This channel has become a clearing house for pseudo-science, wild conspiracy theories and supernatural claptrap. It started with the success of Crossing Over with John Edward and now they have a whole night dedicated to programs that masquerade as investigative endeavors. They’ve resurrected the show In Search Of..., but where the old show narrated by Leonard Nemoy was actually trying to make an honest investigation in the topics it covered. This new show narrated by the X-File’s Mitch Pileggi does little more than regurgitate the same old urban legends and sensationalist myths as is common in most occult book stores. The episode on my television right now has them going ‘in search of’ psychic spies. The story is focusing on people who supposedly have an ability called remote viewing. The show mentions the fact that the CIA had a program that was set up to see if this ability was real and could be developed for use in the spy trade. Former US Army Major Ed Danes has just shown up (he’s often the one promoting this crap) which is ironic as he was just on Unscrewed the other night. What they haven’t mentioned yet is the fact that this program was canceled years ago because it was an utter failure (something that was brought out on Unscrewed). Now they’re supposedly testing one of Ed Dane’s students. The test itself isn’t set up as a double blind test and naturally they’re already saying that the results are “astounding.” Oh, by the way, did you know that Ed Danes claims that anyone can learn to do remote viewing and he just happens to run a business that purports to teach people how to master this technique? They’re claiming that Ed Danes has been called in on a number of important events such various plane crashes and the search for the Unibomber. They don’t bother to mention if anything he had to contribute was useful for those investigations, but they sure make it sound important. Note that the Unibomber was at large for over a decade before his brother turned him in. If the results the show presents are true (the student manages not only to locate the target as being at the airport, but in a specific restaurant at the airport) then one wonders why they weren’t able to locate the Unibomber with equal accuracy.
The rest of the shows they air on Tuesday night aren’t much better. This annoys the hell out of me because the motivation behind these shows is the fact that belief in the occult and pseudo-science is on the rise and these shows are designed to pull in ratings, not actually reveal any kind of truth. It promotes and encourages people to buy into this crap making them easy targets for scam artists such as Ed Danes.
Posted on 07/29/2003 at 08:38 AM 
Posted on 03/10/2004 at 12:32 AM 
I’ve been disappointed in the Sci-Fi Channel from day one. I’m not sure what I was expecting in the first place, but it just never seemed to click for me. It started with a bunch of Twilight Zone, Star Trek et al reruns and schlocky movies, moved on to original series, then found success with the paranormal/reality stuff. It’s not surprising that it’s going heavy on the paranormal slant--Spielberg’s ‘Taken’ was, I believe, the highest-rated show ever for the channel.
Like many single-focus networks (Weather Channel, TVLand, etc.), Sci-Fi feels the pain when advertising dollars dry up, as has been the case the past couple of years. When that happens, the reaction is to broaden your viewership base. You do that by stretching the limits of what you can put on the air and still retain some of your identity. Remember for a while, Sci-Fi was airing movies like ‘Big’ (Tom Hanks), with the flimsy justification that they had enough fantastical elements in them to fit in with their usual offerings?
Anyway, the only thing I ever watch on the channel is MST3K reruns, and occasionally whatever comes on right after that on Saturday mornings.