Recent comments in /f/Documentaries

Fredasa t1_ivqwdi6 wrote

Reply to comment by ashbyashbyashby in Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) Carl Sagan’s original series about the universe [13:00:00] by Saganism1996

This isn't a discussion about the message. Cosmos is my #1 favorite documentary (-esque) series of all time. I have an interest in being able to experience it as though I were tuning in to PBS in 1980. It's really nothing more complicated than that. Though there also absolutely exists merit in preserving the history of perhaps the most important landmark series in documentary history.

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Fredasa t1_ivqvhrn wrote

Reply to comment by Lord_Boffum in Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) Carl Sagan’s original series about the universe [13:00:00] by Saganism1996

The main thing holding it back is, yes, a lack of interest/awareness because 99.9% of folks don't really care beyond getting "Carl Sagan's Cosmos" in their hands. But a strong secondary factor would be the fact that there was never a commercial release of the broadcast version, which in turn means the only sources that exist for it would be home video recordings. While this is not normally a great barrier, especially for something that was almost certainly very widely recorded (Youtube and archive.org are absolutely overflowing with digitized VHS tapes), the existence of the Cosmos DVD set is what ultimately puts the nails in the coffin.

Just visualize this scenario: "Huh, I have Cosmos recorded on these old VHS tapes. Maybe I should think about digitizing them for posterity. Oh, wait, no: the whole thing was already released on DVD. I guess there's no point." Multiply that by thousands and we have today's situation.

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Fredasa t1_ivqpzze wrote

Reply to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) Carl Sagan’s original series about the universe [13:00:00] by Saganism1996

Somewhat famously, this show does not exist anywhere on the internet (with some very slight exceptions) in its original 1980 broadcast iteration. The 2002 DVD release is the 1990 "special edition" which changed about half of the music and half of the special effects sequences. In other words, better than half of the entire body of footage across all 13 episodes is, in some way, different from how it was originally intended.

You would think that something as famous and ubiquitous as Cosmos, which had been re-broadcast in its original state for at least the 1980-1985 span, would be available in its original version on the likes of Youtube or archive.org. The problem is that the "special edition" exists; the DVD set exists; the bluray upscale exists—once people have "a version", there's little enthusiasm remaining for something as specific as "the original version".

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CanterburyTerrier t1_ivqc1go wrote

Reply to comment by OceanShaman725 in Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) Carl Sagan’s original series about the universe [13:00:00] by Saganism1996

I'm not sure it's in Cosmos, but his speech on humility is one of the best logical arguments for the existence of extra terrestrial life even though it doesn't really mention it at all. It's subject is our insignificance. As Webb begins to capture the chemical signatures of exoplanet atmospheres it should give us patience to know that NOT finding life elsewhere would be completely contrary to every great demotion we've experienced so far:

https://youtu.be/o8GA2w-qrcg

Also, The Frontier is Everywhere:

https://youtu.be/oY59wZdCDo0

When he mentions that it will not be we who reaches alpha centauri but a species very like us with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses, it makes me gasp.

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