sherylchilders82 This documentary will probably be more appreciated by a well-educated audience, especially if you've already seen more detailed documentaries on cosmology. It references larger scientific concepts in fields like anthropology, biology, chemistry and physics. But, what is best about it is the narrator himself, Brian Cox, who has such a unique way of communicating his perspective. For example, when describing space-time in relation to the theory of the "Big Freeze", he says that when the last energy has dissipated from the Universe, time will cease to exist. I had never thought of it that way before, and I even found myself talking about it to someone later. I studied Einstein's theory of relativity in college, and I've seen other detailed documentaries on theories of the end of the Universe, but never presented in this way. While this series is not particularly detailed or specific to one area of cosmology, I found that it was comprehensive if you already had some background knowledge to fill in the blanks. Good teachers, after all, don't simply recite facts that they assume you've read in your textbook. They review and expand on this knowledge by giving a fresh perspective, which is exactly what is done here.

Debajyoti Bose Professor Brian Cox takes up the charge of exploring our planet and explain the motions of the Universe and everything that it is made of, thus explaining gracefully with simulated and beautiful depictions of our place in this planet and the Universe at large. One has to keep in mind, this is not a nerd show which will highlight all pro-level science talk. Men like Brian Cox, Neil Tyson are science communicator and popularizer. The main purpose of this show is to bring young minds who fear science in this wonderful fascination and its justifications,and to make them understand how profound are the immutable laws of physics and other sciences, when it comes to the grandest of stages i.e. life of the stars. The show did that quiet splendidly. So if solar system and galaxies have been your fascination, but you were always afraid of the big science formulas and terms, this is your chance to get hold of them, and understand the beauty they have and represent.

kingdavidek Within the first twenty minutes we learn that the universe is very old, that you can't go back in time, that a year is when the earth revolves around the sun once, that the universe appears eternal and never changing(even though, spoilers, it isn't) and that time is irreversible and changes things. Brian Cox manages to repeat this last fact about ten times, seemingly challenging our notion of time and trying to make us believe we have been caught in some broken record of an alternate universe. For any person, whether you are physics graduate or you have simply completed one year of primary school, this is not news.The BBC seem satisfied with squandering an obviously large budget on admittedly impressive but ultimately useless shots of far away landscapes. This series simply looks for the money shots, whilst giving the writing job to a nine year old boy with adhd. Time is irreversible, now heres a turtle, time is irreversible, now heres a glacier, time is irreversible, now heres a cool simulation of an explosion! Though clearly trying to emulate the same wonder and respect for the universe that Carl Sagan had, Brian Cox's exhilaration seems completely artificial. This shows that today, documentaries are willing to sacrifice learning and wonder for special effects and plane tickets to anywhere that takes their fancy, no matter how relevant to the message it is.

damyon_brazier looks like the science guru's have decided to write reviews for this and slammed it. personally i have enjoyed the series. Yes it has fantastic vista's and glorious visuals , and probably not enough content for the want-to-be or actual geologists within each episode. It does however bring a visual feast and captures the feel of how i certainly used to look out at the stars at night as a child. Its warm, educational, and puts hair on the back of your neck. Brian Cox has a wonderful way of making you understand everything he is explaining (for us mortals that is)In my opinion i appreciate, to "aficionado's" this is child's play, but for the rest of us bored with reality TV , this is compulsive viewing.