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It was on a rocky seaside cliff that we first met Carl Sagan, famed astronomer and science communicator. As waves crashed and wind tousled his hair, Sagan opened his miniseries by declaring the cosmos, "All that is, or ever was, or ever will be."

This Sunday, 35 years later, Neil deGrasse Tyson will meet millions of viewers on that very same seascape as he introduces Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Tyson, if you don't know him already, is an astrophysicist who heads the Hayden Planetarium at New York's American Museum of Natural History (and also dances a mean moonwalk). Tyson's spin on the Cosmos television series will air this Sunday in a global simulcast that promises to showcase scientific discovery and inspire further exploration beyond the stars.

In both visual effects and scientific content, the Cosmos reboot delivers on its word. Tyson wastes no time in getting to the good stuff. Within minutes of the opening sequence of the first episode, he has already unveiled invisible planets and speculated about the existence of multiple universes. In a nod to the original Cosmos, Tyson captains a sleek, modern take on Sagan's Ship of the Imagination, and later strolls along a stunning interpretation of the original series' cosmic calendar, which tries to communicate the vastness of geologic time.

"Humans evolved in the last hour, of the last day of the cosmic year," Tyson says, as he paces along the Paleozoic. "Every person you've ever heard of happened in the last 14 seconds of the cosmic calendar."

Sagan's legacy is woven throughout the series, and it works—usually. But at times, the show's insistence that viewers hail Tyson as the new Sagan feels a bit heavy-handed. During the first episode, the Ship of the Imagination buzzes the sun and blasts through the Oort Cloud, but Tyson concludes his adventure by brandishing an old datebook, proving once and for all that he actually met Carl Sagan back in 1975. It's a bit much.

And while Tyson's gorgeous (and scientifically faithful) tour of the universe is sure to inspire, expect some blowback, too. At one point, Tyson narrates the animated tragedy of Giordano Bruno, a friar and astronomer who told the Church that the universe is infinite, and was burnt alive as punishment. The segment seems out of character for Tyson, and for Cosmos; the original is so beloved in part because of Sagan's warm, inclusive, "we are all star stuff tone."

But it's 2014, and Tyson isn't the only force behind Cosmos. Seth MacFarlane, of Family Guy fame, is an executive producer on the show, and the series will be broadcast originally on Fox. "Fox specializes in discomfort," MacFarlane told the press after an advance screening of the series at the Hayden Planetarium. Perhaps we're hearing a bit of Fox and MacFarlane when an anguished Bruno shouts at the Church, "Your god is too small!" before he is thrown into a dungeon.

Yet the few detours are worth the trouble. Cosmos showcases a vast, beautiful and terrifying universe. Since the production team has the talent and resources to deliver a solid hour of breathtaking vistas and cutting-edge research in each episode, I might have preferred a little less of Neil and a little more of the cosmos. But to hear Tyson mull over the origins of life as the universe blooms before him is to forgive the series for its shortcomings. "You, me and everyone…we are all made of star stuff," Tyson reflects.

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