Waiting for Ken Burns’ new documentary to air has been a bit like waiting for a baby to be born. It even seems as if the Public Broadcasting System and its Maine affiliate have been promoting “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” for nine months.

Like that first grandchild, this baby is lovely. The flaws don’t really show up until puberty hits, which, in this case, happens in Episode 5. Still, the 12-hour series is a loving and visually stunning ode to the lands preserved by some for all.

Just as his previous histories, “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “The War,” told stories only a few historians really knew, so does “The National Parks.” Burns and his longtime producer Dayton Duncan, who wrote this series, draw heavily on the nature writers of each time period.

It’s not only the writings of John Muir and others that make the story of the national parks so compelling, it’s the diaries and journals of early and recent visitors that are absolutely revelatory. These ordinary people explain the spiritual connection to the land so many feel but struggle to express as they sit atop Cadillac Mountain or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

It is Burns’ ability to juxtapose the words of people, both famous and unknown, such as the Nebraska farm couple Margaret and Edward Gehrke, against pictures to express an idea in new ways that prompts viewers to think and feel at the same time.

This is his true gift as a filmmaker and in “The National Parks,” he and Duncan have done some of their best work.

Yet, it is not perfect. Just as the musical theme used in “The Civil War” grew irritating toward the end of the series, so does the theme to the new series. While Burns and Duncan are capable of making a point with great subtlety, they also are guilty of smacking viewers between the eyes with a sledgehammer and destroying the poignancy of a moment.

That happens in the end of Episode 5, which covers the Great Depression and World War II. It features the photos, writings and art of three Japanese-born men and women who felt unique connections to landscapes in Washington and California. All were sent to internment camps during the Second World War.

The episode seems to be ending when Terry Tempest Williams, a modern nature writer, tells of her dying adult brother’s last trip with his family to the Grand Tetons. The point that the parks’ impact on individuals and families is profound and lasting is palpable as Williams tells the story or a modern-day family whose emotions match those of immigrants.

That feeling is smashed a few minutes later as Burns and Duncan end the episode with a segment showing Marion Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial, driving home the issue of race like a stake through the heart. Anderson’s performance was a seminal moment in American history and should not be ignored but it runs roughshod over one of the series finest, truest and rawest emotional moments.

Burns and Dayton, have visited 80 cities around the country to promote the series since the first of the year. On Aug. 5-6, they previewed portions of Episode 3, which includes the story of Acadia National Park, in Bar Harbor and Portland.

Anyone who attended those sessions will find the transition to the smaller television screen painful and disappointing. Burns had not gone digital when he filmed the series.

Majestic scenes captured by a camera swooping down into the Grand Canyon or along the rough shores of Mount Desert Island simply lose some of their majesty when reduced from the movie screen, measured in feet, to the TV screen, measured in inches. Watching it on an even smaller computer screen leaves the magnificent vistas nearly devoid of wonder.

Whether Maine viewers will give up 12 hours to sit glued to their sets six nights in a row probably depends on whether Indian summer lures them outside away from the TV.

Undoubtedly, the series, the companion book and the educational materials available through the show’s Web site will spark a renewed interest in national parks and increase visitation next summer. Whether the series will help unplug the millennium generation and help them connect to the land through the parks rather than their computer screens is the unanswered question that hangs in the air at the close of Episode 6.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

990-8207

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“The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”

Airing at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, through Friday, Oct. 2

Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Episode 1: “The Scripture of Nature” (1851-1890)

Episode 2: “The Last Refuge” (1890-1915)

Episode 3: “The Empire of Grandeur” (1915-1919)

Episode 4: “Going Home” (1920-1933)

Episode 5: “Great Nature” (1933-1945)

Episode 6: “The Morning of Creation (1946-1980)

Series is to be rebroadcast in January 2010