I agree about the narrator's voice. I missed quite a few words also. Folks used to good naturedly razz Carl Sagan about "billions and billions", but you could easily understand him. I thought the producer and narrator went down the schmaltzy trail when he produced Carl Sagan's journal and autographed book to the narrator when the narrator visited him at Cornell when he was 17 - and it worked. It put a lump in my throat.
On the whole, it did not measure up to the original 1980 version. Sagan's use of Vangelis' new age soundtrack has stayed in my mind all these decades since. Nothing in this v2.0 edition that even is close to being memorable. But I will probably watch the 2nd installment just to see if it improves.