Horizon - new series

I'll admit I have seen few episodes in recent years but to say it has vastly improved is ridiculous. I knew it was in a very bad way but until that chimps programme last year I didn't know how bad. It not only contained no science, it actively set out to show up scientists as stuffy and close-minded when it was quite obviously not the case. By beginning with such a awful hypothesis as "chimps are people too" it was hard to take seriously from the title alone.

I know this is only one example from the new look but I wouldn't want to waste my time on the piffle again, especially after reading reviews of the latest batch which seem to confirm my worries.This is a show that used to have interviews with Richard Feynman, now it has a comedian dicking around trying to be clever (and failing badly). See http://asadodo.blogspot.com/2006/10/intelligent-science-programmes-on.html, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/09/horizon/ and www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/04/bbc_horizon_letters/ for more rants.

I can only think of the Sky at Night as the only programme that still contains traces of science on television anymore, probably since the format hasn't changed in half a century.

Try the excellent http://badscience.net for more on things like this.

P.S I did like the piano jingle and desert titles though!

I've found a copy of the previous titles... well, an endcap of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/images/horizon_main.jpg

The logo formed up when some data streams hit the horizon, causing an explosion - following which the logo would slide out from the centre. It was the best all-round sequence since the tower was dropped. According to this press release, Red Bee were responsible for it.

Has anyone got the full opening and closing music for this sequence? After the first series using this sequence, some silly person (perhaps a marketing man who wanted to fit more trailers in?) chopped off the first bit so all we were left with was the form-up. Could someone also provide a large-ish copy of the tower? That sequence would work well with the tower.

And as for the chimps - it just proves that in-vision continuity and narrating is not necessarily a good thing.

well.............

An interesting start tonight .....

Ejaculating a male elephant, by prostate massage......

well I never though the BBC would have to go to Five stranded to get a programmes together

Last night's programme was... erm... well, the title alone sounded like it came from Channel 4's style of "The Boy with a Parrot Stuck up his Bottom", and the programme wasn't much better. What's due for next week?

You know you need to start again on a Horizon documentary when it starts by someone masturbating an elephant. *vomits all over screen*

For some reason I'm glad I watched Life on Mars instead...

I wish I'd watched that too... there were bound to be more references to 1970s and 2000s science in that than references to any science in The Elephant's Guide to... erm... "it" .