The Universe: Season 2 (4 Discs) (Blu-ray)

Wow! I love this series. The fact that I enjoyed Season 2 even more than Series 1 may well be thanks to Series 1 making an amateur astronomer out of me in the first place. Now I can't wait for Season 3, where they finally reveal the secrets of life itself - why we are here and our ultimate purpose amongst the staggering scale of the cosmos. Yeah right. I wish.

'The Universe Season 2' follows on from Season 1 (I understood the basic maths associated with that bit) and offers up a host of episodes that fit nicely without ever feeling like it's struggling for content. It offers up a further 15 episodes of high to low brow mind-melting mathematical theory, research and imagery often simplifying the explanations in a way that pleases goons like me, but probably makes the scientists amongst us feel horribly patronised. To me this is less dumbing-down than clevering-up. And I like it!

Even Doctor Who wouldn't dream of discussing worm-holes, where time would appear to move backwards. And Einstein's theory about the vector shape of the universe and black-holes acting like a giant plug hole through which millions of stars will eventually fall sounds like it's come straight from the 'Hitchhikers Guide'. Only it hasn't. That means the programme provides enormous food for thought.

Whilst the endless loop of computer graphics can get tedious, they do look rather good on a 42" plasma in all their blu-ray high definition glory. Fortunately, there are enough interviews with wacky professor types to keep the whole thing moving nicely, including an improbable contributor who doubles as a scantily clad Goth, fire dancer. Now that's what I call education! (Though it's a sad indictment of humanity that this brief flash of flesh was enough to take my mind off pondering the vast nature of the cosmos). So folks, here's what you get.

Disc 1

"Alien Planets"—looking at the almost certain likelihood of life supporting planets outside our solar system

"Cosmic Holes"—the concept of worm holes as a time/space travel medium. A complete mind-melt!

"Mysteries of the Moon"—I never realised the impact that the moon had on our planet and survival. And I thought it was just a big lump of cheese. 

 "The Milky Way"—one of life's biggest imponderables; why they would let a major chocolate manufacturer sponsor such an important part of the cosmos.

"Alien Moons"—actually less to do with aliens than you might have hoped as it studies the various moons in our solar system, with at least one looking like it might house some form of primitive life.

 Disc 2

"Dark Matters"— Spooky! 96% of our Universe is made up of the stuff and we don't fully know what it is and why it's there.

"Astrobiology"—ruminations about the probability life on other planets

"Space Travel"— theories on how we could travel around the cosmos and not just in rockets

"Supernovas"—all about the death of a star is discussed

Disc 3

"Constellations"—theory about why some stars seem to come together to form patterns

"Unexplained Mysteries"—all the old cookies, including time travel. Fab!

"Cosmic Collisions"—this picks up from a similar piece on season 1. Actually there are quite a number of giant rocks hurtling around in space.

"Colonizing Space"—what it says on the tin, and certainly a ray of futuristic optimism for humanity

"Nebulas"—giant but beautiful gas clouds, this episode explores their likely origins and make-up

Disc 4

"Wildest Weather in the Cosmos"—with current wintery driving conditions in the UK you'd be forgiven for thinking we were contenders, but apparently not.

"Biggest Things in Space"—a complete cosmic mind-melt that provides some very humbling food for thought. It turns out that we may not be as important as we thought we were.

"Gravity"—Newton's discovery was the first step in understanding space and the universe in a whole new way.

"Cosmic Apocalypse"—it's the end of the world as we know it but I feel fine.

The only gripe I have with this otherwise excellent series (and I like to find one) is the sheer bombastic Americanism of the thing. There are none of the discreet, humbling whispers that we like in our nature documentaries here. This is the verbal equivalent of Holst's 'The Planets' at its most raucous. Everything is described as 'awesome' and cuts from one sequence to the next inevitably include that CSI-style white frame with associated sound effect, making the programme a visual timpani.

With that one comment aside, it seems to be a well-researched, well made programme that never seems to run out of steam. Even when we are seeing an animated sequence for the tenth time, it never seems to be placed irrelevantly, but rather thoughtfully applied to help explain some very complex theories and discussions. Not only that, whilst the image is variable, at its best, it looks really very good indeed on blu-Ray. Strangely, lovers of high definition audio may be disappointed though as it is delivered in plain old stereo, though it's perfectly acceptable in my view.

If you liked Season 1, you're going to love Season 2 and its retail price seems very reasonable for such a lengthy set.