Monster Of The Milky Way (NOVA)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episode: B
Because the media likes to torment people, one of
the things you always hear about are end-of-the-world scenarios. One of them involve black holes, but after
the Disney film that flopped and became a cult item later, it has become less
and less a feasible fictional story.
This is especially true now that we know they eat and destroy anything
they can absorb. It has been asked when
the subject comes up how horrible it would be if earth were near one. Monster
Of The Milky Way is a new installment of the great WGBH series NOVA that shows there actually is.
The good news is that it is too far away to matter,
but the bad news is that it and so many others are hard to spot or see and
things could change. The show explores
all kinds of aspects of them, specifically the hole of the title and digs into
all the science around it. It is very
thorough for its hour-long length and is one of the best shows on the subject
we have seen to date here at the site.
It is also more intriguing than some comet/asteroid scenario since it is
not as literally explosive or dramatic. But
then the galaxy Andromeda (not the silly TV show) is heading for our Milky Way
at 400,000 miles-per-hour, but is so far away that it will not collide with us
for a few billion years. Good show.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is soft, but was
produced in digital High Definition, not taken advantage of here since WGBH
does not produce DVDs with anamorphic enhancement. The animation for the black holes work holds
up very well. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo has not real surrounds, but is a recent recording that sounds good. The only extras are weblinks and DVD-ROM
printable materials.
- Nicholas
Sheffo
