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Wonders of the Solar System 
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cloaked_wolf wrote:
I'm normally interest in this kind of programme but the presenter seemed like a joke in the adverts. No gravitas whatsoever. Hence I ignored it.


I found it refreshing - he’s clearly someone who enjoys his subject and can explain it well. I found him quite engaging.

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Mon Apr 05, 2010 10:10 pm
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He's the best thing about the programme in my opinion.

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Mon Apr 05, 2010 10:31 pm
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Nick wrote:
I just read about Brian Cox on wikipedia - he seems to be a really interesting bloke!

You should see his Car Pool interview. Funny and very interesting.

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:25 am
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Found the series fascinating. Thought Brian Cox was a lucky bugger, being flown around the world to anywhere he wanted, just to make a small point!

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:46 am
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tombolt wrote:
Found the series fascinating. Thought Brian Cox was a lucky bugger, being flown around the world to anywhere he wanted, just to make a small point!


My thought was his was probably one a lengthy queue of BBC film crews visiting many of the same places we saw in Life last year, as well as any number of other nature documentaries. :D

We loved the series. Cox is a personable bloke, seemingly too young to be a professor of anything, knows his stuff well enough that he didn't need to present to camera with an autocue, and made most of the really complex notions of how the solar system developed and how the laws of physics apply across the board simple enough that most people would be able to grasp them.

We need more of this sort of programming from the Beeb. Less of the celebrity cooking/dancing/singing malarkey, more serious educational stuff.

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:52 am
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tombolt wrote:
Found the series fascinating. Thought Brian Cox was a lucky bugger, being flown around the world to anywhere he wanted, just to make a small point!


+1 (on it being facinating and about Mr Cox being a lucky bugger.

The only bug bear I have is this a great program but its symptomatic about how science and serious subjects is treated nowdays by the BBC et al. Theres no "hardcore" science programmes anymore. Horizon use to be excellent but they dumbed it down for ratings, in current affairs Panoram use to be hard hitting and gritty now its watchdog+. The lowest common denominator rules.

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:54 am
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Much as I really enjoyed it, I actually didn't learn an awful lot as I seemed to know everything through interest in Wikipedia and watching any space documentaries I can find on Sky.

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:55 am
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I didn't learn much from the series as I also have an interest in the subject and read around it from time to time.

However, he did clear up some very complex facts and help me understand them more than I already did.

He does seem young to be a professor but he's 42 and has been studying physics for almost 20 years.

He also makes the subject a lot more interesting than reading about it on a wiki or whatever.

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:17 am
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tombolt wrote:
Much as I really enjoyed it, I actually didn't learn an awful lot as I seemed to know everything through interest in Wikipedia and watching any space documentaries I can find on Sky.

And would these "documentaries" be Star Trek? ;)

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Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:20 am
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Check out Brian Cox on TED for some cool talks, he´s geeky light-hearted and amiable, good combo IMO.


Wed Apr 07, 2010 12:19 am
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Downloaded them and have watched the first three episodes. I really like it. Though I've taken a slight dislike to the odd camera shifting they do, and the rather long introduction. On the whole, it's a great series, I like that everything is explained in such a simple and succinct way.


Wed Apr 07, 2010 10:47 am
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forquare1 wrote:
the rather long introduction


The rather long intros have become a standard feature for most documentary shows these days. Not sure why. They add nothing once you've seen the first show, and then just seem to drag for each subsequent one. Another fad is to tell us what the show's going to feature. That annoys me. Better to use those five minutes adding extra information than padding it with an advert for the show I'm ALREADY WATCHING!

Sorry. It annoys me sometimes.

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Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:20 am
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I've only seen a few minutes of the first episode but I did enjoy it, I must get around to watching them on iPlayer before they disappear. I did watch all of the How The Earth Made Us though and thoroughly enjoyed that. One thing I like about the BBC productions over all others is that they don't repeat themselves again and again and again. They make a note of previous conclusions which is ok for people with an attention span of less than thirty minutes, but some of the rot on 4 or 5 have sixty minute episodes that could be condensed to less than fifteeen.

These Professors do look young but it may just be me getting older, however their passion for their subject is what makes them great presenters in the same way that passion makes a great teacher.

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Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:32 am
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HeatherKay wrote:
forquare1 wrote:
the rather long introduction


The rather long intros have become a standard feature for most documentary shows these days. Not sure why. They add nothing once you've seen the first show, and then just seem to drag for each subsequent one. Another fad is to tell us what the show's going to feature. That annoys me. Better to use those five minutes adding extra information than padding it with an advert for the show I'm ALREADY WATCHING!

Sorry. It annoys me sometimes.

It is probably for the US market where they can have as much as ten minutes before they start the credits, after an ad break of course.

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Wed Apr 07, 2010 11:36 am
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Like it or not, it seems to have done the trick - 5 million viewers and he's making another four-part series for the BBC called Universal, exploring the universe outside our solar system.

I have to admit I preferred the 8-part "The Planets" series, but at least this was a decent attempt to get more people interested in science (at least those who weren't out getting p*****).

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