Doomsday 2012: End of Days
Is that the end of the world in your pocket or are you just unhappy to see me?
Tags: Misc DVD 2009 Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 12th, 2009
It’s right there in the title – Doomsday 2012: The End of Days. Then again, one shouldn’t expect anything else other than this type of sensationalism from The History Channel. Included on the disc are two episodes from the Decoding the Past series. First up is the episode that the DVD gets its title from.
Rather bothersome is that it spends the first 5 minutes working the audience into a hysteria about the upcoming date: December 21, 2012. With the “doom and gloom” and “highly important” type of narration viewers of The History Channel programming have come used to, it can be hard to separate the hype from actual analysis. When the program finally does get underway, we get some examination of the ancient oracles who predicted a number of events – including an end of the world scenario.
It isn’t until after 10 minutes that we get to the Mayan calendar, then some examination of the possible shift of the magnetic poles and touches on the oracle of the I Ching. What this documentary does well is explain who the I Ching can be mapped out to the end of time (or the possibility of it). What it doesn’t do well is explain just what the Mayan long count calendar does and why it ends on December 21, 2012.
Particularly interesting is the exploration of Merlin and his prophecies. There’s a little bit of historical exploration of the factual basis for the 5th century person of Merlin, dispelling the mythological character that we imagine from several hundred years later. Some of these prophecies, such as “speaking stones” seem to provide a track record that there is some basis to the prophecies.
What bothers me about these accurate prophecies is that we never get a full track record of the people. Just because a few major predictions have come true, that doesn’t mean the person really has some accurate vision. Anybody can predict 1,000 things and the law of averages dictates that SOMETHING would actually occur as “predicted”.
Also on the disc is Mayan Doomsday Prophecy, an examination of the Mayan society and culture and how they came up with the calendar that has a date for the end of the world. This is actually a really interesting episode as it actually takes a decent (albeit brief) look at the Maya civilization, which is largely missing from all the other documentaries about the upcoming 2012 event.
Particularly useful with this documentary special is the explanation of the short calendar, and how the 3 calendars work together to mark the Mayan time of existence. This is before going into the Mayan long count calendar, which is what is used to mark the beginning of time and the end of time, at least by our current definition.
Less sensationalistic than pretty much every other 2012 examination, this single item actually provides some historical examination of events past as well as the upcoming date and how the Mayan viewed the world, time, and even the heavens. Rather than sticking with a simple “end of world” scenario, this doomsday examination actually has the world continuing on after December 21, 2012. There is, however, a message that should be heeded.
Is this the disc to pick up to get the definitive examination of the upcoming … whatever it is that’s going to happen? No, but then again there isn’t anything that is. However, the examination of the Mayan culture and calendar provides a great background for everything else to be framed around. Anybody looking to get more information on just what 2012 is would do well to start here.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Full explanation of the Mayan calendar | 7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - A look at the prophecies and their prophets, but no track record | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Added in as a "special feature" the second episode of Decoding The Past is well worth watching. | |
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Tags: Misc DVD 2009
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Nov 12th, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
