The Best Episodes of Civilisation Season 1

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   9.0/10(127 votes)

   #1 - The Skin of Our Teeth

   S1:E12/23/1969

   In this the first episode Clark travels from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen, telling his story of the Dark Ages; the six centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown
2. 

   9.0/10(89 votes)

   #2 - The Great Thaw

   S1:E23/2/1969

   In the second episode Clark tells of the sudden reawakening of European civilisation in the twelfth century . He traces it from its first manifestations in the Abbey of Cluny to its high point, the building of the Chartres cathedral.

   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown
3. 

   8.0/10(77 votes)

   #3 - Romance and Reality

   S1:E33/9/1969

   Beginning at a castle in the Loire, then travelling through the hills of Tuscany and Umbria to the cathedral baptistry at Pisa as he examines both the aspirations and achievements of the later Middle Ages in France and Italy.

   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown
4. 

   8.5/10(67 votes)

   #4 - Man: The Measure of all Things

   S1:E43/16/1969

   Visiting Florence, where, Clark argues, European thought gained a new impetus from its rediscovery of its classical past. He also visits the palaces at Urbino and Mantua, other centres of (Renaissance) civilisation.

   Director:Ann Turner

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Ann Turner

   Writer:Unknown
5. 

   8.3/10(62 votes)

   #5 - The Hero as Artist

   S1:E53/23/1969

   Here Clark takes us back to 16th century Papal Rome noting the convergence of Christianity and antiquity. He discusses Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci, the courtyards of the Vatican, the rooms decorated for the Pope by Raphael, and the Sistine Chapel.

   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown
6. 

   8.0/10(60 votes)

   #6 - Protest and Communication

   S1:E63/30/1969

   Here Clark takes us back to the Reformation. That is to the Germany of Albrecht Duerer and Martin Luther, the world of the humanitarians Erasmus, Montaigne, and Shakespeare.

   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown
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7. 

   8.0/10(55 votes)

   #7 - Grandeur and Obedience

   S1:E74/6/1969

   Again in Rome of Michelangelo and Bernini, Clark tells of the Catholic Church's fight against the Protestant north, the Counter-Reformation and the Church's new splendour symbolized by the glory of St. Peter's.

   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown
8. 

   8.0/10(57 votes)

   #8 - The Light of Experience

   S1:E84/13/1969

   Here Clark tells of new worlds in space and in a drop of water that the telescope and microscope revealed, and the new realism in the Dutch paintings which took the observation of human character to a higher stage of development.

   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Michael Gill

   Writer:Unknown
9. 

   9.0/10(55 votes)

   #9 - The Pursuit of Happiness

   S1:E94/20/1969

   Here Clark talks of the harmonious flow and complex symmetries of the works of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart — and the reflection of these in the Rococo churches and palaces of Bavaria.

   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Peter Montagnon

   Writer:Unknown
10. 

    8.0/10(53 votes)

    #10 - The Smile of Reason

    S1:E104/27/1969

    Here Clark discusses the Age of Enlightenment tracing it from the polite conversations in the elegant Parisian salons of eighteenth-century, through the subsequent revolutionary politics to the great European palaces of Blenheim and Versailles finally to Jefferson's Monticello.

    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown
11. 

    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #11 - The Worship of Nature

    S1:E115/4/1969

    Belief in the divinity of nature, Clark argues, usurped Christianity's position as the chief creative force in Western civilisation and ushered in the Romantic movement. Here Clark visits Tintern Abbey, the Alps, and there discusses the landscapes of Turner and Constable.

    Directors:Ann Turner, Peter Montagnon

    Writer:Unknown

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    Directors:Ann Turner, Peter Montagnon

    Writer:Unknown
12. 

    8.5/10(50 votes)

    #12 - The Fallacies of Hope

    S1:E125/11/1969

    Here Clark argues that the French Revolution led to the dictatorship of Napoleon and the dreary bureaucracies of the nineteenth century and traces the disillusionment of the Romanticism artists is traced from Beethoven's, Byron's poetry, Delacroix's paintings to Rodin's sculpture.

    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown
13. 

    9.0/10(49 votes)

    #13 - Heroic Materialism

    S1:E135/18/1969

    Clark concludes the series with his discussion of materialism and humanitarianism of the past century. This takes us from the industrial landscape of nineteenth century England to the skyscrapers of twentieth century New York. The achievements of the engineers and scientists - such as Brunel and Rutherford - having been matched by the great reformers like Wilberforce and Shaftsbury.

    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Michael Gill

    Writer:Unknown