Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series

Planet Earth received a huge amount of hype when it was released, and for good reason. It has fantastic imagery, great music and David Attenborough.I have a lot to say about how fantastic this series is, but that won't be necessary seeing as how the 1,982 (and counting) reviews have already sufficiently covered that.However, I have not seen the content of this box-set covered in depth, so I'll do so here...PLANET EARTHDISC 1FROM POLE TO POLE: The introduction to the series looks at our planet as a whole and considers the key factors that have shaped its natural history. Without fresh water there is no life on land, while the sun dominates the lives of all animals and plants on Earth and defines their habitats.MOUNTAINS: This tour of our mightiest mountain ranges, starting with the birth of a mountain at one of the lowest places on Earth and ending at the summit of Everest, takes in some of the most reclusive creatures on the planet and reveals the secrets of their survival.FRESH WATER: This episode follows the descent of rivers from their mountain sources to the sea and showcases the unique and dramatic wildlife found within Earth's unexplored waters. Together the waterfalls, canyons, frozen lakes, wetlands, and great rivers form a world of mystery, excitement and awe-inspiring sights.DISC 2CAVES: Deep in an undiscovered world, including both poisonous and flooded caves, we find astonishing crystals; cave anglerfish; the five million bats of Deer Cave in Borneo; and troglodytes - weird creatures, like the Texas cave salamander, that never see daylight nor set foot on the surface.DESERTS: Deserts, which make up a staggering 30% of the land's surface, seem empty and lifeless, yet they are the most varied of our planet's ecosystems. With remarkable footage Planet Earth unravels the secrets behind desert survival and for the first time on such a scale, reveals the ephemeral nature of the desert environment.ICE WORLDS: The advance and retreat of polar ice is the real challenge to life. As the sea freezes in Antarctica all animals flee, except for the Emperor Penguin. Meanwhile, in the Arctic, the polar bear is forced to swim vast distances and take on one of the deadliest adversaries on the planet.DISC 3GREAT PLAINS: On these immense wildernesses, from the baking savannahs of Africa to the frozen tundra of the Arctic, we find the greatest gatherings of wildlife on Earth; but close on the heels of gazelles, caribou or wildebeest comes an array of plains predators... eagles, wolves and lions.JUNGLES: With little seasonality and a longer growing period, jungles are the most productive places on Earth, but surviving in the jungle is far from easy. Using state-of-the-art tracking shots and stunning aerials, Planet Earth moves along the dark forest floor, up through the layers of vegetation and across the canopy.SHALLOW SEAS: Planet Earth follows a humpback whale mother and calf on an epic journey through the shallow seas of our planet. From tropical coral paradises, where the new-born calf takes his first faltering breaths, to the storm-ravaged icy polar seas, the whales' great feeding grounds, we reveal seas of great contrast and surprise.DISC 4SEASONAL FORESTS: From the evergreen forests of the frozen North to the deciduous dry forests of the tropics, these woodlands illustrate the intense seasonality of the Earth. The tallest, largest and oldest organisms on the planet, they are home to a fascinating range of wildlife.OCEAN DEEP: Feast or famine - it's the governing principle of ocean life. From the sailfish, three-meter-long, rapier-billed predators, and the exquisitely shelled Nautilus to the threatened blue whale, this journey into the most unexplored part of the planet reveals the extraordinary survivors of this immense and barren realm.PLANET EARTH - THE FUTUREDISC 5SAVING SPECIES: Many of the animals featured in Planet Earth are endangered so do we face an extinction crisis? Saving Species asks the experts if there really is a problem, looks at the reasons behind the declining numbers of particular animals and questions how we choose which species we want to conserve.INTO THE WILDERNESS: Pollution, climate change and a growing human population are all putting pressure on earth's wildernesses including the Bialowieza forest, the Gobi desert & the Arctic tundra. So how much of the planet is still wilderness? And why should we care? Into the Wilderness explores why these uninhabited expanses are important for our survival as well as that of all creatures on the planet.LIVING TOGETHER: The history of conservation throws up some interesting ideas as we look to the future of an ever more populated planet. How can conservation fit into this new world driven by economics and development? Living Together looks at the challenges facing conservation in the 21st Century and looks at the role of religion in promoting a moral and ethical approach to the world we live in.BONUS FEATURES (only available on the standard edition)OVER AN HOUR AND A HALF OF BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOOTAGE - One 10-minute featurette for each episode.PLANET EARTH - THE FUTURE - This 150 minute companion series looks at what the future may hold for endangered animals, habitats and - ultimately - ourselves.Well, I hope that was helpful to anyone who hasn't yet picked up this title (although I doubt there are many left) and wants to know more about it. As you can see, this is quite an extensive DVD set, but well worth it. Like everyone else is saying, highly recommended!

I have always been very interested in Nature and wildlife, so naturally I was interested when I kept seeing previews for Planet Earth by the BBC in movie theaters. I watched the Discovery Channel as a kid every night for years, and even now at 21 I watch nature shows on PBS whenever I can, but Planet Earth trumps every nature show I have ever watched. To me, Planet Earth is the culmination of everything that I have ever thought or felt about Nature.Planet Earth is just so great that I don't know where to begin describing it. Perhaps its most fulfilling quality is that some of the animal behavior that was filmed on Planet Earth had not ever been filmed before, and probably will never be filmed again, due to the nearly unbearable weather and demography of the locations involved. From the extremely rare snow leopard chasing a goat down the side of the Himalayas to a pride of lions bringing down and eating a huge elephant, Planet Earth truly does live up to its claim of showing "planet Earth as you've never seen it before. Several new species were filmed for the first time in the wild as well, like New Guniea's amazing birds of paradise.As if all of the adventurous and breathtaking filming wasn't enough by itself, the whole series is filmed in HDTV, and is the first wildlife documentary to do so. Many of the views are so clear and fresh that at times you feel as if you are actually there. Also, the Planet Earth film crew used some pioneering filming methods, like filming the majority of the series in a helicopter instead of on the ground, flying in a hot air balloon over forests in Madagascar, and using satellite imaging to show certain areas and demographic features not visible or not nearly as detailed when seen with the naked eye. The film crew of Planet Earth really put their lives on hold to make this documentary the best wildlife documentary ever, and it shows. Another feature of this series that I love is that there is a 10 minute video at the end of each episode which gives you an inside look at the daunting, dangerous, and nearly insurmountable tasks the production and film crews had to face in each unique environment.The scale of Planet Earth could also be said to be its defining quality, as it is the largest wildlife documentary in several ways. BBC literally spanned the globe in the filming of Planet Earth, visiting 62 different countries and 204 different locations. It took over five years for the series to be completed, and the BBCs production budget of $25 million U.S. dollars was the biggest ever for any wildlife documentary.In the end, you should buy Planet Earth for the same reason that the series was created - to become aware of the inherent beauty and value of Nature, and to see firsthand humanity's mostly negative impact on our Planet's wildlife. Planet Earth's main premise is that the more we see and learn about our amazing planet and its wildlife, the more we will want to protect and conserve it from global warming and other man-made problems that threaten or destroy wildlife and its habitats. Planet Earth shows us a planet that is fragile yet strong, beautiful yet harsh, explored yet unknown. Above all, Planet Earth shows us a planet worth cherishing and conserving.