source: History of the World in 2 Hours

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this documentary. It is my opinion that the dialogue or script narrated is easy to understand that it doesn't require a professional degree, which makes it enjoyable for all young and old to watch and enjoy. I recommend it to all those who are interested in Earth history and science in general. I give credit to its creators who were able to cram 14 Billion years of history of the Cosmos and our Earth into a two hour presentation. The explanation of the Big Bang by Astrophysicist Alex Filippenko is succinct and easy to understand, as well what follows, with formation of the basic elements, and their evolution into heaver elements required as the building blocks of life billions of years later. In closing, I again recommend this presentation.

It's not perfect. Whatever can be told in 2 hours, they told us, it's not bad, but it's not good either.

In the start, the narrator comments that todays cars use fuel tapping into the 'big bang' creation. When the truth uis that Oil comes from the decay of living organisms which came much later.

I found this program on DVD from my public library. It is a "2-hour program" I suppose with commercials but the actual running time is about 87 minutes. This is a very good presentation, however bible fundamentalists who believe the world we know can only be a few thousand years old cannot watch this without risking a cranial explosion. Because it starts with the (theoretical) Big Bang billions of years ago. While the Big Bang remains only a theory, and not one that all experts buy into, there are enough sources of scientific evidence that show our universe is indeed many billions of years old. So this program starts with the Big Bang theory and concludes in present time. Along the way it explains how early gravity worked on energy and matter to form masses that eventually with enough pressure and heat ignited into stars. Eventually some of those stars exploded sending hydrogen, helium, and select heavier elements into space. After enough billions of years some of that resulted in our Earth in orbit around our Sun. Of course almost everything we think we know about the development of the Earth, accumulation of water and oxygen, evolution of various animal and plant species are based on analysis of artifacts that have been found over the years, and there can be no doubt that some of it is incorrect. But science overall is pretty good and I'd bet most of what is in this program is pretty close to what actually happened. The program includes input of quite a number of experts and we see short snippets of what they contribute. It traces some of the extinctions, like the big one that caused the dinosaurs to disappear, the rise of the primates, and the rise of the alpha primate, the Human species. Plus how we spread all over the Earth as tectonic plates and land masses moved, oceans swelled and receded. But my own summary, as I watched this highly accelerated view of the History of the World, we the Human species are not good stewards of the world we inherited. We are on a fast track to extinction, moving as fast as we can towards new technology and new ways to entertain ourselves, but also figuring out newer and better ways of going to war and killing our opposition. A bit sobering. But a good program.

The history of the world in the format of a 90 minute Michael Bay film trailer. Annoying narration, constant 21st century stock footage constantly interrupting any sense of chronology, and irrelevant interviews with modern talking heads. All the facts should be in the script with all visuals staying in sync.

How convenient it is that a title that says" history of the world", it leaves out one of the most important civilizations of the world that is referred to as, "India". You talked about the Arabic numerals, but forgot to mention the country that discovered geometry, you mentioned the pyramids and failed to mention the "Taj Mahal", and more importantly the cave paintings of France were mentioned, but the "Ajanta and Ellora", was forgotten, you talked about the Chinese traders, but failed to even mention and devote even a minute on the richest country in the ancient world. The spice trade, Indus valley civilization, Architectural wonders of "Khajurao", and "Ellora", built over nearly 3000 years found no mention in one of the most biased documentaries i have honestly ever seen. And by the way the Arabic numerals you were talking about were actually derived from the country which discovered "zero", guess what it again is "India".

Great documentary. As the title suggests, a history of the world in 2 hours (though, once you remove the ads it is more like 1.5 hours...). From the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago to the present time we see how first the universe was formed, then our galaxy, then the earth. From that we see how life began and evolved and how the planet changed. Very informative, yet succinct. Covers the important moments in the 14-billion year history of Earth with just enough detail to make you understand, and less than the amount required to make you confused. On the negative side, the narration does seem rather overly dramatic at times and some of the experts interviewed unnecessary or verbose. It does diminish the credibility of the documentary, making it seem like an action-drama. A bit more gravitas was needed.

This is a great documentary showing the history of plant earth and human history, from the creation of our planet to the rise of mankind. Although a two hour documentary could not possibly show every detail of our history it does a very good job in illustrating the evolution of earth and humanity. I would highly recommend this documentary to anyone interested in the facts of science and what we know about the path we have taken to get to the point we are now. It includes the creation of our planet, the rise of life and the human race as well as the onset of religion, agriculture and the modern civilization.

Nothing really happens in this program before 30 minutes have passed. The Narrator talks with this sensationalist voice, one would think it was the truth about the Kennedy assassination. He talks and talks about gases, big bangs, elements, and particles. We have again and again a future reference to famous buildings or building projects, for illustration. This eats up a lot of time. A lot of time! We have a lot of Scientists and other nerds talking about the subject in such enthusiastic manner, you think the episode was made for young aspiring scientists only. 30 minutes have passed before any creatures pops up in the story. But before that we are constantly bombarded with future references by clips of people through the ages, and their behavior. The fact that most is computer made, makes it more annoying. This is probably a very good story for some, but amazingly boring for other.