Cosmos Reboot: Running Discussion Thread

And... go!

First off, this is making me wish I had a bigger TV.

I have to admit, there comes a point when my brain stops being able to conceptualize the scale and just stops even trying. That came somewhere around the words "Virgo Supercluster."

I'm loving this, but wishing it was on PBS. The commercials are jarringly discordant.

Spoiler alert - the universe is big as shit, even when we disregard the "multiverse" theory!
That said, if we as a planet didn't know that earth isn't the biggest deal in the universe until about 400 years ago, why would religions that originated during the bronze age (or even 600 years ago) think on a universal scale?

I could do without the cheesy animation on the Copernicus story.

Not at all! The fact that commercialism is involved at all in science is a great achievement! People are forgetting about Kim Kardashian's ass
for an hour - so it's a start at least!

I don't mind that, though I'd like it just a bit more stylized. Really liked the presentation of Bruno's idea -- God is infinite, so is creation. It reminds me of Hamlet's line to Horatio, that there are more things in Heaven and Earth than exist in his philosophy. Whether or not there is a God, it should be irrelevant to human discovery.

So....if you say there are other "spiritual" worlds (demons and whatnot) the church is fine with that, assuming they keep the reigns of power.
Say there are actual physical worlds you are killed.

I think it's pretty encouraging that this can run on a commercial network. It means the network thinks there's broad enough public interest in science to make it viable. And being in a slot normally occupied by popular comedies means it has a chance of reaching people who wouldn't necessarily turn on PBS ... who might discover an interest they didn't know they had.

Hmmm... our galaxy was formed on the Ides of March? Interesting..

And human civilization has lasted a grand total of 14 seconds. That's a pretty stark statement.

Okay, final thoughts:

• Loved, loved, loved, the pro-science message. Pop culture definitely needs this message about how science works and why it matters.
• Great and wondrous effects.
• Very much liked the anthropology components.

The final couple of minutes talked about how the "scientific method" is the ultimate foundation. I agree, and use it on a daily basis even in my pea-brained semi-redneck world. Also the connection to Carl Sagan was pretty kick-ass.

Actually, it shows the power of Seth MacFarlane. Not only did he convince Fox to air this, but to do so, even though the National Geographic channel is also going to be airing extended versions of the episodes. The fact that he's got two hugely popular shows on Fox probably has a lot to do with it.

He admits that he is in a good enough financial position to spend some money on something important. He also says that he is the most inconsequential link in this chain. I see his point - what good is success if you can't take care of friends along the way?

I really thought the effects stood out, I want that ship. I love the craft doing a fly by and being caught on the black and white camera of a Mars probe.

The calendar was stark, great stuff.

Once we got to the Virgo Supercluster part of my brain was like we're just making stuff up at this point, right?

The old Cosmos used reenactors, I see this as cheaper, with more creative options.

Let me break it down. I was actually a little disappointed with this.

The visuals - jaw dropping. Glorious. As you would expect in 2014, the visuals (especially in HD) were awesome.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson - is not Carl Sagan, not by a long shot. Sagan had a voice and cadence that engaged you. Tyson is just talking. Having said that, he still gets a billion points for doing this show at all. Someone needs to get science back in the mainstream, and it was either Tyson or Michio Kaku.

The concept for this first episode - had the feel of an overview, which is what you'd expect. The diversion into the Bruno history lesson was a bit out of place, I thought. A more straightforward timeline of modern science might have been a better use of the time. And the animated stuff was okay and probably saved the production some money by not having to hire actors and make costumes and stuff. Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel uses this same approach to good effect (tho I think that show has lost its focus).

Some curious omissions and errors - the Solar System segment was weird. Start at the Sun, okay, Mecury and Venus, okay . . . wait, where's Earth? We skipped right out to Mars. Then the asteroids, which while a great visual looked like something out of Star Wars. It gave the impression that all those rocks are a lot closer together than they actually are. Then out to Jupiter with absolutely spectacular imagery. Saturn, okay. Uranus and Neptune just whoosh-and-gone. Then they mention the outer solar system and the Kuiper Belt objects without actually naming the Kuiper Belt, which I thought was a rather glaring omission. Oh, and also made it look like those objects are all close together, just like they did for the asteroid belt. Then out to the Oort Cloud, which they curiously did name. And also went out of their way to point out were very widely dispersed objects. Oh, and the error I mentioned . . . Tyson mentions night vision goggles and says they work off of infrared light. Umm, no they don't. NVGs work by amplifying ambient visible light, not by reaching into IR. IR imagers are usually referred to as thermal cameras, or just "therms." IIRC some of the higher-end NVGs see a bit into the near infrared but by no means is that the main part of the spectrum they use.
The cosmic calendar is a direct recycle from the original version of Cosmos and is still a brilliant way to help people understand just what fourteen billion years really represents.

Overall I give it a B+. Hoping it tightens up some as they go forward.

I watched a few original Cosmoses before this and, yeah, Tyson has none of the poetry and heart that Sagan put into it. But never mind, as long as he's spreading the word.

Night vision goggles DO work off infra-red light.

Wait, this is 1953, right?

Not to take anything away from Sagan, but I can remember people making fun of him for the way he said "billions," and some Kongress Kritter even said, "I'm talking about several Carl Sagan units." I can also remember people saying that the original Cosmos was "interesting," but admitting that they had trouble staying awake during it. (Having rewatched the first episode of the original not too long ago, it certainly seems like it could use a little editing to tighten up parts of it. There seem to be hour long scenes of Sagan just staring at the ocean for no reason.)

Those of us who remember the original Cosmos are not the target audience for this show. Its aimed at everyone who came after us, and Tyson studied under Sagan, so he knows what Sagan was like, better than any of us, and there's one thing that Tyson is that Sagan could never hope to be: Funky!

I've used night vision, infa-red, FLIR and all that type of lighting. And I deal with deer seeing into the spectrum humans don't see (like ultra-violet) so I avoid the color blue, but I'm not splitting hairs here. Neil isn't Carl Sagan, but who was? He has his shit together, so I'll keep watching.

Actually, if you want to get technical, FLIR (forward-looking infra-red) systems are used to see at night, so, yes, the statement that night vision relies on infra-red is at least somewhat true.

Night vision goggles, of course, work on image intensification.

I thought the original Cosmos was a lot longer than 13 episodes.

By the way, does anyone remember that one of the big reasons for the original Cosmos success was the SAG strike in Hollywood that left Cosmos as one of the very few original programs on the air for a few months?

I love it. The whole idea is to draw people in, to get them interested in science again, and to do it by using real science. Is it stylized? Hell yes, and that's awesome, because science can be about facts and figures, and it can do it with panache. I think it accomplished that goal, and I figure we'll get into the more analytical stuff later. By the time anyone realizes they're actually learning, they'll have already been hooked.

Music could be less intrusive. More tomorrow...

It was good.

I noticed the asteroid field as well but it's not a biggie.

Just watched it (it's available on Hulu for those like me that got tired of being boned by cable/satellite...). Excellent show, though nothing new for me. I've always like Tyson, and have always thought of him as a sort of spiritual successor to Sagan. I'm curious as to what the rating were.

Interestingly, my Facebook feed lit up with links to bootleg web streams of the show. I've never seen people post links to bootlegs of a show in such numbers before.