Saturday, 5 October 2013

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage



When I started watching the Cosmos I was immediately taken in by the combination of the music and special effects. Today CGI is common place but in the early 80’s what they did here was slick.

To see presenter Carl Sagan stroll through ancient structures and cities made the programme much more entertaining. I liked his delivery too. There was nothing demeaning just straight forward facts and information. You felt he respected his audience and did not want to talk down to them. I was genuinely sad when I heard of his death in 1996.




The series lasted for 13 episodes and left a strong impression on me. So much so that I bought the book (and read it from cover to cover) and the LP (no CD’s at this time). Alas there was no t-shirt to complete the set.


Fast forward some 25 years and I received the whole series on DVD as a Christmas present. Watching the first episode again took me right back in time. The special effects actually held up quite well I thought and didn’t look as dated as I thought they would. It’s no surprise the series won awards.


Now a sequel is in the pipeline called Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey. Due for airing in the States sometime in Spring 2014. I look forward to this new series and hope it is as good as the original.

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