I was pretty beat after returning from Boston yesterday, so I ended up watching bits and pieces of the much-ballyhooed Planet Earth tv show on the Discovery Channel. I can't really assess it in detail, as I was flipping back and forth to the Dresden Files, but they certainly had some impressive footage of various animals doing interesting animal things.
They did one thing that bugged me, though: The voice-over in the actual program talkked explicitly about how unique the footage was. There were numerous mentions of the fact that nobody had ever filmed this or that thing before, or that some technological widget made it possible to film some thing in unprecedented detail. And, really, that struck me as kind of tacky.
I mean, it's great material for some making-of features on the inevitable DVD, and it's fascinating to see what they needed to do to get footage of unique animal behavior, but I don't need to hear that during the animal footage. When you're showing nifty pictures of cool animals, talk about the animals. The footage was amazing, and the quality spoke for itself-- I didn't need Sigourney Weaver's voice to clue me into the fact that they had some really impressive footage there.
Again, I didn't watch the whole thing, so it's possible that I just got unlucky and the few bits where they were aggressively touting their technical prowess happened to line up with commercial breaks on the SciFi channel. But it was a mildly annoying note in what was otherwise a very impressive presentation.
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It wasn't just you, I noticed and was irritated by this as well and I watched it pretty much straight through.
Sigourney Weaver?
They changed the voice over from david attenbrough to sigourney weaver?
!
I'm in the process of watching the original UK version with narration by David Attenborough, and it seems from your comments that they did more than merely change the narrator's voice for the US version.
As far as I can recall, 6 episodes in, there have only been two occasions when they have mentioned the uniqueness of the footage: once when filming snow leopards in the Himalayas, and once when filming giant gypsum crystals in a cave in the US. No mentions of the technology behind the filming, other than in the "Diaries" at the end of each episode, which may be a DVD only feature.
I noticed this as well, but since I enjoy the show so much anyway, my friends and I have developed a "Planet Earth Drinking Game," where you take a shot every time Sigourney Weaver says "unprecidented." Drinks are also had whenever a predator captures its prey or when an animal nobody's ever heard of appears on screen. I highly recommend it.
I'm in the UK and found this program simply stunning (especially in HD). It sounds like they've butchered it for an American audience though, which is a real shame. Having David Attenborough narrate is one of the series' key features - it's something about the way he says just enough for you to understand what's going on, then leaves you alone to enjoy the footage.
I don't think he spends any time stroking his (or the production team's) ego - they had a 5 minute 'Diary' clip at the end of each episode to do that and to show off how they did everything.
2 out of 8 sciency blogs I'm subscribed to have said this, so I really recommend you get your hands on a copy of the original UK version which presents the show how he originally intended it.
What's really sad is that Discovery Channel probably gained very little from the switch in narrators. What limited market survey evidence there is suggests that few viewers decide to watch a documentary based on the narrator (or are so put off by an uncongenial narrator that they stop watching).
It was an "inside baseball" move that undoubtedly cost many hours (as well as some dollars) at DC's offices... has annoyed many of the connoisseurs here... and made no difference worth mentioning to most of the audience.
The shameless ego-stroking annoyed me as well. I've only seen the first 2 episodes, because Galactica rules all. I didn't realize they changed the narrator (or that its Sigourney Weaver). I might just wait until the UK version comes out on DVD, to watch the rest of the show unspoiled.
*sigh*
I'm going to be a curmudgeon and wait for the series to be released on DVD, hoping the Attenborough version is available for US customers.