- [Narrator] Despite our
limitations and foul abilities,
we humans are capable of greatness.
- [Marah] The show is so impressive
and it goes so many different places,
and especially this
season, it's sort of like,
ties the past to the future.
What was the writing and
research process like
for the show?
- The idea was we wanted to
create a life-changing experience,
where, you know, where are facing
tremendously daunting challenges
in terms of where we are as a civilization
and the danger to our
children and grandchildren,
and we didn't want to just, you know,
grab you by the lapels and scream,
we're all gonna die, you know?
We wanted to create a vision of the future
that was worth working for.
Not the dystopian kind of future
that we're so used to seeing,
but also we wanted to demonstrate
by telling the stories
of these heroic searchers
who've added to our
understanding of nature.
We wanted to tell the stories
so that you would come out owning them,
owning those ideas, being more powerful,
and perhaps more persuaded
that it matters what's true
and that we can, we can do this,
we can get to that future of the 2039
New York Worldsphere
or the time when our species is arrayed
throughout the galaxy, on different,
on those possible worlds.
We wanted to tell those stories
so that people will come
out inspired, awakened,
and ready to act in defense of the future.
We are not investing in the future.
We're investing in the
energy supplies of the past.
We're looking backward
and we have to shift gears
because what's called for is for all of us
to start thinking in the timescales
that the scientists are giving us,
not to the next election, not
to the next balance sheet,
but to the longest possible future.
And so, for me, this is
a public undertaking.
The widest possible undertaking.
You know, when I was a kid,
and we went to the moon,
no matter how much I
disagreed with the government
about other things, and I did,
I felt a sense of pride
that we were engaged
in a mythic undertaking,
and I think we're missing that.
And I don't think this should be,
it seems to me like we're
going back to the 19th century
to depend on the kindness of billionaires
to get us to the stars.
I think we all have to be part
of that great undertaking.
- [Narrator] How far
will our nomadic species
have wandered by the
end of the next century?
And the next millennium?
- [Marah] The show is so
heavily graphically based.
How did you guys work
to make sure that those are
accurate representations?
- This is a documentary show
that can't take cameras into outer space,
back in time, in the future
or to the microscopic scale
so they're all these
places that we have to go
and we gotta figure out
how we're going to do it
and we have a lot of visual
mediums at our disposal.
The visual effects,
animation, and other things
to do all of those things.
In terms of accuracy, it's the research
and it's our scientific advisors.
Andre Bor Madison, you
said, how many other?
- A dozen other very
distinguished scientists
that we rung our ideas by
and asked for a criticism
in order to, winnow out,
we all make mistakes,
just to winnow out, you know,
the areas of scientific
fact which we certainly
don't want in cosmos.
We wanna keep to the facts.
We have a brilliant, the
effects supervisor, Jeff Okun,
and throughout, it was important
to get the physics right
because that's the effects you believe
because you know how things fall and move.
- We worked together
every day, all day long.
Like we were, it was a--
- Sometimes seven days a week.
- It was, and thousands
of visual effects shots
going through dozens
of iterations a piece.
Sometimes it felt like
that's all they were doing,
but it was worth it.
- Yeah, each shot could
have 50, 60 iterations,
but it wasn't final until we
were both completely happy.
- [Marah] Last question is
would you guys go to space
and I have to imagine the answer is yes,
and under what circumstances?
Like, do you wanna go, you know,
does your whole family
have to go with you--
- Yes (laughs).
- [Interviewer] Or do you wanna
go and come back in a week
or you wanna be on Earth still or--
- Yeah.
You know, I wanna go in my imagination,
but I'm very happy on this planet.
I am, you know for me,
especially because I am a
mother and a grandmother,
I feel just like, I'll
just stay right here,
thank you very much, but,
and also, I'm not very
crazy about very confined
or relatively confined spaces,
so I think I'm gonna stay here.
But Brannon, what about you?
- I've got panic issues
so I think, you know,
I would go given the chance, who wouldn't?
I mean, for a short trip.
- I might not, I might not (laughs).
- I don't know, it depends
on the safety, I don't know.
- If it was like the multi-generational
intergalactic superliner
that we depict in the show,
like I could, all right, I'll get on that
because I know that there's a sauna,
you know, there's a lot of stuff to do,
but not in the immediate future.
♪ We're inspired ♪
♪ We're inspired ♪
(cinematic music)
- [Announcer] Who will we
become in the far future?
(light music)
