Planet Earth

I used my MSc in Science Communication as an excuse to watch this programme (I have been overdosing on the tube recently) but it really wasn't a valid excuse. This programme, and its predecessor - Blue Planet, are the TV equivalent to very large, very glossy coffee table books. They are full of the most extraordinary images, and ... well that's about it really. Yes there were truly remarkable shots - we got the promised polar bear cubs, african hunting dogs and birds of paradise and they were extraordinary - but there was no attempt to weave them into any kind of story or introduce any kind of science. It is sad when you think back to "Life on Earth" in the 1980s. With far inferior technology, it made for far more compulsive viewing. Each episode introduced a group such as amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds and each group was introduced in terms of its particular problems and how it coped with them - for example, reptiles were introduced in terms of the problems of living away from water and one of the solutions is the egg with an adequate "shell". I remember some colleagues attending a talk given by David Attenborough at the time and relating how he had stressed the importance of having a story. Alas - that has given way to beautiful and extraordinary filming for its own sake.