Armageddon Coming

NYTimes on PBS's "Avoiding Armageddon," a disturbing four-part, eight-hour documentary series running tonight through Thursday on PBS.

These programs are far richer in Armageddon than in avoiding, raising the specters of disease and destruction spread through the world by troubling terrorists. The segments are rich, too, in alarming (even agonizing) alliteration, with episode titles that include phrases like "Poisons and Plagues," "Nuclear Nightmares" and "Turning the Tide."

The concept of Armageddon comes from Revelation, and this revelation is intoned by Walter Cronkite, perfectly cast in the role of anguished patriarch.

The End Of The World Will Be Televised.