DVD Corner

The Universe Season 4 Blu-ray Review

Despite a few lackluster episodes, the fourth season of “The Universe” is as fascinating as the previous three seasons.

Grades:

Content: B

Picture: B+

Audio: B+

Extras: B-

The fourth season of the fascinating History Channel series “The Universe” contains the following episodes: “Death Stars” focuses on dangerous exploding stars, “The Day The Moon Was Gone” explores what would happen if the moon was not in the sky, “It Fell From Space” deals with aerial dangers such as space debris and meteorites, “Biggest Blasts” tackles, you guessed it, explosions like planet collisions and asteroids, “The Hunt For Ringed Planets” is self-explanitory, “10 Ways To Destroy Earth” is another disaster countdown, “The Search For Cosmic Clusters” takes a look at star clusters, “Space Wars” looks at possible furturistic weapons and ships, “Liquid Universe” discusses subjects like methane lakes and gases, “Pulsars And Quasars” looks at the two phenomenons, “Science Fiction/Science Fact” looks at topics like wormholes, transporters, etc., and finally “Extreme Energy” goes in depth about topics like dark energy and black holes.

As with all “The Universe” seasons, these 12 episodes contain tons of informative factual information and what-ifs about the universe via interviews with astrophysicists and experts. The only downside with this fourth season is that it tends to repeat itself a little too much with a couple of recycled countdown episodes such as “Biggest Blasts” and “10 Ways To Destroy Earth.” Personally, I would like to learn about new topics, but I understand that they might be running out of material to talk about.

As far as the highlights go, my two favorite episodes here are the “Death Stars” and “Space Wars” segments. “Death Stars” was an engaging“what-if” episode about the effects of an exploding star. The scenario regarding a Gamma Ray burst in particular was both enligtening and frightening at the same time. The “Space Wars” was appealing to the Sci-Fi geek in me because I’m always intrigued by possible technology that could be created in the future.

Summary: If you’re a fan of “The Universe,” there’s no reason why you shouldn’t check out this fourth season set.

The 1.78:1 1080i picture quality is top notch as usual. While the interviews and stock footage obviously vary in quality, the CGI footage is stunning on Blu-ray.

The PCM 2.0 audio track contains clear narration, interviews, and sound f/x.

The two extras included are two short programs titled “Meteors: Fire In The Sky” (9 ½ mins.) and “Comets: Prophets Of Doom” (3:17).

March 9, 2010 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 1 | The Universe Season 4 Blu-ray Review