Journeying the Cosmos Without Carl

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

With that quote, so begins "The Lives of the Stars", my favorite episode of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos: A Personal Journey".  

I was a freshly minted college graduate with a degree in geology and a minor in astronomy when Carl's landmark 13-part series aired on my local PBS TV station in the fall of 1980.  Now 34 years later, Carl's widow, Ann Druyan, in collaboration with Neil deGrasse Tyson have endeavored to redo, update and refresh Cosmos for the 21st century and a new audience.  Certainly a great deal has changed since then; new discoveries, new technology and new information we didn't have before but as I write this, hours away from the broadcast debut of the new series, I can't help but feel a bit ambivalent.  Journeying through the cosmos without Carl just won't be the same. 

To be sure, if anyone can possibly fill Carl's shoes, Neil deGrasse Tyson is the best candidate.  In many ways he has that same sense of awe and wonder that were as much an integral part of Carl Sagan as his ubiquitous turtleneck sweaters and corduroy suit coat.  Neil has the same easy-going manner and knack for making the most complex astronomical concepts comprehensible to the average person and also possesses a fair amount of that engaging "gee wiz" flair.  And I have no doubt that Ann Druyan has gone to great lengths to carry on Carl's legacy and vision in a loving and faithful way.  But I know I will miss the unique cadence of Carl's voice as he skillfully carried us along on his personal journey through space and time.

Watching the original Cosmos had a profound effect on me that still resonates with me to this day.  The coffee table companion book to the series is the only book of that type that I have ever dared to desecrate with a yellow highlighter.  But I grew up in the space age, watching the excitement and drama of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.  I came of age during the era of exploration beyond our planet with the Viking, Pioneer and Voyager missions to Mars and beyond.  As a science major, I sat with my classmates watching real-time downloads of the spectacular photos from Voyager with barely restrained anticipation along with the engineers at JPL in California.  We cheered along with the mission controllers as each new photo slowly painted, line by line, gazing upon images of Jupiter and Saturn with sublime clarity no Earth-based telescope could match.  It was a time of wonder, thrilling speculation and debate.  So I suppose it should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me well why Cosmos left such an impact on me.

Cosmos was subtitled "A Personal Journey" for good reason.  Over 13 weeks, Carl took us on a thrilling voyage of discovery and wonder as he shared his awe and admiration for our vast universe in all its amazing complexity.  Each episode left me tingling with excitement and I dreamed of standing beside Carl in his Spaceship of the Imagination as he explored quasars and black holes, pulsars and nebulae, watching stars being born in spinning, collapsing clouds of interstellar dust and eventually dying spectacularly in fiery exploding super novae of unimaginable proportions.  In hindsight the minimalist set was a bit cheesy perhaps but believing the simplistic console with flashing lights, the leather office chair, subdued lighting and large view screen were actually the bridge of a spaceship was hardly the point.  No doubt the new series will have something far more flashy with all that computer generated effects now have to offer.  What was more important and most memorable to me was the look of child-like wonder on Carl's face as he imagined visiting all the far-flung corners of creation and sharing that excitement and wonder with the rest of us.  If he was able to suspend his disbelief for a short time, so could we.

So, as I sit down tonight and watch "Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey" I will try to do it with an open mind for what Neil and Ann are attempting to do; sharing Carl's vision and wonder with a new generation and bringing it up to date for a new century.  I will certainly learn a few things along the way, as I did more than three decades ago. And no doubt it will rekindle the same sense of wonder and awe that I carried with me all through college and into adulthood, every time I pause and look up at the night sky.  But Carl will not be far from my mind and I hope he won't mind if I end up being a bit nostalgic for his labor of love which is the original Cosmos.  I think he would be pleased that his legacy lives on in the minds and hearts of so many after more than thirty years.  And I like to think that now that he's passed on, he's found the answers to all of those questions he dared to ask and dream of so long ago.