The BEST episodes of Discovery Channel Documentaries season 2005

#1 - Comet Collision

Season 2005 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/1/2005

In July 2005, NASA's Deep Impact probe collided with comet Tempel 1, providing the first-ever glimpse of the interior of one of these "dirty snowballs" and valuable insight into the formation of our solar system. NASA's brilliant, but risky, plan to send a tiny, copper-plated probe hurtling directly towards the city-sized comet at a speed of 23,000 mph was a smashing success. The resulting explosion of particles provided experts with new data about the composition of life-building materials that were present in the early solar system. Watch as state-of-the-art spacecraft animation and stunning location photography bring the mission to life, taking viewers behind the scenes of NASA's high-profile mission. Follow the entire journey of the doomed Deep Impact probe, from its initial design to the extraordinary challenge of building a spacecraft that's intended to be smashed to pieces.

#2 - Seven Wonders Of Ancient Rome

Season 2005 - Episode 28 - Aired 1/31/2005

Documentary which explores the Seven Wonders of Ancient Rome: Circus Maximus, Trajan's Forum, Aqueducts, Baths of Caracalla, Roman Roads, Pantheon and The Colosseum.

#3 - Delta Company - The Push to Baghdad

Season 2005 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/5/2012

Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion was a lead ground attack element in the 2003 Iraq War. Accompanying them for the entire three-week charge from Kuwait to Baghdad were Marine Corps combat cameraman equipped with the latest high definition cameras. Delta Company is the two-hour television special based on that combat footage, including personal accounts of the Marines as they are leading the charge. The stunning footage in this program has never been seen on television before. Highlights include dramatic tank, air, and infantry combat, briefings and interaction between soldiers, and interviews with key military participants along the road to Baghdad. With the help of a heroic lance corporal who detonates a failed line charge by hand, Delta Company overcomes the obstacles at the Diyala Bridge. The unit achieves the first opposed bridge crossing in Marine Corps history since the Korean War. Amid scattered resistance, the Delta Company tanks push through and enter the city. Soldiers interact with civilian populations, joining them in toppling statues of the former dictator. As major combat operations conclude, Marines reflect on their experience and prepare to return home.

#4 - Khubilai Khan: Fall of the Mongol Hordes

Season 2005 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/20/2005

#5 - Living with Wolves

Season 2005 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/8/2005

During centuries wolves were characterized as blood-thirsty beasts, enemies of owners of ranch and killer of helpless live-stock. Adjusted to overcome this misunderstanding, the cameramen-naturalists of Jamie and Jim Dutcher lived six years in a tent camp, in the wilderness of Idaho, living with the covey of wolves, listening to them and earning their trust.

#6 - Coastal Crisis: The Vanishing Lands

Season 2005 - Episode 25 - Aired 6/11/2005

One-hour documentary on Louisiana's vanishing coastline and the science of restoration. The show was produced by Washington, D.C.-based 62 Blue Productions. The documentary features a number of Louisiana scientists, researchers, and coastal-advocacy leaders, including several local figures. Parts of the documentary, a year in the making, were taped in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, which are suffering the state's worst wetlands loss. The how uses Louisiana as a focal point for understanding the complexity of both the land loss problem and solutions and the reaching impacts of restoration.

#7 - The Real Da Vinci Code

Season 2005 - Episode 21 - Aired 8/21/2005

Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code may be a novel, but Brown claims that his book is based on research and that all the art, architecture and secret societies he describes are real. It's a controversial claim because, if based in truth, The Da Vinci Code threatens to turn our view of history on its head. Millions of readers have been hooked, but what do historians think of the book and do its major claims stand up to scrutiny? Has the truth about the Holy Grail been suppressed by the Catholic Church? Has the Grail been kept safe by powerful secret societies? And is the real truth about the Grail encoded into Leonardo's great painting of the Last Supper? Tony Robinson sets out to discover the facts about the Holy Grail and cut through the thicket of mystery that surrounds the subject. Like many Grail hunters before him, has Dan Brown has been duped and could one of the most alluring elements of the modern Grail obsession be an elaborate hoax?

#8 - Amazon Abyss

Season 2005 - Episode 18 - Aired 8/22/2005

Follow the high-adrenaline adventures of a team of divers as they explore and film the depths of the Amazon river system, home to many of the strangest and fiercest creatures in the world. Led by celebrated wildlife photographers Mike deGruy and Kate Humble, the team goes in search of the biological treasures hidden beneath Amazon's silty surface. What they discover, electric eels, anacondas, wood-eating fish, freshwater dolphins and more, are unlike anything you'd find at the local aquarium..

#9 - The History of Singapore - IV. Mangrove to Metropolis

Season 2005 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/26/2005

#10 - The History of Singapore - III. The Lion City, Asian Tiger

Season 2005 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/19/2005

Singapore's journey did not have a promising start, and few believed it could survive as an independent nation-state. After its separation from Malaya, Singapore had lost its industrial and emotional hinterland, was surrounded by potentially hostile neighbours, and was beleaguered by political unrest. This episode shows how Singapore turned yet another weakness into strength. Under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, political opponents were neutralised, trade union activism was discouraged and the nation was re-educated with a series of public campaigns. With the influx of multi-national corporations, Singapore's programme of state capitalism flourished. But even with a hard-working and efficient population, the nation lacked entrepreneurial or political energies. It needed to re-invent itself to continue to flourish in the 20th century. The challenge for Singapore as it moves from youth to middle age is to be a nation that can draw on its past as an inspiration for its future.

#11 - The History of Singapore - II. The Accidental Nation

Season 2005 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/12/2005

Nationalism arrived in Singapore in 1901 with Sun Yat Sen. Japan's invasion of China in the 1930s further fueled this, triggering a nationalist outpouring. Japan soon attacked the small island and Britain surrendered in February 1942. After the war, it was clear that the British no longer had the funds for the Empire and it was time for Singaporeans to fill the political vacuum. A new professional class of people like Lee Kuan Yew became the first Singaporean nationalists - they regarded Singapore as their homeland, not China or India. This episode follows the political changes that took place in the mid 1950s, in particular the struggle between Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong. Viewers learn of the threat of communism, Singapore's relationship with and separation from Malaya, and the eventual formation of an independent government and nation.

#12 - The History of Singapore - I. Raffle's Little Child

Season 2005 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/5/2005

he first episode chronicles the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles, and tells the story of Singapore's birth and growing pains through to the high noon of Empire. With a vision of Singapore as a trading port in its own right, Raffles attempted to shift the centre of the trading network to Singapore with the promise of free trade. But money-making schemes, monopoly of opium and alcohol supplies, secret societies and other vices plagued the tiny nation, and the city grew more squalid and violent as there was no government to speak of. However, with the opening of the Suez Canal, Singapore became a truly international port, no longer having to rely on regional trade. With this transformation, Britain began to be more concerned about Singapore and granted it colonial status. By applying some governance and sorting out the social problems, Singapore became more stable and Raffles' vision was becoming reality. But the seeds of Singapore's downfall were also being sown as the arrival of new goods and people also brought new ideas which would convulse Singapore in the 20th century.

#13 - How William Shatner Changed the World

Season 2005 - Episode 33 - Aired 1/1/2005

William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the "Star Trek" TV series have influenced and inspired today's technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.

#14 - Delta Company - A New Era in Baghdad

Season 2005 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/5/2012

Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion was a lead ground attack element in the 2003 Iraq War. Accompanying them for the entire three-week charge from Kuwait to Baghdad were Marine Corps combat cameraman equipped with the latest high definition cameras. Delta Company is the two-hour television special based on that combat footage, including personal accounts of the Marines as they are leading the charge. The stunning footage in this program has never been seen on television before. Highlights include dramatic tank, air, and infantry combat, briefings and interaction between soldiers, and interviews with key military participants along the road to Baghdad. With the help of a heroic lance corporal who detonates a failed line charge by hand, Delta Company overcomes the obstacles at the Diyala Bridge. The unit achieves the first opposed bridge crossing in Marine Corps history since the Korean War. Amid scattered resistance, the Delta Company tanks push through and enter the city. Soldiers interact with civilian populations, joining them in toppling statues of the former dictator. As major combat operations conclude, Marines reflect on their experience and prepare to return home.

#15 - Britains Secret UFO Hunters

Season 2005 - Episode 32 - Aired 8/20/2005

Learn about the secret organisation established in London's Metropole Hotel to monitor British airspace during the Cold War. The Government has denied its existence -until now.

#16 - UFO's Over Phoenix

Season 2005 - Episode 31 - Aired 6/6/2005

In March, 1997, hundreds of people reported seeing strange lights in the night sky over central Arizona. Join host Michelle Trachtenberg to uncover the events of that evening and the theories that might explain them.

#17 - Alien Planet

Season 2005 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/14/2005

Alien Planet is a 94 minute mockumentary, originally airing on the Discovery Channel, about two internationally built robot probes searching for alien life on the fictional planet Darwin IV. It was based on the book Expedition, by sci-fi/fantasy artist and writer Wayne Douglas Barlowe, who was also executive producer on the special. It premiered on May 14, 2005. The show uses sophisticated computer-generated imagery, which is interspersed with interviews from such notables as Stephen Hawking, George Lucas, Michio Kaku, and Jack Horner. The show was filmed in Iceland and Mono Lake in California.

#18 - Alien Planet

Season 2005 - Episode 30 - Aired 5/14/2005

What happens when we find life outside our own planet? Discovery Channel brings viewers on a virtual mission of the future. Right now, the search for planets with "life signatures" goes on. These efforts are global, and experts tell us on camera how this search for life is progressing around the world. No longer just the domain of science fiction, what could alien life really look like? Alien Planet dramatizes an exciting — and possible — answer. The drama takes place on Darwin IV, a fictional planet 6.5 light-years from Earth, with two suns and 60 percent gravity. Having identified Darwin as a world that could support life, Earth sends a pilot mission consisting of the mothership Von Braun and three probes: Balboa, Da Vinci and Newton. This unmanned fleet is responsible for finding and assessing any life-forms on Darwin IV. Initially, the expectation is to find microscopic life, but the probes soon find themselves in the middle of a developed ecosystem teeming with life of all sizes. The viewer experiences Darwin IV through the "eyes" of the probes Ike (Newton) and Leo (Da Vinci), whose data is relayed back to the mothership and then communicated to Earth. The biological and atmospheric data from the probes and mothership are relayed to viewers through computer voice simulation and on-screen readouts. Real scientists consider data in this planetary environment. They discuss the larger issues of the possibilities of life outside our solar system and deconstruct the animals on Darwin IV, basing the analysis on the laws of evolution and physics. Where possible, life-size animal images and the real probe prototypes will help the audience to understand the current, real basis of the search for other planets. Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku and other big thinkers and scientists will participate in the discussion of where science is today. Other participants include Jack Horner, Craig Venter, George Lucas and NASA's chief scientist, Jim Garvin. The drama