Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
★ 8.7 · 1980 · 60m · Documentary
Carl Sagan covers a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.
Episodes
1. The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean60m · At the beginning of this cosmic journey across space and time, Dr. Carl Sagan takes us to the edge of the universe aboard a spaceship of the imagination. Through beautiful special effects, we witness quasars, exploding galaxies, star clusters, supernovas and pulsars.
Returning to our solar system, we enter a re-creation of the Alexandrian Library, the seat of learning on Earth 2,000 years ago.
2. One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue60m · Dr. Sagan's cosmic calendar makes the history of the universe understandable and frames the origin of the Earth and the evolution of life. We see the evolutionary process unfold, from microbes to humans.
Our understanding of how life developed on Earth enables us to venture to other worlds for imaginative speculations on what forms life might take elsewhere.
3. Harmony of the Worlds60m · This episode is a historical re-creation of the life of Johannes Kepler, the last scientific astrologer, the first modern astronomer and the author of the first science fiction novel.
Kepler provided the insight into how the moon and the planets move in their orbits and ultimately how to journey to them. It's also a story about the scientific process of discovery, and how the search for truth is never easy but always worthwhile.
4. Heaven and Hell60m · A descent through the hellish atmosphere of Venus to explore its broiling surface serves as a warning to our world about the possible consequences of the increasing greenhouse effect.
Then Dr. Sagan leads us on a tour of our solar system to see how other heavenly bodies have suffered from various cosmic catastrophes.
5. Blues for a Red Planet60m · Is there life on Mars? Dr. Sagan takes viewers on a tour of the red planet first through the eyes of science fiction authors, and then through the unblinking eyes of two Viking spacecrafts that have sent thousands of pictures of the stunning Martian landscape back to Earth since 1976. Though based on older Mars missions, Sagan's analysis still holds true.
6. Travellers' Tales60m · Dr. Sagan compares the exhilaration of 17th-century Dutch explorers who ventured in sailing ships halfway around our planet in their quest for wealth and knowledge to an inside view of the excitement around Voyager's expeditions to Jupiter and Saturn.
The newly acquired treasures of our present golden age of exploration are the focus of this episode.
7. The Backbone of Night60m · Humans once thought the stars were campfires in the sky and the Milky Way "the backbone of night."
In this fascinating segment Dr. Sagan takes us back to ancient Greece, when the basic question "what are the stars?" was first asked. He visits the Brooklyn elementary school of his childhood, where this same question is still on students' minds.
8. Journeys in Space and Time60m · A voyage to see how star patterns change over millions of years is followed by a journey to the planets of other stars, and a look at the possibility of time travel.
This takes us to Italy, where a young Albert Einstein first wondered what it would be like to ride on a beam of light.
9. The Lives of the Stars60m · Using computer animation and amazing astronomical art, Dr. Sagan shows how stars are born, live, die and sometimes collapse to form neutron stars or black holes.
We then journey into the future to witness "the last perfect day on Earth," 5 billion years from now, after which the sun will engulf our planet in the fires of its death throes.
10. The Edge of Forever60m · Dr. Sagan leads us on some awesome trips — to a time when galaxies were beginning to form, to India to explore the infinite cycles of Hindu cosmology, and to show how humans of this century discovered the expanding universe and its origin in the big bang.
He disappears down a black hole and reappears in New Mexico to show us an array of 17 telescopes probing the farthest reaches of space.
11. The Persistence of Memory60m · The brain is the focus of this fascinating portion of our journey as Dr. Sagan examines another of the intelligent creatures with whom we share the planet Earth — whales.
Then we wind through the maze of the human brain to witness the architecture of thought. We see how genes, brains and books store the information necessary for human survival.
12. Encyclopedia Galactica60m · Are there alien intelligences? How could we communicate with them? What about UFOs? The answers to these questions take us to Egypt to decode ancient hieroglyphics, to the largest radio telescope on Earth and, in the Spaceship of the Imagination, to visit other civilizations in space.
Dr. Sagan answers questions such as: "What is the life span of a planetary civilization?" and "Will we one day hook up with a network of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy?"
13. Who Speaks for Earth?60m · Through the use of special effects we retrace the 15-billion-year journey from the big bang to the present. We also hear the tragic story of the martyrdom of Hypatia, the woman scientist of ancient Alexandria.
This is the famous episode on nuclear war in which Dr. Sagan argues that our responsibility for survival is owed not just to ourselves, but also to the cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.More Like This
Cosmos
2014 · ★ 8.5
Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson provides clarity for the vision of the cosmos as he voyages across the universe with never-before-told stories that delve into the scientific concepts of the laws of gravity and the origins of space and time.
More info →
Kingdom of Plants
2012 · ★ 7.8
Sir David discovers a microscopic world that’s invisible to the naked eye, where insects feed and breed, where flowers fluoresce and where plants communicate with each other and with animals using scent and sound.
More info →
David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities
2013 · ★ 7.3
Sir David shines the spotlight on some of nature’s evolutionary anomalies and reveals how these curious animals continue to baffle and fascinate.
More info →
Horizon
1964 · ★ 7.4
Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.
More info →
Solar System
2024 · ★ 8.3
Voyage across the solar system with Professor Brian Cox and explore the new discoveries, natural wonders and strange mysteries on the diverse worlds that orbit the sun.
More info →
The Universe
2007 · ★ 8
From the planets to the stars and out to the edge of the unknown, history and science collide in a wondrous yet deadly adventure through space and time.
More info →
David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates
2013 · ★ 8.1
David Attenborough embarks on a remarkable 500 million-year journey revealing the extraordinary group of animals that dominate our world, and how their evolution defines our human bodies.
More info →
Wonders of the Solar System
2010 · ★ 8.1
In this spellbinding series, Professor Brian Cox visits the most extreme locations on Earth to explain how the laws of physics carved natural wonders across the solar system.
More info →
