And it was beautiful beyond words. The scientific
perspective, we came to realize, did not limit awe, it
unleashed it. We truly are, to use just one of the show’s
many famous lines, a way for the cosmos to know itself.
And yet, for all of its beauty and rapture, “Cosmos” was
also uncompromising, taking aim at pseudoscience,
mythology and irrationality of any stripe.
This new “Cosmos,” three decades on, is the
unmistakable progeny of the first, and continues that
all-important legacy.
There has never been
a more critical time for
“Cosmos.”
Even
more
so than when it first
aired, our society is one
that is intrinsically and
fundamentally built on
the discoveries of science
and the technological
applications
those
discoveries generate. And
yet, our age is one that
is more suspicious and
ignorant of that science
than at any other time in
our history. Conservatives
rail against evolution and
climate change. Liberals
bemoan vaccines and
GMOs.
Meanwhile poll after
poll reveals that millions of
Americans see horoscopes
as
accurate
guides
on which to base their
decisions, yet do not know
that it is the Earth that
rotates around the Sun and
not vice-versa.
Image: Richard Foreman, Jr./FOX
“Cosmos: A SpaceTime
Odyssey” is the antidote to
such thinking.
Aside from the original
series, “Cosmos” is like
nothing you have ever seen
on television before. It is as
if a Hollywood blockbuster,
born for the big screen,
has been crammed into your television set. And why
wouldn’t it be? When the show was first announced,
artisans came out of the woodwork, begging for a
chance to lend their talents to it.
“Cosmos” is the result of film directors, producers,
cinematographers, art directors, special effects artists
and composers taking a respite from their movie
careers to craft epic television because they believe in
the message that strongly.
But beyond all the razzle dazzle of Hollywood
computer wizardry (those bemoaning the CGI-heavy
trailers for the new show forget that the original
“Cosmos” used groundbreaking special effects for its
time), “Cosmos” would still fail if it did not have, at its
core, a message worth telling and a messenger worth
listening to.
The message, delivered by the same scribes that
penned the original, is as intoxicating and powerful as
it ever was. And Neil deGrasse Tyson is a messenger
for such a time as this – a teacher who understands
that science is the best and
most revelatory means we
have for discerning the truth
about you, the universe,
and everything in between.
Science is not a dogma,
but rather a profound and
profoundly moving tool by
which hairless apes build
towers of steel and glass
into the sky, eradicate
disease, extend lifespans,
fly ourselves into deepest
space, and penetrate the
mysteries of our bodies and
the universe.
As the show’s Research
Coordinator, it was my
job, among other things,
to try and help bridge the
gap between the deep
and sometimes inscrutable
scripts and the various
vendors who would bring
them to life.
In short, I got paid to
come to work each day
and study the universe; to
sit down with the show’s
scientific advisors and learn
everything I could about
black holes, planetary
accretion disks, evolution,
and DNA, and pass that
incandescent information
on to others so that they
might render visual effects
and animated segments
that were both thrilling to
watch and as factual as possible. I hope I did well.
I had a good teacher in Neil. It is an education that
I sincerely hope will continue for a great many years to
come because I have so much more to learn.
It is among the greatest honors of my life to have
contributed, in my own measly way, to this incredible
work of art and science, and to have partnered with
Neil on what, I think we would both agree, is one of the
proudest achievements of our lives.
If “Cosmos” is the last great thing I do in this town, it
will be enough.
It is not hard to see why Neil
long ago stepped into the
shoes of the late Carl Sagan.
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