In episode two, Professor Brian Cox is off to India, where he assesses arguably the first evidence of rational thought in literature, the poetry of the Vedic monks. They pondered mankind's origins, realising there must have been a day with no yesterday - a day of creation - prompting the age-old question of where did the universe come from? Brian marvels that the universe seems to follow a set of rules, the laws of physics, allowing space to be considered on the grandest scale, travelling to the most distant, farthest reaches of the cosmos just by using our minds. Brian also visits Japan, and offers viewers the idea that man lives in just one of an infinite number of universes that are being made all the time.

In 1985, two adventurous young mountaineers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, set off to climb the treacherous west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. They were experienced climbers, and climbed "Alpine-style," climbing the mountain in "one great push," without setting up ropes or base camps ahead of time. After dealing with a snowstorm and some dangerous climbing over powder formations, they reached the summit (about 21,000 feet) on the third day. The climb down proved to be far more difficult. Simpson fell and broke his leg badly. Yates decided to try to lower Simpson down the mountain, one 300-foot section of rope at a time. The climbers had run out of gas to melt snow, so they couldn't risk stopping as night came, and a violent snowstorm began. Their plodding, painful journey hit a snag when Yates inadvertently lowered Simpson over the edge of a cliff. In the storm, the men couldn't hear each other's cries, and, Yates, uncertain as to Simpson's position, and gradually sliding down the slope himself, decided to cut the rope that connected them, sending Simpson plummeting to certain death. Miraculously, Simpson survived the fall, and was faced with the prospect of getting off the mountain alone with no food, no water, and a broken leg. In Touching the Void, filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September) tells their story, based on Simpson's book, using contemporary interviews with the two men, and a reenactment of their climb and descent, featuring Brendan Mackey as Simpson and Nicholas Aaron as Yates

This edition features a spectacular journey along the Andes, the world's longest mountain range, stretching from the equator almost to Antarctica. In this harsh and unforgiving landscape, wildlife such as bears, pumas, condors and flamingos fight for survival in the numbing cold, ferocious winds and thin air.

The fourth episode starts off with the two riding through Santa Cruz, Argentina. The plan is to cross over into Chile and then going up into the Andes. Ewan and Charley head through Argentina’s red rock landscape while a member of their team copes with altitude sickness. The duo are well and truly underway and the first signs of all are well is how well the Harleys hold up in challenging conditions. The roads alternate between unforgiving and pleasant and these e-bikes push through effortlessly. As they ride through Chilean Andes, the audience is shown a picturesque view of the beauty of the countryside, an experience which Boorman calls 'magical.'

Ewan and Charley make their way to Peru from Bolivia, and the scenery is just beautiful. Ewan wanted to visit Machu Picchu since he was a kid and decides to show the world the Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains. Next up, they make their way to the Cutivireni, a community of Ashaninka people in the Amazon rainforest, with its carbon program to limit the magnitude or rate of global warming and its related effects.

It is a dark, mysterious, and secretive world. A world of clandestine projects, secret rocket launches, and futuristic tech. In December 2019, the United States Space Force became the newest branch of the military. It will defend the vast infrastructure of satellites, currently orbiting largely unprotected above Earth, and be ready to attack if they came under threat. This is also the story of the race to build the ultimate space weapon.