'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey' Episode 1 Recap and Review

In the first episode of the reboot/sequel to Carl Sagan's classic science series "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey," which aired in 2014, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson takes viewers on a journey through the history of our scientific understanding of the universe.

The series received mixed reviews, with some critics saying that the graphics were overly cartoonish and the concepts that it covered were extremely rudimentary. However, the main point of the show was to reach viewers who did not normally go out of their way to watch scientific programming, so you have to start with the basics. 

The Solar System Explained

After going through the rundown of the planets in the solar system, Tyson then discusses the outer limits of our solar system: the Oort Cloud, representing all of the comets that are gravitationally bound to the sun. He points out an astounding fact, which is part of the reason why we don't see this Oort Cloud easily: Each comet is as far away from the next comet as the Earth is from Saturn.

After covering the planets and the solar system, Tyson moves on to discussing the ​Milky Way and other galaxies, and then the greater groupings of these galaxies into groups and superclusters. He uses the analogy of lines in a cosmic address, with the lines as follows:

• Earth
• Solar System
• Milky Way galaxy
• Local Group
• Virgo Supercluster
• Observable universe

"This is the cosmos on the grandest scale we know, a network of a hundred billion galaxies," Tyson says at one point during the episode.

Begin at the Beginning 

From there, the episode moves back into history, discussing how Nicholas Copernicus presented the idea of the heliocentric model of the solar system. Copernicus gets kind of short shrift, largely because he didn't publish his heliocentric model until after his death, so there's not much drama in that tale. The narrative then goes on to relate the story and fate of another well-known historical figure: Giordano Bruno.

The story then moves along a decade to Galileo Galilei and his revolution of pointing the telescope toward the heavens. Though Galileo's story is dramatic enough in its own right, after the detailed rendition of Bruno's clash with religious orthodoxy, going into much about Galileo would seem anticlimactic.

With the earthly-historical segment of the episode seemingly over, Tyson moves on to discussing time on a grander scale, by compressing the entire history of the universe into a single calendar year, to provide some perspective on the time scale that cosmology presents over the 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. He discusses the evidence in support of this theory, including the cosmic microwave background radiation and evidence of nucleosynthesis.

History of the Universe in One Year

Using his "history of the universe compressed into a year" model, Tyson does a great job of making it clear how much of cosmic history took place before humans ever came on the scene:

• Big Bang: Jan. 1
• First stars formed: Jan. 10
• First galaxies formed: Jan. 13
• Milky Way formed: March 15
• The sun forms: Aug. 31
• Life forms on Earth: Sept.21
• First land-based animals on Earth: Dec. 17
• First flower blooms: Dec. 28
• Dinosaurs go extinct: Dec. 30
• Humans evolved: 11 p.m., Dec. 31
• First cave paintings: 11:59 p.m., Dec. 31
• Invented writing (recorded history begins): 11:59 p.m. and 46 seconds, Dec. 31
• Today: Midnight, Dec. 31/Jan. 1

With this perspective in place, Tyson spends the last few minutes of the episode discussing Sagan. He even pulls out a copy of Sagan's 1975 calendar, where there is a note indicating he had an appointment with a 17-year-old student named "Neil Tyson." As Tyson recounts the event, he makes it clear that he was influenced by Sagan not merely as a scientist but as the sort of person he wanted to become.

While the first episode is solid, it's also a little underwhelming at times. However, once it touches on the historical stuff about Bruno, the remainder of the episode has much better pacing. Overall, there's plenty to learn even for space history buffs, and it's an enjoyable watch no matter your level of understanding.