This episode of The History Channel’s The Universe features a look at the distant past of the 3rd rock from the Sun, the planet we call Earth. After a brief, and frankly insulting to the viewers, catch-up of the most rudimentary and basic facts about Earth, the show takes a trip back in time almost five billion years ago, to when a supernova that would eventually turn into the Sun takes place. The show spends almost half of the show slowly working through the evolution of space debris into small rocks, into bigger rocks, and finally into something large enough to be called the infantile Earth.

The episode shows plenty of great computer graphics and demonstrations of what the earliest surface of Earth must have looked like. Intercut is footage of modern Earth’s violent volcanic eruptions, creating a bridge between past and present. Also intercut are several scientists as they perform experiments and research using laboratories at NASA to try and reproduce the effects of the Earth’s surface billions of years ago as it was constantly bombarded by meteors.

The show then segues into theories of how life first started on Earth, and at what point life began. The show explores several theories, and use researched data to come to these conclusions. One of the more fascinating theories is that amino acids and carbon, the vital building blocks of life, may have come frozen in the ice of comets that may have impacted on Earth.

From here, further data and analysis is presented to as how water came to cover over seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface, and how luck as much as anything came to present the perfect habitat for advanced life to evolve. Finishing off the episode is a look at how Earth is still very much “alive” and changing over countless millennia. Scientists also warn that the human population has had some affect on the climate of Earth, and discuss how global warming and shifting conditions could melt away much of the poles over the next fifty years.

Throughout this episode, scientists are continually shown backing up the factoids the show presents with scientific research and experiments that provide solid proof to the age of the Earth and the surrounding elements of the solar system. Creationists may want to avoid the very matter-of-fact presentation about the history of the planet here, but for the rest of us Spaceship Earth provides an easy-to-understand evolution of how we came to call Earth home.

The Universe series episodes air on Tuesday at 9pm on the History Channel through September 4, 2007, and will be available on DVD October 30, 2007.