Neil deGrasse Tyson "Cosmos". First impression:

[aitm]

The show is not for "us"...it is for "their" children. And I was not totally impressed. Nice, but not the grab you and keep you. Hopefully the second one will be better.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The show is not for "us"...it is for "their" children. And I was not totally impressed. Nice, but not the grab you and keep you. Hopefully the second one will be better.

How would you have improved it?

[Sargon The Grape]

The first episode of the original wasn't that great either. The old Cosmos took time to get the ball rolling, and this one will too. I, for one, got exactly what I expected, and I'm looking forward to more. :D


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk. Titty sprinkles.

[PickelledEggs]

I saw it yesterday.

There is a lot of overlap, but it was the first episode. I can imagine it will have a lot more updated info with upcoming episodes. Plus, I do think you're right, aitm. I can imagine that Tyson and Mcfarlane's main goal is to inspire the younger generations to be fascinated by science.

[aitm]

The show is not for "us"...it is for "their" children. And I was not totally impressed. Nice, but not the grab you and keep you. Hopefully the second one will be better.

How would you have improved it?

I don't have an answer for that sama, I just want this to be so damn frickin great that kids will flock to it, and maybe it did hit the right spot. I hope so.

[Shiranu]

I saw it yesterday.

There is a lot of overlap, but it was the first episode. I can imagine it will have a lot more updated info with upcoming episodes. Plus, I do think you're right, aitm. I can imagine that Tyson and Mcfarlane's main goal is to inspire the younger generations to be fascinated by science.

So far as I know, that is what Tyson's goal has and will be. He is very much like Bill Nye back in his prime in that regard imo... he loves science and he wants everyone else to love it too. And being as it is, the young are the best market for that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The show is not for "us"...it is for "their" children. And I was not totally impressed. Nice, but not the grab you and keep you. Hopefully the second one will be better.

How would you have improved it?

I don't have an answer for that sama, I just want this to be so damn frickin great that kids will flock to it, and maybe it did hit the right spot. I hope so.

Carl would have liked it, I suspect.

[Moriarty]

I saw it yesterday.

There is a lot of overlap, but it was the first episode. I can imagine it will have a lot more updated info with upcoming episodes. Plus, I do think you're right, aitm. I can imagine that Tyson and Mcfarlane's main goal is to inspire the younger generations to be fascinated by science.

So far as I know, that is what Tyson's goal has and will be. He is very much like Bill Nye back in his prime in that regard imo... he loves science and he wants everyone else to love it too. And being as it is, the young are the best market for that.

Indeed. Reality hasn't set in yet for most of them. Given the choice I would have preferred a degree in higher science profession but considering I went back to college later in life the reality was to finish asap and get to work, so I settled for IT.

[Naberius]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction? It's distracting.  Also I felt some of the explanations were far too tidy.  There are competing theories of the origin of the Moon, isn't disingenuous to depict only one?  What was the deal with the CGI Tiktaalik? Did it really march onto land like that?  They had gills didn't they?  Maybe I'm betraying my own ignorance there.

We'll see how the next episodes go.  Until then, there's still the BBC's Wonders of the Solar System/Universe with Brian Cox, my fave.

[Moriarty]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction? It's distracting.  Also I felt some of the explanations were far too tidy.  There are competing theories of the origin of the Moon, isn't disingenuous to depict only one?  What was the deal with the CGI Tiktaalik? Did it really march onto land like that?  They had gills didn't they?  Maybe I'm betraying my own ignorance there.

We'll see how the next episodes go.  Until then, there's still the BBC's Wonders of the Solar System/Universe with Brian Cox, my fave.

Might be other theories to the moons formation but that's the most widely accepted one to my understanding. Computer simulations have shown it to be possible. Which is kind of cool because perhaps for a short time Earth had a ring(s).

Yes it had gills, that was the point, their belief that sea animals like it learned to live on land over time, eventually shedding the gills and the flippers evolving into limbs.

[Sargon The Grape]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction?

Because Sagan did it. Cosmos has always used devices like this to keep things moving; it would be more surprising if Tyson's series didn't re-use and expand on them.

[Shiranu]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction?

Because Sagan did it. Cosmos has always used devices like this to keep things moving; it would be more surprising if Tyson's series didn't re-use and expand on them.

Beat me to it, but yeah the ship is from the original Cosmos, just made prettier.

[Moriarty]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction?

Because Sagan did it. Cosmos has always used devices like this to keep things moving; it would be more surprising if Tyson's series didn't re-use and expand on them.

Beat me to it, but yeah the ship is from the original Cosmos, just made prettier.

Um yeah, there is a reason they brought the guy in from the Star Trek series/movies. :P

[dawiw]

I don't know if FOX has some control of what to show or not, even in COSMOS.

[Hydra009]

It was definitely a feast for the eyes.  I'm not sure I dig the whole "spaceship of the imagination" thing though.  If it's supposed to be a show about science, why take cues from science fiction? It's distracting.

Like others have said, Sagan did it.  But it's also a handy way to mentally transport the audience to the area of universe in question by getting them to imagine that they're in a ship looking at it.  They often do the same thing for undersea documentaries.

What was the deal with the CGI Tiktaalik?  Did it really march onto land like that?

It's not really known.  It's hypothesized that Tiktalaak lived mainly in shallow water and only occasionally ventured on land in much the same way that present day mudskippers do.  But regardless of how much time it actually spent on land, its features do represent an intermediate stage between fish and early tetrapods.

I really wish they showed more intermediates, though.  Wouldn't want anyone mistakenly thinking the evolutionary change was quite so abrupt and linear.