Settling in, with a generous portion of pasta, the stand fan stood useless in a corner now, I am anticipating wonder. Because, once comfortable, I press play on episode one of Frozen Planet II, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
And, from here on out, a spoiler alert is in effect . . .
The episode opens with Sir Attenborough looking over a large virtual representation of Planet Earth, specifically its most frozen places. He reminds us that in the first series, Frozen Planet, which first aired eleven years ago, we explored the Arctic and Antarctica. In this follow up series, we are promised a look at all frozen places across the globe, the entire cryosphere.
We are also reminded that these places on our planet are some of the most vulnerable, and they are rapidly being lost.
In this series, Sir David tells us, we will see the precious wildlife in these places, wildlife that is seriously under threat, whilst there is "still time to save them."
It is impossible to ignore the adversities facing wildlife and the natural world. And Sir David, with a love for, and first hand experience of, the natural world that spans almost the entirety of his ninety-six years, lends his voice to acknowledge those adversities.
You'd struggle to find a voice worth listening to more on the subject, in my humble opinion.
"This is Frozen Planet 2 . . . "
After the programme's opening theme music fades, the episode begins proper with a breeding colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica. A scene that viewers of the original series might be familiar with. But, this time, rather than following the trials of the parent birds as they strive for the survival of newly born chicks, we meet the colony as the parents leave the chicks, done with the job of raising the new generation.
In the opening sequence, we follow the juvenile Emperor penguins, already nearly a metre tall, as they make the journey from the place of their birth to the sea. Traversing the ice as spring sun warms the landscape, they must navigate cracks that are beginning to appear beneath their feet.
There is a moment of slight drama when the birds do fall through a crack, and struggle to get back on the ice. But this is a rather calm and cute opening – you must have a heart colder than the Antarctic itself if you don't feel some warmth at the sight of the young penguin chicks! – and there is greater drama to come yet.
A scene of Killer whales hunting seal anticipates a tougher watch. Again, anyone that has watched Attenborough documentaries before will remember what efficient and intelligent hunters these animals are. And, indeed, as Attenborough tells us that the orca have a ninety per cent hunt success rate, we watch the family of Killer whales topple a Weddell seal from an ice floe and feed on the unfortunate animal.
As promised at the top of the episode, this series will explore all icy places across the planet, unlike the previous series which only took in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Temperatures drop and ice forms in places of great altitude, we are reminded. And so, the next sequence takes us to the tops of the Andes mountain range, and wondrously beautiful views play across the screen. Truly awesome views.
The awesome beauty though is fragile.
When we are introduced to a Siberian tiger, a powerful and stunning image, we are reminded that it is an animal forced to the brink of extinction, with fewer than five-hundred thought to be left in the wild.
The sequence follows the big cat in a search for food and, using footage obviously gathered over months and months, plays out the story wonderfully. With moments from the past fading into the present, as the tiger follows the scent of possible prey that had passed through the landscape weeks and months before. As footage of animals recorded months before blends seamlessly with the tigers presence in the scene, it is a revelation of just how beautifully the team behind the documentary are able to use the technology available to them to tell the stories of the wildlife they have documented.
This sequence is followed by beautifully shot views of the Aurora borealis. In the first half hour of the programme, we have already followed penguin chicks on their first significant journey, watched as orca hunt seal, and followed a Siberian tiger in search of food. The Aurora marks the halfway point in the episode well. A moment of pure beauty.
Soon after, we are immersed into a scene of a more brutal nature. The sight of a Grizzly bear killing new born Musk oxen, as many as it can take, and the confused and inexperienced young oxen not knowing to run from, rather than toward, the predator, is a tough watch. But a nature documentary that does not document the adversities and the brutalities of nature is no documentary at all. It is a Victorian idea of nature being all harmony and elegance, edited to tell a fairytale version of the natural world and wildlife.
And these animals, the hunters must do what they must do to survive, as they have done for the entirety of their time on this planet. They are not villains. They just are.
Besides, there is still much here to warm the heart and raise a smile, and perhaps those moments are all the more wonderful because they happen side by side with the violence that can happen in nature.
There is though sadness, and bittersweet beauty here too. Time lapse footage of ice melting faster and faster, Greenland glaciers rolling with the sound of thunder, ice breaking and water crashing . . . A mother polar bear striving to feed her young in a landscape changing faster than these animals can adapt to that change . . .
But. This documentary reveals to viewers, though there is a fight to be fought, there is still something sublime worth fighting for.
Must watch television, Frozen Planet II is available on BBC iPlayer.
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Thank you for reading.
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