Alien Empire: A Journey to the World of Insects
Alien Empire: A Journey to the World of Insects is a six-part documentary series hosted by John Shrapnel, taking us into the bizarre, fascinating world of insects with amazing graphics. Combining cutting-edge computer animation with live-action footage and powerful magnifying cameras, the series offers a startling "insect's eye-view" of their own extremely complex existence. Each episode of the series deals with topics: the diversity in insects' design; the mating rituals of insects and their reproductive strategies; the constant war that insects wage for food; the migration, colonization and adaptation of insects to various geographic regions; the habitats and social relationships of insects; and the hostile, yet dependent, relationship of humans and insects.
| Episode 1 - Hardware |
Episode 1 - Hardware
This episode looks at the diversity in insects' design by examining their exoskeletons, senses and sensory processing systems. It also examines the evolution of insect flight and warm-blooded insects.
Episode 2 - Replicators
This episode looks at the mating rituals of insects and examines how insects use different reproductive strategies from generation to generation to ensure their survival. Insects exist to make more insects.
Episode 3 - Battlezone
This episode looks at the constant war that insects wage for food, examining the various methods of capture and escape that insects everywhere engage in everyday.
Episode 4 - Voyagers
This examines the migration, colonization and adaptation of insects to various geographic regions. From extreme heat to Arctic cold, insects thrive in all types of environments.
Episode 5 - Metropolis
Communal insects such as termites, bees and ants rely on extraordinary means of communication to survive and assert their strength in numbers to defeat larger, stronger insects.
Episode 6 - War of the Worlds
This episode reveals the hostile, yet dependent, relationship of humans and insects. Though insects invade homes, destroy crops and spread disease, they assist humans in food production and industry.
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