Bad monster movies make up for their so-so acting and impossibly stilted dialogue with endless opportunities to combine improbable stories. Take the 2005 shocker “Pterodactyl” (8 p.m. today, Sci Fi). A button-down paleontology professor (Cameron Daddo) takes his pretty assistant (Amy Sloan), a seminar of nerds and a spoiled princess to the wilds of the Turkish-Armenian border to explore a recently erupted volcano. Meanwhile, a team of secret NATO commandos (featuring Coolio, doing his level best to imitate Samuel L. Jackson) is hunting down a terrorist/war criminal/generic Balkan bad guy in the exact same area.

Do you think these two crazy story lines will intersect? Do you suppose both parties will be attacked by prehistoric lizard birds whose eggs have been incubated by the recent eruption? And will the resulting gore and mayhem inspire the shy paleontologist to finally tell his assistant, “I love you”? If these questions intrigue you, then I suggest you load up on popcorn. “Pterodactyl” is the movie for you!

¢ When man took one small step on the lunar surface, President Nixon called it one of the greatest events “since the creation.” But that was then. The “Save Our History” installment “Apollo: The Race Against Time” (7 p.m. today, History) shows how the rockets, spacesuits and other relics of the Apollo program have been allowed to deteriorate in the past three decades, and it also celebrates efforts to preserve these historic items for posterity.

Saturday highlights

¢ Piotr Adamczyk portrays Karol Wojtyla as a playwright, intellectual, priest and bishop as his native Poland suffers under Nazi occupation and communist oppression in the epic four-hour 2005 European television drama “Karol: A Man Who Became Pope” (6 p.m., Hallmark).

¢ The Broncos play host to the Colts in NFL preseason football (7 p.m., CBS).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ The Eagles perform their hits on a “Farewell 1 Tour” (6 p.m., NBC).

¢ Celebrities and performers are featured on the “MTV Video Music Awards” (7 p.m., MTV).

¢ Impossibly good-looking teens adjust to life after high school in the new series “Palmetto Pointe” (7 p.m., i). (The Pax network has changed its name to “i.”)