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The Best Episodes Written By Carl Sagan

Every TV Episode Written by Carl Sagan Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters

Carl Sagan Ratings Summary

"Standing Up in the Milky Way" is the best rated episode written by Carl Sagan. It scored 8.4/10 based on 38 votes. It was directed by Brannon Braga. It aired on 3/9/2014 and is rated 0.1 points higher than their second-best episode, "Blues for a Red Planet".

  • Standing Up in the Milky Way
    8.4/1038 votes

    #1 - Standing Up in the Milky Way

    Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 3/9/2014

    The Ship of the Imagination, unfettered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies, can take us anywhere in space and time. It has been idling for more than three decades, and yet it has never been overtaken. Its global legacy remains vibrant. Now, it's time once again to set sail for the stars.

    Director: Brannon Braga

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Blues for a Red Planet
    8.3/107 votes

    #2 - Blues for a Red Planet

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/26/1980

    Is there life on Mars? Dr. Sagan takes viewers on a tour of the red planet first through the eyes of science fiction authors, and then through the unblinking eyes of two Viking spacecrafts that have sent thousands of pictures of the stunning Martian landscape back to Earth since 1976. Though based on older Mars missions, Sagan's analysis still holds true.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Travellers' Tales
    8.3/107 votes

    #3 - Travellers' Tales

    Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/2/1980

    Dr. Sagan compares the exhilaration of 17th-century Dutch explorers who ventured in sailing ships halfway around our planet in their quest for wealth and knowledge to an inside view of the excitement around Voyager's expeditions to Jupiter and Saturn. The newly acquired treasures of our present golden age of exploration are the focus of this episode.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Journeys in Space and Time
    8.3/107 votes

    #4 - Journeys in Space and Time

    Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/16/1980

    A voyage to see how star patterns change over millions of years is followed by a journey to the planets of other stars, and a look at the possibility of time travel. This takes us to Italy, where a young Albert Einstein first wondered what it would be like to ride on a beam of light.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • The Edge of Forever
    8.3/107 votes

    #5 - The Edge of Forever

    Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/30/1980

    Dr. Sagan leads us on some awesome trips — to a time when galaxies were beginning to form, to India to explore the infinite cycles of Hindu cosmology, and to show how humans of this century discovered the expanding universe and its origin in the big bang. He disappears down a black hole and reappears in New Mexico to show us an array of 17 telescopes probing the farthest reaches of space.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue
    8.2/108 votes

    #6 - One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue

    Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/1980

    Dr. Sagan's cosmic calendar makes the history of the universe understandable and frames the origin of the Earth and the evolution of life. We see the evolutionary process unfold, from microbes to humans. Our understanding of how life developed on Earth enables us to venture to other worlds for imaginative speculations on what forms life might take elsewhere.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Who Speaks for Earth?
    8.1/107 votes

    #7 - Who Speaks for Earth?

    Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/21/1980

    Through the use of special effects we retrace the 15-billion-year journey from the big bang to the present. We also hear the tragic story of the martyrdom of Hypatia, the woman scientist of ancient Alexandria. This is the famous episode on nuclear war in which Dr. Sagan argues that our responsibility for survival is owed not just to ourselves, but also to the cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
    8.0/1011 votes

    #8 - The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean

    Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/1980

    At the beginning of this cosmic journey across space and time, Dr. Carl Sagan takes us to the edge of the universe aboard a spaceship of the imagination. Through beautiful special effects, we witness quasars, exploding galaxies, star clusters, supernovas and pulsars. Returning to our solar system, we enter a re-creation of the Alexandrian Library, the seat of learning on Earth 2,000 years ago.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Heaven and Hell
    8.0/107 votes

    #9 - Heaven and Hell

    Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/1980

    A descent through the hellish atmosphere of Venus to explore its broiling surface serves as a warning to our world about the possible consequences of the increasing greenhouse effect. Then Dr. Sagan leads us on a tour of our solar system to see how other heavenly bodies have suffered from various cosmic catastrophes.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • The Backbone of Night
    8.0/107 votes

    #10 - The Backbone of Night

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/9/1980

    Humans once thought the stars were campfires in the sky and the Milky Way "the backbone of night." In this fascinating segment Dr. Sagan takes us back to ancient Greece, when the basic question "what are the stars?" was first asked. He visits the Brooklyn elementary school of his childhood, where this same question is still on students' minds.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Encyclopedia Galactica
    8.0/107 votes

    #11 - Encyclopedia Galactica

    Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/14/1980

    Are there alien intelligences? How could we communicate with them? What about UFOs? The answers to these questions take us to Egypt to decode ancient hieroglyphics, to the largest radio telescope on Earth and, in the Spaceship of the Imagination, to visit other civilizations in space. Dr. Sagan answers questions such as: "What is the life span of a planetary civilization?" and "Will we one day hook up with a network of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy?"

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • The Lives of the Stars
    7.9/107 votes

    #12 - The Lives of the Stars

    Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/23/1980

    Using computer animation and amazing astronomical art, Dr. Sagan shows how stars are born, live, die and sometimes collapse to form neutron stars or black holes. We then journey into the future to witness "the last perfect day on Earth," 5 billion years from now, after which the sun will engulf our planet in the fires of its death throes.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • The Persistence of Memory
    7.9/107 votes

    #13 - The Persistence of Memory

    Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 12/7/1980

    The brain is the focus of this fascinating portion of our journey as Dr. Sagan examines another of the intelligent creatures with whom we share the planet Earth — whales. Then we wind through the maze of the human brain to witness the architecture of thought. We see how genes, brains and books store the information necessary for human survival.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan

  • Harmony of the Worlds
    7.6/107 votes

    #14 - Harmony of the Worlds

    Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1980

    This episode is a historical re-creation of the life of Johannes Kepler, the last scientific astrologer, the first modern astronomer and the author of the first science fiction novel. Kepler provided the insight into how the moon and the planets move in their orbits and ultimately how to journey to them. It's also a story about the scientific process of discovery, and how the search for truth is never easy but always worthwhile.

    Director: Adrian Malone

    Writer: Carl Sagan