Cosmos
A hugely successful TV-series and then a book by Dr. Carl Sagan. Dr
Sagan explores and explains the world around us, from the lives of cells to
the life of the universe. He looks into our past and our future. He discusses
distant civilizations and long dead worlds. Everything is done with a love to
teach, which can be felt all the way to our livingrooms.
The series came in two versions; one made for PBS in 1980, and another in
1985, which is available on video and DVD. The book came in 1983. Cosmos
was sold to over 60 countries and seen by more than half a billion people.
The series became famous not only for the pedagogical Carl Sagan, but also
for the music in it. The score consists of classical music such as
Beethoven and Bach, but also more modern music such as Vangelis and Boydstun
specifically written for the series. The soundtrack is available on CD.
Episodes
There are 13 one-hour episodes in the series:
- "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" - The
universe, quasars, nebulae and supernovas
- "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue" - Origins
of life on Earth and the cosmological timeframe
- "The Harmony of the Worlds" - Johannes Kepler, astronomy
and the physics of the solar system
- "Heaven and Hell" - Venus and other planets and moons
in our solar system
- "Blues for a Red Planet" - Mars, the Viking spacecraft
on Mars
- "Traveller's Tales" - The exploration of Earth and of the
solar system, the Voyager spacecraft
- "The Backbone of Night" - The Milky Way
- "Travels in Space and Time" - Distant planets, time travel
and Albert Einstein
- "The Lives of the Stars" - The lives of stars, the end of our
solar system
- "The Edge of Forever" - Cosmology, black holes and the
Big Bang
- "The Persistence of Memory" - Intelligence, the human
brain
- "Encyclopaedia Gallactica" - Aliens, other civilizations
and UFOs
- "Who Speaks for Earth?" - The future of Earth, nuclear war
and a brief recapitulation of the last 15 billion years
reference: carlsagan.com