The Universe: Complete Season 2 (4 Disc) [Blu-ray][Region Free] Buy Now
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Product Description:
With the DVD release of this, the complete second season of The Universe, the History Channel has now devoted a combined total of more than 25 hours, not including bonus material, to its documentary study of that combination of time, space, and matter that we call our universe. That’s a lot. But then you consider the mind-boggling age and size of the universe itself: 13.7 billion years old, and big beyond our comprehension; infinite, in fact, and expanding rapidly. By those measures, it’s ap
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O.k. – let’s start with the contents:
Disc 1 – Alien Planets, Cosmic Holes, Mysteries of the Moon, The Milky Way, Alien Moons.
Disc 2 – Dark Matter, Astrobiology, Space Travel, Supernovas.
Disc 3 – Constellations, Unexplained Mysteries, Cosmic Collisions, Colonizing Space, Nebulas.
Disc 4 – Wildest Weather in the Cosmos, Biggest Things in Space, Gravity, Cosmic Apocalypse, Bonus: Backyard Astronomers.
Soundtrack – stereo English. Options for English sub-titles.
The menu system makes it easy to navigate between each episode and within each episode to particular chapters. The format of the chapters changes a bit about half way through, becoming rather less obtrusive.
Each episode is about 45 minutes long so, with the bonus material, that is over 14 hours of programmes.
What’s it like? Well, there’s a bit near the beginning of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where the Book is telling us about Space:
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space, LISTEN!” and so on…”
And so on. Yes, well…this series is pretty much in the same vein. Which is not necessarily a criticism. It’s just that I found it a bit exhausting after a while.
The series relies pretty heavily on computer graphics, which makes me wonder why they released it on blu-ray. Blu-ray is wonderful for nature shots, cityscapes, people, but computer graphics are relatively straight forward and so don’t, to my mind, really benefit from the added definition of blu-ray.
Still, where there are ‘real’ images, these are pretty stunning. That’s partly why my favourite episodes were the ones about Alien Moons (i.e. moons of planets in our solar system) and Nebulas (some stunning pics from Hubble, the NASA Spitzer Infrared telescope, amongst others). I also loved the last episode – talking about Cosmological Decades, the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the ultimate heat death of the universe always sends shivers down my spine!
There is a large array of eminent scientists from a variety of US universities (for example: the charming Beth Biller – a Goth fire dancing planetologist from Hawaii University, the cuddly Neil deGrasse Tyson, the perpetually enthusiastic Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley, the always worth watching Michio Kaku to name but a few), NASA and JPL, plus a couple of Brits and Germans. But there’s no Alan Guth or Martin Rees.
It all moves along at a really cracking pace and this is one of the things that got me down after a while. Talking heads are never on-screen for more than 5 seconds (if that), the camera is continuously zooming in and out or panning, the soundtrack is ceaselessly whooshing or booming and the narrative contains a little too much hyperbole for my taste.
Saying all that, it is still a great deal of fun. It is definitely not as detailed as the BBC’s ‘The Planets‘; it’s rather more like ‘The Complete Cosmos – The Solar System / Discovery Into Deep Space‘.
The Bonus material – ‘Backyard Astronomers’ – basically consists of a number of little summaries of what may be seen in the night sky each month throughout the year. I imagine this could be rather useful to new or would-be astronomers.
It’s an enjoyable introduction to the field. It is a bit breathless and ‘gee whizz’ and it doesn’t have the weight of most BBC science docs but for someone developing an interest in astronomy and cosmology, I would really recommend it.
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This exciting looking 4 disk Blu-Ray `festival of the Universe’ may appear promising but soon becomes tiresome. Clearly it could (and should) have been crammed onto 1 disk.
With quality computer graphics and excellent 3D sound quality it is a shame the subject matter is presented in the style of one of those rotating videos you find in the darkened corner of a museum. You know, the one you watch because you want a seat for a few minutes.
Whether it’s Cosmic Holes, Constellations or Space Travel – this production manages to remove any ‘atmosphere’ of excitement or fascination and instead we are treated to endless “wow, big, amazing, look here”. One Amazon reviewer, G. Monshaw (USA) accurately describes this as: repetitive, childish and padded.
To be fair, there are some truly interesting elements, such as the search for new planets and the pioneering work of Astronomers. However these odds and ends are hidden amongst computer graphics showing that the sun is `very big’.
Clearly this is made for the American commercial market, literally non-stop “coming up next”….”stay seated for x,y,z”. Most bizarre is the fact that even the so-called experts appeared to be talking to an audience of ten year olds.
The final straw was the footage of `men on Mars’ (earth desert research stations). There seemed to be a desire to maintain the idea that we were watching scientists at work…on Mars. Please.
I purchased a new Blu-Ray player primarily to watch this. A sort of `test piece’. I sat down with a few family members and even dimmed the lights in excitement. Nobody commented, not a word was spoken in praise. The BBC do this kind of subject matter in a far superior way was the only comment.
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