Planet Earth : Complete BBC Series (PAL Box Set) [DVD]

This video is a most interesting video that gives an insight into time passed.

I have never in my life seen anything like this series. I had thought that the Blue Planet, also by the BBC, was the pinnacle of achievement of wildlife television. The deep sea episode had left me breathless, but that proved nothing compared to Planet Earth. The effort that went into this series is obvious. Only at the end of each show when we spend time with each of the crews do we really get a sense of what they had to do to bring such beauty before us. This is not self-serving "let's pat ourselves on the back" television. It only adds to the sense of wonder, and to the sense of how privileged we have been to see some of the rarest sights in nature. The camerawork is sensational. The killer whale rising out of the sea with the seal in its mouth, the diving hawks making their mid-air kill, the snow leopard bounding down sheer cliffs, the chandelier cave. All incredible. This is unlike most other "animal" tv shows, where the audience is patronised into listening to an ill-thought out anthropomorphic commentary which is little more than "ooohhh...isn't that cute" or "whoooah...isn't that dangerous". Attenborough is wonderful. He has the humility to understand that the show is not about him, and he is prepared to say nothing whilst our senses drink in "that shot" of Angel Falls or the intense colours of the Okavanga Delta. The behaviour of the Gobi desert camels left me speechless; you don't need some idiot telling you how amazing it is. I can recommend this serious without hesitation. This is public television at its best. It cannot be financially prudent to spend 40 days in the Gobi desert chasing Bactrian camels, but it takes real corporate bravery to say that natural beauty cannot be captured on the cheap. The camera techniques (remember the African dogs chase?) are priceless. You must watch this series. People at my office were discussing each episode for days afterward. Friends' children were having the same discussions - "oh my god - did you see that?" If 8 year old children and 60 year old lawyers have the same base sense of wonder, nobody will watch this and think, "it's just another documentary". This is nothing like you will have seen before. I thought I was a cynic, but this really has re-opened my eyes to the raw power of nature.

A masterpiece in displaying and exploring the natural world. The overall image quality has aged quite well, colours are not quite as bright and strong as todays Blu rays coming out now but that's to be expected. The footage of the snow leopard in the mountains episode is extraordinary.At the time of its release the BBC had access to helicopters with stablized cameras for the first time allowing them to capture that super smooth motion. After the life of mammals and Life in the Undergrowth this series continued the trend of filming digitally. It's also their first natural history series shot almost entirely in HD. The helicopter shots are not just used for those ever impressive establishing shots but can also film animals above from a safe distance without disturbing them. In one sequence they are able to film a wolf hunt simply by flying above and using continual unbroken footage as it unfolds.Most of the shots though are still tripod shots and very impressive they are. The ones underwater obviously have their own style of filming.The series gives us lots of facts about the different habitats. There's a strong effort to connect the weather and geology of each location to the animals and plants that live there, especially in the jungles, deserts and ice poles. Following improvements in microphotography there's lots of focus on insects too which just wasn't possible in the 1970s and 1980s. The jungle episode was obviously filmed in quite low light conditions but still overall looks very nice, the cave episode too is also quite grainy and struggles in low light. Several episodes also take place under the water which requires a different style and method of filming. There's a few dolly shots but again its mostly tripod shots, I'm not such a fan of the later BBC series where the camera is constantly in motion, you can't beat a good old tripod shot sometimes. The music is a very effective addition to the series and is used to strong effect when needed.The sound on the blu ray is clear and crisp, I don't know how much was added in post production, quite a bit i suspect.Over all there's quite a good balance between all the eye candy and the facts and narration. Again to stress the Blu Ray colours are still beautiful, the image is clear and sharp. Some of my favourite images came from the seasonal forests episode and the desert episode. My only complaint is that things can feel somewhat rushed, we only get 3-5 minutes per sequence. Maybe they just didn't have the footage to show more, the BBC has reused footage from these episodes too.While we've become used to breathtaking wildlife photography now and exotic locations, this series also with the original blue planet was such a hit when it came out on TV that it's hard to over hype. One of the great things about watching this now too is that our TVs have also reached the point where this series can be viewed in the best quality, many Televisions back in 2006 were nothing like what we have now.