NOVA: The Planets

I recommend this over the similarly named Blu-ray from National Geographic. The presentation here is much less annoying, more oriented towards adults. Great content, great real images AND great animated images, great explanations. I suppose my only gripe is that when any scientist is featured, explaining their work and their discoveries, that person's face is shown in close-up detail. On a big TV, well...that's a bigger, more well-lighted human head than you're ever gonna see in real life. Each speaker dominates your living room, and stares DIRECTLY at you while they're talking--how do they even film that? It's like they are truly speaking to a camera. And with their huge blazing face right up front. It's a little unnerving. Producers, take heed! You don't have to show the tiny hairs on a person's forehead, just because you have the technology to do so. But don't let that stop you. I've re-watched it a couple times already. This is an excellent Blu-ray--easily the best space program I've seen in the past 10 years. Worth having on disc, for sure.

Lots of NASA footage. What could be more exciting than exploring our solar system!?

As advertised

NOVA - The Planets (2019) is a 2-Blu Ray disc set that presents the eight planets of our solar system in stunning detail (including Pluto as well). Narrated by Zachary Quinto, this program's greatest strength is its pacing and tranquil feel. Rather than a program with fast pacing, quick cuts, in-your-face zooming in/out, and a lot of narration, this program in contrast has a slower pace, a tranquil feel, more sparse narration, longer individual clips, and no in-your-face zooming. Also, the comments made by the astronomers and physicists is not overdone or too intrusive. The footage and computer generated images are state-of-the-art. You can truly get lost in this program as you watch it on a cold night.The individual segments are:Inner WorldsMarsJupiterSaturnIce WorldsThis Blu Ray set is highly recommended.

I watched this series on PBS and liked it so well that I decided to buy it so I could watch it again and again. It contains lots of fascinating info about our solar system. Some of it I already knew, but much of it I didn't. It gave me a much better understanding of how our planetary system formed, and why Earth wound up being the only one to have the conditions for our familiar life forms. The other planets might not harbor life as we know it (though that doesn't mean there isn't some type of life there), but each has its own "personality." This would be a great teaching tool for older kids as well as adults.

One of my favorite documentaries. This makes it into the bedtime playlist every month or two.

I had checked this DVD out at the library twice and loved it so much that I bought my own copy. It is truly wonderful.

I find our solar system and the universe to be endlessly fascinating, so it's no surprise I loved this multi-part Nova episode. Stunning visuals and fascinating information. If you are an astronomy fan you will love this.

We loved the dvds on this subject. It was exciting, sad, tense, everything. We learned so much watching it. I bought it because Jupiter is my planet, and wanted to see what Jupiter was all about. Plus there is other planets on the discs. It is so amazing to see what is going on up there, watching all of the movement of everything in space one almost thinks that each rock or planet or moon is programmed. You have to see this everyone. You will never forget it. I am going to see if there are more dvds with the other planets on it.

Many of the images are spectacular. I don't mind the voice-overs, but the frequent interruption of images by talking heads reduced my enjoyment of this set of programs. I also found the coverage to be incomplete - there could have been much more on the satellites of the various planets (not just Titan, Enceladus and Triton). Overall, this is still a good buy.

This series is very good but there is something important to know, which I did not... there is a BBC Earth version presented by Dr. Brian Cox, and then there is this PBS version narrated by Zachary Quinto.With all due respect to Zachary Quinto, there is no comparison. I will be looking to replace this with a copy of the BBC Earth version for sure. The way it is edited, the presentations and narration by Dr. Cox... superb.

Excellent show , wonderful narration by Zach Quinto, amazing CGI . This show is just fantastic, explains how our solar system came about.

It was good. I liked the narration by Zachary Quinto, but I much prefer the UK version with Prof. Brian Cox. I ordered that from the UK site.