Earth: The Biography (BBC DVD-Video)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B+
When I
watch a program that is as detailed as something like Earth: The Biography or other nature shows it only confirms my
belief that ‘we’ are created. Creation
leads to a creator, design demonstrates the designer. If you walked into the desert and saw a
pyramid (without knowing what a pyramid was) your first thought probably
wouldn’t be to deduce that large stones mixed with sand and through wind and
magic suddenly formed this amazing shape…would it? So why would anyone think that a world so
advanced, detailed, complex, and sophisticated as ours would be
…coincidence? We just …formed.
This
presentation ran on the National Geographic Channel and runs 230-minutes, which
is actually fairly short considering the wealth of material that it
uncovers. In some respects this is a
good companion piece to Planet Earth,
which we reviewed here on Blu-ray.
Unlike how that series deals with the life on the planet, this particular
series (on 2-discs) deals with more the formation of the Earth, the complexity,
the disasters, and other landmark events, which are well documented. The footage here is incredible and the
presentation is given by Dr. Iain Stewart, who is never dull or boring, but
rather engaging and highly informative, his expertise is undeniable here.
The DVD
presentation features the program in a 1.78 X 1 anamorphic widescreen transfer
that looks great, although the Blu-ray is probably far superior and we hope to
review that at some point as well. The
footage really tells the story here and while we get a wealth of different
types of footage, the source material seems to be well preserved and bodes
nicely, even on DVD. Same goes for the
5.1 Dolby Digital mix, which the program is mostly
dialogue and so that is never really an issue.
All in
all, this is great little series that should be experienced at some point, if
for no other reason than affirmation that we are not an accident.
- Nate Goss
