I wanted it to be good and expected to be disappointed to some degree.
Cosmos a spacetime odyssey carl sagan series#
In the Academic Awards telecast hosted by MacFarlane, he closed the show with a star turn in singing "Here's to the Losers." But in this truly outstanding series of "Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey," it is clear that everyone is a winner, especially the viewers who can embark on the voyage of a lifetime when they climb aboard The Ship of the Imagination for thirteen stellar episodes.įull disclosure: I was and am a big fan of the original show Cosmos with Carl Sagan, I typically dislike re-makes (retreads) of successful movies or shows from before and approached this with very mixed feelings. The animations are a cut above the generic dramatizations with actors, wherein the bottom drops out of most television documentaries.
Cosmos a spacetime odyssey carl sagan trial#
It is impressive that a television personality on the order of Seth MacFarlane would produce this series that includes animated recreations of historical events, such as the trial and execution of the seventeenth century "heretic" Giordano Bruno. There was an especially moving moment when Professor Tyson recalled the time when he was warmly greeted by Carl Sagan, who took time out of his busy schedule to provide a personal tour of the Cornell campus when Tyson was about to enter college. Now, one of our finest scientists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, serves as our guide to the universe with outstanding commentary in the sequel. Carl Sagan was a true Renaissance man, who synthesized history, philosophy, art, and science in the Cosmos series and the superb book that accompanied the program. Now, over three decades later, the next edition of "Cosmos" retains the integrity of the original series while providing the latest findings in science and astronomy. When the original Cosmos series aired on PBS in the early 1980s, the dynamism of Carl Sagan showed how educational television could also be enormously popular. This series is a breath of fresh air when compared to the mindless programming typical of network television. But, man, we need his messages now more than ever. Judging from his Wikipedia entry, he'll have something to say about it later, and it won't make everyone happy. If the universe or universes are expanding, what are they expanding INTO? And if everything that exists started with the Big Bang of 13 billion years ago, what caused that Big Bang in the first place? And where did all those original hydrogen atoms COME from? Who's pulling the wool over whose eyes around here? Of course that gets us into metaphysics and he has nothing to say about it in this introductory episode, the only one I've seen. Anyway, if he's so smart I'd have some questions for him. Let's move on to something else in the next episode - pronto. I hope Tyson is all finished dealing with the dimension of time. That means I'm 34 years older than I was when I watched the original. Sums were never my forte, but my pocket calculator tells me that 2014 minus 1980 is equal to 34. I do have a problem though, regarding chronology. And even some expressions are carried over - "star stuff." I can't wait until Tyson gets to Sagan's awesome "holy of holies." I thrilled the first time around. So we have the cosmic calendar which reduces the chronology of the universe to a single year. One writer, Ann Druyan, had a hand in both. There is an expectable amount of continuity between this program, which is a sort of up-dated sequel, and the original. And there is no question of his knowing his subject, beginning at the Bronx High School of Science and reaching dazzling heights thereafter. As host, Tyson may not be as familiar a figure as Sagan was - God, Sagan was all over the telly - but he's likable in his own right.
I also liked him because he was on the faculty when I was in graduate school and he could have chosen to drop in on my comprehensive oral exams and ask me what life would look like on a planet identical to earth except for a complete absence of calcium. He was of the moment - longish hair, cool looking, bell bottom trousers, and he smoked grass once in a while. He's not Sagan, but then who is? I liked Sagan a great deal. He's pleasant, looks good, sounds convincing, but there are times when his narration acquires a sing-song quality that turns the explanation into an address to a group of kids on a field trip from some nearby middle school. And Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the host because Sagan is no longer with us. The set of the "space craft" - what there is of it - looks less like a 2050 suite in a Las Vegas hotel. Among the first things you notice about the new show is that the graphics are, well, light years ahead of "Cosmos". You can't help comparing "Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey" to the original "Cosmos" from thirty years ago, hosted by Carl Sagan.