The Universe: Mega Collection Blu-ray Review
“The Universe: Mega Collection” Blu-ray set is a perfect birthday or holiday gift for science and sci-fi lovers.What the set includes:
Season 1 (13 episodes):
“Secrets Of The Sun,” “Mars: The Red Planet,” “The End Of The Earth: Deep Space Threats To Our Planet,” “Jupiter: The Giant Planet,” “The Moon,” “Spaceship Earth,” “Mercury And Venus: The Inner Planets,” “Saturn: Lord Of The Rings,” “Alien Galaxies,” “Life And Death Of A Star,” “The Outer Planets,” “The Most Dangerous Places In The Universe,” (which covers black holes, Magnetar, Quasars, etc.) and the “Search For ET.”
Season 2 (18 episodes):
“Alien Planets,” “Cosmic Holes,” (which covers wormholes, black holes, etc.) “Mysteries Of The Moon,” “The Milky Way,” “Alien Moons,” “Dark Matter,” “Astrobiology,” “Space Travel,” “Supernovas,” “Constellations,” “Unexplained Mysteries,” (such as antimatter and time travel), “Cosmic Collisions,” “Colonizing Space,” “Nebulas,” “Wildest Weather In The Cosmos,” (such as winds, storms, tornados) “Biggest Things In Space,” (namely superclusters, galaxies, asteroids) “Gravity,” and “Cosmic Apocalypse.”
Season 3 (12 episodes):
“Deep Space Disasters,” “Parallel Universes,” “Light Speed,” “Sex In Space,” “Alien Faces,” “Deadly Comets And Meteors,” “Living In Space,” “Stopping Armageddon,” “Another Earth,” “Strangest Things,” “Edge Of Space,” and “Cosmic Phenomena.
Season 4 (12 episodes):
“Death Stars,” “The Day The Moon Was Gone,” “It Fell From Space”, “Biggest Blasts,” “The Hunt For Ringed Planets,” “10 Ways To Destroy Earth,” “The Search For Cosmic Clusters,” “Space Wars,” “Liquid Universe,” “Pulsars And Quasars,” “Science Fiction/Science Fact,” and finally “Extreme Energy.”
Season 5 (8 episodes):
“7 Wonders Of The Solar System,” “Mars: The New Evidence,” “Magnetic Storm,” “Time Travel,” “Secrets Of The Space Probes,” “Asteroid Attack,” “Total Eclipse,” and “Dark Future Of The Sun.”
The Universe: 7 Wonders Of The Solar System 3D:
This disc is only of interest with those who have a 3D TV. The episode is already included on the season 5 set.
Season By Season Breakdown:
Seeing as how the first season started it all, it’s naturally the best and most intriguing season of them all. Unlike some of the later seasons, the first season mainly covers real aspects of the universe such as the planets (Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Pluto etc.), the sun, the moon, galaxies, and stars. This season is definitely a more fact based history lesson of sorts which is the appeal of “The Universe” to begin with. Note: The episode formats include interviews with astrophysicists and experts are scattered throughout every episode along with CGI recreations.
The second season stumbles a bit as it retreads ideas from the first season (namely the moon, black holes, dark matter, Jupiter, Mars, galaxies, and the doom and gloom aspects of asteroids). Granted, it goes a bit more in depth into these topics, but I think we’d all rather see new topics explored. Thankfully, there are a few new topics here such as the Milky Way, Supernovas, and Nebulas which prove to be the best episodes by far.
The third season takes a turn and starts delving into more hypotheticals and future visions such as space travel, spacecraft, colonization, extra dimensions, light speed possibilities, how sex would work in space, alien life forms, transports on Mars, asteroid collisions, and other planets like Earth. While these ideas are fun to speculate about, some viewers may be disappointed that they are more science fiction than science fact. Luckily for those viewers, there are several provoking factual episodes here about asteroids and comets, Neutrinos, molecular clouds, expoplanets, auroras, cosmic rays, the sun, ultraviolet rays, and even rainbows.
The fourth season is an improvement, but it does repeat itself with some needless list episodes like “10 Ways To Destroy Earth” and “Biggest Blasts.” Highlights here include two of the more sci-fi based episode titled “Space Wars” and “Death Stars.” ‘Wars’ caught my eye as it explores the types of potential technology in the future while ‘Stars’ offered up some scary, but fascinating scenarios about exploding stars and Gamma Rays.
In season 5, it’s clear that the show was running out of ideas. Granted, they provide updates on Mars and asteroids, but the season just felt lazy. Thankfully, it’s not a total waste of time as the total eclipse and space probe episodes prove to be worth your time.
Lastly, there’s the “7 Wonders Of The Solar System 3D” special (which also appears on the season 5 set in 2D) which plays more like a fun theme park ride than anything else. The special essentially takes viewers on a tour of the galaxy showing us an Asteroid Belt, the Sun, Planet Earth, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Saturn’s Rings, Enceladus, and the Olympus Mons. While the episode looks gorgeous on a standard Blu-ray player, I am told it looks pretty nifty on 3D Blu-ray players as well.
Summary: If you like History Channel or space centric programs, check out “The Universe.”
Video/Audio:
The picture quality is so-so in the first two seasons. The CGI doesn’t look as good as the later seasons and the interviews all look a bit fuzzy. Seasons 3-5, however, look noticeably sharper (especially the CGI). “7 Wonders Of The Solar System” looks the best here though. I couldn’t imagine watching that special on DVD because the CGI imagery looks so crisp and clear on hi-def.
Seasons 1-4 contain PCM 2.0 Uncompressed audio tracks. The tracks do their job but the levels are a tad low at times. Season 5 contains a DTS-HD 2.0 which is slightly better. Lastly, the “7 Wonders Of The Solar System 3D” disc has a DTS-HD 5.1 audio track which is obviously the best track here sound quality wise.
Extras:
*Season 1- The only extra here is a deep 90 minute bonus episode titled “Beyond The Big Bang.”
* Season 2- Extra bonus episode titled “Backyard Astronomers” which discusses the Moon, Milky Way, the night sky on Earth during each of the 12 months, etc.
* Season 3- Universe Facts (text feature) and Image gallery.
* Season 4- Two short programs titled “Meteors: Fire In The Sky” (9 ½ mins.) and “Comets: Prophets Of Doom” (3:17).
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