Very fun miniseries

I was so delighted to find this again :D. I saw one of the episodes years ago on tv, and then someone mentioned it on Quora, and I had to go find it on youtube.

"Extraterrestrial" is a 2-part miniseries that tells of two hypothetical planets where we might possibly find life. All the plants and animals on such worlds are designed, based on what biologists and astrophysicists know of how life developed on our own world, and then they used their imaginations. I'll admit the CGI looks kinda cheesy now, but to be fair, it was 2005 when they made this.

Episode 1 was about Aurelia, a tidally-locked planet where these giant pink "fan" trees grew and had beating hearts. There were interesting creatures there, such as these carnivorous, 2-legged animals that looked like ugly ostriches, little 6-legged lizards, and a scary, microscopic creature called "Hysteria." The adaptations these creatures had made to live on a planet where the sun never sets was fascinating. Adapting to protect against solar flares was also interesting.

Episode 2 was the more well-known and broadcast episode, about the Blue Moon. It was a large moon orbiting a gas giant, and had a very thick, highly oxygenated atmosphere. The planet did have landmasses, oceans, and a day/night cycle, but I still wouldn't recommend any human set foot on such a world. The high air-pressure would press down too much, and it's very hot on the planet's surface. Due to the high oxygen content, and the frequent thunderstorms, fires are a constant danger, because they burn out of control in such an environment.
What was fascinating about the Blue Moon were the sky-whales. I loved watching them fly around above a super-tall forest of blue trees. There were tall, conical rock formations, a giant kite-like animal that floated over the "pagoda forest," as it was called, and there were even predators living further down in the forest.
The trees had large, cup-like structures that collected rainwater to nourish them, freeing them from needing roots to get water. Sadly, the pagoda forest also has dangers, such as those weird, bird/mosquito things with the three eyes. Small wonder the sky-whales stay aloft as much as possible. Otherwise they would be dinner for the bird/mosquitos.

While the two planets don't exist in real life, the hook for this series is....they could.