As someone who can fairly call himself an expert in this field, I learnt little new from this but did enjoy myself considerably nevertheless. The presentation is slick, informative, colourful, intriguing and - at moments - mind-boggling. It was absolutely a stroke of genius to rope Peter Capaldi in as narrator. While certainly not the greatest incarnation of "The Doctor", he does truly have a fine, witty, ironic, at time necessarily emotional voice, and he also narrates as if he really knows what's going on (as his most famous portrayal of course would!) So this is a great move.
Basing the thing around the thinking of Martin Rees slants the thing just a little - as Rees is a relative "optimist" about the existence of life, complex life and even intelligent life in the universe, though he also believes intelligence quickly transfers our of biology into machines - reasonable enough perhaps, but therefore re-emphasising the Fermi Paradox mentioned at the start of the programme. Intelligent, reporducing machines could readily colonise the galaxy in a million yearsm, let alone the many millions of years there have already been. So where are they?
Anyway, Rees is personable and eloquent, if a little serious. Though still drier is Stephen Webb (author of the book actually entitled "Where is Everybody?") and definitely a believer in the idea that the Earth is pretty unique. He gets some minutes of air time here, while Capaldi as neutral-ish narrator also throws a number of spanners into the works of Rees - or anybody who believes intelligent civilisations are easy to develop.
Ultimately, the thing is balanced enough, and many (though not all) the key points are made, in a simple, but not over-simplified or simplistic, way.
We expect the BBC to achieve this kind of quality, and achieve it it does...
Given the nature of the questions, the programme cannot avoid moments of profundity and melancholy, as both quotes and talking heads remind us that a universe with OR without intelligent civilisations is an EQUALLY terrifying prospect, if obviously for different reasons. Clearly then, we actually have a great deal of "skin in the game", as they say.
Nicely, this offering makes full use of numerous predecessor programmes fielded by the BBC. While I was an occasional watcher of Patrick Moore's "The Sky at Night", I rarely missed a "Horizon", so it was great to find here an excerpt from the 1981 offering in which a team of big-hitting scientists discussed the famous Drake Equation.
That TV programme absolutely changed my life - in the way, and in the days - when that kind of thing still seemed entirely possible.
Whether "Aliens: The Big Think" - a far glossier, but slightly lighter offering - can also change the life of some kid or early teenager, I do not know. But I would certainly hope so, and indeed believe so.
Ultimately, these are the most stunningly interesting and worthwhile questions we have, and this programme offers a clear flavour of that fact. Nicely done!
Basing the thing around the thinking of Martin Rees slants the thing just a little - as Rees is a relative "optimist" about the existence of life, complex life and even intelligent life in the universe, though he also believes intelligence quickly transfers our of biology into machines - reasonable enough perhaps, but therefore re-emphasising the Fermi Paradox mentioned at the start of the programme. Intelligent, reporducing machines could readily colonise the galaxy in a million yearsm, let alone the many millions of years there have already been. So where are they?
Anyway, Rees is personable and eloquent, if a little serious. Though still drier is Stephen Webb (author of the book actually entitled "Where is Everybody?") and definitely a believer in the idea that the Earth is pretty unique. He gets some minutes of air time here, while Capaldi as neutral-ish narrator also throws a number of spanners into the works of Rees - or anybody who believes intelligent civilisations are easy to develop.
Ultimately, the thing is balanced enough, and many (though not all) the key points are made, in a simple, but not over-simplified or simplistic, way.
We expect the BBC to achieve this kind of quality, and achieve it it does...
Given the nature of the questions, the programme cannot avoid moments of profundity and melancholy, as both quotes and talking heads remind us that a universe with OR without intelligent civilisations is an EQUALLY terrifying prospect, if obviously for different reasons. Clearly then, we actually have a great deal of "skin in the game", as they say.
Nicely, this offering makes full use of numerous predecessor programmes fielded by the BBC. While I was an occasional watcher of Patrick Moore's "The Sky at Night", I rarely missed a "Horizon", so it was great to find here an excerpt from the 1981 offering in which a team of big-hitting scientists discussed the famous Drake Equation.
That TV programme absolutely changed my life - in the way, and in the days - when that kind of thing still seemed entirely possible.
Whether "Aliens: The Big Think" - a far glossier, but slightly lighter offering - can also change the life of some kid or early teenager, I do not know. But I would certainly hope so, and indeed believe so.
Ultimately, these are the most stunningly interesting and worthwhile questions we have, and this programme offers a clear flavour of that fact. Nicely done!
