You can't help comparing "Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey" to the original "Cosmos" from thirty years ago, hosted by Carl Sagan. Among the first things you notice about the new show is that the graphics are, well, light years ahead of "Cosmos". The set of the "space craft" -- what there is of it -- looks less like a 2050 suite in a Las Vegas hotel. The music is more dramatic. And Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the host because Sagan is no longer with us.
Tyson is not Sagan. He's pleasant, looks good, sounds convincing, but there are times when his narration acquires a sing-song quality that turns the explanation into an address to a group of kids on a field trip from some nearby middle school. He's not Sagan, but then who is? I liked Sagan a great deal. He was of the moment -- longish hair, cool looking, bell bottom trousers, and he smoked grass once in a while. I also liked him because he was on the faculty when I was in graduate school and he could have chosen to drop in on my comprehensive oral exams and ask me what life would look like on a planet identical to earth except for a complete absence of calcium. (He didn't.)
But that doesn't matter. As host, Tyson may not be as familiar a figure as Sagan was -- God, Sagan was all over the telly -- but he's likable in his own right. And there is no question of his knowing his subject, beginning at the Bronx High School of Science and reaching dazzling heights thereafter.
There is an expectable amount of continuity between this program, which is a sort of up-dated sequel, and the original. One writer, Ann Druyan, had a hand in both. So we have the cosmic calendar which reduces the chronology of the universe to a single year. And even some expressions are carried over -- "star stuff." I can't wait until Tyson gets to Sagan's awesome "holy of holies." I thrilled the first time around.
I do have a problem though, regarding chronology. "Cosmos" appeared in 1980. This show is appearing in 2014. Let's see. Sums were never my forte, but my pocket calculator tells me that 2014 minus 1980 is equal to 34. That means I'm 34 years older than I was when I watched the original. I hope Tyson is all finished dealing with the dimension of time. Let's move on to something else in the next episode -- pronto.
Anyway, if he's so smart I'd have some questions for him. If the universe or universes are expanding, what are they expanding INTO? And if everything that exists started with the Big Bang of 13 billion years ago, what caused that Big Bang in the first place? And where did all those original hydrogen atoms COME from? Who's pulling the wool over whose eyes around here? Of course that gets us into metaphysics and he has nothing to say about it in this introductory episode, the only one I've seen. Judging from his Wikipedia entry, he'll have something to say about it later, and it won't make everyone happy. But, man, we need his messages now more than ever.
Tyson is not Sagan. He's pleasant, looks good, sounds convincing, but there are times when his narration acquires a sing-song quality that turns the explanation into an address to a group of kids on a field trip from some nearby middle school. He's not Sagan, but then who is? I liked Sagan a great deal. He was of the moment -- longish hair, cool looking, bell bottom trousers, and he smoked grass once in a while. I also liked him because he was on the faculty when I was in graduate school and he could have chosen to drop in on my comprehensive oral exams and ask me what life would look like on a planet identical to earth except for a complete absence of calcium. (He didn't.)
But that doesn't matter. As host, Tyson may not be as familiar a figure as Sagan was -- God, Sagan was all over the telly -- but he's likable in his own right. And there is no question of his knowing his subject, beginning at the Bronx High School of Science and reaching dazzling heights thereafter.
There is an expectable amount of continuity between this program, which is a sort of up-dated sequel, and the original. One writer, Ann Druyan, had a hand in both. So we have the cosmic calendar which reduces the chronology of the universe to a single year. And even some expressions are carried over -- "star stuff." I can't wait until Tyson gets to Sagan's awesome "holy of holies." I thrilled the first time around.
I do have a problem though, regarding chronology. "Cosmos" appeared in 1980. This show is appearing in 2014. Let's see. Sums were never my forte, but my pocket calculator tells me that 2014 minus 1980 is equal to 34. That means I'm 34 years older than I was when I watched the original. I hope Tyson is all finished dealing with the dimension of time. Let's move on to something else in the next episode -- pronto.
Anyway, if he's so smart I'd have some questions for him. If the universe or universes are expanding, what are they expanding INTO? And if everything that exists started with the Big Bang of 13 billion years ago, what caused that Big Bang in the first place? And where did all those original hydrogen atoms COME from? Who's pulling the wool over whose eyes around here? Of course that gets us into metaphysics and he has nothing to say about it in this introductory episode, the only one I've seen. Judging from his Wikipedia entry, he'll have something to say about it later, and it won't make everyone happy. But, man, we need his messages now more than ever.