Through the Wormhole
| Through the Wormhole | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Science documentary |
| Presented by | Morgan Freeman |
| Narrated by | Morgan Freeman |
| Theme music composer | Hans Zimmer |
| Composer(s) |
Jacob Shea Hans Zimmer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 62 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Bernadette McDaid Deborah Adler Myers James Younger Lori McCreary Morgan Freeman Rocky Collins Tracy Mercer |
| Cinematography | David Baillie |
| Running time | 42 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
|
| Distributor | Discovery Communications |
| Release | |
| Original network | Science |
| Picture format | |
| Original release | June 9, 2010 – May 16, 2017 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Through the Wormhole is an American science documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science in the United States on June 9, 2010.[1] The series concluded its run on May 16, 2017.[2]
Development and production
The TV network Science has been highlighting what VP of Production Bernadette McDaid calls the "Rock Stars of Science",[3] and physics outreach such as Michio Kaku and Brian Cox. "We wanted to merge our 'Rock Stars of Science' ... with the superstars of pop culture."[3] When Science general manager Deborah Myers heard that Morgan Freeman was very interested in things to do with the universe and space and "asks the big philosophical questions",[3] she approached Freeman and his producer and proposed making a series together.[3]
On February 17, 2011, Sean Carroll confirmed on his Twitter page that filming of season 2 of Through the Wormhole began.[4] On May 17, 2011, Discovery confirmed the second season would premiere on Science on June 8, 2011.[5] An episode from the second season was supposed to air on July 13, 2011,[5] but went unaired. It was later released on the season 2 DVD as the sixth episode.[6]
On January 3, 2012, Sean Carroll posted a picture on his Twitter page, mentioning that it was taken during the taping of season 3.[7] Season 3 began with a special episode on March 6, 2012,[8] and the remaining nine episodes began airing on June 6, 2012.[9]
Season 4 of Through the Wormhole began with a special episode on March 20, 2013,[10] and the remaining nine episodes began airing on June 5, 2013.[11]
On October 9, 2013, the Science Channel began airing enhanced episodes of the show under the title Beyond the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.[12]
Season 5 of Through the Wormhole began with a special episode on March 5, 2014,[13] and the remaining nine episodes began airing on June 4, 2014.[14]
On March 10, 2014, series producer Anthony Lund stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Post-Examiner that "Wormhole season 6 is a GO, and I’m dreaming of new, thought provoking ideas to explore with this show."[15]
Season 6 of Through the Wormhole premiered on April 29, 2015.[16] Season 6 consists of six episodes, unlike the previous seasons, which all have ten (except season 1, which has 8 episodes).[17]
On March 31, 2016, Science Channel announced it would return for a seventh season,[18] which premiered on August 30, 2016. The eighth and final season premiered on April 25, 2017.
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 8 | June 9, 2010 | July 28, 2010 | ||
| 2 | 10 | June 8, 2011 | August 3, 2011 | ||
| 3 | 10 | March 6, 2012 | August 8, 2012 | ||
| 4 | 10 | March 20, 2013 | July 31, 2013 | ||
| 5 | 10 | March 5, 2014 | July 23, 2014 | ||
| 6 | 6 | April 29, 2015 | June 3, 2015 | ||
| 7 | 4 | August 30, 2016 | September 20, 2016 | ||
| 8 | 4 | April 25, 2017 | May 16, 2017 | ||
Episodes
Season 1 (2010)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Is There a Creator?" | June 9, 2010 |
| It's perhaps the biggest, most controversial mystery in the cosmos. Did our Universe just come into being by random chance, or was it created by a God who nurtures and sustains all life? The latest science is showing that the four forces governing our universe are phenomenally finely tuned. So finely that it had led many to the conclusion that someone, or something, must have calibrated them. While skeptics hold that new findings are neither conclusive nor evidence of a divine creator, some cutting edge physicists are already positing who this God is: an alien gamester who's created our world as the ultimate SIM game for his own amusement. It's an answer as compelling as it is disconcerting. | |||
| 2 | 2 | "The Riddle of Black Holes" | June 16, 2010 |
| They are the most powerful objects in the universe. Nothing, not even light, can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole. Astronomers now believe there are billions of them out in the cosmos, swallowing up planets, even entire stars in violent feeding frenzies. New theoretical research into the twisted reality of black holes suggests that three-dimensional space could be an illusion. That reality actually takes place on a two-dimensional hologram at the edge of the universe. | |||
| 3 | 3 | "Is Time Travel Possible?" | June 23, 2010 |
| Einstein's Theory of Relativity says that time travel is perfectly possible — if you're going forward. Finding a way to travel backwards requires breaking the speed of light, which so far seems impossible. But now, strange-but-true phenomena such as quantum non-locality, where particles instantly teleport across vast distances, may give us a way to make the dream of traveling back and forth through time a reality. Step into a time machine and rewrite history, bring loved ones back to life, control our destinies. But if we succeed, what are the consequences of such freedom? Will we get trapped in a plethora of paradoxes and multiple universes that will destroy the fabric of the universe? | |||
| 4 | 4 | "What Happened Before the Beginning?" | June 30, 2010 |
|
Every cosmologist and astronomer agrees: our Universe is 13.7 billion years old. Using cutting-edge technology, scientists are now able to take a snapshot of the Universe a mere heartbeat after its birth. Armed with hypersensitive satellites, astronomers look back in time to the very moment of creation, when all the matter in the Universe exploded into existence. It is here that we uncover an unsolved mystery as old as time itself - if the Universe was born, where did it come from? Meet the leading scientists who have now discovered what they believe to be the origin of our Universe, and a window into the time before time. Features scientists Edwin Hubble, Martin Bojowald, Neil Turok and Paul Steinhardt, and treats of issues around the Big Bang, initial singularity, the string theory, the M-theory, dark energy and gravitational waves. | |||
| 5 | 5 | "How Did We Get Here?" | July 7, 2010 |
|
Everywhere we look, life exists in both the most hospitable of environments and in the most extreme. Yet we have only ever found life on our planet. How did the stuff of stars come together to create life as we know it? What do we really mean by 'life'? And will unlocking this mystery help us find life elsewhere? Features the research and ideas of geologist Stephen J Mojzsis, chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey and their student Jeffrey Bada, Jen Blank of a search for extraterrestrial intelligence project, biologist Jack Szostak, chemist John Sutherland, physicist Paul Davies and microbial geobiologist/biogeochemist Felisa Wolfe-Simon, and planetary scientist Ben Weiss. Tackles the Hadean period, shadow biospheres, a Winogradsky column, life among the toxic chemicals of Mono Lake, ALH84001 and life on Mars. | |||
| 6 | 6 | "Are We Alone?" | July 14, 2010 |
|
Aliens almost certainly do exist. So why haven't we yet met E.T.? It turns out we're only just developing instruments powerful enough to scan for them, and science sophisticated enough to know where to look. As a result, race is on to find the first intelligent aliens. But what would they look like, and how would they interact with us if we met? The answers may come to us sooner than we imagine, for one leading astronomer believes she may already have heard a hint of their first efforts to communicate. Featuring astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames Research Center, astronomer Jill Tarter, physicist and SETI projects affiliate Paul Davies, astronomer Geoff Marcy and his student Paul Butler, and space scientist William Borucki. This episode talks about the Murchison meteorite, the Allen Telescope Array, 51 Pegasi b, and the Kepler Space Telescope mission. | |||
| 7 | 7 | "What Are We Really Made Of?" | July 21, 2010 |
|
Our understanding of the universe and the nature of reality itself has drastically changed over the last 100 years, and it's on the verge of another seismic shift. In a 17-mile-long tunnel buried 570 feet beneath the Franco-Swiss border, the world's largest and most powerful atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is powering up. Its goal is nothing less than recreating the first instants of creation, when the universe was unimaginably hot and long-extinct forms of matter sizzled and cooled into stars, planets, and ultimately, us. These incredibly small and exotic particles hold the keys to the greatest mysteries of the universe. What we find could validate our long-held theories about how the world works and what we are made of. Or, all of our notions about the essence of what is real will fall apart. Features Argonne National Laboratory's Bob Stanek and the Advanced Photon Source, Ernest Rutherford's probe into the structure of the atom through M.I.T. professor Steve Nahn's use of the LHC, antimatter, particle physicist Frank Close, antimatter investigator Joel Fajans, the Bevatron particle accelerator, the particle zoo, Fermilab and its Tevatron, experimental physicist Leon Lederman, the weak force and radioactive decay, the strong force and the proton, photons and electromagnetic force, electroweak unification, the Standard Model, theoretical physicist Peter Higgs and the Higgs boson and force particle, CERN, the CMS and ATLAS detectors, and the LHC Quench incident. | |||
| 8 | 8 | "Beyond the Darkness" | July 28, 2010 |
| What is the universe made of? If you answered stars, planets, gas and dust, you'd be dead wrong. Thirty years ago, scientists first realized that some unknown dark substance was affecting the way galaxies moved. Today, they think there must be five times as much dark matter as regular matter out there. But they have no idea what it is — only that it's not made of atoms, or any other matter we are familiar with. And Dark Matter is not the only strange substance in the Universe — a newly discovered force, called Dark Energy, seems to be pushing the very fabric of the cosmos apart. | |||
Season 2 (2011)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 1 | "Is There Life After Death?" | June 8, 2011 |
| 10 | 2 | "Is There an Edge to the Universe?" | June 15, 2011 |
| 11 | 3 | "Does Time Really Exist?" | June 22, 2011 |
| 12 | 4 | "Are There More than Three Dimensions?" | June 29, 2011 |
| 13 | 5 | "Is There a Sixth Sense?" | July 6, 2011 |
| 14 | 6 | "Are There Parallel Universes?" | Unaired |
| 15 | 7 | "How Does the Universe Work?" | July 13, 2011 |
| 16 | 8 | "Can We Travel Faster Than Light?" | July 20, 2011 |
| 17 | 9 | "Can We Live Forever?" | July 27, 2011 |
| 18 | 10 | "What Do Aliens Look Like?" | August 3, 2011 |
Season 3 (2012)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 1 | "Will We Survive First Contact?" | March 6, 2012 |
| 20 | 2 | "Is There a Superior Race?" | June 6, 2012 |
| 21 | 3 | "Is The Universe Alive?" | June 13, 2012 |
| 22 | 4 | "What Makes Us Who We Are?" | June 20, 2012 |
| 23 | 5 | "What is Nothing?" | June 27, 2012 |
| 24 | 6 | "Can We Resurrect The Dead?" | July 11, 2012 |
| 25 | 7 | "Can We Eliminate Evil?" | July 18, 2012 |
| 26 | 8 | "Mysteries of the Subconscious" | July 25, 2012 |
| 27 | 9 | "Will Eternity End?" | August 1, 2012 |
| 28 | 10 | "Did We Invent God?" | August 8, 2012 |
Season 4 (2013)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 1 | "Is There a God Particle?" | March 20, 2013 |
| 30 | 2 | "When Does Life Begin?" | June 5, 2013 |
| 31 | 3 | "Can We Survive the Death of the Sun?" | June 12, 2013 |
| 32 | 4 | "How Do Aliens Think?" | June 19, 2013 |
| 33 | 5 | "Will Sex Become Extinct?" | June 26, 2013 |
| 34 | 6 | "Can Our Minds Be Hacked?" | July 3, 2013 |
| 35 | 7 | "Are Robots the Future of Human Evolution?" | July 10, 2013 |
| 36 | 8 | "Is Reality Real?" | July 17, 2013 |
| 37 | 9 | "Do We Have Free Will?" | July 24, 2013 |
| 38 | 10 | "Did God Create Evolution?" | July 31, 2013 |
Season 5 (2014)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 39 | 1 | "Is God an Alien Concept?" | March 5, 2014 |
| 40 | 2 | "Is Luck Real?" | March 12, 2014 |
| 41 | 3 | "Is Poverty Genetic?" | June 4, 2014 |
| 42 | 4 | "How to Collapse a Superpower" | June 11, 2014 |
| 43 | 5 | "Does the Ocean Think?" | June 18, 2014 |
| 44 | 6 | "Is a Zombie Apocalypse Possible?" | June 25, 2014 |
| 45 | 7 | "Is Gravity An Illusion?" | July 2, 2014 |
| 46 | 8 | "Will We Become God?" | July 9, 2014 |
| 47 | 9 | "Is There a Shadow Universe?" | July 16, 2014 |
| 48 | 10 | "When Did Time Begin?" | July 23, 2014 |
Season 6 (2015)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 | 1 | "Are We All Bigots?" | April 29, 2015 | 0.411[19] |
| 50 | 2 | "Can Time Go Backwards?" | May 6, 2015 | 0.335[20] |
| 51 | 3 | "Are We Here for a Reason?" | May 13, 2015 | 0.401[21] |
| 52 | 4 | "Do We Live in the Matrix?" | May 20, 2015 | 0.467[22] |
| 53 | 5 | "Are Aliens Inside Us?" | May 27, 2015 | 0.303[23] |
| 54 | 6 | "Why Do We Lie?" | June 3, 2015 | 0.307[24] |
Season 7 (2016)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 1 | "What Makes a Terrorist?" | August 30, 2016 | 0.466[25] |
| 56 | 2 | "Is Privacy Dead?" | September 6, 2016 | 0.364[26] |
| 57 | 3 | "Are There More Than Two Sexes?" | September 13, 2016 | 0.357[27] |
| 58 | 4 | "Can We All Become Geniuses?" | September 20, 2016 | 0.332[28] |
Season 8 (2017)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Original air date | US viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59 | 1 | "Is the Force With Us?" | April 25, 2017 | 0.369[29] |
| 60 | 2 | "Can We Cheat Death?" | May 2, 2017 | 0.347[30] |
| 61 | 3 | "Can We Hack the Planet?" | May 9, 2017 | 0.282[31] |
| 62 | 4 | "Is Gun Crime a Virus?" | May 16, 2017 | 0.206[32] |
DVD releases
In region 1, season 1 was released on DVD on March 8, 2011,[33] season 2 was released on November 22, 2011,[6] season 3 was released on October 23, 2012,[34] season 4 was released on September 16, 2014,[35] season 5 was released on June 16, 2015,[36] and season 6 was released on December 15, 2016.[37]
See also
References
- ↑ Genzlinger, Neil (June 8, 2010). "Asking the Big Questions in a Dignified Manner". The New York Times. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Final Four Episodes of "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman" Beginning April 25 at 10PM on Science Channel" (Press release). Science Channel. March 23, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 Halterman, Jim (June 9, 2010). "Interview: "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman" Executive Producer Bernadette McDaid". The Futon Critic. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ Sean Carroll [@seanmcarroll] (February 17, 2011). "Taping Through the Wormhole (Season 2) today for @ScienceChannel. We start in a pool hall. Entropy is involved" (Tweet). Retrieved February 17, 2011 – via Twitter.
- 1 2 "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman Returns for an Awe-Inspiring Second Season this June on Science". Discovery. May 17, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
- 1 2 "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman Season 2 DVD". Discovery. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
- ↑ Sean Carroll [@seanmcarroll] (January 3, 2012). "Through the Wormhole crew in the house, taping an episode for Season 3. t.co/Lprkythb" (Tweet). Retrieved January 3, 2012 – via Twitter.
- ↑ "Science, TED and SETI Ask the Question "Are We Alone?" With an Initiative to Bring Citizen Scientists Into the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence". The Futon Critic. January 13, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman: Season 3". Discovery. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Morgan Freeman Explores "The God Particle" in a Special Higgs Boson Episode of "Through The Wormhole" on Science Channel". The Futon Critic. March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Morgan Freeman Returns to Science Channel for an All New Season of Television's Most Mind-Blowing Series - "Through the Wormhole"". The Futon Critic. May 9, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Science Channel Airs Enhanced Episodes of THROUGH THE WORMHOLE w/ MORGAN FREEMAN Tonight". Broadway World. October 9, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
- ↑ ""Are We Alone?" Week Makes Contact This March on Science Channel". The Futon Critic. February 18, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ "Morgan Freeman Is Back and Ready to Open Your Mind with an All New Season of "Through the Wormhole"". The Futon Critic. May 13, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ Doss, Cat (May 10, 2014). "Anthony Lund: Through the Wormhole". Los Angeles Post-Examiner. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
- ↑ Freeman, Morgan (March 9, 2015). "Morgan Freeman Timeline Photos". Facebook. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
- ↑ Schneider, Michael (April 8, 2015). "Science's Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman Tackles Bigotry, Aliens, Lying and The Matrix". TV Insider. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
- ↑ "Science Channel Unveils Its 2016-17 Upfront Slate Led by "Search for the Next MythBusters" and the Return of "Punkin Chunkin"". The Futon Critic. March 31, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (April 30, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 4.29.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 7, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 5.6.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 14, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 5.13.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 21, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 5.20.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 28, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 5.27.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (June 4, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Wednesday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 6.3.2015". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (August 31, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 8.30.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (September 8, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.6.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (September 14, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.13.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (September 21, 2016). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 9.20.2016". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (April 26, 2017). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.25.2017". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 3, 2017). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 5.2.2017". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 10, 2017). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 5.9.2017". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (May 17, 2017). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Tuesday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 5.16.2017". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- ↑ "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman Season 1 DVD". Discovery. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman Season 3 DVD". Discovery. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman Season 4 DVD". Discovery. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ↑ "Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman Season 5 DVD". Discovery. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
- ↑ "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman Season 6". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
External links
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