Nova: The Miracle of Life - Even After 30 Years The Images are Amazing

I was surprised when I went to review this and learned the documentary was from 1982.  For its time, it’s truly a remarkable presentation on the concept of reproduction.  For all of the arguments back and forth about when life begins, it’s truly a miracle every time circumstances come together to produce that beautiful baby. 

Nova: The Miracle of Life is everything we learned in high school health and science class, only with remarkable pictures that left me amazed. Yes, I had seen some of these shots before I viewed the documentary.  Never before had I seen them in the synopsis Nova: The Miracle of Life presents them to us.  It’s an excellent presentation about the process of human reproduction, put into the proper context.

The evolution deniers will not be pleased as this takes the reproduction story back to the beginning; to how life began on Earth with protozoa in the ancient seas.  The rest will remind many of those same high school health classes as it begins with the male and female reproductive systems and continues through conception, gestation, and birth.

What makes this stand out from those classes are the incredible images showing the egg inside a woman's body. It shows ovulation as well as the trip through the fallopian tubes, etc. The development of the fetus in the womb is also showed, although it’s not necessarily the main focus of the film.  Still, the images are beautiful with a bit of sex education thrown in for good measure.  This was in the day before CGI, and it’s hard to imagine exactly how they got these images. Even after all these years, it’s a remarkable sight to behold. 

The narration is done by David Ogden Stiers, whose voice seems to have the perfect level of seriousness for the subject.  I would definitely feel comfortable sharing this film with my junior high and high-school aged children, although I am sure they have already seen them perhaps in a different context. 

The DVD is a basic DVD of the 60 minute PBS show, with no extras.  I really would have liked to have learned just how they did it, although I am sure there are places on the internet I could find out if I really tried.  It would be nice to have it on the disc with the documentary though. 

Buy it, stream it, but whatever you have to do, it’s definitely worth checking out Nova: The Miracle of Life.  Even after all these years it will amaze you.