“Like a grand and miraculous
spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time; and for a brief moment we have been
among its passengers.”
Grand, inspiring
words – that have almost no connection to the attraction that
follows.
Don't get me wrong;
I really enjoy Spaceship Earth. I've been on every version
since it opened and loved them all. But in my opinion, the actual
attraction really doesn't tie in well with its name or stated theme.
It's the story of how humans communicate. That's a nice story, but I
don't think it has a scope that deserves either its appellation or
its location as your gateway into Future World.
So what should be
there?
Over
the past month, I have fallen completely in love with Cosmos:
A Spacetime Odyssey. It's
everything Epcot's
Future World should be: engaging, enlightening, entertaining,
educational, enthralling. And its theme is perfect for Spaceship
Earth: it explores how we discovered the laws of nature and found our
coordinates in space and time. Here we board the "Ship of
the Imagination" (how Epcot-y is that?), the show's
narrative device to explore the universe's past, present, and future.
Host Neil deGrasse Tyson shows us where the Earth sits in the
scope of the known universe, defining the Earth's "address"
within it. He explains how humanity has not always seen the universe
in this manner, and describes the hardships and persecution of
scientists and free-thinkers as they've helped humanity move forward
into new ages of discovery. Episode by episode, we are introduced to
awe-inspiring concepts in a way that's easy to understand without being
condescending. It does a far better job explaining our role as
passengers on “this, our Spaceship Earth” than the attraction
ever has.
And just think, we could end that
ongoing debate over which narrator of Spaceship Earth was superior,
because the obvious choice for this improved version would be Tyson
himself. His passion for the material shines through in every episode
of Cosmos, and would give the attraction far more life than
any of the hosts have thus far. Further, we'd then have both Neil
deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy in Future World
attractions – and if the goal of Future World (as stated on its
dedication plaque) is to “entertain, inform and inspire, and above
all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability
to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere" –
isn't that just how it should be?
