“Unseen Worlds,” Part 1 of a 12-part,
3-year television series to be shown on
PBS and selected commercial
stations. Produced by WQED/
Pittsburgh in association with the
National Academy of Sciences with
funding from Digital Equipment Corp.
The latest big, respectable, complicated television series about science is The Infinite Voyage. Its subtitle (and stated organizing principle) is “The Great Adventure of Scientific Exploration and Discovery.” But the first installment, just aired on public television and just about to be aired on a dozen large commercial stations, doesn’t really get around to making that point until the end. Then we are shown a bunch of Fermilab physicists whooping it up at the conclusion of a successful experiment, Leon Lederman in their midst declaring, “This is what science is all about.”
For the most part, “Unseen Worlds” comes across as something of a hodgepodge, now briefly attending an autopsy on an ancient ...
