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Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was the name of a 13-part TV series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan and Steven Soter, with Sagan as global presenter. The show was shot on multi-media, produced by Drew Levin and Adrian Malone, and directed by Greg Andorfer, Judy Flannery, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, David Kennard and Richard Wells. It covered a wide range of scientific subjects including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe. The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980. It won an Emmy and a Peabody Award and has been since broadcast in 60 countries and seen by more than 600 million people, according to the Science Channel.

Overview

Cosmos was produced in 1978 and 1979 by Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET on an $8.7 million budget (the station eventually went $3 million into debt as a result). The show's format is based on previous BBC documentaries such as Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man and David Attenborough's Life on Earth. (The BBC repaid the compliment by screening the series, but episodes were cut to fit 50-minute slots and shown late at night.) However, unlike those series, which were shot entirely on film, Cosmos used videotape for interior scenes and special effects, with film being used for exteriors. The series is notable for its groundbreaking use of special effects, which allowed Sagan to apparently walk through environments that were actually models rather than full-sized sets. The soundtrack counted with pieces of music provided by Greek composer Vangelis such as Alpha, Chariots of Fire, Pulstar, and Heaven and Hell Part 1 (the last movement serving as the signature theme music for the show, and is directly referenced by the title of episode 4). Throughout the 13 hours of the series it used many tracks from several 1970s albums such as Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Ignacio, Beaubourg and China. The worldwide success of the documentary series also put Vangelis' music in the homes and to the attention of a global audience.

Sagan's historical description of Hypatia of Alexandria and the burning of the Library of Alexandria has been criticized by historians who interpret the sources on Hypatia's life and the end of the library differently and who believe that Sagan should have made clear that there is a scholarly controversy on this issue. Other parts of Cosmos were controversial among the general public, though hardly among scientists, such as Sagan's straightforward treatment of astrology as a pseudoscience and his equally straightforward description of biological evolution. As Sagan states in episode 2, "Evolution is a fact, not a theory." Turner Home Entertainment purchased Cosmos from series producer KCET in 1989. In making the move to commercial television, the hour-long episodes were edited down to shorter lengths, and Sagan shot new epilogues for several episodes in which he discussed new discoveries (and alternate viewpoints) that had arisen since the original broadcast. Additionally, a 14th episode was added which consisted of an interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, and this "new" version of the series was eventually released as a VHS box set.

Cosmos had long been unavailable after its initial release because of copyright issues with the included music, but was released in 2000 on Region 0 NTSC DVD which includes subtitles in seven international languages, remastered 5.1 sound, as well as an alternate music and sound effects track. In 2005 The Science Channel rebroadcast the series for its 25th anniversary with updated computer graphics, film footage and digital sound.

Episodes

Episode I: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean"

Episode II: "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue"

Episode III: "The Harmony of the Worlds"

Episode IV: "Heaven and Hell"

Episode V: "Blues for a Red Planet"

Episode VI: "Travellers' Tales"

Episode VII: "The Backbone of Night"

Episode VIII: "Journeys in Space and Time"

Episode IX: "The Lives of the Stars"

Episode X: "The Edge of Forever"

Episode XI: "The Persistence of Memory"

Episode XII: "Encyclopedia Galactica"

Episode XIII: "Who Speaks for Earth?"

  • The Tlingit and the voyage and encounters of La Pérouse
  • The destruction brought by the Spanish conquistadores
  • Sagan's vision (told as a dream) in which our world was destroyed by nuclear warfare
  • The balance of terror on the Earth today
  • The destruction of the Library of Alexandria and murder of Hypatia
  • The beginning of the universe and good endeavors of our civilization
  • Sagan's plea to cherish life and continue our journey to the cosmos

Cosmos, a special edition

The 1986 special edition of Cosmos is special in many ways. First of all, the series is much shorter than the original broadcast, consisting of only six episodes each about 45 minutes in length:

  1. Other Worlds part 1
  2. Other Worlds part 2
  3. Children of the Stars part 1
  4. Children of the Stars part 2
  5. Message from the Sky part 1
  6. Message from the Sky part 2

Visually, the series uses several of the historic sequences and animations from the original series, but interweaved are also new computer animated sequences and additional scenes with host Carl Sagan. As known today, the special edition version was at least broadcast in the USA, Japan, Germany, and Australia.

As for the music, this version of Cosmos contains a mix of music used in the original series, together with a unique score by Vangelis, composed specially for this series. This score in some sources is also referred to as "Comet", with "Comet 16" acting as the title and ending theme of each episode. Unfortunately, only one of the total 21 cues of this score has officially been released, "Comet 16". Some of the new music also appears in the 2000 remastered DVD release. Apparently also one cue made it into the 1989 VHS release.

External links

1980s TV shows in the United States | Documentary television series | PBS network shows | Peabody Award winners | Vangelis

Unser Kosmos | Cosmos: Un viaje personal | Cosmos (televisie) | Cosmos | コスモス (TV)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage".

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