"Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series" Documentary: A | Extras: A+

Even the most well-traveled people will see less than 1 percent of our planet before they die. This is made abundantly clear in the BBC's 550-minute compendium of the most amazing sights and rare creatures on this rock known simply as "Planet Earth." Segments are divided into geographical regions (Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Ice Worlds, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests, and Ocean Deep), and each one feels more revelatory than the last. What's on display here cannot be done justice in print, suffice it to say that if the thought of seeing a Great White shark attacking a Cape Fur seal in ultra-slow motion or a rare Asian Snow Leopard hunt Ibex on a near-vertical cliff doesn't excite you, you might as well avoid this series. \nIf you've only witnessed "Planet Earth" during its recent airings on The Discovery Channel, you've been denied the full experience. Not only is there 90 minutes of footage re-inserted into this release that was excised in the series' move from the BBC to American television, but the original David Attenborough narration remains intact. The Discovery Channel, in all its wisdom, saw fit to replace the graceful, engaging narration of the legendary Attenborough with a less effective track recorded by Sigourney Weaver for the benefit of Americans who they must've felt couldn't understand a British man saying words like "glacier" and "algae." \nIn the extras department, this set is loaded to the gills. Each of the 11 individual chapters has its own "Planet Earth Diaries" behind-the-scenes segment, each 10 minutes in length, chronicling the toughest tests the series' camera crew and location scouters had to face to get the shots they needed. Being hunted by a hungry polar bear, scaling a mountain of bat feces, swimming with piranhas and spending nearly a month in a camouflaged, claustrophobic box to film the vibrant courtship rituals of New Guinea's Birds of Paradise only scratches the surface of what these men went through to bring the rarely seen to viewers. The fifth and final disc of this set, titled "Planet Earth: The Future," is a 150-minute forum on how we humans can best interact with our planet in the future to ensure we don't lose it. It's never preachy, and certainly never political, in making an excellent case for consideration, conservation and preservation. \nI would recommend the HD and Blu-Ray versions if only they didn't omit all of the extras found on the standard DVD version due to disc space constraints. Aside from showing us hours of spectacular sights most of us will never see first hand, all filmed and narrated with the utmost respect and reverence, "Planet Earth"'s ultimate triumph is reminding us that protecting our planet is not a partisan political issue but a deeply moral one.