Cosmos: A Spacetime Oddysey - Here we go again!

Almost 34 years ago, the PBS aired the first episode of a 13-part series presented by man-of-many-hats, established astrophysicist, and renowned science communicator Carl Sagan. The reception to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was overwhelmingly positive, earning the series an Emmy and a Peabody Award as it became the most widely-experienced series in the history of American public programming. Today, it has been seen by over 500 million people worldwide, and has inspired untold multitudes to pursue and embrace the wonders of the universe.



Enter Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the production powerhouse of Nat Geo.




Now working on the budget of a private network, co-creators of A Personal Voyage Steven Soter and Ann Druyan have brought together a fairly impressive ensemble of talent to once again show the public the mystery and magnificence of the cosmos as Sagan had seen it. And it owns bones.

For Americans (and maybe Canadians?), it's airing on Fox on Sundays at 9PM Eastern and Nat Geo on Mondays at 10PM Eastern.

The first episode is in 720p on Fox's website right here (probably NA only)

Watch it. Talk about it. Get all retarded and awkwardly, indecisively enthusiastic as some of you are wont to do. Most of all though, get inspired about space, and inspire an interest about space in someone else by sitting down and watching this with them.


e: Fox is really on the ball with the takedowns on YT. If anyone finds another source for this for non-Americans so they don't have to use a proxy, let me know and I'll drop it in here.

 

Remember, though, that in talking about the history of scientific persecution, it's important to realize that it is not God that has been a problem, but dogma. Big international churches like the Roman Catholic church made/make a large profit on their word being the highest, most infallible authority. When a friar came along and proposed, among other things, "God is the universe", an idea that heavily contradicted the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, they immediately put their foot down. Anything that threatens the total infallibility then threatens their base of power, which is why they murdered the man for saying what he thought instead of addressing the validity of his claims.

That's why Neil, much like Sagan before him, puts a great deal of emphasis on how important it is to have an open mind and a willingness to be proven wrong. It's not about not killing people because they are scientists, it's about not killing people because they espouse radical beliefs. It is both a plea for sanity and a musing on how far society has come since the dawn of Homo sapiens, as well as how far it has yet to go.

All that said, there probably won't be much talk about churches after the first two episodes, fortunately. There's a looooot of relevant material that's been put out since the original Cosmos and they've got to fit in all that plus the rehashed-but-still-amazing analogies from the original.

 

So we're into the 4th episode now. Big episode about dead stars and relativity. As I expected, less church talk, but still very much casting a light on those who obstinately choose to be ignorant in the face of evidence, those who abjure the possibility that their deeply-held beliefs are wrong. Stunning CGI scenes, especially the sequence where the ship enters the black hole.

On that note, however, I am almost worried that too much extravagance (even if it is awesome) will cause the overarching message of the series to be lost on the exact kinds of people that it is trying to reach. Not to mention all the people who need to see this who already won't because of its time slot. Seriously, more people watched The Simpsons. That is almost depressing.