Customer Reviews

DNA Interactive DVD

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to be one of the most baffling DVD's I've ever watched - and not because the material is too difficult. The DVD is simply not finished - it is a collection of raw material (and a lot of it) with no actual main documentary. It's what you would expect to get as an editor whose job it is to assemble all of the raw footage together, along with a script for a voice over that ties all of the snippets together, into a coherent whole. That is, it's a collection of 200+ snippets that you access individually w/ your DVD remote.

At first I looked at it as an interesting way to get involved with the material - ah, the "interactive" part - I get it. I'm fine jumping in and watching this snippet and then the next (and going through no less than 600 button presses to make it through all of them). So I gather a pile of batteries for the remote and have at it. But I quickly learn the whole process is futile. The snippets don't hang together simply because often times there is no predicate for the information presented - the material comes out of the blue with insufficient previous explanation.

What's most baffling is that it is clear that a lot of time and money went into this project - there are tons of interviews with leading scientists, some great animations, etc. and I feel that most of it has simply not been fully exploited at this point. The bottom line is that this pile of raw goods needs to be handed to a professional producer (i.e., PBS or BBC) and turned into an actual documentary. BTW - just go to [...] and you can watch most of the snippets there. A bunch of the animations are already on YouTube as well. Just do some searches for DNA (recombination, transcription, etc.). Hopefully someone will take this material and make it what it really could be - a first class show on DNA.

This DVD contains some history background info on DNA science. However, I would have expected the following features, and I did not see them clearly presented on the disc:

1. the interactive feature it claims - the term is misleading; there is no interaction, other than just a simple DVD menu and sub-menu style.

2. the information is not that well organized, so it would shed the light for a novice

3. the information is still missing some important aspects of what would be otherwise called "the structure" of a well-organized scientific material on the DNA topic. I would have expected that the author starts with the main topics, then from there links towards the subtopics, etc.

I would say, for someone who wants to get an idea of what DNA is all about, it may reach its scope, although through somewhat empirical effort. Otherwise, for those who want to get more than that, this material could serve as "additional info", good to have in your personal library.

I think it deserves the 3 out of 5 stars, despite my "harsh" review above.