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.
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.
Having fulfilled his Admiralty brief, Captain Cook opted to take the long way back to Britain so he could chart the East Coast of Australia and explore the mysterious land.
This episode looks at 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.
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.
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.
