Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
treatment as one would expect to find in textbooks and university class-
rooms. Consequently, when he frames the series thematically by introduc-
ing Darwin's theory of evolution in its second episode, viewers have every
reason to presume that he is merely talking about biological science, not
the mythopoeic evolution of “The Sixth Finger” or Kubrick's film. Sagan
goes on to affirm this supposition by insisting that, while his narrative has
“the sound of epic myth,” it is “simply a description of cosmic evolution as
revealed by the science of our time.”
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But what one finds is not “simply”
science. Evolution may be an important scientific subject in this series, but
more importantly it is also the series' theme. The familiar body of scientific
learning that it references simultaneously serves as a metaphor for a histori-
cal vision of progress that is imbued with more traditional notions of value,
purpose, and even design.
Even before Sagan broaches the topic of biological evolution in his
second episode, this double meaning is already at work. The introductory
episode opens with the “personal voyage” that is referenced in the series' sub-
title, but this is the voyage of
both
cosmic evolution and historical progress.
Viewers here accompany Sagan as he pilots an imaginary starship from the
farthest reaches of the universe back toward Earth, where the episode's first
segment ends, as its title indicates, on the “Shores of the Cosmic Ocean.”
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His ship takes us past quasars, spiral galaxies, black holes, globular clusters,
red giants, and then makes a closer approach to examine the geological
features of our neighboring planets before Sagan returns to Earth. What is
recapitulated in this scientific journey is cosmic evolution. As Sagan travels
the universe from the outside in, his voyage retraces the broader evolution-
ary “journey” that gave rise to biological evolution here on Earth. But by
depicting this also through the symbolism of space travel, the material “voy-
age” of evolution has also become the “voyage” of science. The shore of the
cosmic ocean where this journey ends is at once both the beginning point
of biological evolution and the point of departure from which the future of
science now takes leave.
As a teaching device, Sagan's space voyage enables him to offer a quick
preview of the astronomical science that is the main subject of these pro-
grams, but this “journey” does more than teach science. At the end of this
grand tour, with contemporary astronomy firmly in command of their
attention, Sagan's viewers will hardly notice that their host has made a quali-
tative shift. What began as a scientific survey of our “evolving” universe has
now given way to a narrative about an “evolving” human “destiny”—the spe-
cies' destined reunion with the cosmos that is being accomplished through
