Space Odyssey the conclusion

On Tuesday night BBC 1 showed the second and concluding part of Space Odyssey.

In this episode the crew visited Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and a comet, before heading home. The "this is a real documentary" feel was enveloping, dragging you in to learn some science even if you didn't want to. Probably the most engaging aspect of this series however was the narrative. It was a story about a crew on a mission, we met the characters, we shared their triumphs and failures, we watched one of them die. I know that most modern science documentaries seem to have some sort of story telling angle ("The story of our Solar System!") but Space Odyssey pulled it off resoundingly. It was great Science Fiction, prime time on BBC 1, who'd have though it?