Review of the Collector's Edition of the TV series 'Cosmos. A personal voyage' (1980)

'Cosmos. A personal voyage', by Carl Sagan, is a documentary series of thirteen one-hour episodes released in 1980. Shot with the technology of the epoch (typically filmed in 16mm, then converted to TV format with mono sound), it was updated ten years later, and then remastered and released in DVD with 5.1 sound in 2000. Such is the Collector's Edition that was released in YouTube in 2017, with two caveats: 32 seconds of clockwork images have been suppressed at BBC's request from episode 6 (at the 27:31 mark) and 58 seconds of music have been replaced with other music at episode 13 (at the 13:29 mark).

This documentary series is dedicated to, of course, the Cosmos. Starting at Astronomy, it introduces us to the Universe and its stunning sights, and then it broads its focus to the history of Science to explain how our understanding of the Universe developed until it reached the present stage. Biology, Evolution, Climate change, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Astronautics, and the prospect of communicating with extraterrestrial intelligences are topics explored in depth.

The quality of the series is noticeable at first sight, from the astonishing astronomical photographs, from the diversity of locations in Africa, America, Asia and Europe where it is shot, from the minute details of the historical reconstructions, and from the exquisite cinematography of its images. The selection of music by Gordon Skene is excellent and one of the best things in the series, with some particularly unforgettable Vangelis themes. This is, no doubt, a top-budget documentary, of the kind rivalled by few others.

But the icing of the cake is the writing. Carl Sagan's speeches, written by Ann Druyan, himself, and Steven Soter, make the difference. They achieve the miracle of informing us about complex theories with a language of simple words that requires no specific education to be understood. And yet this language is still remarkably precise on expressing what is already known and what is still unknown, to the point that on the 1990 update added at the end of the episodes few amendments are needed. To top all that, Sagan's careful way of evaluating the possibilities for the future, for scientific theories as well as for astronautics, is nothing short of poetic.

Still, there's a stain on this nearly perfect writing: it is biased. When on episode 6 Carl Sagan speaks of exploration and poses an example of great explorers in History, he chooses the Dutch (known as explorers as much as pirates) rather than the Portuguese or the Spanish, credited by History with the biggest numbers of geographical discoveries. When on episode 13 Carl Sagan speaks of first encounters he chooses the arrival of Hernán Cortés to Mexico as the canonical example of disastrous first contact, and he economizes no expletives about it: 'In their madness, the conquistadores obliterated a civilization. In the name of piety, in a mockery of their religion, the Spaniards utterly destroyed a society with arts, astronomy and architecture equal to many in Europe. We revile the conquistadores for their cruelty and shortsightedness'. This isn't at all the historical truth, nor it doesn't even begin to resemble it - it is just the kind of Black Legend the nations of the epoch would spread to defame their enemies.  Ever since the XVIII^TH century, Anglo-Saxon philosophers and historians such as Erasmus Darwin have successively downplayed this tabloid version of History and replaced it with a more rigorous approach, but somehow near the end of the XX^TH century the Anglo-Saxon writers of Cosmos were still stuck in the tabloid version. This is particularly ironic in an episode that calls for 'distinguish our preconceptions from the truth'. This is the stain that stops the writing from reaching perfection.

The slow pace of the documentary, which seemed adequate at the moment and allowed the viewers to take pleasure at the exquisite images, seems a deterrent in the XXI^TH century – by now these images are common enough for the audience to pass them over without a second look, and dedicating so much time to them just gets the audience impatient or bored. This is the only aspect of the documentary that feels outdated because of the passage of time.

All in all, its nearly-perfect writing still makes Cosmos probably the best documentary series of all time.

Episode list:

1. The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean: An introduction to the Universe and our position on it. Eratosthenes' calculation of the circumference of Earth. The Cosmic Calendar sums up the history of the Universe and Earth in a year.
2. One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue: 'Evolution is not a theory, but a fact'. The origin of life, and how evolution led from the first lifeforms up to us.
3. Harmony of the Worlds: Distinction between Astronomy and Astrology, Science against Superstition. Johannes Kepler's quest to unravel the mechanics of the heavens, his encounter with Tycho Brahe, and his ground-breaking decision to stand by Brahe's observations against the well-established teachings.
4. Heaven and Hell: Venus and its global warming caused by greenhouse effect. The Venera missions.
5. Blues for a Red Planet: Mars, the evolution of its study by astronomers and how it inflamed the imagination of the people of Earth and provided stories of Martian invasions. Robert Goddard's first experiments with rockets. The Viking missions.
6. Travelers' Tales: The explorers in the era of Discovery in the XVII^TH century and the role of Huygens on it. The Voyager missions.
7. The Backbone of Night: The model of Cosmos beyond our Solar System. The discoveries of ancient Greeks. The milky way.
8. Journeys in Space and Time: The expansion of the Universe. Red Shift and Blue Shift. The town of Vinci in Italy, visited by Albert Einstein, is used to explain the theory of relativity. Then we visit the museum of its most famous citizen, Leonardo, and learn about his designs. Present-day designs for interstellar space-crafts.
9. The Lives of the Stars: This episode opens with the image of an apple that is suddenly and unexpectedly sliced in two – no doubt, the inspiration for the Annoying Orange series. The life-cycle of stars, the types of stars and cosmic rays.
10. The Edge of Forever: The evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang, formation of galaxies, galactic collisions. The Planiland story is used to convey the idea of a four-dimension reality.
11. The Persistence of Memory: Whales' songs. The importance of memory to store the information we need for our achievements. The memory stored in our DNA, the memory stored in our brain, the memory stored in a big library. What would mean an encounter with an extraterrestrial intelligence.
12. Encyclopedia Galactica: Sagan shows his scepticism about UFOs, but also his support for the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Champolion's unveiling of the ancient Egypt's hieroglyphic writing. Radio-telescopes as the optimal media for interstellar communication.
13. Who Speaks for Earth? First contacts: boon or blight? The impending threat of Cold War. The Library of Alexandria, Hypatia and their fate. The final 20 minutes make for a summary of all of the series.

It is inevitable to compare the original 'Cosmos. A personal voyage' 1980 series to its rework of 2014, 'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey' hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The running time is about the same, 13 episodes of about 1 hour, and both series were shot in locations around the world. The reworked series have a lot of things on the plus side: better resolution and stereo sound, updated scientific content, improved visual effects, a slightly quicker and more adequate pace that helps to pay attention, and also that the time saved by raising the pace is used to tell more about the history of Science, with particularly memorable episodes such as the one dedicated to the relation between Hooke, Halley and Newton, or the one dedicated to Faraday and Maxwell. And still... the 1980 series still comes out in top, hands down. Its superior quality is noticeable at nearly every frame – so evident it is that the original series was a top budget production. It is richer in the number of depicted locations. Its exquisite cinematography profits extraordinarily from the diverse locations. The historical reconstructions are told with actors rather than cartoons. The selection of music is so much better. The 1980 visual effects felt cutting edge for its epoch, whilst the 2014 visual effects felt cheap for its own. And to top it all, Sagan's charisma and intelligent speech outweigh Tyson's.

The entire series has been available at YouTube since 2017, so I am inserting it here for anybody willing to watch it.

Title:	Cosmos. A personal voyage
Genre:	Documentary
Year:	1980
Nationality:	USA & UK
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Adrian Malone, David F. Oyster, Rob McCain, David Kennard, Richard Wells, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, Tom Weidlinger, Richard J. Wells
Writer:	Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan, Steven Soter
Cast:	Carl Sagan, Jaromír Hanzlík, Jonathan Fahn, Alan Belod, Jean Charney, Bill Grant, Bob Hevelone, Ronald A. Hilbert, Victor C. John, Arthur 'Lonne' Lane, Linda Morabito, Larry Soderblom, Cecilia White
Producer:	Gregory Andorfer, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, David Kennard, Robyn Mendelsohn, David F. Oyster, Tom Weidlinger, Judy Flannery, Rob McCain, Richard J. Wells, Richard Wells
Executive producer:	Adrian Malone
Cinematographer:	Hilyard John Brown, Chris O'Dell, George D. Dodge, Christopher Frymann, Hillary Harris
Film editor:	James Latham, Roy Stewart
Art Director:	John Retsek
Running time:	13 episodes of about 60 minutes
Language:	English