GIGO

Children's Science TV

Does anyone out there remember Professor Julius Sumner Milne? I think that was his name. He was an elderly white-haired gentleman who used to run a children's television show on science. You might have better luck recalling Ron Walton and In the Nature of Things, and Peter Read and The Night Sky. And then there was the boundless enthusiasm and energy of Magnus Pyke and David Bellamy in programmes like The Gene Machine.

So where are the children's science programmes of today? In this month of the Great New Zealand Television Turn-Off, it is appropriate to take a look at science on the screen, to see how we're being served, and to lobby for a better future.

At present, it appears that what little science we see on television consists of African animal documentaries narrated by the seemingly indefatigable David Attenborough. I'll welcome the TVNZ Emperor penguin piece mentioned in this issue as a nice, crisp change from the heat and dust of the veldt.

But what of the many other areas of science -- what of chemistry, physics, astronomy, medicine, archaeology, anthropology, genetics, biotechnology? There are plenty of good documentaries available, even a number of full-fledged series that are as entertaining as they are informative.

Recently TVNZ signed an agreement with the US Discovery Channel. It is to be hoped that this will give us access to some of the excellent material that plays on public television in the United States. Unfortunnately, I have grave doubts of our being this lucky, if other recent decisions are any indication of how our public television system rates its priorities and its viewers.

A plan to run a half-hour international news programme, drawing on material from some of the best news channels in the world, has been scrapped. It's being replaced by something much more important --  another game show...

There is some hope for the future, however. I've been lucky enough to see the pilot of a new children's science programme, Oi! In his conceptual outline, producer Ross Johnston says that they want to show that science is "exciting, intriguing, dynamic, funny, heroic and all around us". If their pilot production is anything to go by, they have succeeded in those aims.

It is refreshing to be reminded of how well television can do things, how much it can educate as well as entertain. While aimed at children aged seven to eleven, Oi! has more than enough interest and information to capture the staff here at the NZSM, and we eagerly await its debut. Oi! will provide a much-needed antidote to the seemingly interminable line-up of cartoons, game shows and Australian mini-series. This is, of course, assuming that the Powers That Be decide to fund it, rather than another game show. I'm just pleased it isn't starting during the Television Turn-Off week -- that would prove a big temptation indeed.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.