smashthesymbols

It's special because of what they were able to shoot. It's not full of the same old shots we've all seen a million times. Instead it's full of unique, never before filmed behaviors and animals. Plus, it's the best use of HD I've seen yet.

I'm not sure how you can have spoilers for this show, but if you can this link is full of them. It's a list of all the firsts, including behavior, locations and technology. It's a good overview of some of what makes this show so special.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pre...h_firsts.shtml

DeputyDave

I was suprised how much they stressed the Sun's importance to global climate, I really expected them to jump on the Global Warming band wagon. Well, I've only seen the first two, I'm sure they will get around to it.

Doc MacGyver

"..Out of the Ocean"?! I don't want to live in a WORLD where a friggin' 20-foot Great White can Jump a clear 6 feet out of the water! I played that stupid Jaws videogame for the xbox and laughed at the Shark leaping up onto boats to grab people... LAUGHED! Now that I know they can actually DO THAT?! What else can they do from that game?! Launch oil drums inland to blow up houses? Steal keycards to get into secluded pools?! GODDAMNED CRAZY SHARKS!

harrydoyle

Yeah, saying this is just a nature show would be like saying The Wire was just a cop show or Seinfeld was just a sitcom. This show is the pinnacle of nature shows.

milo bloom

Beautiful series, we watched Pole to Pole last night, and we were both blown away.

Everybody else has mentioned the high points, but I have to second the monkeys walking through the water. I think I could watch a whole episode just of that


As for the Weaver vs Attenborough thing, all thru the episode I kept thinking "if she does the 'she'll breed: you'll die' line, it's an automatic DVD buy."

harrydoyle

Sorry, not to be an idiot, but is that from Alien(s)? I kept thinking while watching this that Sigourney Weaver was a good choice because she sounds smart naturally, and then I figured it was probably her character in Alien and her character in Ghostbusters that makes me associate her with intelligence.

milo bloom

It's from Alien Resurrection, which I'm proud to admit is my most watched film of the Alien series. Must be the traces of Whedon that remained in the crew of the Betty. It's so much like Firefly it's scary.


Back on topic, anyone expecting them to push the penguins more to capitalize on the penguin craze lately?

harrydoyle

Okay, got it. Thanks. I'm really only an Alien and Aliens guy.

Looking forward to Deserts in a few hours. One of the things I noticed last week was that the panaramic shots of the landscapes were almost as cool as the animals themselves. Gotta appreciate the amount of thought they put into getting new and interesting shots (see the lava and mountain shots from last week).

Kittydreamer

Oh man, that was priceless!

A-aron

which ep is the shark in? I didn't see it yet.

Jay G.

It was in the very first episode, Pole to Pole.

skiblet

what did you guys think of tonights episodes, deserts and iceworlds ? i thought that they were both pretty good, but didnt have as many "wow" moments as the first 3. I loved the polar bear stuff. Also, who could not love the little penquins, how they huddle together for warmth in the -70 deg. weather

MrX

Watching the wounded polar bear collapse was right up there with the baby elephant going the wrong way on the scale.

The ibex fight was pretty cool.

redrum

ya the polar bear laying down and dying was really sad.

lil penguin chicks lost in the blizzard was too.

DeputyDave

I must be the worlds biggest asshole but all I could think while they were showing the panda bear was, "What a useless freaking animal." Seriously, if they wern't so cute they would've (and maybe should've) been extinct years ago.

Giles

I agree, I could watch footage like that alll day.

I thought that scene would have been in the actual episode, not as a 'making of' segment - it was cool nonetheless.

guess Discovery has to redub these shows so they can alter the metric conversions to the US standard.

Tommy Ceez

The overhead shot of the wild hunting dogs peeling off and surrounding the antelopes (?) was amazing. Completly unspoken tactics

And yes...the sheer SCALE of some of these shots is unbelievable...To see that elephant walking you'd think it was shot from a helecoptor a couple hundred feet up, and the camera pulls back and its shot from a plane MILES AWAY!!

During the close shot, you think, maybe theres a pool of water just out of camera range so this elephant will survive, and then by the end of the shot you realize that he's walking twords NOTHING FOR DOZENS OF MILES.

So sad.

Deftones

You learn something new everyday. I had absolutely no idea that there were Oxen living in the Arctic. This show is great.

boredsilly

This whole post cracked me up! You win today. I don't have a prize, but if I did...would be yours.

bunkaroo

I've watched the first 3 and love the footage, but I'm going to stop and wait for the Blu-Ray set. I'll rent the SD discs that have the stuff the BD doesn't have.

To me it's pretty obvious the Discovery versions are edited. The flow is very choppy. I also haven't been too crazy about the compression artifacts I've been seeing with the Discovery broadcast - I'm sure that's my provider's fault. I don't expect to see these in the Blu-Ray presentations.

Also, I'm hoping the UK narration with Attenborough doesn't belabor the "using special cameras blah blah blah" stuff.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

kakihara1

I've seen the first five or so with Attenborough and the only thing I've noticed is how he says "Rarest" and "Largest" 400 times per episode, I have yet to hear him brag about the technology used to film the series. His narration is top notch.

Doc MacGyver

Thankya, sir. It would be even funnier if it was exagerated for effect and if I wasn't ACTUALLY TERRIFIED of the giant leaping sharks.



Doc

Doc MacGyver

Those things were AWESOME. I also had no clue about their existence. With all that hair hanging down covering their entire bodies, all I could think was "there are guys under there. That's a suit. That thing's a Bantha and there should be a Tusken Raider on top of that sucker.


Doc

harrydoyle

If my dog wasn't so cute, he'd be extinct too, because he's a lot lazier than pandas. But it is what it is.

I don't care at all about the bragging in the film. In some cases that might bother me, but this is one rare interest where they took what I'd say is a huge gamble, and they have a lot to be proud of.

RichC2

This show is drawing insane ratings for a cable broadcast. Scoring upwards of nearly 6 million viewers.