I'm on Monster Storm Tonight on National Geographic Channel

NatGeo's How to Survive the End of the World series returns tonight at 10pm Eastern (with repeat at midnight and tomorrow at 6pm Eastern) with its fourth episode, "Monster Storm," and, yep, I've made my way to that bunker again, in an undisclosed location (but it's in a catacomb in Brooklyn), to give a little "expert" commentary on the media and cultural implication of the planet nearly wiped out.

You may recall that I did this for the first three episodes - "Zombie Earth,"  "Hell on Earth" (volcanoes), and "Frozen Earth" (see vid clips below) - and it's been a wild two months in the ravaged streets, let me tell you.   What happens is after my expert commentary, I walk through a door, but it takes me into another dimension.  So I've gone from a world plagued by zombies to a hellish world of molten lava everywhere to a world with bone-chilling temperatures that make the last two months that you've just experienced feel like a walk in the park.

It's good to be in the bunker again, with that Monster Storm approaching.  I'm glad to see David Bartell has made it too, with the extensive packet of notes he carries.   Switching hats to another perspective, for a second, these scenario shows are based on sound scientific and sociological analysis and speculation.

Anyway ... the rain's beginning to pick up, I'm going to see if there's anything decent to eat in this bunker, and I'll see you tonight (I hope) at 10pm.  In the meantime, clips from the previous three episodes follow ...

Helix 1.1-1.3: Zombies with Biology

I saw the first three episodes of Helix last - the first two on SyFy's premiere of the series, the third on Syfy's On Demand (a nice move by Syfy, much appreciated) - and thought it was pretty good.

The series comes highly recommended.  Although Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore isn't the showrunner, he's an executive producer and one of the writers for Helix, in which I thought I even heard one "frackin'" euphemism.  Billy Campbell, who was superb in The Killing, plays the lead scientist from the CDC who comes to the arctic base to investigate the viral outbreak.  Hiroyuki Sanada, who put in a couple of good appearances on Lost, is the lead scientist at the base who knows more than he reveals.

And what about the story?  Well, it's another zombie tale, which, due to the enormous and deserved success of The Walking Dead, is animating all kinds of popular culture including movies with World War Z and even speculative reality TV with Zombie Earth on NatGeo.  Helix, however, differs from all of these in starting at very beginning of the plague, and, at this point, looking as if it will stay there, at least for a while.  There is also excellent genetic and epidemiological science in this series.

And the science, I think, is what will lift and carry the series.  Much of the plot turns on how quickly the scientists can figure out what's really going on, which entails not only getting people who know to tell the truth, but also getting a handle on what's causing the symptoms.  Identifying who has been infected but is not yet showing symptoms is the first step, and there are lots of pitfalls on the road from that to developing a vaccine.

Indeed, the best plot twists so far involve the accidents and wrong turns in the science, which makes Helix a candidate for something we don't see much of on television:  good biological science fiction. This may makes Helix more a potentially worthy successor to Fringe than Battlestar Galactica or The Walking Dead.



Like biological science fiction? Try The Silk Code

Note added 25 February 2022: Check out this free Intro to Biology course.

How to Survive the End of the World - The Story Continues on NatGeo

If you didn't get a chance to see "Zombie Earth" last Tuesday night, the first installment in National Geographic's six-part series, it will be rebroadcast on December 21, 10pm Eastern, and likely throughout 2014 and beyond.

With all the chaos that ensued when the rabid zombies attacked the broadcast bunker, people have been emailing me, asking what happened after the episode ended.

Here's a report:  David Bartell (another expert commentator) and I were able to get out of the bunker - I don't know about the other experts.  But after exiting the bunker, we got separated.  I ran for my life, towards the Brooklyn Bridge.  I soon saw that I would never make it - there were zombies lurching around every corner, "oh the humanity!" - so I ducked into another cellar.

That's where I am now.  Let's just call it an undisclosed location.  What I can tell you is that there is a door on the far side of the room, marked "Hell on Earth".   I can hear the zombies scratching at the windows outside.  I'm tempted to open the door to Hell on Earth.  You'll be able to see what happened this Tuesday night (December 17), 10pm Eastern, when Nat Geo broadcasts "How to Survive the End of the World: Hell on Earth".

In the meantime, here are some clips from my Zombie Earth appearance...




See also How to Survive the End of the World on National Geographic

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