The Planets

Another reviewer title their review: This needs a 20yr follow up series.

A few months later the BBC delivered on that request. I bet the reviewer has a new sense of empowerment.

This series is awesome, and also a little melancholy. In episode 1 they make PLUTO the focus of the story. How were they to know the Pluto-intolerance the science community would engage in just a few years after they made this series. Life is funny, in a dark and sad way. But this series is inspirational and uplifting in many other ways.

As far as the 2019 series of the same name from the same organization, I highly recommend that one as well.

The Planets is a view of our Solar System with the knowledge from 1999. With little tuning, it would be fine basis for ever evolving documentary, which would be updated when new data arrives. It still shines in many parts, because huge part of it is history of solar system exploration. There are lots of interviews from Voyager project, Russian scientists who worked with Soviet space program, Apollo project personnel, and many many other scientists.

Dated parts concern discoveries during the last two decades: All those Mars rovers, Cassini-Huygens has arrived and is ending it's mission in few weeks (sep 2017), Voyger 1 has left the Solar System, that "future" Pluto probe (New Horizons) was launched and already few by Pluto six months ago, and, most of all, about 99,9% of exoplanets have been discovered after the show. But basically "only" two things are very much dated: Mars exploration and exoplanets.

Even with all that, huge part of it is still valid and especially those interviews are still interesting. I haven't seen any better documentary about the subject.

It is impossible for any documentary to be completely up to date. Criticizing this series for not including anything discovered after '99 isn't fair. Yet, we lament that this information is missing only because this BBC production does such a GREAT job of presenting it.

I would give this series a 9 for the 3rd installment "Giants", alone. The story of the Voyager probes is simply fascinating and must rank as one of man's greatest under appreciated accomplishments.

Would it not be nice to have this series updated with new data and presented in high definition? As others have commented, the information from Cassini alone warrants a "brush up" of the series.

I consider education to be best in a video format rather than a textual format. This series of documentaries are jewels in educating us about the solar system. I also developed a great deal of respect and admiration for the scientists who worked so hard to show us where the place of earth is in the universe.These documentaries should be definitely shown to all children in schools. This documentary really made me wonder about the place of mankind in the universe. The narration was nice. The visuals were also amazing. It also cleared many of my doubts about how the other planets in our solar system were. I hope there are more documentaries of this type in the future about the future findings.This documentary is a must see. I recommend it to all who have a passion for space exploration.

This is a more than an "Old Documentary". This was a monumental look into the universe in 1999. We haven't seen something on this scale since the Cosmos series was released back in 1980. The series takes you further and further from Earth. It's an educational experience for anyone who's never really considered what lies outside the Earths' atmosphere. This goes beyond any definition you'll find in any book. You have a front row seat to how and what we knew in 1999.

I have to disagree with those who say its outdated. I think it's more important to leave it untouched, a time capsule of sorts, preserved as a bookmark in time. It chronicles the technology we had up to 1999. Sure a lot has changed since then but how else can new generations have any understanding of how limited our knowledge of the universe really was in 1999.

If i had to point out something negative it would have to be the narration. The version i remember had an America voice resembling Mike Rowe. All i can find is the narration Sam West did.