It’s all in the packaging.
Take footage from the vaults of the National Geographic collection of series and specials from over the decades, use the ending of the century as a hook, bring in John Lithgow from NBC’s “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and you’ve got the two-hour “Adventures in Time: The National Geographic Millennium Special,” which airs Wednesday at 7 p.m. on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because National Geographic has provided us with some of the most stunning shots of nature and cultures of people.
There are scenes of flowers blooming, insects working, animals in their natural habitat and peoples from around the world. Computer animation at times helps to flesh out whatever story is being told. Such famous explorers as Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard, paleoanthropologists Mary and Louis Leakey, and the passion and pain of climbers of Mt. Everest are also featured.
The special is also good in showing National Geographic isn’t just about shooting cute animals, as witness the coverage it has given to such thrillseekers as parachute jumpers and skiers, mountain and tree climbers, and advances in technology and space exploration.
But naturally, the animal footage is the most breathtaking. Elephants battle each other, lion cubs fuss with their parents, and a lizard protects itself from a hungry coyote by squirting blood from its tear duct.
In fact, with scenes of procreation (those elephants–what champs!), birth, and in one especially nasty scene, our pals the chimpanzees literally ripping apart a slighter species of monkey, parents may want to steer their very little ones clear from some parts of “Adventures in Time.”
You get scads of lovely film, but unfortunately, you also get the hook for “Adventures in Time,” which presents something of a problem.
“The observance of this year 2000 is a singular opportunity to listen to the heartbeat of the planet,” says Lithgow.
The special doesn’t just listen, it dissects. You’d think that a show supposedly celebrating the millennium would focus on the last 1,000 years. But “Adventures in Time” tries to get a little more ambitious than that.
Thanks to the library of film and video that is available, the result is an exploration of the history of Earth, starting with the very formation of the universe and our planet–with the help of animation–and then collating those prehistoric years with nature scenes that closely relate to whatever is being highlighted.
For example, the special talks about the shark as “part time machine, part killing machine,” a creature that has been swimming the seas for centuries. The special then spools out part of an old piece about a shark named “Stumpy,” who every year returns to the same location off the Californian coast.
The special then takes a walk through the history of us, from the very beginning to the possibilities of the future, with each stop matching up with pieces from past National Geographic shows. And all the while, the reference of time is inserted.
It is “what we learn, believe and create, that determines our group identity,” Lithgow says. “And that identity . . . often determines our relationship with time.”
There’s nothing wrong with this storytelling device, except some times it just doesn’t fit. Sometimes the time hook is awkward, as if producers were working just a little too hard to justify the National Geographic pieces with the time peg that the special is following.
It’s fine when, for example, talk of the first dinosaurs leads into a piece on archaeologists digging up bones in Mongolia of the so-called “oviraptor” dinos, or how a bit on early civilizations smoothly going into the discovery of an Egyptian tomb that for centuries has been holding the mummy of a nobleman.
But there are other times when the copy isn’t so smooth, as if it’s reaching to make its point.
It might have been best if National Geographic had simply called itself “The Best of . . .” or something simple as that and trotted out two hours of clips from its fine library of specials and series segments. It certainly has enough of a point of view to more than support the fine photography it has done over the years.
Where’s the remote? Two above-average episodes of UPN’s “7 Days” and “Star Trek: Voyager” repeat Wednesday on WPWR-Ch. 50 at 7 and 8 p.m., respectively. Especially great is “Voyager,” which showcases Kate Mulgrew as an ancestor of her Capt. Janeway character in a flashback episode that also uses the turning to the year 2000 as a hook–and succeeds famously.
– Watch Wednesday’s rerun of ABC’s “The Drew Carey Show” (8 p.m., WLS-Ch. 7) secure in the knowledge that Drew and the gang will be around until the year 2002. The network has signed a deal worth a reported $105 million to keep the series for its sixth and seventh seasons.
