Browsing the channel guide, I happened upon a Science Channel show titled Stephen Hawking’s Sci-Fi Masters. I thought that this was a cool new series featuring introductions by Stephen Hawking and adaptations of classic short stories by science fiction masters such as Robert Sheckley, Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein and others. Imagine my surprise to discover that this series originally ran on ABC in 2007 with only 4 of the 6 episodes shown. A science fiction anthology on a major American broadcast network only 4 years ago and I never heard of it. I’m guessing that there wasn’t a lot of promotion for it.

The first episode shown on the Science Channel was unaired by ABC and is an adaptation of the Robert Sheckley short story Watchbird. Sean Astin plays Charlie, a developer who creates an intelligent drone called the watchbird. His bird is developed as a war weapon and is then brought in domestically to fight crime. James Cromwell is his boss who is working with the federal government to push the drone to do more and more. But Charlie starts wondering if he’s being asked to do more with the watchbird than he feels comfortable. So, the powers that be decide to push Charlie and they’re forced to live with the consequences.

Check out the schedule for the Science Channel and see if you can catch the premiere and look for more episodes for the next 5 episodes.