Alec Baldwin


Alec Baldwin was horrendous as the narrator of this documentary. THe British version is 100% better. Professor Robert Winston adda an authority that is lacking in the US Version. I highly recomend hunting down the british version.

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I disagree. Okay, Baldwin doesn't have the authoritative old world British accent but the American version is a little more updated. Missing a longer segment of the cavemen tripping, the British dvd version leaves out a lot of the theory that pyschedelics played a part in forming our creative brains.It also leaves out the visual timeline that puts into a better perspective the number of generations we have come since the earliest ancestors. Without these two additions, the British version falls short.

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This is from the IMDB front page:

"Runtime: UK:30 min (4 episodes) / USA:100 min "

Now, unless I'm missing something, it looks like the UK version is 20 minutes LONGER than the USA, so how is it you say something was left out of the UK? If there are indeed scenes added to the USA version, there must be even more than 20 minutes of the British version left out of it. So what gives?

"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde

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I think by 30 minutes it's 20ish minutes plus commercials.

So 20X4 is 80 which is roughly the ammount of time of actual programming.

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in the American version, since they had a different narrator, all shots that had only Robert Winston in it and scenes that had him physically interacting with the cavemen (i.e him carrying Lucy's body out of the grass, uncovering her body, getting his jeep attacked by homo habilis).

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the American version is a little more updated. the British dvd version leaves out a lot of the theory that pyschedelics played a part in forming our creative brains. It also leaves out the visual timeline that puts into a better perspective the number of generations we have come since the earliest ancestors. Without these two additions, the British version falls short.
I completely agree.

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"If I've never seen it before, it's a new release to me."

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I loved Alex Baldwin as the narrator. I thought he did an excellent job.

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Alec Baldwin was ok but Robert Winston's narration was a lot more informative and less 'Hollywood' I'd give the USA version a solid 6/10 but the UK version gets an extra point in my eye's, 7/10

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I have compared the two versions and the differences are minor, the end result of which version is better is your preference of the narrator. The program is scripted, the information in both versions is the same and almost word for word. The slight differences are in the use of the British and American english. The American version has the time-line added, and in my opinion is very beneficial to the overall information.

"Runtime: UK:30 min (4 episodes) / USA:100 min " Now, unless I'm missing something, it looks like the UK version is 20 minutes LONGER than the USA, so how is it you say something was left out of the UK? If there are indeed scenes added to the USA version, there must be even more than 20 minutes of the British version left out of it. So what gives?
They are both right at about 100 minutes long. However, ...

in the American version, since they had a different narrator, all shots that had only Robert Winston in it and scenes that had him physically interacting with the cavemen (i.e him carrying Lucy's body out of the grass, uncovering her body, getting his jeep attacked by homo habilis).
...I did not see any interaction on this DVD with Robert Winston as the narrator, leading me to believe that this is an edited version of the British version. The DVD is in fact branded "BBC America".

This means there are three versions, the Alec Baldwin American version, the Robert Winston British version, and the Robert Winston American version.

Alec Baldwin was ok but Robert Winston's narration was a lot more informative and less 'Hollywood'
I watched both versions, the narration is scripted, the information is exactly the same.

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