S01.E01: Standing Up in the Milky Way

[nymusix]

Produced by Seth MacFarlane and presented by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, with an opening introduction by president Barack Obama. I'm pretty hyped about this.

The Ship of the Imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies, can take us anywhere in space and time. It has been idling for more than three decades, and yet it has never been overtaken. Its global legacy remains vibrant. Now, it's time once again to set sail for the stars.

 

 

[David T. Cole]

Watching the first episode right now! I totally forgot I had a screener :\

I'm not a Seth MacFarlane comedy fan but I have to hand it to him for using his evil powers for good.

The first episode talks a lot about the travails of George Harrison: Rebel Astronomist. 

http://i.imgur.com/WFGqJKk.jpg

[nymusix]

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is *so damn sincere*. 

[tita]

I was intrigued by the decision to focus so much of the first episode on "George Harrison: Rebel Astronomist," as Dave put it. If I remember the story's conclusion correctly, although he was eventually proved right, Giordano Bruno was not a scientist of any kind and didn't have any reason or logic or science to back up his assertions about the universe. He just basically had a vision, and resolutely clung to it, and was eventually shown by science to be correct.

Did the producers/writers/whoever just think the stories of Copernicus and Galileo were over-told? Why would they not have focused on the stories of how the scientific discoveries were made, rather than on the story of a mystic who had a strangely detailed dream?

In other news, I was impressed that the episode featured NdGT in exactly zero kitschy StarSunMoon ties or vests. Anytime I see him in things where he's dressed himself, he's always wearing something from the 1995 novelty bin. Good job, COSMOS team!

[Kierstyn]

I think a lot of the content decisions were made with the understanding that this show was being done in 45 languages, and broadcast in 175 nations.  In the US we may have our anti-science portions of the country, but a lot of places have it worse.  I thought it was clever (if heavy handed) to start off with a version of the "if you are going to watch this we need to you have an open mind about the scientific method" message.  Then, I interpreted the underlying message of the Bruno tale to be "hey, lot's of places have been anti-science, or anti-free thought.  Look, here's an example of a time - not so long ago - when we here in the 'west' did this to a guy who turned out to be totally right in his guesses, and was still condemned to an awful death."
As for why they didn't do Copernicus or Galileo?  Well, they had already decided to redo the ship of the imagination and the cosmic calendar for the new series.  It's been a few years since I broke out my original Cosmos DVDs, but I think they hit upon Copernicus, Huygens, Brahe and Galileo pretty hard.  Maybe they decided to go in a new path since they were already retreading themes/segments in the new pilot.
I don't really think that scientifically literate adult Americans are the real target for this show.  I think they want late elementary school kids to get them into STEM education, and international communities where science isn't a big focus, to influence them favorably.

[rereader2]

I watched the original series fairly recently, and I think they pretty much used the same script as the original, just new (and inferior) visuals. Not sure why they didn't update the script as well.

[Kierstyn]

I watched the original series fairly recently, and I think they pretty much used the same script as the original, just new (and inferior) visuals. Not sure why they didn't update the script as well.

That's not really true.  They used a similar outline (explaining what the ship of the imagination does, explaining the concept of the cosmic calendar), but the changed the content entirely.

[RedZoneTuba]

As a huge fan of the original Cosmos and all Carl Sagan's work, I started watching the new Cosmos with some trepidation.  My two biggest concerns were "how can the host possibly live up to Sagan?" and, when I heard that the history pieces would be cartoons rather than human actors, "will the cartoons be an embarrassing dumbing-down of the presentation?" (the intentionally funny cloning cartoon shown in the original Juraissic Park came to mind)

Well, thankfully it only took this one episode to allay my fears.  Tyson does a great job and the cartoons were very artfully done.  Finally, something new on TV that I can praise and recommend without reservation!