The Film
In our workaday lives, we go about the dreary tasks of our daily routines, hardly lending a thought to this sphere, this big blue planet at the edge of the Milky Way we call home - the Earth. Seven billion people scratching out humble and not so humble existences; we laugh, we cry. Some manage to stumble into that one person out of seven billion that makes their lives on this rock complete and perhaps worth carrying on. What most of us seem to do, however, is to take for granted that delicate balance that makes it all possible -- the cycle of life, the forces that drive our planet and make it habitable for us all -- until someone or something comes along every so often to remind us of the majesty and rarity of it all.
In Earth: The Biography, Dr. Iain Stewart does just that. Over the course of five forty-five minute episodes divided into themes, he travels the world, telling the story of Earth and exploring the delicate balance of powerful forces that work together to help create the conditions possible for our very existence. These conditions, he goes on to explain, are under threat by our own actions.
In episodes titled "Volcanoes," "Atmosphere," "Ice," "Ocean," and "Rare Planet," Stewart brilliantly shows the interconnections between all the massive forces that shape our world, from volcanoes and lava lakes in Ethiopia that are responsible for producing carbon dioxide, to the ocean's currents, carrying vital nutrients such as phytoplankton -- a microscopic plant-based organism that produces the majority of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.
At the heart of his explorations, however, is a sad undercurrent -- the disastrous consequences that humans are having on the planet. What Stewart and this documentary quite readily point out is that catastrophe is nothing new for this planet. In fact, without catastrophic events, most of life as we know it today may never have evolved. As Stewart says, to paraphrase, with too much catastrophe, life gets wiped out, too little and it gets caught in a rut. In a way what he is asking is, are we at a point today where we may become the architects of our own destruction? Earth will survive whatever catastrophe we engineer, but will we?
Stewart travels to places such as Siberia and shows the rapidly thawing permafrost that would release an enormous amount of methane (a far more powerful “greenhouse” gas than carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere, as well as to Greenland, where the melting of the ice sheet has accelerated in recent years due to global warming. In the fifth and final episode, "Rare Planet," Stewart sums up quite nicely all of the factors that had to come together to create the conditions to make this planet habitable -- being the proper distance from the sun so the water would not evaporate away, being the proper size, having the right gravitational pull so it could hold on to its atmosphere, having a large planet such as Jupiter to attract dangerous objects and keep them from hitting Earth. Wouldn't it be a shame if we came along and disrupted this balance in the blink of a geologic eye?
The Picture
Earth: The Biography appears on this Blu-ray Disc release in a 1080i/60 1.78:1 high definition video transfer spread across two BD-25 discs. Though the series purports to have been shot in high definition, it actually consists of a very large percentage of upscaled stock footage and CG graphics. The original HD material is, of course, of a higher quality than the rest of the footage used throughout the series, but it still lacks finer detail and has a smooth, soft look about it. Only on very close up shots does the detail improve.
There are brief instances of macroblocking that are, thankfully, very few during scenes with rushing water and some posterization apparent in some of the upscaled footage of lightning strikes. Other than that, everything is fine. Flesh tones are natural, displaying no red push, and contrast and black levels are set perfectly. Overall, this offers only some brief instances of very pleasing high definition nature footage. For picture quality, this is not a reference nature documentary by any means.
The Sound
Earth: The Biography comes with an English DTS-HD HR soundtrack as its sole option. Like most documentaries of this nature, the soundtrack itself does not offer much in the way of entertainment value, and will likely not become a home theatre reference title. The mix is quite lively, fully utilizing all the channels and the LFE to great effect, and Iain Stewart's narration is always upfront and clear, although the sound consists mainly of foley effects and the musical score. It is a missed opportunity that more natural sounds were not recorded and used for this series.
The Extras
There are no extras provided on this release.
Final Thoughts
Dr. Iain Stewart has done an admirable job putting together this biography of Earth, describing the forces that shape the planet we live on, and just how intricately they interact. One does have to wonder, however, if this documentary series will end up just another title on top of the pile of works that raise awareness of human destruction, without ever actually changing our actions. This Blu-ray Disc release offers only average picture and audio quality due to the source materials. It's not reference quality by any means, but it is still a decent series well worth watching.
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Product Details
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