BBC's Planet Earth

I've just finished watching the 11 episodes of BBC's Planet Earth television series. And I'm floored. This series has been an absolute visual treat, with photographic and documentary techniques that not only inform, but also delight and entertain!

Each episode deals with a specific "habitat", like caves, mountains, oceans, etc., except for the first ("Pole to Pole") which is like a trailer for what follows. This series isn't just about animals or plants, it's about our planet as a whole.

Remember the Taiga forests? They're the forests where trees first begin to grow, thanks to the increased sunlight, as you come down from the North pole. In this series, you actually get to see that horizontal strip turn from white (snow/ice) to green from space. No animations, no wordy descriptions -- just a time lapse sequence from space.

This is the first series I've seen that has used satellite and time lapse photography so well, both for artistic expression as well as for education. In the episode "Jungles", for example, time lapse photography shows how the parasite Cordyceps fungi takes over and destroys insects from within.

The series also contains generous footage of very rare animals -- the double-humped Bactrian camels of the Gobi Desert, as well as the Himalayan snow leopard.

Perhaps the best thing about this series is that it's available in India, as a 5-DVD set! It costs about INR 1200, and includes bonus materials like Planet Earth Diaries and Planet Earth: The Future.

Highly recommended!