User Reviews

Wow! That was great. This was the best overview of the evolution of the Earth and life on it that I have ever seen. There was just the right amount of detail to keep the points being made clear in the amount of time allotted. I have loved the previous episodes, too, but this one hit it right out of the park for me. It may just be me, but this episode happened to fill in a lot of the blanks I either never had filled in when I was in school or have forgotten over the years. I was also a fan of the original series, but I think the improvements in special effects/animation have made a big difference. We need this kind of show mow more than ever. If we continue being ignorant of science, we will not survive in the world.

If I were a science teacher, I would put this video on the top shelf and show it till it wore out. This is the story of our earth. It is the story of how the planet came to be, how outside forces as well as internal ones have affected its evolution. It's the story of how the black slime of hydrocarbons created by the incredible heat of the time of inception became viable creatures. It's about how plate tectonics changed the face of our small marble and how the crust of the Earth is like the thin layer of a plum, when affected over millions of years, buckles and rises, twists and turns, but due to our very short time, we never get to see this. Tyson talks about the shifts of seas and continents. He talks about the gravitational forces in the solar system that have tilted and turned our planets axis and it's orbit around the sun. In about forty-five minutes, I had the most incredible lesson in basic geology and fundamental biology. This series is so captivating and it's such a shame that so few people watched it. We may rethink some things. But that probably isn't going to happen.

This episode does a great job of reaching a viewer's soul, and touches on the most important world issue of our time(climate change). The production value and content is also magnificent like the other episodes. This episode centers around the incredible journey life went through in the last 250 million years; This seems like a long period of time, but in the broad scope of time, it's actually just the last 3 days on our cosmic calendar, which the show frequently features.

The episode gives the spectator an initial awe and respect for the species which comes to evolve into humans. They survive some mass extinctions which nearly eliminates life on the entire planet. It's a kind of pride which seems so much more real than any religious explanation of what one should reflect on and spiritually take pride in.

The episode discusses some key and fascinating events which are responsible for humans existing at all and progressing to understand so much about our universe. There's the asteroid which killed the dinosaurs, which most people know opened a door for small cold blooded mammals to rule the world. But there was also an even more dangerous mass extinction before the dinosaur one. This one killed about 90% of all earth species. And that mass extinction was caused by severe climate change, which life species unknowing created and were helpless to fight its disastrous effects. Yet some earlier evolutionary form of humans survived. The episode explains how the continents shifted to affect and progress life on earth for what would become our species. The Mediterranean sea used to be like death valley on steroids, but due to continental drift came to fill up with ocean water. This caused the sea level to fall and North and South America to reconnect. This altered the ocean flow which severely altered the ecology of life on Africa where human ancestors were developing. This change forced human ancestral primates to evolve from swinging on trees densely populating Africa to running through plains. The running freed up their hands for using tools. But these primates still would have existed as hunter gatherers if it wasn't for the next big natural event. The neighboring planets changing their pull on the earth which made the earth's rotation, and with it, earth's climate more stable throughout each corner. This allowed early humans species to rest and form successful civilizations. This marks the end of worldwide prehistory and the start of history.(History denotes written record)

The episode ends noting how despite our species remarkable progress, our short term interest in big industrial profit and energy, has resorted to our species burning fossil fuels in a dangerous manner. A manner similar to what the planet experienced millions of years ago during the planet's most devastating mass extinction. Perhaps the most stirring comment of the episode is that the dinosaurs and other species had no warning or means of understanding or preventing their extinction. What's our excuse?

As I reflect on the episode as a whole, I recall only learning about the important and controversial time of prehistory within public education. Prior to college 6th and 7th grade were the only times we covered prehistory with much depth. Never before 6th grade was it covered for me, and never after 7th was it a specific area of study in public school. But perhaps the most alarming thing is that 6th and 7th grade seems to be a terrible age to learn something important and so often contested, as the scientific understanding of early humanity. At this age kids are in the awkward phase of both focusing on grades with busywork focus. While also being restless and immature enough to not take this information seriously. And for many, this is the only time within our schooling system that this information is taught, if ever. The fact that such information is covered so little and poorly at such inopportune times for the American public is a GIANT PROBLEM. And consider I attended public school in California from the mid 90s to the late 2000s. This is hardly the worst schooling environment for American children. But even so, I was raised with a firmer understanding and acceptance of early Christianity's mythical record of prehistory, than the scientific explanation. And I attended a pretty open and chill Church too. It was regarded as the fun church in my area. Still I feel our education system, even in California did and likely still does a poorer job of convincing kids of the evidence-based rational scientific account of prehistory, than religious faith's versions.

Religious origin stories are ingrained so early and with so much care to a majority of children. And in Sunday School, I wasn't graded, which left me comfortable to take in the information that seemed good an comforting and somewhat responsible for so much communal goodness.

Instead I could have been taught that science doesn't explain for what we want, but what we have. Kids despite what adults think, are ready at a young age to learn about science. No matter how much believers of faith's-superiority-or-mutual-existence-with-science want to pretend that religion explains or fits with science; it doesn't. The reality is that science accounts for religion and religion doesn't account for science.

I'm not saying kids need to be indoctrinated into being atheists, but kids need to be fed scientific truth, and understand that if they choose a faith which contradicts science, as every popular religion needlessly does, they are choosing something which is literally unreasonable.

For me this episode brought a stronger feeling of both pride for humanity and then shame for humanity than any religious sermon I ever experienced. This episode doesn't just represent an hour of science worth seeing, it represents an hour of science which should be common knowledge. And Unfortunately to the public, it isn't anything of the sort.