Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine

So much potential here. They could have used this documentary as an opportunity to educate the public about the amazing science behind JWST, instead they focused most of the documentary on forced drama as if it were another brainless reality TV show. Topics they could have covered to better illustrate and educate the magic:

What is red shifting and tangible explanations on why the JWST is needed over the Hubble.

The groundbreaking use of beryllium for the mirrors and why the element was selected for its unusual properties at cryogenic temperatures.

The cryo coolers and how their novel design allows it to cool the instruments down to near absolute zero.

The damaged mirror and how the JWST is able to overcome it.

The unusual approach of physically deforming the mirror to focus the image.

Etc etc.... Could have been great but instead they took a story about one of the greatest scientific achievements in human history and chose to dumb it down to nearly worthless drivel.

This was the first of the Unknown documentaries that I watched. I chose this one as first because the subject is what interested me the most. We all are curious about the origins, about how everything started. Most likely questions that will never been answered, maybe partially, and that will be because of the James Webb telescope, an unbelievable human achievement. The documentary is well made, consisting of interviews of several people that were involved in launching the telescope. I get it that people that worked on this project for decades are getting emotional. The huge amount of money, the time spent, everything that could go wrong, it's all very stressful for those people. I would have liked more of those stunning space images. The ones they showed I've already seen them before, like most people I guess, so it would have been nice to show us some more images that were never released before. But other than that the documentary is informative and that's what its all about. A good watch if you're interested in space.

This documentary spent over 1 hour talking about the things that could have gone wrong about the launch of the greatest and most complicated space research project ever. Such shame. JWST is the most amazing and complex piece of engineering we ever produced and successfully launched into space. Yes, lots of things could have gone wrong, but they didn't. Unknown: The Cosmic Time Machine won't spend any time highlighting the astonishing, breakthrough technology and science that went into the making of JWST. You won't learn much about the stunning pictures it takes, why we needed it to begin with. Nothing is said about the main point of this project; how seeing the images from the beginning of time help us understand who we are, and perhaps, why we are here.

Half of it was interesting science and tech and beautiful imagery, the other half feelgoody blather about personal details and mini-bios of people involved.

The early development and various designs was glossed over by a guy petting his dog going through wrinkled papers on the dining-room table. Should have been more about why it uses infrared light and red-shifting of distant galaxies, why the Arianespace base in in south america. And so on.

The worst parts were the segments with the airheaded valley girl types on the phone screens jumping up and down saying "Ohmygod" "yay" etc. Gag me.........

In over an hour there's barely 5 mins of actual content that directly relate to the Webb telescope itself.

There is so so much of unnecessary nonsensical fillers it's just ridiculous!

Unknown alright. Viewers still know almost next to nothing about the Webb telescope, nothing more than a cutesy science phamlet for 8 yr olds at the school exhibition.

Even solo contributors have put out much much better YouTube content about the Webb telescope.

Scenes of people jogging, family photos, nobodies (to the viewers) talking about their 'feelings'??? Huh????

Giving it 2/10 makes me 'feel' so so generous. 🙄