Fire from the Sky
- Episode aired 1997
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
14
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Noospheric Collage.
There is no telling where James Burke is going to take us next. Here, he stages one of the first operas ever presented to the public, with scenery, costumes, props, choruses and the rest of the panoply. It actually LOOKS something like an opera, only a primitive opera.
The "fire in the sky" of the episode's title has to do with stars, under which Burke weaves a labyrinthine tale full of flashbacks, coincidences, and dependent events involving navigation, mirages, Arthurian legends, rubber, Mary Queen of Scots, Copernicus, incendiary bombs, Tycho Brahe, libraries, navies, gin and tonic, Pico della Mirandola, semaphore, canned food and Samuel Pepys. (I had no idea that Pepys reorganized and modernized the entire British Navy, but I'd always admired him nonetheless for his faithful patronage of the Prospect of Whitby pub, which I also found very comfortable.) I'd like to pull that web of material together and present it using a few simple bullet points. But I can't. Good luck.
The "fire in the sky" of the episode's title has to do with stars, under which Burke weaves a labyrinthine tale full of flashbacks, coincidences, and dependent events involving navigation, mirages, Arthurian legends, rubber, Mary Queen of Scots, Copernicus, incendiary bombs, Tycho Brahe, libraries, navies, gin and tonic, Pico della Mirandola, semaphore, canned food and Samuel Pepys. (I had no idea that Pepys reorganized and modernized the entire British Navy, but I'd always admired him nonetheless for his faithful patronage of the Prospect of Whitby pub, which I also found very comfortable.) I'd like to pull that web of material together and present it using a few simple bullet points. But I can't. Good luck.
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- rmax304823
- Oct 8, 2016
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