAR Chinese Channel and STAR Chinese Movies 2.
About Astro Malaysia Holdings
Astro Malaysia Holdings Sdn Bhd is Malaysia’s leading integrated cross-media group with operations in 4 key businesses: Pay TV, Radio, Content and Digital. Launched in 1996, Astro today has a 50% penetration of TV homes in Malaysia or 3 million customers, making it a key pay TV operator in Southeast Asia. Astro broadcasts over 153 channels, of which 16 are in HD, is a leading edge innovator with its introduction of HD, 3D and PVR – a first in Malaysia, and also Video On Demand and IPTV service. It is the leading aggregator, creator and distributor of original multi-language content of various genres across multi-channels. Its radio network both terrestrial and digital covers all key languages cumulatively reaching 11.5 million listeners a week and ranked among the top 10 stations in the country. Its digital arm involved in digital publishing, applications and platforms as well as publication of entertainment and lifestyle magazines locally. For more details, log on to www.astro.com.my
