Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

For the book based on the series, see Cosmos (book).

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Cosmos title card
Genre	Documentary
Created by	Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan & Steven Soter
Directed by	Adrian Malone
Presented by	Carl Sagan
Composer(s)	Vangelis; various artists
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	US English
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Gregory Andorfer & Rob McCain
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
First shown in	PBS
Original run	September 28, 1980 – December 21, 1980
External links
Website

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television series written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as presenter. It was executive-produced by Adrian Malone, produced by David Kennard, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles and Gregory Andorfer, and directed by the producers, David Oyster, Richard Wells, Tom Weidlinger, and others. It covered a wide range of scientific subjects, including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe.

The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980 and was the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until The Civil War (1990). As of 2009, it was still the most widely watched PBS series in the world.^[1] It won an Emmy and a Peabody Award and has since been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people.^[2][3] A book was also published to accompany the series.

Overview

Cosmos was produced in 1978 and 1979 by Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET on a roughly $6.3 million budget, with over $2 million additionally allocated to promotion. The show's format is based on previous BBC documentaries such as Kenneth Clark's Civilisation, Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man and David Attenborough's Life on Earth.^{[citation needed]} (The BBC—a co-producer of Cosmos—later screened the series, but episodes were cut to fit 50-minute slots.) However, unlike those series, which were shot entirely on film, Cosmos used videotape for interior scenes and special effects, with film being used for exteriors.

Sagan explains planetary orbits.

The series is notable for its groundbreaking use of special effects, which allowed Sagan to apparently walk through environments that were actually models rather than full-sized sets. The soundtrack included pieces of music provided by Greek composer Vangelis such as Alpha, Pulstar, and Heaven and Hell Part 1 (the last movement serving as the signature theme music for the show, and is directly referenced by the title of episode 4). Throughout the 13 hours of the series, it used many tracks from several 1970s albums such as Albedo 0.39, Spiral, Ignacio, Beaubourg, and China. The worldwide success of the documentary series also put Vangelis' music in the homes of many and brought it to the attention of a global audience (although the group had already been achieving a certain amount of commercial success with Jon Anderson of Yes).

Sagan in the series' final episode, "Who Speaks for Earth?"

Turner Home Entertainment purchased Cosmos from series producer KCET in 1989. In making the move to commercial television, the hour-long episodes were edited to shorter lengths, and Sagan shot new epilogues for several episodes in which he discussed new discoveries (and alternate viewpoints) that had arisen since the original broadcast. Additionally, a 14th episode was added which consisted of an interview between Sagan and Ted Turner, and this "new" version of the series was eventually released as a VHS box set. This same re-edited version was also released on 12" Laserdisc, a popular consumer format at the time and precursor to the DVD. Two episodes were released per disc (one episode on each side). The laserdiscs were sold separately, not in a boxed set configuration like the VHS tapes.

Cosmos had long been unavailable after its initial release because of copyright issues with the included music, but was released in 2000 on worldwide NTSC DVD, which includes subtitles in seven languages,^[4] remastered 5.1 sound, as well as an alternate music and sound effects track. In 2005, The Science Channel rebroadcast the series for its 25th anniversary with updated computer graphics, film footage, digital sound and updated scientific knowledge that had occurred in the past 25 years. Despite being shown again on the Science Channel, the total amount of time for the original 13 episodes (780 minutes) was reduced 25% to 585 minutes (45 minutes per episode) in order to make room for commercials.^[5][6][7]

In 2009, Freemantle Media Enterprises released in the UK, a 5-disc DVD set of the original series plus with bonus science updates. The DVD set was digitally restored and remastered. Although a little grainy in places, it is without question, the best reproduction of the original series to date.

Episodes

No.	Title
1	"The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean"
After an introduction by Ann Druyan, including the benefits of the end of the Cold War, Carl Sagan opens the program with a description of the cosmos and a "Spaceship of the Imagination" (shaped like a dandelion seed). The ship journeys through the universes' hundred billion galaxies, the Local Group, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula, our Solar System, and finally the planet Earth. Eratosthenes' attempt to calculate the circumference of Earth leads to a description of the ancient Library of Alexandria. Finally, the "Ages of Science" are described, before pulling back to the full span of the Cosmic Calendar.
2	"One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue"
Sagan discusses the story of the Heike crab and artificial selection of crabs resembling samurai warriors, as an opening into a larger discussion of evolution through natural selection (and the pitfalls of the theory of intelligent design). Among the topics are the development of life on the Cosmic Calendar and the Cambrian explosion; the function of DNA in growth; genetic replication, repairs, and mutation; the common biochemistry of terrestrial organisms; the creation of the molecules of life in the Miller-Urey experiment; and speculation on alien life (such as life in Jupiter's clouds). In the Cosmos Update ten years later, Sagan remarks on RNA also controlling chemical reactions and reproducing itself and the different roles of comets (potentially carrying organic molecules or causing the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event).
3	"The Harmony of the Worlds"
Beginning with the separation of the fuzzy thinking and pious fraud of astrology from the careful observations of astronomy, Sagan follows the development of astronomical observation. Beginning with constellations and ceremonial calendars (such as those of the Anasazi), the story moves to the debate between Earth and Sun-centered models: Ptolemy and the geocentric worldview, Copernicus' theory, the data-gathering of Tycho Brahe, and the achievements of Johannes Kepler (Kepler's laws of planetary motion and the first science-fiction novel).
4	"Heaven and Hell"
Sagan discusses comets and asteroids as planetary impactors, giving recent examples of the Tunguska event and a lunar impact described by Canterbury monks in 1178. It moves to a description of the environment of Venus, from the previous fantastic theories of people such as Immanuel Velikovsky to the information gained by the Venera landers and its implications for Earth's greenhouse effect. The Cosmos Update highlights the connection to global warming.
5	"Blues for a Red Planet"
The episode, devoted to the planet Mars, begins with scientific and fictional speculation about the Red Planet during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction books, and Percival Lowell's false vision of canals on Mars). It then moves to Robert Goddard's early experiments in rocket-building, inspired by reading science fiction, and the work by Mars probes, including the Viking, searching for life on Mars. The episode ends with the possibility of the terraforming and colonization of Mars and a Cosmos Update on the relevance of Mars' environment to Earth's and the possibility of a manned mission to Mars.
6	"Travellers' Tales"
The journeys of the Voyager probes is put in the context of the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, with a centuries-long tradition of sailing ship explorers, and its contemporary thinks (such as Constantijn Huygens and his son Christian). Their discoveries are compared to the Voyager probes' discoveries among the Jovian and Saturn systems. In Cosmos Update, image processing reconstructs Voyager’s worlds and Voyager’s last portrait of the Solar System as it leaves is shown.
7	"The Backbone of Night"
Carl Sagan teaches students in a classroom in his childhood home in Brooklyn, New York, which leads into a history of the different mythologies about stars and the gradual revelation of their true nature. In ancient Greece, some philosophers (Anaximander, Theodorus of Samos, Empedocles) freely pursue scientific knowledge, while others (Plato, Aristotle, Aristarchus, and the Pythagoreans) advocate slavery and epistemic secrecy.
8	"Journeys in Space and Time"
Ideas about time and space are explored in the changes that constellations undergo over time, the redshift and blue shift measured in interstellar objects, time dilation in Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, the designs of both Leonardo da Vinci and spacecraft that could travel near light speed, time travel and its hypothetical effects on human history, the origins of the Solar System, the history of life, and the immensity of space. In Cosmos Update, the idea of faster-than-light travel by wormholes (researched by Kip Thorne and shown in Sagan’s novel Contact) is discussed.
9	"The Lives of the Stars"
The simple act of making an apple pie is extrapolated into the atoms and subatomic particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons) necessary. Many of the ingredients necessary are formed of chemical elements, formed in the life and deaths of stars (such as our own Sun), resulting in massive red giants and supernovae or collapsing into white dwarfs, neutron stars, pulsars, and even black holes. These produce all sorts of phenomena, such as radioactivity, cosmic rays, and even the curving of spacetime by gravity. Cosmos Update mentions the supernova SN 1987A and neutrino astronomy.
10	"The Edge of Forever"
Beginning with the origins of the universe in the Big Bang, Sagan describes the formation of different types of galaxies and anomalies such as galactic collisions and quasars. The episodes moves further into ideas about the structure of the Universe, such as different dimensions (in the imaginary Flatland and four-dimensional hypercubes), an infinite vs. a finite universe, and the idea of an oscillating Universe (similar to that in Hindu cosmology). The search into other ideas such as dark matter and the multiverse is shown, using tools such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Cosmos Update shows new information about the odd, irregular surfaces of galaxies and the Milky Way perhaps being a barred spiral galaxy.
11	"The Persistence of Memory"
The idea of intelligence is explored in the concepts of computers (using bits as their basic units of information), whales (in their songs and their disruptions by human activities), DNA, the human brain (the evolution of the brain stem, frontal lobes, neurons, cerebral hemispheres, and corpus callosum under the Triune Brain Model), and man-made structures for collective intelligence (cities, libraries, books, computers, and satellites). The episode ends with speculation on alien intelligence and the information conveyed on the Voyager Golden Record.
12	"Encyclopaedia Galactica"
Questions are raised about the search for intelligent life beyond the Earth, with UFOs and other close encounters refuted in favor of communications through SETI and radio telescope such as the Arecibo Observatory. The probability of technically advanced civilizations existing elsewhere in the Milky Way is interpreted using the Drake equation and a future hypothetical Encyclopedia Galactica is discussed as a repository of information about other worlds in the galaxy. The Cosmos Update notes that there have been fewer sightings of UFOs and more stories of abductions, while mentioning the META scanning the skies for signals.
13	"Who Speaks for Earth?"
Sagan reflects on the future of humanity and the question of "who speaks for Earth?" when meeting extraterrestrials. He discusses the very different meetings of the Tlingit people and explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse with the destruction of the Aztecs by Spanish conquistadors, the looming threat of nuclear warfare, and the threats shown by destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the murder of Hypatia. The episode ends with a overview of the beginning of the universe, the evolution of life, and the accomplishments of humanity and makes a plea to for mankind to cherish life and continue its journey in the cosmos. The Cosmos Update notes the preliminary reconnaissance of planets with spacecraft, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of apartheid in South Africa, and measures towards the reduction of nuclear weapons.
14	"Ted Turner Interviews Dr. Sagan"
Some versions of the series, including the first North American home video release (though not the DVD release), included a specially-made fourteenth episode, which consisted of an hour-long interview between Sagan and Ted Turner,[8] in which the two discussed the series and new discoveries made in the years since its first broadcast.

Episode name discrepancies

There are differences in episode names and spellings for episodes 6, 8, and 12, depending on the type of media (7 NTSC DVDs, Fully International version – DVD region zero, ISBN 0-9703511-1-9).

Episode #	Opening sequence	DVD menu	Printed on DVD	Printed on box	Cosmos books
Ep. 6	Travellers' Tales	Travelers' Tales	Travellers' Tales	Travellers' Tales	Travelers' Tales
Ep. 8	Journeys in Space and Time	Travels in Space and Time	Travels in Space and Time	Travels in Space and Time	Travels in Space and Time
Ep. 12	Encyclopaedia Galactica	Encyclopaedia Galactica	Encyclopedia Galactica	Encyclopedia Galactica	Encyclopaedia Galactica

An Australia/New Zealand PAL DVD version (also region-free) has Encyclopedia Gallactica printed on the box and the DVD sleeve.

Special edition

TV program logo of Cosmos special edition

The 1986 special edition of Cosmos featured new computer animated sequences as well as new narration and filmed segments with Sagan (including content from Sagan's book Comet and discussion of his theory of nuclear winter, none of which was used in subsequent television or home video releases). Premiering as one marathon program on the TBS network (and later broadcast in the United States, Japan, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Argentina), the series is much shorter than the original, at four and a half hours, and was cut into six 45-minute episodes:

1. Other Worlds, Part 1
2. Other Worlds, Part 2
3. Children of the Stars, Part 1
4. Children of the Stars, Part 2
5. Message from the Sky, Part 1
6. Message from the Sky, Part 2

This version of Cosmos contains a mix of music used in the original series, with a unique composed specially by Vangelis for this series. The score is often referred to as Comet, with "Comet 16" acting as the title and ending theme of each episode ("Comet 16" is the only one of the total 21 cues that has officially been released, though some of the new music appears in the 2000 remastered DVD release).

Music of Cosmos

LP and Cassette

In 1981, a soundtrack LP was released by RCA Records shortly after the series' airing, which included the signature theme "Heaven and Hell, Part 1" by Greek synthesist and composer Vangelis (Catalog No. ABL 1–4003 and TMS-50061; both also released on cassette tape).

Side A

1. Space / Time Continuum
   1. "Heaven & Hell, Part I" - Vangelis
   2. "The Year 1905" - Dmitri Shostakovich (Performed by Helsinki Philharmonic)
   3. "Alpha" - Vangelis
2. Life
   1. "(Depicting) Cranes In Their Nest" - Goro Yamaguchi
   2. "Pachelbel's Canon" - Johann Pachelbel (Performed by James Galway)
   3. "The Four Seasons: Spring" - Antonio Vivaldi
   4. "The Sea Named 'Solaris' (BWV 639)" - Johann Sebastian Bach (Performed by Isao Tomita)
3. The Harmony of Nature
   1. "Partita For Violin Solo No. 3 In E, BWV 1006" - Johann Sebastian Bach (Performed by Arthur Grumiaux)

Side B

4. Exploration
   1. "'Vishnu Symphony No. 19, Op. 217" - Alan Hovhaness
   2. "Legacy" - Larry Fast
   3. "Russian Easter Festival Overture" - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Performed by Seattle Symphony)
   4. "Inside The Heart Of The Universe" - Toru Takemitsu
5. Cataclism
   1. "Fly...Night Bird" - Roy Buchanan
   2. "Beaubourg, Part 2" - Vangelis
   3. "The Rite of Spring" - Igor Stravinsky (Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra)
6. Affirmation
   1. "Entends-Tu Les Chiens Aboyer?" - Vangelis
   2. "Izel ye Delyo Haydutin" - Traditional (Performed by Valya Balkanska)
   3. "Heaven & Hell, Part I" - Vangelis

CD

In 1994, RCA Records reissued the original soundtrack compilation on compact disc and, in 2002, reissued it on its Collectables label (RCA 07863 54003-2 USA; Collectables COL-CD-6293 USA). In 2002, a special two-disc "collector's edition" of music from the series was released to coincide with the DVD reissue, containing complete versions of many of the songs from series only available as snippets on previous releases.

Collector's Edition

Disc one^[9]

1. "Heaven & Hell, Part I" - Vangelis (4:09)
2. "The Year 1905" - Dmitri Shostakovich (Performed by Helsinki Philharmonic) (5:38)
3. "Alpha" - Vangelis (5:42)
4. "(Depicting) Cranes In Their Nest" - Goro Yamaguchi (1:00)
5. "Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Performed by Mostly Mozart Orchestra) (7:53)
6. "Pachelbel's Canon" - Johann Pachelbel (Performed by James Galway) (5:08)
7. "Metamorphosis" - Jeffrey Boydstun (3:34)
8. "The Sea Named 'Solaris' (BWV 639)" - Johann Sebastian Bach (Performed by Isao Tomita) (6:04)
9. "Partita For Violin Solo No. 3 In E, BWV 1006" - Johann Sebastian Bach (Performed by Arthur Grumiaux) (2:53)
10. "The Four Seasons: Spring" - Antonio Vivaldi (3:21)
11. "Sonata D-Dur Für Trompete, Oboe, Und Basso Continuo" - Gottfried Finger (Performed by Leipziger Bach-Collegium) (1:21)
12. "Concerto For Mandolin & Strings In C Major" - Antonio Vivaldi (2:34)
13. "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (6:35)
14. "Legacy" - Larry Fast (5:47)
15. "Russian Easter Festival Overture" - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Performed by Seattle Symphony) (7:44)

Disc two^[10]

1. "Pulstar" - Vangelis (5:13)
2. "'Vishnu Symphony No. 19, Op. 217" - Alan Hovhaness (4:02)
3. "Melancholy Blues" - Louis Armstrong And His Hot Seven (2:59)
4. "Aquarius - Hair (Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording) (3:56)
5. "Beaubourg, Part 2" - Vangelis (3:14)
6. "The Planets: Mars" - Gustav Holst (Performed by Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) (7:09)
7. "Alien Images 1" - Jeff Boydstun (3:24)
8. "Fly...Night Bird" - Roy Buchanan (7:43)
9. "Entends-Tu Les Chiens Aboyer?" - Vangelis (2:50)
10. "The Rite of Spring" - Igor Stravinsky (Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra) (10:31)
11. "Prayer of St. Gregory" - Alan Hovhaness (Performed by Seattle Symphony) (4:45)
12. "Izel ye Delyo Haydutin" - Traditional (Performed by Valya Balkanska) (5:01)
13. "Comet 16" - Vangelis (3:48) (Only the special edition of Cosmos)

Singles

The main theme, titled Heaven and Hell, Part 1, but edited from Heaven and Hell Part 1 3rd Movement, was released in the UK as an edited 7" single by BBC Records (Cat No: BBC1). The 7" single did not have the quiet keyboard intro to be found on the full Vangelis LP version originally released in 1975. The B-side of the 7" single was an edited version of Alpha, taken from the Vangelis LP Albedo 0.39.

• 1981 Heaven and Hell / Alpha RCA 71 UK
• 1981 Heaven and Hell / Alpha BBC 1
• 1981 Theme from the TV-series COSMOS / Alpha PB 5356 Holland
• 1981 Titelmelodie aus der TV-Serie "Unser Kosmos" / Alpha PB 5356 West-Germany

Sequel

On August 5, 2011, plans were announced for a sequel to the series, bringing up-to-date special effects and scientific discoveries to the themes and messages of the original series. The new series, slated to air on Fox in spring 2012, is to be hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and will be produced by Sagan's widow Ann Druyan and Seth MacFarlane.^[11]

References

1. ^ "CosmoLearning Astronomy". CosmoLearning. http://www.cosmolearning.com/documentaries/cosmos/. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
2. ^ "StarChild: Dr. Carl Sagan". NASA. http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/sagan.html. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
3. ^ "Carl Sagan". EMuseum@Minnesota State University. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/sagan_carl.html. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
4. ^ English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin and Japanese
5. ^ Some of the missing scenes from Cosmos episode 2
6. ^ 25th Anniversary Rebroadcast of Cosmos on The Science Channel
7. ^ Cosmos clips 25th Anniversary Edition PopMatters Television Review, Bill Gibron, PopMatters, October 20, 2005
8. ^ Alice Day, New York Times
9. ^ [http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Music-Of-Cosmos-Selections-From-The-Score-Of-The-Television-Series-Cosmos-By-Carl-Sagan/release/1498417
10. ^ [http://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Music-Of-Cosmos-Selections-From-The-Score-Of-The-Television-Series-Cosmos-By-Carl-Sagan/release/1498417
11. ^ Blum, Matt (5 August 2011). "Cosmos Will Get a Sequel Hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson". Wired. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/cosmos-to-get-a-sequel-hosted-by-neil-degrasse-tyson/. Retrieved 5 August 2011. 

External links

• Cosmos at the Internet Movie Database
• The music of Cosmos: a look at the music of Vangelis Papathanassiou
• A complete list of the Cosmos soundtrack music, based on the original cue sheets
• Cosmos promo at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video) – some episodes available on Google Video
• First seven episodes of Cosmos on adnstream.com
• Cosmos on Hulu
• Cosmos on AVISOM, including episode 14
• Cosmos DVD review on VideoVista