Oceanic wonder, as celebrated in “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II”

A series of the scale and scope of “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II” pushes into new cinematic territory, thanks to technological advancements allowing crew members to venture into places previously unexplored by humans. Producer Orla Doherty went to one such site, joining the first humans to dive 3,280 feet into the waters beneath Antarctica — the coldest on Earth — to explore enormous icebergs.

Even there in those frigid waters, life thrives in glowing, feathery tentacled variety. “Every dive that we did felt like we were going to another planet,” Doherty told Salon in a recent interview conducted during BBC America’s appearance at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. “You are getting into a capsule and it's a little spaceship, except you're just going down instead of up, and you're landing on places that are just extraordinary and have probably never been seen before, and never will be seen again.

“Yes, these places are like other planets,” she added, “but it's right here on planet Earth. This is part of our home.”

“Blue Planet II,” the latest jewel in the crown of the BBC’s nature documentary unit, makes its U.S. debut at 9 p.m. Saturday on BBC America, and will be simulcast on AMC, IFC, WE tv and SundanceTV.

To make “Blue Planet II,” teams mounted 125 expeditions that touched every continent and every ocean, visiting 39 countries during production. They spent more than 6,000 hours diving underwater, reaching as far down as the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.

Innovations in submersible vehicles and camera equipment allow the crew to venture to places the first “Blue Planet” could not in 2001, creating a series as full of wonder and discovery as it is with thrills and frights. In one of Doherty’s episodes, “The Deep,” some of life captured on film is alien to our understanding, naturally luminescent and entrancing. It is fang-filled as well, validating our concept of the sea as a place hiding terrors side by side with delights.

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