"There are some four million kinds of animals and plants. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive. This is the story of how a few of them came to be as they are."
What a tour-de-force. The first episode of a truly ground-breaking and historic wildlife documentary series. This episode has it all. Countless fascinating shots of primitive and prehistoric species and a truly comprehensive approach from David Attenborough in telling the story of the origins of life. I'm not sure you'll ever hear a better explanation of natural selection or a grander, more sweeping overview of the phases that life has gone through on this planet:
"If we condense the history of life on earth into one year - then 10 million years become one day. On that calendar, I talk in the last moment of Dec 31, man arrived a few hours ago in the afternoon, the first back-boned animal crawled on to land in the last week of November, and these gunflint cherts were formed on June 15th."
There are not many people that could tell the complicated story of early evolution and the fossil record and still make it so exceptionally engaging. Attenborough is clearly in awe at his subject and this rubs off on the viewer.
What a tour-de-force. The first episode of a truly ground-breaking and historic wildlife documentary series. This episode has it all. Countless fascinating shots of primitive and prehistoric species and a truly comprehensive approach from David Attenborough in telling the story of the origins of life. I'm not sure you'll ever hear a better explanation of natural selection or a grander, more sweeping overview of the phases that life has gone through on this planet:
"If we condense the history of life on earth into one year - then 10 million years become one day. On that calendar, I talk in the last moment of Dec 31, man arrived a few hours ago in the afternoon, the first back-boned animal crawled on to land in the last week of November, and these gunflint cherts were formed on June 15th."
There are not many people that could tell the complicated story of early evolution and the fossil record and still make it so exceptionally engaging. Attenborough is clearly in awe at his subject and this rubs off on the viewer.