Film  

It’s difficult to classify or label life’s status when considering Planet Earth.  Is it a sequel?  Well, we’re talking documentaries here so the term ‘sequel’ doesn’t really apply.  This is more or less an extension of its precursor, without the concept of a story.  The BBC could have easily titled this Planet Earth: Volume 2 and it would have made perfect sense.  Nevertheless, life is a deserving title to this ten-episode, four-disc set containing over 8 hours of footage.  The material is educational, entertaining, and once again, holds several minutes of rare moments in the animal world.

Unlike Planet Earth though, this piece goes into much greater detail on explaining the how’s and why’s of the animal kingdom.  For instance, I bet you didn’t know that a chameleon’s tongue travels at a speed of 50 feet per second or that the Japanese mudskipper breathes through its skin.  These are just a few of the curiously interesting bits of information and visuals you will witness when watching life.  This series left me in absolute awe as the little miracles that surround us never cease to amaze me and many of the scenes are so clear and inviting that you would think you are viewing them through a window.

The Blu-ray is actually available in two options; the U.S. version with Oprah Winfrey narrating and the British version with David Attenborough narrating.  In all honesty, I was not crazy with Oprah doing the talking before I watched either version, as I would have much preferred the Attenborough performance.  After all, the guy was stellar in his duties on the Planet Earth series.  Still, the U.S. version is what I was provided so it is that which I will grade.

In the end, Oprah did a decent job with her vocal delivery, carrying audiences through the wonderful worlds experienced on this title.  She doesn’t have the dedicated narrator voice the Mr. Attenborough does, but she gets the point across and has done better than most celebrity narrators I’ve come across.  If you would rather experience life without the interference of a human voice, you can always watch the footage minus the narration.

Disc 1
• Challeneges of life
• Reptiles and Amphibians
• Mammals

Disc 2
• Fish
• Birds
• Insects

Disc 3
• Hunters and Hunted
• Creatures of the Deep
• Plants

Disc 4
• Primates
• The Making of life
• Deleted Scenes

Video  

Displayed in a VC-1 encode with a 1.77:1 aspect ratio, life is easily a top 5 example of 1080p resolution.  The colors are lush and vivid, the footage is crisp, and the detail is uncanny as viewers’ eyes will stay glued to the picture quality.  The slow motion footage is highly complimented by the high resolution picture as is every little speck of dirt on a rainforest leaf or the stray plankton floating through a Pacific current.

It really does not get any better than this unless you grab your boots or scuba gear and go on location with the series’ cameramen.  The visual performance is definitely the high point on the four discs.  One problem I had with Planet Earth was that it offered some of the best and worst Blu-ray had to offer in terms of appearance.  There was incredible detail throughout, yet some instances contained a great big distraction of visual noise.  Now take the first part of that, minus the second, and you have the video quality of life.

Audio  

The sound is delivered mildly, in that this a front speaker-heavy audio presentation.  The rear channels are used but not enough.  For example, when I see 200,000 penguins in Antarctica and they’re all squawking, I want to hear squawking behind me, in front of me, to the sides, etc., not just a slight carrying of sound through those rear channels.  You can forget about the subwoofer as that piece of equipment doesn’t get much employment at all here.

When carrying the DTS-HD Master Audio label, I thought there would be better use of a surround sound system as a whole.  Some of the scenes have an all-encompassing experience, but not most.  Even so, that majority of the masses will not be disappointed.  You won’t be straining to hear anything and the overall track is intelligible.  Audiophiles, however, will be left wanting more.

Special Features  

For starters, I am very happy to report that all the extras are in 1080i or p high definition.  That seems to be a big hurdle for production teams to get over.  I’m not sure why they can’t grasp it, but if I have a high def disc, don’t give me standard def pieces-parts!  Fortunately, BBC had the sense to give us watchable extras.  Each episode has its own “Making of” featurette that can be found on the same disc as the actual episode.  These featurettes are all narrated by David Attenborough and all hover around the 11-minute realm as far as runtime is concerned.  Disc 4 contains a segment piece of deleted scenes which are narrated by Oprah Winfrey.  As for the quality of any of these extras, they are as good as gold, not straying from the quality of the actual documentary.

Making Of…
• Challenges of life (11:03)
• Reptiles & Amphipians (10:59)
• Mammals (11:02)
• Fish (10:58)
• Birds (11:00)
• Insects (10:56)
• Hunters & Hunted (10:27)
• Creatures of the Deep (11:10)
• Plants (10:37)
• Primates (10:59)
Deleted Scenes (18:09)

Final Thoughts  

With a near magical display of earth’s creatures, there is no passing up life on the store shelf or in your online shopping cart.  Providing a sole focus on creatures and not splitting time between creatures and environments (as in Planet Earth), viewers familiar with Planet Earth can enjoy more of that series’ style here as well as the more devoted animal focus.  Newcomers to BBC’s line of nature productions are truly in for a treat with the beauty and education in store for them.  Young and old, casual or conservationist, life offers a majestic and rare look at some of the wonders of the animal kingdom around us.

Bring home Life today on Blu-ray!

Film

I always associated BBC programming with quality; with their nature documentaries that have some of the most impressive cinematography in any genre and some of their original programming to be hilarious or intriguing. Their production of Hamlet is definitely up to par.

Originally David Tennant, of Doctor Who fame, and Patrick “Captain Piccard” Stewart starred in recent rendition of the stage play, which was praised by critics and Patrick Stewart won a Olivier award, which is Britain`s highest stage honour. Thus BBC decided to pick it up and make a medium budget film adaptation. The film is a modern telling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that is shot on location, rather than on stages and it definitely adds to the production value, adding an authentic quality to the film.

In comparison to the other screen adaptations of Hamlet, this version pales slightly in comparison to some of the other screen adaptations, but this one does get by with Patrick Stewart’s performance and it’s outside of the box approach. Hamlet was always a favourite Shakespeare play and I do enjoy when it’s done different, this modern retelling brings some middle ground between Gibson’s portrayal and Hawke’s portrayal.

When dealing with a Hamlet adaptation, a good leading man is required, I found that David Tennant was very passionate in his role, but at times it felt like he was overacting. There were times when I was left thinking about previous adaptations and thinking to myself, “I should be watch that instead of this”, however those thoughts were few and far between.

Hamlet has been done hundreds of times in different mediums and while this version may not be the best, it definitely has merit. It’s contemplative and bleak, which suits the story and while bringing Hamlet into a more modern time, we’re given an interesting take on the classic play.

Video

Hamlet’s video is displayed in 1.78:1 aspect ratio using the MPEG-4 AVC codec, but unfortunately we have yet another BBC Blu-ray release with 1080i resolution… Due the fact that most of the recent BBC Blu-rays with this resolution that have been released are all films and documentaries that were meant for television, thus 1080i is a reasonable alternative.

However, when you hear that the resolution is 1080i, that may put you off of the Blu-ray, but BBC has always delivered great looking blu-rays even with the limitations of the resolution. This film was actually shot on the RED one camera which to those who are familiar with it know that we’re dealing with one of the best cameras around.

It’s a very clean print and transfer, with little to no grain and absolutely no artefacting at all. There’s some interlacing lines that pop up once in a while, but nothing that takes away from the video quality looking anything but flawless.

Audio

Hamlet’s audio comes at us using the PCM 2.0 codec, which is a real bummer. Like I mentioned in the video section, the recent BBC releases are of movies and documentaries that were meant to be on TV and so quality standards are lower, thus we get PCM 2.0 codecs being used. However, unlike other companies that go back and remaster the films using higher resolution and remix their audio to include surrounds, we’re given the inferior quality.

Clearly the mix is front heavy, I had my receiver set to emulate surround using the 2.0 mix, so having the faux surround feel helped slightly, but overall the audio is very plain. Being dialogue heavy the centre channel works the hardest trying to separate all the elements, and the result is underwhelming.

It’s definitely disappointing to see a stereo mix on this film, for it had potential, especially with all the big rooms and set-pieces that the actors perform in. Surrounds could’ve been used to add atmospheric qualities, but instead we’re left with a fairly flat mix, not to mention muffled dialogue.

Special Features

The special features of Hamlet include a audio commentary by the director, producer and director of photography and a behind-the-scenes featurette. I found the commentary covers similar ground as the behind-the-scenes feature of the making of the movie. The featurette includes great interviews with the director, cast, art department, set designers, etc; I actually found that it was one of the more insightful featurettes I’ve seen. It covered recreating this new vision of the story and giving its own unique character; definitely a worthwhile watch.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a Shakespeare guy then this right up your alley, although it may not be the best representation of the source material, how many times can you watch the Kenneth Branagh version? If you’re a student who wants to try and get a leg up on the material, this may be a good way to do so, this is a fresh take on the play and it may help your understanding. I feel comfortable saying this a solid rental or a purchase to Shakespeare fans.

Film

The documentary Wild Pacific, also called “South Pacific” in other regions, covers the islands and waters throughout the Pacific Ocean. I prefer the title South over Wild, due to the fact that those who have seen the other BBC documentary “Wild China”, may attribute the lower quality of that doc with this one.

Wild Pacific is a 6 part BBC miniseries, which not only covers the Southern section of the Pacific but the entire Pacific. Unlike Planet Earth, this documentary series covers not only wildlife and locations, but also the people who inhabit the islands in the pacific. I prefer the footage of wildlife doing extraordinary things that are rarely caught on film or capturing the amazing vistas that our world has, but spicing it up with groups of people living in these remote areas is just as interesting.

Although, Wild Pacific has some great cinematography, a lot of it pales in comparison to Planet Earth. There are some interesting shots and there’s definitely some awesome events captured well, for example the tiger sharks capturing the albatross chicks, however some of the more engaging filmmaking techniques are wasted on shots that simply aren’t of something as cool. Do I want to see super slow-mo shots of a surfer? I’d much rather see the underwater volcanoes pouring out the ash and magma in slow-mo.

Although it’s not as well-made as Planet Earth, Wild Pacific does have some great shots and captures some very cool events. I find that BBC is one of the forerunners of the best documentaries presently around and Wild Pacific, although may not be a prime example of it, is still a great doc to watch. Just like other BBC documentaries such as Wild China, Ganges and Galapagos; although none of them are as solid as Planet Earth or Life, they all have great qualities that make them worthwhile watches.

Video

Wild Pacific’s video is displayed in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and uses the VC-1 codec, unfortunately the resolution is not full HD. We’ve got yet another BBC documentary released in 1080i, which is always disappointing. I watched the documentary on my 1080p projector and immediately noticed the inferior resolution, however watching it on a 100” screen is a bit of a torture test. For those one smaller TVs, the resolution isn’t as bad. I actually watched part of the doc on my 27” 1080i monitor and it looked fine.

Motion is crisp on smaller TVs even for interlaced footage and the colours are vivid. The black levels are nice and deep while maintaining a dynamic colour brightness range. It’s definitely a great example of good looking 1080i footage, to the untrained eye, it’ll look just fine.

Audio

Wild Pacific’s audio comes at us using the English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 codec and comes with English subtitles. Unlike the video quality, where we see a prime example of quality overcoming technical limitation (1080i), we’re given an audio codec capable of the best, and the quality doesn’t come close.

The audio is quality isn’t bad, but there’s very little to no atmospheric qualities from the surrounds, the mix is very front heavy. Also it’s obvious  at times that a lot of foley was used to recreate some scenes, but considering I was so enthralled into the amazing visuals, it’s hard to notice any real deficiencies in the mix.

There’s decent dynamic range and while the subwoofer doesn’t get used much, there is some subtle low frequencies that come in nicely, especially in the score. So although we don’t get some of a surrounding effect, the mix does its job, while we’re distracted by great looking footage.

Special Features

Each episode comes with a 10 minute behind-the-scenes video diary highlighting some of the ways the filmmakers captured certain shots and parts. It’s definitely a cool bonus that wasn’t included when the mini-series aired and it’s definitely a testament to the trials and tribulations these filmmakers had to go through; from tight quarters to insane shooting environments.

Although this is considered a special feature, it’s tagged onto the ending of each episode. There aren’t actually any standalone features, which is why it only gets “2”. I think an overall look at the making of the series would’ve been nice as well as some extra footage that may have been cut.

Final Thoughts

BBC delivers another good documentary covering the Wild Pacific; with good looking video and decent audio, Wild Pacific is a good watch for those who enjoy documentaries. Unfortunately, with sparse special features and an overall short running time, this would make a better rental than purchase.

Being packaged within BCC’s High Definition Collection may cause some, including myself, to compare it with Planet Earth (another documentary within the collection) and as I started watching I found myself waiting to see if it was as good as the remarkable accomplishment that is Planet Earth.

Film

Watching Galapagos really reminds us how amazing nature can be, showing off some of its wildest spectacles and varied types of denizen that occupy this planet with us. It’s definitely a sight to be seen and with Blu-ray format, we get to witness it in all its high def glory.

The documentary focuses on Darwin’s interest with the islands, specifically his theory of evolution being based on what he witnesses through the series of islands. Galapagos was guilty of one thing I despise… Using historical re-enactments. When referring to Darwin’s time there are few uses of props and actors portraying characters. I always preferred going an opposite way, due to the fact I find historical re-enactments to be quite cheesy… However they were well done and actually helped add to the telling of Darwin’s story.

Galapagos sits upon a volcanic hotspot that is constantly erupting and as the magma collects, new islands are formed almost linearly. As the islands form they begin to, overtime, go from being a desolate rock to a blooming ecosystem. It demonstrates the birth of life in such a way that you can see the chronology right in front of you.

Galapagos is a very interesting demonstration in nature, and it has to be seen to be appreciated for what it is. The documentary does it justice, however I am putting this down as a place I need to visit.

Video

Presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio and using the VC-1 codec, from the start the video quality really stood out, even at 1080i the motion was very smooth and the image was sharp. The colours were quite vivid and weren’t too over saturated. At times it seems that a high speed or other type of camera is used during certain aerial shots of the ocean and the difference of quality is apparent in the handful of shots, but those are few and far between.

The editing in the first half is a little jarring at times, in attempt to get the pace up, it works to their detriment, however again this wasn’t common in the documentary, but every now and again I found myself pulled away saying “Really? I couldn’t see that for a few extra frames?”

Audio

The audio is quite clear, sometimes I begin to wonder if the animal sounds are foley due to the fact that the camera is so far away they must’ve used some amazing microphones to reach that far. Overall the sound was very organic and felt authentic. Listening through 7.1 I found the surround speakers were used mainly for background ambience which did help with the depth however due to the fact the source audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track (448 kbps) you do lose the potential depth and quality that people have come to expect within the HD format.

The score is powerful and, as it’s supposed to, it boosts the emotion of the scenes and really helps the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

The narration is done by Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, Burn After Reading), she’s a natural narrator and was clear and precise during the entire documentary. That being said the narration didn’t go outside of the box and like most others was quite monotone and I found myself drifting away from the narration and focusing on the stunning visuals.

Special Features

Unfortunately Galapagos is a bare bones Blu-ray, there are no special features.

Final Thoughts

The documentary itself is quite interesting and using very impressive cinematography it definitely represents the facts in an appealing way… If only today’s educational system could take page out of these documentarian’s book.

As I said before, I did compare Planet Earth to Galapagos, without nearly as big a production time, crew or budget it does stand up well. Sometimes it was repetitive, but even Planet Earth repeated itself a bit.

Despite the few minor issues I did think Galapagos was a well-made documentary and utilized beautiful cinematography and a powerful score to create a very appealing experience. However due to the lack of extras Galapagos may be a better rental than a purchase to those who appreciate the special features.

Film

Earth is a nature documentary that was filmed all over the world over a 5 year period. As is the case with Disney nature films, Earth is not a straight nature documentary. Instead, it has a bit of a family focus to it, family friendly if you will, as it follows a trio of families in the wild, a polar bear and her two cubs in the Arctic, an Elephant and her cub in Africa and a humpback whale and her calf as they journey from the tropical waters of the Equator to their feeding grounds off Antarctica.

The film also has more of a warm and fuzzy feeling to it than your typical nature documentary, focusing at times, more on the cuteness of the animals rather than the harsh conditions in the wild. The film also fails to show the wild for what it is at times, gruesome and deadly, as it fails to ever show the death of any actual animals, cutting away at the very end, letting you surmise what happened at the end of the chase. I can only assume that this is the Disney way. However, it does fall a good bit short of reality which, after all, it the very purpose of a nature documentary.

While the folks at Disney may prefer a happier and less gruesome wild, that is just not the way it is out in the wild. The film is well narrated by the great James Earl Jones and features some incredible camera work and visuals. It is the visuals after all that really matter in a nature documentary and the visuals here are simply spectacular, from the white and icy Arctic to the lush greens and fauna of the mid latitudes, the dry and dusty plains of Africa and the beautiful crystal clear blue water of the tropics. While the storytelling here can get a bit too syrupy, the visuals more than make up for that minor drawback, as they are that impressive. Highly recommended.

Video

Simply put, the video quality on this release is fantastic. Try as I might, I could find nothing at all to find fault with on this encode. This is reference material, with incredibly accurate and lifelike colors, deep and rich blacks, bright and bold primary colors and astonishing levels of clarity and detail. You know that this will be great looking film as soon as you see the bright white snow of the Arctic at the beginning of the film. This film simply has it all in terms of image quality, from the whites of the snow, the many different shades of green in the forests, plains and grasslands to the incredible blue waters of the tropics. This is simply as real as it gets folks with the limits of today’s technology, short of actually being there. Each different environment and the varied wildlife are depicted with a staggering degree of realism, detail, depth and three dimensionality. This is an incredible looking disc and as far as I am concerned, the best looking nature documentary yet released on Blu-ray.

Audio

While not quite as impressive as the video presentation, the audio here more than holds its own. The narration by James Earl Jones is captured with exceptional levels of fidelity, capturing the richness of his voice beautifully and placing it perfectly, front and center in the sound field. The same can also be said about the overall fidelity of the entire film, which sounds smooth and rich with excellent levels of transparency and openness and deep and rich bass response.

The audio in the wild sounds very realistic and places you right in the action with the filmmakers. The sounds of the lions as they prepare to attack a heard of elephants is captured with a startling degree of realism. The same can be said of the howling of the wind, thunderstorms, the thundering herd of elephants and the splashing of humpback whales in the sea after breaching. The only real fault I have with the audio here and it is a very small one at that, involves the use of the surrounds. While they are active throughout, I would have preferred that they have been used a bit more aggressively to create a more immersive sound field during the entire film. I would also have preferred a little better integration of the surrounds with the front of the sound field. However, these minor quibbles aside, this is a great sounding film and one that I will not doubt enjoy listening to again and again.

Special Features

Earth is a two disc set, with the first disc containing the Blu-ray copy of the film and the second, a DVD copy of the film so that you can enjoy the film anywhere where a DVD player is available. Any of you with young children will no doubt appreciate this extra which will no doubt come in handy during long trips in the car or on a plane. The Blu-ray disc itself contains two sets of extras, the first being the filmmakers annotations and the second, a making of featurette which I found to be the most interesting of the two.

The making of featurette goes behind the scenes of the making of the film with the director, detailing the five years it took to capture all of the spectacular video featured in the film and the lengths the film crews went to capture it, placing their very lives at risk during the process There is a very interesting scene in the Arctic while filming the polar bears, where one polar bear, smelling cooking food, comes up to and attempts to enter the crew’s hut for a bite to eat, understandably scaring the heck out of the crew. They used all sorts of countermeasures to scare away the polar bear, none of which seemed to work. This footage illustrates the very real hazards that the film crews face when capturing the footage featured in these film, a fact we are often not even mindful of as we enjoy the films. This making of featurette is well worth you time and is at times, just as interesting as the film itself.

Final Thoughts

Earth is a excellent film that features reference level video that is a must own for any fans of nature documentaries. Highly recommended.

While it involves very different subject matter, Torchwood has something in common with another piece of great television, The Sopranos, namely shocking turns. When watching The Sopranos, one never knew what plot twist or violence was lurking around the corner. A soft and touching scene could be followed by an incredibly violent or ugly scene. Death and surprise was just a minute away which is one of the reasons why The Sopranos was such compelling television.

Torchwood is much the same way. You just never know where the story will go. I was anxious to see what the brief (5 episodes) and perhaps final third season of Torchwood would bring, so much so that I watched all 5 episodes in standard definition when they debuted on BBC America on July 31st. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for the series to appear on Blu-ray, as the series was released the week after its initial run on BBC America. Was it worth the wait? The answer to that question is a resounding YES!

Series

Torchwood is great science fiction pure and simple. Torchwood: Children of Earth, as hard as it is for me to believe, improves on the first two stellar seasons. If Children of Earth is in fact the end of the series, what a way to go out. For those of you who are not familiar with Torchwood, please so yourself a favor and pick up all three seasons and check it out for yourself. It will be well worth the effort.

Torchwood is a group of investigators who keep track of aliens on the Earth, as well as the supernatural, and at times, have to take actions to save the earth from destruction. The series as a whole features various elements very familiar to sci-fi fans, including aliens and time travel as well as subjects not the usual subject of science fiction, namely a bisexual male lead.

The series was created by Russell T. Davies of Doctor Who and Queer as Folk fame, and involves the spin off of a character from Dr. Who, Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, who leads his team of investigators as they keep track of aliens, often times requiring their forceful removal.

Torchwood is a bit of a mix of The X-Files and Men in Black, only with richer, deeper and more creative story lines and a bit of a hard edge. Captain Jack Harkness has quite a way with men as well as women. which makes for some very interesting TV moments such as the initial kiss between him and Yanto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), whcih caused such a stir during season 2. Despite Captain Jack’s affinity for men, there is an underlying sexual tension between him and the series female lead, Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), who is arguably, the center of the series. Captain Jack Harkness is probably one of the most original and interesting characters to ever appear on TV. In addition to being bisexual, he also can’t be killed. It does matter whether he is shot or blown to bits, he always comes back to life.

Season 2 ended with the shocking death of two members of the team. Season 3 opens several weeks later, with the team discovering that all the the children in the UK froze motionless at the same time at 10:30 a.m. They quickly discover that not only were all the children in the UK so affected, but every child on Earth as well. The children eventually all begin to chant in unison, “We are coming, we are coming” and Captain Jack finally realizes that the alien civilization known as the 456 are the ones that are coming and are demanding the ransom of 10% of the children of the Earth to forestal the destruction of the entire human race. In addition to defeating the 456, Torchwood also has to fight the British government who are trying to kill all the members of Torchwood and Captain Jack Harkness in particular, due to his knowledge of the British government’s past encounter with the 456.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is gripping television and keeps you emotionally involved for the entire emotionally charged 5 part third season and involves Captain Jack making the ultimate sacrifice to save the human race. Pure and simple, Torchwood is great television and deserves to return for a fourth season, at the very least. Very highly recommended.

Video

Torchwood has always featured excellent video quality during its run on HDNet. I was expecting the same quality, if not better, on Blu-ray. Watching the five part series in standard definition on BBC America was a real let down as it looked terrible. I am pleased to be able to report that Torchwood: Children of Earth looks great on Blu-ray, even surpassing the stellar picture quality during its run on HDNet. What strikes you immediately about season 3 is the very natural color palette with spot on skin tones.

The series also features deep and rich blacks and well saturated colors that look very real. There is no post production fiddling with the colors here. This is one of the most natural looking high definition television presentations I have had the pleasure of viewing. Clarity and detail are outstanding with skin textures and background details rendered with razor sharp precision. The only real flaw I could detect with the video presentation is a bit of softness on overhead distance shots. Other than this very minor quibble, this is a great looking transfer and is one that fans of the show will be thrilled with. I know I was.

Audio

While very good, the audio quality on Children of Earth is not quite up to the level of the video. As one would expect from a science fiction action series, the surrounds are used fairly aggressively throughout creating an effective and realistic sense of immersion. Dialogue was also well recorded and well placed in the mix and always intelligible.

Where the audio on this release came up a bit short for me involved dynamics and overall fidelity. The dynamics were a bit flat for me, with the lack of deep room shaking bass during explosions and action sequences. The best sequence illustrating this is the scene where the Torchwood headquarters is blown up, with the explosion being more of a whimper than a bang. The dynamics here just don’t grab your attention in the way they do in a major action motion picture, sounding flat in comparison. In regards to the fidelity of the audio, I found the audio to be a smidge on the thin side, sounding a tad harsh, lacking the smoothness, and richness of a lossless encode. This issue is more noticeable while listening at reference sound levels and as a result, can be a bit fatiguing.

Special Features

There is only one extra included with this release and is a featurette entitled Torchwood Declassified and consists of a behind the scenes look at the series featuring interviews with Russell T. Davies as well as members of the cast and crew including Jack Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-LLoyd, among others. The featurette is presented in widescreen standard definition rather than in high definition. As featurettes go, it is rather standard fair and far from compelling and not exactly must viewing.

Final Thoughts

Torchwood: Children of Earth is science fiction TV at its finest and is well worth your time. This Blu-ray release features excellent video and good audio that should more than please fans of the series. Highly recommended.

Film 

David Attenborough takes the helm in the narrator’s seat as viewers are guided through a 9-hour journey of our great planet.  There are a total of four discs to bring the compilation home to your trusty Blu-ray players and the content that was provided does not disappoint.  Should I go through each episode, which average around 45 minutes each, I would have a small book by the time I finish.  Instead, I will touch on a few of the highlights and list below what content you can expect to find on each disc:

Disc 1

From Pole to Pole

Mountains

Fresh Water

Disc 2

Caves

Deserts

Ice Worlds

Disc 3

Great Plains

Jungles

Shallow Seas

Disc 4

Season Forests

Ocean Deep

How does Planet Earth differ from other nature documentaries?  Well, for one there is no other compilation that can even come close to this in terms of variety of content as well as the sheer volume of footage.  To give you an idea, Planet Earth took 40 cameramen to shoot in over 200 locations around the globe.  All in all, these folks were in the field for over 2,000 days and their efforts paid off tremendously.

Some of the episodes I found most fascinating were that of “Caves,” “Jungles” and “Ocean Deep.”  The number of different creatures that reside in these environments and the environments themselves are truly sights to behold.  However, the other episodes certainly aren’t lacking in magnificence either.  In one particular episode, we find a pack of lions, starving, unable to make a kill, resort to an act of desperation…they target an elephant as their next prey.  Both animals typically live in close proximity to one another in an uneasy balance.  Yet, when push comes to shove and survival is the name of the game, animals and people will go to great lengths to stay alive and these lions were no exception.

Video 

Planet Earth is a paradox when it comes to video quality.  This series offers some of the best and worst that Blu-ray has to offer while delivering the 1080p resolution in a VC-1 encode.  Overall, it is a beautiful piece of work interspersed with scenes of very obvious grain.  There is a small amount of footage shot with infra-red cameras so don’t expect high quality here.  With that being said, it is important to keep in mind that this is no fault of the crew or transfer.  Infra-red footage is what it is…a means of capturing images at night.  It was never meant for entertainment purposes.  Nevertheless, other night and lowlight scenes using traditional shooting were sometimes heavier in grain than a loaf of wheat bread.

One such example that stands out was an overhead shot in the desert of a wind-swept dune casting a shadow to its right.  The sunlit sand looked beautiful.  In the shade were annoying specs, dancing about as if to taunt the viewer that their viewing experience would not be flawless.  However, the beauty outweighs the grit and beauty is something plentiful throughout Planet Earth. From the footage captured of a never-before-seen-on video big cat in Siberia, to the lush mountainsides of Borneo, your eyes will most certainly feast upon Mother Nature’s creations.

Audio 

It is a bad idea to watch an action film and then follow it up with a documentary, only to compare the audio between the two.  Planet Earth, you will find, is not heavy on utilizing the rear speakers.  However, it is quite the surround-sound experience to watch the “Caves” episode during the periods without narration while bats fly about the cave ceiling as you hear the flutter of their thin-membrane wings right behind you.  The other episodes utilize similar effects as well.

The center speaker delivers Mr. Attenborough’s narrative but just when I thought I had my speakers calibrated, I had to fine-tune them for this film…don’t worry, it’s not a big undertaking to do this (if you’re not familiar with manipulating the speakers).  It was very difficult to pick up the dialogue clearly at first.  I was a little put off by this after some time.  Make no mistake; I wasn’t comparing the audio of this with the action film at this point.  It really was just a task to hear what was being said.

Special Features 

There are no special features in this documentary.  Maybe a little something here would have been better than nothing.  Then again, maybe the crew is like me and thinks that if you can’t put it in 1080, don’t bother including it.

Final Thoughts 

In no other documentary is the circle of life so visible.  The rare creatures that most people have probably never seen, not only draw in the interest of the viewers, but educate them as well.  This is certainly a series the whole family can watch together, which is something you can’t say much these days for other titles.  Sit back and enjoy a journey that circumnavigates the globe, as you will witness scuba divers in perilous underwater caves, the evolution of the animals of the Galapagos and the beauty of the mighty sequoia, just to name a few of the stops along the way throughout the great Planet Earth.

The arrival of Blu-ray and high definition home video has had an enormous effect on the documentary industry. Suddenly cinematographers can bring us to the most remote reaches of our globe and even beyond, and they can do so with such detail and sharpness it’s like opening a window to these once unreachable places. Wild China is a perfect example of this ability. With incredible HD equipment, this mini-series from the BBC brings the hidden realms of China into our living rooms. Because of political and cultural obstacles, China has remained by and large a mystery to the Western World. It doesn’t help that many of these locations are hidden away in places that until recently were not even accessible. Now this 2 disc Blu-ray release brings together 6 one hour episodes of these amazing images.

There are 6 episodes, but don’t let any of the chapter headings fool you. The episodes go in many directions, and the narrative meanders more than China’s Yellow River. The voice is a blast from the past. Bernard Hill is perhaps best known for his portrayal of King Theodin in Peter Jackson’s Ring Trilogy. He provides an authoritarian enough voice that we easily accept what he says. The problem isn’t with the narrator, but in the script itself. Most of the narrative lacks imagination, which is something considering the highly imaginative images that accompany it. There is an overuse of adjectives like rare, wonderful, magnificent, and mysterious. The narrative also lacks focus, as the subject matter moves too quickly through seemingly unrelated items while lingering on some of the less sensational moments. All of this leads me to believe that these 6 hours could have been cut into a much more succinct 2 hours or so. Of course, then we would have been deprived of a lot of these stunning images. A great dilemma indeed. There is also a noticeable coddling of the Chinese government. The people are always described in overboard flattering terms, and no mention is ever made of the problems the country has, particularly with civil rights. When there is even the hint of criticism, such as many environmental issues, it is often softened significantly and qualified with some other compliment or two. I suppose it was important for the crew to maintain its unprecedented access to the country.

It’s all here in wonderful detail. There are the most unusual animals. You get to see people living in conditions that would startle our Western sensibilities. Most of all, many of these places are simply breathtaking. It is in these detailed images that the true value of the release must be measured. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever get a more intimate tour of the wild lands of China again. I know there has never been one like it before.

Video

Wild China is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It’s all about the amazing locations here. You get a pristine 1080p image using a solid AVC/MPEG-4 codec. There’s a strong 30 or better mbps bit rate to keep you happy the entire time, except for some strange reason the first episode. Much of that hour falls often into the barely HD range of 12-15 mbps. It’s safe for me to say that I’ve never seen more sharp and detailed documentary images before. Color is reference in quality and jumps out at you in all the right places. There is an almost 3D quality to many of the locations that feels very much like someone just opened a window. In the hot desert locations you can see the heat radiation ripple across the screen. The ice covered mountains are real enough to have you searching for a blanket. There are no compression problems at all here. Just expect tremendous sharpness, clarity, and detail, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. This is the kind of image you can use to show off that great home theater gear when guests come over. Put on anything but the first episode, and just sit back and watch them be mesmerized by the realism.

Audio

If the image is stunning, the audio is a stark disappointment. You get only a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 track here. Perhaps it’s forgivable, since much of the sound is merely the Hill narration. That would be letting them off the hook, however. There is a rousing score, that while repetitious over 6 hours, had remarkable potential. Oddly enough, it reminded me of Rings composer Howard Shore’s work. There is little use of surrounds even when exploring these vast lands and their creatures. The sound is strictly serviceable, nothing more.

Special Features

Hunting Dragons: (Standard Def) This 26 minute feature is a pretty inclusive look at the production. Many of these locations were quite remote and posed a variety of challenges both in getting there and in getting the equipment there as well. Some of the equipment did not arrive safely, accounting for some scenes being presented as time lapse photography instead of high definition video. There’s even an unpredicted wildlife encounter or two.

Final Thoughts

While I could have wished for a better script and more concise editing, I simply can’t help but recommend this release simply for the images. They belong in everyone’s library. With China developing at an alarming rate, it won’t be long before some of these places simply no longer exist. Combine that with the recent world focus on China brought about by the Olympics, and the timing couldn’t have been any better. This is your chance to visit China with only the cost of a Blu-ray release. A chance to witness this secretive and unique place, “home to ancient and amazing relationships”.