It was a good show for an astrology idjiot like me. It explained how many scientist now believe that black holes are not rare, but are probably at the center of every galaxy and may explain how galaxies came into existance in the first place.
But the music. Oh Lordy, the cheesy 1970s sci-fi, horrible nerve-grating, LOUD, John Williams-suffocated-in-smaltz crappy music. Why?
Here’s more about them there supermassive black holes without the crappy music.
Did you mean “astronomy” rather than “astrology”?
Of course I did! Toldja I was an idjiot.
The music, if I’m not mistaken, was taken from the movie “Predator.” An odd, if not wholly inappropriate choice.
Biggirl,
The wife and I were trying to watch this show last night. It was fascinating, what we could hear of it under the overly dramatic out of context music cheese. We finally gave up.
There were definitely bits in the score where the star trek theme song (the original) was being played by a couple of instruments.
Not to mention the whole concept (no pun intended) being portrayed as terrifying. How cheesy is that?
I know. They are trying to make the whole situation of our galaxy seem so ominous. Even if the thing was trying to suck us in, our own star would burn out long before our solar system made the journey.
That was one of those ‘documentaries’ that are made to awe and frighten and startle, not to inform. I got about 10 minutes in, (recognized the theme music from Predator) and realized I hadn’t actually learned anything.
I heard lots of adjectives and adverbs, though. I think I heard the word voracious or insatiable to describe the gravity of a large black hole, as if it’s a hungry beast.
I punted and had more fun.
I was able to sit through part of that show as well. Each time they went to commercial I was expecting a “duh - duh - duuuhhhhhhhh” clip to be played, kind of like the type that you hear in mystery/horror movies at times. In general though, the information they presented was quite interesting.
Cripes, I thought I was the only one bugged by that inane music. I swear, it would have been so much better if they had cut the 70s cheesy sound track.
I thought, other than the music, that the show was pretty good. Anyone know, in terms of scientific accuracy, how spot on it was?
My husband and I were able to sit through the whole show, although we were tempted to change the channel several times (Black holes in our galaxy? Dun dun duuuuuhhhhhh!) because we found the actual information quite interesting. And because I found it interesting, I dug around a little.
Hubblesite talks about all the black holes the telescope has found
And here’s a transcript of a BBC show on the very same subject.
Where’s The Bad Astronomer when you need him?
See, this is the tragedy of the cheesy music. Finding black holes at the center of most galaxies really is startling. Finding a black hole at the center of the Milky Way was something of a shock to astronomers. But that damned music made the show seem like an In Search Of. . . shlockfest.
I demand a re-edit!
Not particularly. It was only surprising to the extent that when galactic black holes were first discovered, black holes themselves were a fairly new concept. But it makes perfect theoretical sense to expect a Big Massive Thing in the core of a galaxy, and a black hole is really the only single object which can get that big.
