NOVA

"The Planets" is a five-part series where we tell this extraordinary story of all eight planets in five episodes. (shimmering ambient tones) Used to be nine, of course, with Pluto, but... (laughs) In this series, we'll find out about the characteristics of the planets. How did they get started? How did they evolve? -

Gideon

There are more than 20 probes out there, and all of that amazing data that they're sending back has allowed us to start constructing these wonderful stories that take us back 4 1/2 billion years, to the beginning of the solar system itself. And what we found was staggering. (dynamic music) Turns out to be a more interesting and complex history than we had previously imagined. A big ambition of ours at the outset was to place the viewer actually on these planets as best we could. It's a thrill to see images of a new world, you know, for the first time. -

Gideon

We were able to take some of the terrain data that these probes have sent back, and you can create the landscapes, and then you can fly the camera down canyons, and across the volcanoes of Venus, the plains of Mars. -

Linda

I hope viewers will be excited about what we've learned about the planets. -

David

There's still more surprises out there.