A 2010 documentary miniseries characterized more by insipid speculation than by anything transcendentally great. Each episode (there are only three in all) begins “Hello. My name is Stephen Hawking: physicist, cosmologist, and something of a dreamer.” What kind of self-important balderdash is that? The ensuing material feels like a lot of unnecessary, crowd-pleasing nattery, rarely impressive science. Hawking’s synthesized voice is spliced -- sometimes awkwardly, sometimes not -- with a nice-n-easy British baritone (Benedict Cumberbatch). I wonder how much of the costs went toward that effect: it couldn’t be an insignificant part.
The first one, “Aliens,” deals a lot with biology… a lot of “Well, they might be like this.” And that’s about it. The concept of extraterrestrials might intrigue…