![]() A Bryde's whale appears and polishes off the feast.Įvery evening, as the sun sets, the largest migration on the planet takes place in the oceans. As the predators gorge, the dolphins work together and release walls of air bubbles that corral the sardines into tight bait-balls for an easy catch. It attracts thousands of cape gannets, hundreds of bronze whaler sharks and thousands of common dolphins. The blue whale is the perfect symbol for the oceans - a vast blue expanse that dominates the planet yet remains largely unexplored and mysterious.Įvery summer on the eastern coast of South Africa, a living black 'slick' of millions of sardines is whipped up by the coastal currents. This is the largest animal that has ever lived, and yet absolutely nothing is known about where it goes to breed. Some of its blood vessels are so wide that a human could swim down them. Its tongue weighs as much as an elephant and its heart is the size of a car. It's far bigger than even the biggest dinosaur," says Sir David Attenborough. "A blue whale, 30 metres long and weighing over 200 tonnes. Exploring every aspect of marine ecosystems, from coastal marshes to deep-sea trenches and from polar waters to tropical reefs, The Blue Planet is thorough and informative, yet never less than thrilling. Programmes include: The Blue Planet, The Deep, Open Ocean, Frozen Seas, Seasonal Seas, Coral Seas, Tidal Seas, Coasts, Making Waves, Deep Trouble.Īn epic, eight-part series that took five years to complete, The Blue Planet firmly re-establishes the BBC as the world's pre-eminent producer of top quality nature documentaries. The definitive story of the blue section of our planet - the oceans - which run from the shores to the open depths of the sea. Overall, 'The Blue Planet' delights again.Documentary narrated by David Attenborough and published by ![]() One roots for the animals, whether prey or predator. Instead, it feels like its own individual story with real, complex emotions and conflicts. Picking favourite scenes is hard, though there is a lot of tension and emotional impact when certain animals fall prey to predators, like the salmon to the salmon shark, the herring to the killer whales and the dangers jellyfish pose. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. Attenborough's narration helps quite significantly too, he clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. There are things already known to me, still delivered with a lot of freshness, but there was a lot that was quite an education and after watching the full series it honestly felt like the series taught me a lot. Can't fault the narrative aspects in "Seasonal Seas" either. ![]() Some of my favourite work from him in fact, coming from someone who's liked a lot of what he's done. It not only complements the visuals but enhances them to a greater level. George Fenton's music score soars majestically, rousing the spirits while touching the soul. Standing out even more is the photography, never before or since 'The Blue Planet' has there been more stunning underwater sequences. It has gorgeous scenery and rich colours, while the animals and marine life are captured in all their glory. Visually, "Seasonal Seas" is a wonder, same with all the series' episodes and Attenborough's work in general. It was really interesting to see how the seas and the marine life adapted and were affected by the four seasons, handled in a way that was ceaselessly fascinating and left the viewer in awe visually. "Seasonal Seas", and the subsequent episodes, confirms my feeling that 'The Blue Planet' was consistently great and more and there was not a bad episode of the eight. To me, the series overall is wholly deserving of its acclaim and the individual episodes are rated far too low. As said in my reviews for the individual episodes of 'Frozen Planet', it is a shame that despite being one of IMDb's highest rated shows, the ratings here for each episode individually has such a wide divide between them and that for the show overall. It is also one of his most ground-breaking, in that it's the first comprehensive series of oceanic natural history and including and exploring creatures and their behaviour that had never been seen before. It leaves me in complete and utter awe every time, with how much is learnt about all the different seas and marine inhabitants and how it all looks visually. 'The Blue Planet' is one of my favourites of his. He has done so many treasures and even his lesser output of a long and consistently impressive career is still good. David Attenborough, as has been said many times, is wholly deserving of being called a national treasure, although it is a term he happens to not like.
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