“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”                                — Carl Sagan, creator of the series “Cosmos”

It was this kind of statement that made the original “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” released in 1980, the most watched PBS show until 2009.

With current television shows such as “The Big Bang Theory” and movies such as “Gravity,” the public’s attention stays directed toward science.  The continued curiosity of the public is what Neil DeGrasse Tyson hopes to capture with the reboot of Carl Sagan’s PBS special “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.” But how has this new version filled the large shoes of the original?

“It’s very good, but I wouldn’t say it’s better,” said Mr. Larry Winegarden, a teacher at Trinity who uses the original series in his Earth and Space Science classes. “It’s updated with modern special effects. Sometimes I think the presentation is a bit scattered — that is doesn’t follow a central theme — but Neil DeGrasse Tyson does an excellent job in presenting the information. The original ‘Cosmos’ was presented on PBS without commercial interruptions, and it was watched by a special niche of people. Hopefully, the message of the current ‘Cosmos’ won’t get lost in the special effects and commercials.” 

While some hold out that the original is better, some younger people who have more recently come across “Cosmos,” have a different opinion.

“I really, really like it,” said Brianna Damron, a senior at Eastern High School. “Not only is the information incredibly interesting, but the graphics are perfect and captivates my attention the whole time. And Neil DeGrasse Tyson is obviously very intelligent.”

Damron, who has seen episodes of the new series and small segments of the original, said, “Neil just seems a bit more interesting. I don’t know what it is.”

Trinity sophomore Tyler Hawkins said, “I like the more modern version, not that I can really compare it to the older version, but it captures my attention.  I think it was about time to make a new version, considering all the new advances in science since the original.”

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” is a must-see series for anyone looking to learn a bit about the world around you.