Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Stunning documentary series takes plunge into Earth's oceans
It gets just that this week with the premiere of One Ocean, an expansive four-part nature-documentary series airing on The Nature of Things (8 p.m., CBC). The series, co-produced by Winnipeg-based Merit Motion Pictures, seeks to explore a topic that, on and below the surface, seems so massive and complex that it might defy whatever limits of time and space television might try to impose.
Thankfully, the folks behind One Ocean are a patient and meticulous lot who choose their points of emphasis wisely and are willing to go to rather extensive lengths to gather the footage and facts they require.
The series is -- as all nature documentaries must necessarily be in the age of high-def production -- breathtakingly beautiful and, at times, truly awe-inspiring in its visual splendour. It does, however, become a bit ponderous at times as it plumbs the deep historical detail and scientific minutiae of Earth's evolution and the creation of its oceans.
Tonight's premiere, The Birth of an Ocean, traces the planet's history back to its formation from gravity-gathered dust and debris amid the cosmos, and then asks the obvious question of how a body formed from slowly cooling molten rock formed massive bodies of water on its surface.
With the oceans' origin explained, the film-makers follow a pair of paleontologists as they travel to some of Earth's more remote corners to study early life forms that populated the ocean and eventually spawned life on land.
Episode 2, Footprints in the Sand (March 11), examines the relationship between humans and the oceans, focusing much attention on how our behaviour has impacted -- and continues to threaten -- the rhythms and ecosystems of the seas.
Episode 3, Mysteries of the Deep (March 18), exploits the latest deep-diving technology to offer a glimpse of life in parts of the ocean that have only recently been explored; Episode 4, The Changing Sea (March 25), concludes the series by exploring some of the world's most beautiful undersea locations and wondering what fate awaits them as the planet continues to experience creeping climate change.
Based on the episodes provided for preview, One Ocean seems likely to succeed in its exceedingly ambitious endeavour -- getting TV viewers (and eventually, one can only assume, many classrooms full of eco-impressionable kids) to embrace its beautiful imagery long enough to absorb a very important message.
Wow, that's deep.
brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca
TV PREVIEW
The Nature of Things: One Ocean
Hosted by David Suzuki
Tonight at 8
CBC
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 3, 2010 D3
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