Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon Review

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by Ron Repking May 24, 2011 01:11 PM

Categories: TV Shows

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First Aired: 2005

Run Time: 60 minutes

3D Channel: n3D on DirecTV

Overall:

Use of 3D:

3D Quality:

Content:

Pros:

Interesting look at Apollo missions
Age appropriate for anyone
Good integration of 2D material with 3D picture

Cons:

Some shadowing
Lots of 2D footage
Very Short runtime given breadth of material

It's been over 4 decades since man first landed on the moon. It's been so long in fact, most people have it only in the back of their minds or the younger generation doesn't even realize the accomplishment. At this point, most of the novelty of moon exploration has waned. Travel to the moon has been conquered - on to the next thing.

Content Review

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the moon, narrated by Tom Hanks, looks to bring back some of the excitement of the many moon landings and all of the preparation that went into them.

What makes this show interesting in is the detail of the procedures that the astronauts had to go through to get out on the moon and how they spent their time there. Every minute on moon was planned. The astronauts had a strict schedule to adhere to in order to perform certain tasks and collect various samples. They also went into detail on how they get their gear on, the different suits that they wear, and different vehicles that they used over the years. Intermixed with different quotes from the astronauts made it an interesting experience.

Use and Quality of 3D

Most of the footage takes place on the 'moon', real or created via CGI. This gives you a good feel for the depth of the craters and terrain of the moon. Obviously, the CGI version is much clearer and interesting, but the 'real' footage makes it more believable. The 'real' footage is presented in shadow boxes so that it is readily apparent what is real and generated.

The best shot is towards the end of the show when they take a dive down into the Hadley Rille - a huge crater on the surface of the moon. It is a quick shot but still interesting.

Hadley Rille closeup and traverse map of Apollo 15 Courtesy of NASA

Overall, the 3D quality was OK, not great. There were several pictures with shadowing, but overall not too distracting. The 3D didn't add a whole lot, but definitely had its moments.

The Bottom Line

Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon is an entertaining, family program. It can be used as a wonderful tool for teaching your children about the moon and garnering a discussion about the various landings on the moon. While I wouldn't watch this show only for its 3D features, it was definitely worth the watch.

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