The Blue Planet
The Blue Planet
| 12 September 2001 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Season 1 : 2001 | 8 Episodes

    EP1 Introduction Sep 12, 2001

    Experience the power of the blue whale - the largest mammal ever to grace our planet. Learn how the sun and moon help control and tame the ocean. Travel far and wide - from the Eastern Pacific to Alaska, from the Bering Sea to the shores of Southern California - and begin to understand the complexity and power of our oceans.

    EP2 The Deep Sep 19, 2001

    A place of mountain ranges, perpetual night, pressures extremes and cold... and the weirdest life forms on our planet. Dive into the depths of the ocean, an eerie world where predators with teeth so large they can't even close their mouths, chase bio-luminescent creatures of the deep. Discover the spectacular smoking chimneys of the hydrothermal vents. Go deeper down than you have ever been...

    EP3 Open Ocean Sep 26, 2001

    In the immense space of the open ocean the sea bed is a staggering five miles below the surface and the nearest island is over 300 miles away. Yet here live many of the most spectacular predators in the ocean. Marvel as you experience ruthless and beautiful battles between hunter and prey.

    EP4 Frozen Seas Oct 03, 2001

    An environment where only the toughest survive, the Arctic and Antarctic are unrelenting habitats. Only in spring does life begin again. Plankton blooms and feeds fast hordes of migrating fish, walruses rake the seabed for clams, and minke and humpback whales gorge themselves on gigantic swarms of krill. But it is a brief spring feast - the ice soon returns and pushes life back into the ocean.

    EP5 Seasonal Seas Oct 10, 2001

    As the days grow longer, billions of microscopic plankton bloom under the blazing sun. Here in the temperate seas, three-ton basking sharks graze among forests of giant kelp - the fastest growing plant in the world. The forests harbor thousands of other animals, including sea otters, brilliantly colored anemones, squid, and exquisite leafy dragons. But as the year wears on, storms rage in the icy sea... a desperate challenge for the animals that remain.

    EP6 Coral Seas Oct 17, 2001

    Bathed in bright sunlight and warm clear water, the coral reef is a rich oasis of life - the rainforest of the sea. Bizarrely adorned harlequin shrimp carry off a starfish several times their size, while haunting songs reverberate around the reef, heralding the arrival of humpback whales. Shimmering schools of brightly colored fish battle for territory in this competitive world where you have to stand out to survive.

    EP7 Tidal Seas Oct 24, 2001

    The sun and moon move billions of tons of water with every turn of the tide. The strongest tides empty entire bays, smash trees on riverbanks, and strand sea creatures on suddenly dry land. Weaker tides control the movements of huge numbers of fish, coaxing stingrays though astounding underwater arches. And as the water recedes, the tide can create unbelievable landscapes - like a sparkling world of salt crystals inhabited only by tiny shrimp and bright pink flamingos.

    EP8 Coasts Oct 31, 2001

    From rocky cliffs to gentle dunes, the coasts are always changing. Day in and day out, they are battered by crashing waves. Seabirds come here by the thousands to nest, while baby turtles hatch and race to the sea, pursued by hungry predators. Young sea lion pups are born and play on the sand - until a killer whale attacks, crashing in on the surf. But when breeding season is over, life returns to the sea and the shores are empty once again.
    Reviews
    TheLittleSongbird

    I love nature documentaries and David Attenborough and was blown away by Planet Earth. So I knew I wanted to see The Blue Planet. And I am so glad I did, and wonder to myself how I didn't see it sooner. The subject matter is indeed enthralling, with an intelligently written and ceaselessly informative narration and Attenborough presenting with an evident love for the subject. As well as being empathetically scored, The Blue Planet is visually stunning, right from some of the best photography of any TV series that decade(in my opinion that is) to the gorgeous colours and sceneries. The animals are great to see, old and new, and there are some scenes that either made me emotional or at times with the predators made my stomach churn(but seeing that it's a nature documentary series, they couldn't rose-tint the facts, these things do happen).All in all, a wondrous, beautifully shot and enthralling series. 10/10 Bethany Cox

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    tonysharp

    Blue Planet... Wow... Where do I begin? The years of hard work paid off in what is, without question, one of the best documentaries ever created.The sights and sounds presented in Blue Planet, like most documentaries with the Attenborough stamp, are rare and haven't even experienced by most people. That alone should be enough reason to buy this series, especially if you're the curious type who 'wants to know'.Blue Planet is not a perfect documentary, however. It does get a bit repetitive after the 3rd episode. How many ways can different sea creatures swim, kill, poo, mate, and lay eggs, and do all of these ways really need to be explored? But if you have a deep interest in sea life, this repetition shouldn't become a problem for you at all.

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    MovieCrap

    Words can hardly describe what Blue Planet brought to life in all of its hours of runtime. Matching up with Walking With Dinosaurs, this documentary stands as one of the best. We can only pray that the BBC and Discovery Channel come up with even more outstanding ideas that could possibly even level with this one.

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    evanpelt

    The Discovery Channel billed this as a show that would show us things we have never seen before. By the time the four hours are over, you will see the same things over and over and over but little of it will be new to you.The cinematography in this production was fabulous. The way the footage was put together was terrible. The same footage was used many times. In some cases the narration was practically a word for word repeat of a segment shown an hour or two before. I lost count how many times we saw feeding frenzies of tuna/dolphins/sharks/diving birds preying on sardines/herring/mackerel.There are so many wondrous things in the oceans. Unfortunately this show doesn't show many of them. *At least* half of the four hours was spent on Tuna, dolphins, whales, sharks, sardines, mackerel, polar bears, penguins and the like. I think most of us have seen them on film before ;-) The amount of time spent of the unusual things was so disappointing. I would have liked to have seen more on the phytoplankton and zooplankton. They are so tiny yet are the basis of life in the ocean and they have such beautiful shapes. More time could have been spent on the deep sea animals (although seeing the same footage two and three times over the course of the four hours was useless). So many things were left out it was frustrating.Another really big failing was the lack of a logical flow or progression. It was sometimes difficult to keep track of where in the world the action was happening. The action moved from ocean to ocean and from surface to deep sea and back and forth again and again in a very confusing manner.A sense of the scale of many of the animals was totally lacking. In many cases you had no idea if the creature was microscopic or several feet long.If they had cut out the repeats and had progressed logically from the ocean surface to the sea floor this could have made a great two hour show. In short, I loved the cinematography, it was beautifully shot, but whoever put it together and wrote the narration blew it.

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