This is a National Geographic documentary special, almost two hours long drama focusing on how Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution from both an historic context and a home (domestic) context. The film begins in March 1858 in Ternate with a man suffering from Malaria writing a letter to a recipient by the name C. Darwin. This man as we later find out, is Russel Wallace, one of the scientists who helped discover the theory of natural selection with Charles Darwin. In the beginning of the film, we see Charles reading a letter, which becomes one of his darkest hours since everything he has worked so hard for is about to be published by someone else.
Wallace had an identical theory to Darwin, that he was going to make public and to avoid getting beaten to the post, he decides to make his own theory public. Before this, Darwin had suppressed his evolution theory for twenty years. This as he later explains, was motivated by his fear of how the public would react to it, how much scrutiny he would receive from fellow scientists, and how it was going to affect the relationship with his wife. His wife was a religious person and this theory would surely bring some religious conflict between them. On one hand, Darwin’s wife, Emma, believes in God, and the story of creation, and on the other hand, we have Darwin who believed in the scientific theory of evolution. At some point, Emma asks him “what of the God that I believe in” (Sarah, 2009).
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Mr. Darwin is very confused as to whether he should publish his theory especially after reading Wallace’s theory but his wife convinces him to publish it citing that it would be unfortunate for Darwin’s discovery to be “preempted by a latecomer” (Sarah, 2009, 26:05). The documentary makes use of flashbacks a lot, the conflicts with his father on science, his days as a student of medicine, and his HMS Beagle voyage. During the voyage, Darwin encounters captain Fitzroy who he explains that he informs that there must be a scientific explanation for the things he was in the Andes (Sarah, 2009, 33:07). He found sea shells in the mountain which he concludes that they must have come from a period when the whole world was covered with water but the captain argues that it part of the displacement during Noah’s floods in the bible. In another flashback, his father asks him to leave the theory and go back to church and be a clergyman. He also explains the natural selection theory to Emma by using the bees in their backyard as an example (Sarah, 2009, 54:28). He also does the same to his kids using seeds swallowed by a bird (Sarah, 2009, 1:05:50). It is here that we get to see how Darwin’s family contributed in unearthing his discovery.
To end the confusion over whose theory was written first; Darwin’s or Wallace, Darwin sent a letter to Lyell who wrote back with a solution. The solution was to have Darwin’s sketch from 1944 together with the letter he had written to Gray explaining the theory and the letter from Wallace. Lyell then asked him to publish a detailed book of his publication which proved to be difficult because he had just lost his daughter Annie and writing was not exactly a priority at the time. In the final minutes of the documentary, we see him finally writing down his theory in detail and sending it for publishing (Sarah, 2009, 1:34:05). In a nutshell, the documentary is about Charles Darwin’s career as a scientist and his family life. It documents the various struggles Darwin had while growing up and how he had to oppose his father’s views to become a scientists and not a clergyman. Throughout the film, we see Darwin and his children having conversations and even conducting some experiments together in an unconventional father manner. We also get the reason why it took too long, 2 decades, to be exact for Darwin to publish his theory. The film also depicts a very supportive wife who despite having contradictory views on the issue of creating, supported her husband and pushed him to do what was right and publish his book before someone else like Wallace take all the credit after discovering the theory much later after Charles did. All in all, this was a very well written story that helped the generation understand how Darwin came up with his theory of natural selection and the events that led to it being published.
Reference List
Sarah, Ghamilla. (2016, February 2). PBS Nova Darwin’s Darkest Hour HD Documentary. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQfn4R9yiKw
