The SciFi Channel continues to bring relatively obscure space movies to its Saturday night schedule this week, here offering Dark Planet and Within the Rock. Then on Sunday, new episodes of First Wave and The X-Files promise alien conspiracies galore.

(all times Eastern)

12:00 AM The X-Files (FX) - The Erlenmeyer Flask
Apocalyptic first-season finale sees evidence of alien viruses, human genetic manipulation, and the final fate of Deep Throat. A groundbreaking episode for its day.

2:00 AM Invaders from Mars (AMC)
Time and endless "tributes" have dulled the chills this 1953 classic can offer, but it's still a disturbing psychological portrait of a boy who wakes up one day and finds that his teachers and family have been replaced by alien duplicates.

5:00 AM The Visitor (SciFi) - The Black Box
Still looking for his stuff, the alien Visitor gets a lesson about the Vietnam War.

5:25 AM Oblivion (Showtime Beyond)
Confusing 1994 cowboys-and-aliens extravaganza.

7:00 AM The Day of the Triffids (Showtime2)
Mutant plants make a bid to conquer the Earth after a freak meteor shower in this apocalyptic 1962 classic.

7:00 AM Babylon 5 (TNT) - Strange Relations
Lochley continues to horn her way into the backstory of other characters in a vain attempt to win popularity with the fans, here "revealing" that she had in fact been married to Sheridan. In more exciting developments, somebody tries to assassinate Emperor Londo, forcing Delenn and G'Kar to take unique measures to protect their colleague.

9:00 AM Mystery Science Theater 3000 (SciFi) - Final Justice
Weird cops-and-robbers epic set in Malta forces the robots to discuss Yes songs, reshoot their own stunts and come to grips with a new Maltese puppet. Surprisingly, "Maltese Crow" jokes are understated.

11:00 AM Space: Above and Beyond (SciFi) - The Farthest Man from Home
That cocky West goes AWOL in a misguided attempt to save his fiancee, setting a pattern that would mark the early episodes of this otherwise underrated series.

12:00 PM Gattaca (HBO)
In a future where genetic engineering is destiny, non-engineered "natural child" Vincent (Ethan Hawke) must impersonate a man of better chromosomes in order to join the space program. This beautifully photographed film was shot in and around several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for a retro-futuristic feel, and also stars Uma Thurman, Jude Law and Ernest Borgnine

2:30 PM Android (Sundae)
Bizarre 1982 production pits Klaus Kinski against his own robotic assistant for the attentions of a beautiful female ex-con who breaks into their space station home.

5:00 PM Dark Planet (SciFi)
Discovery of weird title world forces warring factions to set aside their differences in the name of science. But can the detente endure?

5:00 PM Science Mysteries (Discovery) - Extraterrestrial Mysteries
Hour-long look at the possibilities for alien life. Highlights include a "new theory" that "could finally shed light on the startling reality behind the most convincing encounters -- alien abductions."

7:00 PM Within the Rock (SciFi)
An out-of-control moon bears down on the Earth and only space miners can save us. To add insult to injury, the space rock contains a hungry alien.

9:00 PM Species 2 (TBS)
An astronaut undergoes a mating frenzy after being infected by alien DNA on Mars. The object of his attention: "Eve" (Natasha Henstridge), the rehabilitated alien/hybrid menace from the first film.

10:00 PM Roger Corman Presents (Showtime Beyond) - Galactic Odyssey
Perhaps better known as Starquest 2, this deep-space B movie gets a bunch of tourists mixed up in the affairs of an interstellar killer. With Robert Edlund and Adam Baldwin.

11:00 PM Within the Rock (SciFi)
An out-of-control moon bears down on the Earth and only space miners can save us. To add insult to injury, the space rock contains a hungry alien.

1:30 AM Android (Sundae)
Bizarre 1982 production pits Klaus Kinski against his own robotic assistant for the attentions of a beautiful female ex-con who breaks into their space station home.

2:05 AM Creature (Showtime)
Scientists looking for alien artifacts on a frozen planet find only trouble, dead Germans and evidence that the aliens are active and hungry.

4:00 AM Dark Skies (SciFi) - Both Sides Now
John's search for the kidnapped Kimberly takes him into the underground of the antiwar movement, where he meets noted activist Jerry Rubin. Could the Majestic group have infiltrated the Yippies along with everything else?

8:40 AM Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Showtime Beyond)
Musical aliens get up close and personal with Francois Truffaut (as a thinly-disguised Jacques Vallee), Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, J. Allan Hynek and other Earth people, while "tinkerbell" brings up the rear. A classic example of Steven Spielberg's sensibilities circa 1977.

9:00 AM Battlestar Galactica (SciFi) - Pilot
Third part of three. After angry robots devastate humanity, Lorne Greene must herd the remnants into a ragtag fugitive fleet as he searches for long-lost Earth.

10:00 AM Earth 2 (SciFi) - The Enemy Within
The sheer daring of Julie's DNA experiments gets her in trouble with the other colonists.

11:00 AM Star Trek (SciFi) - Is There in Truth no Beauty?
The Medusans, aliens so strange they travel around inside their own suitcases, try to join the Federation. Are they really ugly, or really beautiful?

4:25 PM Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Showtime Beyond)
Musical aliens get up close and personal with Francois Truffaut (as a thinly-disguised Jacques Vallee), Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, J. Allan Hynek and other Earth people, while "tinkerbell" brings up the rear. A classic example of Steven Spielberg's sensibilities circa 1977.

8:00 PM Star Trek: Insurrection (Showtime)
The Enterprise crew reunite one more time to cope with a planet of seemingly eternal youth. Unfortunately, F. Murray Abraham, of all people, is out there trying to put an end to the adolescent hijinks.

9:00 PM The X-Files (Fox) - Signs and Portents
New episode! Mulder and Scully meet snake handlers.

9:40 PM Predator (Cinemax)
Invisible alien stalks Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse "The Governor" Ventura, Carl Weathers and others.

11:00 PM Stargate SG-1 (Showtime Beyond) - Forever in a Day
Jackson's long-lost wife reappears, only to reveal the existence of a son. There's also a lot of fighting.