Galapagos

The Galapagos Islands, 600 miles off the coast of South Americas, is a universe unto itself. Created by seething volcanoes and powerful ocean currents, which influence them to this day, the Islands are home to creatures found nowhere else on Earth. The BBC miniseries Galapagos captures the wonder and drama of this turbulent realm in all its fantastic glory.

Presented in three 50-minute episodes; Born of Fire, The Islands That Changed The World and Forces of Nature, the story of the Galapagos and it's inhabitants are told through breathtaking footage (filmed with a combination of High Definition Cinematography and Satellite Imagery) and fascinating scientific and historical facts. The narration by actress by Tilda Swinton (the voice-overs are very reminiscent of Cate Blanchette's for the Lord of the Rings trilogy), is other worldly and haunting, vacillating between ominous foreboding and serene wonder.

Exotic life forms abound here; tropical penguins lunching on silver fish, wide eyed fur seals perform a dazzling underwater courtship ballet. At night, the waters come alive with tiny, glowing marine creature such as the cone jellyfish. Their spooky, luminous beauty is captured in vivid, spellbinding detail.

This is an extreme locale; life and death, fire and water, colliding in an endless cycle. Some of the footage is disturbing; The sequence of the Blue Footed Booby chick pushing his younger, weakling sibling out of the nest, dooming him to certain death ('siblicide' is the technical term) is sad and brutal, as Nature herself often is. Early in Episode 3, we see two pregnant, fiery colored land iguanas battle over nesting turf on the ashen slopes of a volcano on the island of Fernandina. These are hissing, determined dragons partaking in what is referred to as 'a ruthless catfight'. It's nasty.

It was on the Galapagos, an assemblage of islands, islets, reefs and rocky out-croppings, that Charles Darwin began to formulate his Theory of Evolution. The unique environment; isolated, complex, with a mixture of cold and warm waters, has fostered an explosion of life, much of it unlike any other on Earth. 500 pound tortoises, nocturnal seagulls, marine iguanas, all call the Galapagos home.

Riveting, comprehensive and visually stunning, Galapagos will be enjoyed by armchair explorers, seasoned travelers, and anyone curious about this curious place, one of the most fantastical and uncommon of Nature's creations.