The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook

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[edit] General Information

History, Travel Documentary hosted by Sam Neill, published by ABC in 2018 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill. Pacific with Sam Neill follows Captain James Cook's three voyages to the Pacific – from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and from Tahiti to Australia and New Zealand. Fascinating, engaging, fresh and vital - this is history ... but not as you know it. It's been 250 years since Captain James Cook's first Voyage across the pacific, something that would forever change the lives of the Indigenous communities he would encounter. Revered in some quarters yet hated in others, why does he still matter? That's the question actor Sam Neill is looking to answer in this compelling series. History is taking to the seas and walking in the footsteps of Captain James Cook. 250 years after Cook began his epic exploration of the Pacific, Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) journeys in his wake uncovering stories that resonate from those times on both sides of the beach. Sam begins with a disclaimer – he is merely an actor – but the story of Cook, and the impact he has had on the Pacific in the 250 years since his first voyage, has always fascinated him. Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768, just over 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed. Visiting the islands and lands where Cook went and meeting the descendants of the people Cook met, Sam, in this 6 part series, explores the trials and triumphs, disasters and delights that followed. He takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself. Was Cook an instrument of imperial expansion or an enlightened explorer? Whether admired or admonished Captain James Cook is forever linked to the Pacific, its heritage and its future. Looking behind the man and the consequences of his extraordinary voyages, Sam speaks to descendants of the many peoples Cook met. He encounters the full spectrum from Cook lovers to Cook haters, but most of all he is touched by Pacific peoples' resilience, resourcefulness and grace. Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples. The series aired on Foxtel's HISTORY channel in Australia and Prime TV in New Zealand in 2018. Based on the book "The Pacific" by Meaghan Wilson-Anastasios. An Essential Media Group and Frame Up Films production made for Foxtel with the support of NZ On Air and Screen Australia in association with Create NSW and SkyVision (UK)

[edit] Endeavour and Tahiti

On the 250th anniversary of Cook leaving Plymouth, Sam Neill visits Tahiti in the first of six episodes to follow Cook's journey around the Pacific, and hears from Tahitians about what Cook means 250 years on. Through the intercession of Joseph Banks, the expedition's botanist, Cook takes on board the high priest and navigator Tupaia whose significance, attributes and influence will develop along the voyage but not be fully registered until the end of the Twentieth Century. Much as Tahiti's centrality to the settlement of Oceania by Polynesians, people of the ocean, was not fully understood till recently. Sam encounters ardent enthusiasts and practitioners of Tahiti's vibrant culture. Some of the traditions are old, some new and when lost, he learns, the Tahitians are happy to make them up.

[edit] Endeavour and New Zealand

The second of six episodes following Sam Neill travelling in the wake of Captain Cook around the Pacific, 250 years on from when Cook made his first voyage. This episode sees Sam in New Zealand, a country he calls home. Sam considers not only the cultural ramifications of Cook's first interactions with the Maori people but also the continuous social and political impact Western settlers had on the land and people. Speaking with historians, activists, artists and locals, Sam delves into a deep history of trade, tradition and turbulent conflict. To his surprise Maori oral memories of Tupaia are more strong and vivid than those of Cook. Reconnecting with lost Polynesian history was far more potent than awe at the foreign goblins.

[edit] Endeavour and Australia

The third of six episodes following Sam Neill travelling in the wake of Captain Cook around the Pacific, 250 years on from when Cook made his first voyage. Having fulfilled his Admiralty brief Captain Cook opted to tale the long way back to Britain so he could chart the East Coast of Australia and explore the mysterious land. The Aboriginal people showed more caution than their Polynesian counterparts upon the Endeavour's arrival seemingly indifferent to the strangers and wishing them gone. This understandable reticence was misinterpreted and later led to the myth of Terra Nullius. Sam travels from Botany Bay up the east coast to Cooktown, learning about a country that far from being nobodies' land was comprehensively inhabited by a well established culture.

[edit] Resolution and the Great Southern Continent

Episode 4 deals with Cook’s second voyage aboard the Resolution in search of the Great Southern Continent. He circumnavigates the Antarctic, without ever sighting land – an extraordinary achievement in a flimsy ship at such latitudes. During this feat he begins the painstaking process of filling in vast unknown areas on the Pacific map. Sam visits New Zealand, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Norfolk Island before completing one of Cook's unfinished ambitions by touching down on Antarctica. For Sam this episode, in a much more intimate way, mirrors what many consider Cook's greatest achievement, the breadth and extent of the second voyage. In Sam's case, Antarctica is a first as is reaching the crater of a very active volcano, Mt Yasur. And significantly visiting Norfolk Island where standing in the ruins of its penal settlement Sam acknowledges an intersection of Pacific and Cook history with his own family in a startling revelation.

[edit] Resolution and the Northwest Passage

The fifth of six episodes following Sam Neill travelling in the wake of Captain Cook around the Pacific, 250 years on from when Cook made his first voyage. Swapping a potentially easy life of retirement for a third voyage around the Pacific, the relationship between Captain and crew is severely tested as Cook leads his men on an expedition that if successful would dwarf everything he had so far achieved – discover and navigate the Northwest passage. Sam Neill continues to follow the path of the Resolution, again via through New Zealand and Tonga onto Canada and Alaska, experiencing the Pacific as never before.

[edit] Resolution and Hawaii

The last in the six part series following Sam Neill travelling in the wake of Captain Cook around the Pacific, 250 years on from when Cook made his first voyage. In a bid to find the not yet existent North West passage Cook encountered vast ice ranges and saw the impact of colonisation first hand when entering part of Alaska already overtaken by the Russians. Forced back by the ice shelf Cook retreats to Hawaii for R&R before returning to the Arctic the following summer. But that was not to be. After nearly eleven years of voyaging from the Antarctic to the Arctic Circles trading, observing, befriending chiefs and villagers alike, even participating in local culture Cook is clubbed and stabbed and drowned in a quintessentially tropical paradise? How did it come to this? Or as one of the people Sam meets says, 'How did it not happen before?' Back in Australia Sam views an unfinished tapa waistcoat abandoned by Elizabeth Cook after his death – a poignant memento. A larger than life stainless steel sculpture of the man by Micheal Parakowhai is the focus of Sam's reflections on Cook. Finally on an uninhabited islet in mid- Pacific Sam concludes his journey from being a 'mere actor' when he set out to becoming 'a man of the Pacific.'

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[edit] Technical Specs

Video Codec: x264 CABAC High@L4
Video Bitrate: 3 714 Kbps
Video Resolution: 1920x1080
Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frames Per Second: 25.000 fps
Audio Codec: AAC (LC)
Audio Bitrate: 128 kb/s VBR 44.1 kHz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 46 min 7 s - 47 min 43 s
Number Of Parts: 6
Part Size: 1.25 GB
Source: WEB DL (Thanks to WEBTUBE)
Encoded by: DocFreak08