Smallscreen News

'Planet Earth' returns in November

By Stone Martindale Oct 26, 2007, 15:56 GMT

Discovery Channel is giving viewers a second chance to see the award-winning 11-part series "Planet Earth" next month after debuting it last spring. Sigourney Weaver - © Scott Alan / Photorazzi

Sigourney Weaver - © Scott Alan / PhotorazziThe network will rerun the hi-def series with two episodes each night for six weeks starting November 11 at 8pm, according to Cynopsis.More than five years in the making, "Planet Earth" redefined blue-chip natural history filmmaking and continues the Discovery Channel mission to provide the highest quality programming in the world. The 11-part series amazed viewers with never-before-seen animal behaviors, startling views of locations captured by cameras for the first time, and unprecedented high-definition production techniques. Award-winning actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver is the series' narrator.

The premiere episode, "Pole to Pole," ties the series together with a fresh understanding of how life in every nook and cranny of the globe is connected -- from the highest mountains and darkest caves; shallowest water and deepest oceans; ice-covered lands and great plains; untamed jungles and giant forests; to freshwater and the harshest deserts. The sunward tilt of Earth's orbit dictates all our lives, creating the seasons that trigger one of the greatest spectacles in the world -- the mass migration of animals. It's a unique view of the majesty of our planet and the amazing creatures that live here.

Episodes include:MOUNTAINS
This episode tours the mightiest of mountain ranges and introduces a few of its extreme animal mountaineers -- the mountain lion, snow leopard and puma, all rarely filmed creatures. CGI time-lapse footage brings the mysterious geological history of mountains to life, while flying alongside bar-headed geese provides a spectacular view of the Himalayas.

DEEP OCEAN
The ocean is by far the largest habitat on our planet and it remains almost entirely unexplored. This episode scans the ocean's vast surface and trolls its depths, revealing daytime hunters and night feeders, from dolphins to manta rays, and life among hot vents and underwater massifs, following the energy source between oceanic white tips, myctopids, tuna, whale sharks and petrels. Deserts

Deserts

DESERTS
Deserts are united by their lack of rain, yet they are the most varied of our planet's ecosystems. Go where freshwater is really precious and meet animals that have learned to survive with small amounts of it, such as the wild Bactrian camel of Mongolia's Gobi Desert that eats snow instead of drinking water or Chile's guanacos that lick dew from cactus spines. Experience spectacular aerial and time-lapse footage, featuring an explosion of life and shifting sand dunes.

ICE WORLDS
This episode guides viewers on a journey to the polar extremes of our planet. Freshwater is frozen and out of reach, and coupled with numbing temperatures, this makes life hard in frozen climes from the top to the bottom of the world. CGI time-lapse and elapsed-time filming techniques show Arctic ice coming and going over the centuries, and emperor penguins settling in to breed in Antarctica.

SHALLOW SEAS
Follow a humpback whale mother and her calf on their epic journey to the most prolific feeding grounds that fringe the coasts. The shallow seas that lie above the continental shelf are the richest in the ocean. It is here that you find the coral reefs and, in colder waters, the fishing grounds. Massive shoals of fish act like magnets for predators. Spectacular storm footage, above and below the water, reveals extraordinary events in this tropical paradise. Plains

Plains

GREAT PLAINS
A quarter of the earth's surface is covered with grass, and the world's plains are home to massive herds of animals. This episode traverses the grasslands of Mongolia and the flooding plains of Papua New Guinea, and finds great gatherings of creatures, such as East Africa's wildebeest and clusters of rare grazers like Mongolian gazelles.

JUNGLES
Beautiful floating aerial shots introduce the world's most spectacular forest vistas and high-definition cameras enable unprecedented views of the species that live on the dark jungle floor, in this episode. Enter a world of mood and menace, and witness intense competition on a macro and micro scale as jaguars track prey and fungi infiltrate insect hosts.FRESHWATER
Just 3 percent of the planet's water is fresh and it is our most precious resource. Rivers and lakes have shaped the earth, carving out the world's most impressive gorges, valleys and waterfalls. Unique behavior takes place in the presence of this life force, such as dueling otters and crocodiles and diving macaques. Forests

Forests

FORESTS
This episode tells the story of seasonal forests and plant survival. Forests cover vast expanses from Siberia to Tasmania and still remain largely unexplored. Infrared and low-light cameras peek into the lives of elusive woodland inhabitants, such as snub-nosed monkeys, Amur leopards and Siberian tigers.

CAVES
Caves are Earth's final frontier, and this episode will go where few have been before. Caves are one of the only habitats not directly driven by sunlight, but this doesn't mean there's no wildlife living in their confines. Descend into darkness to witness the unseen behaviors of bizarre creatures like cave angel fish that attach themselves to walls and swiftlets that build nests from saliva.