The BEST episodes of Explorer season 2005

#1 - Collapse

Season 2005 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/25/2005

NGC takes a forensic look at the chain of events leading up to some of the world's most fatal structural disasters, including the worst structural failure to take place in the U.S. prior to 9/11

#2 - Mysteries of Survival

Season 2005 - Episode 18 - Aired 10/7/2005

Examining how some people manage to live through struggles for survival while others succumb in just a few days.

#3 - China's Lost Girls

Season 2005 - Episode 17 - Aired 6/26/2004

Join Lisa Ling as she explores the complex and emotional issues surrounding China's one-child policy.

#4 - Emperors Of The Ice

Season 2005 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/31/2004

#5 - Whales In Crisis

Season 2005 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/31/2004

Of all the world creatures, nothing is larger....

#6 - Last Days of the Maya

Season 2005 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/27/2005

What caused the sudden demise of the Maya in Central America 2,000 years ago? Human skeletons discovered in a cistern may hold the key to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world.

#7 - Super Chopper

Season 2005 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/11/2005

The latest "super choppers" are one of an advanced breed of machines - built to fly fast and silently to places helicopters could never go before, even to the reaches of inner space. One such "super chopper," known as EH101, has been touted as a breakthrough technological achievement. New designs like the EH101 will also be much more impervious to attack, with Kevlar and other advanced composite materials strengthening the body - while keeping it lightweight. Using live action, re-creations, amazing archival footage and advanced CGI, we marvel at the creation of today's "super choppers" - extraordinary multi-purpose helicopters for the twenty-first century.

#8 - Nightmare in Jamestown

Season 2005 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/20/2005

You're starving - and under attack by hostile neighbors. Spies have infiltrated your town, half your family is sick with some deadly disease and rumor has it that your neighbor just ate his wife for lunch. Welcome to America, 1607-where evidence suggests that this nightmare could have been the settlers' reality. It's a story of bubonic plague, starvation, espionage and cannibalism - and the founding of North America's first successful English colony. In 1606, a handful of English adventurers set sail across the Atlantic, expecting a paradise teeming with gold and riches. Instead, they discovered a living hell. Now, nearly 400 years later, the latest discoveries explore the story of Jamestown - as you've never seen it before. Exclusive access to forensics and archaeology will take us inside the graves, revealing shocking new evidence of starvation and disease, secret plots and Spanish spies. Dramatic recreations bring to life one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history. And in an unprecedented act, the Church of England will open its vaults, allowing National Geographic to dig up the remains of a 17th century woman whose bones hold clues to the disastrous venture known as Jamestown and its founding father, an unsung hero of American history called Bartholomew Gosnold. Like many mysteries, we begin with the bodies: a burial ground containing the remains of more than 70 people, some haphazardly arranged. It looks like whoever buried these people hardly had the time or energy to do so properly. Who were they? What happened? The burial site is just steps from the remains of Jamestown Fort, where archaeologists and forensic specialists are toiling to uncover the secrets of America's first successful colony. Stylized recreations and CGI will transport us back four centuries to reveal the hopeful beginnings of a colony made famous by fanciful tales of romance between Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. A colonist's diary claims at least one person, out of desperation, turned

#9 - Pyramids of Fire

Season 2005 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/23/2005

The pyramids of Americas were built more than 2,000 years ago by a people who vanished long ago. Little is known about these builders and the purpose of the pyramids has been a mystery until now. Were they temples to the gods or sacrificial altars?

#10 - Killer Cats

Season 2005 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/23/2005

Some of the most graceful hunters on land are wired to kill. Stalking, jumping, pouncing or running, lone hunters or team players, big cats are highly specialized, each with its own mode of attack.

#11 - DNA Mysteries: The Search for Adam

Season 2005 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/16/2005

Where did we all come from? Could we all be descendants of Adam? And if he existed, who was he, where did he live and what did he look like? It is a mystery that intrigues us all and questions like these have been asked time and time again, but nobody has got close to the answer - until now. Spencer Wells, a leading geneticist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence, is setting out on a quest to discover if there was an "Adam" from whom all humans are descended. Wells uses the latest in DNA testing technology to take us on an extraordinary journey across the globe as he traces humanity's family tree. As we travel through humanity's genetic past we'll encounter longstanding mysteries which today's DNA tools can finally solve. They'll yield new truths about historical figures like Genghis Kahn and Thomas Jefferson. The primary tool that helps this quest for one common ancestor is the Y-chromosome, which ties fathers to sons, passing down through family lines more or less unchanged. As Spencer Wells follows the Y-chromosomes backwards through the generations the branches of man's family tree begin to coalesce into a single trunk, pointing to a single Adam. In Africa we finally end up at a point where all branches of humanity's family tree coalesce into just one root. Wells theorizes that this must be Adam - a man who lived around 60,000 years ago. And, astonishingly, Wells believes, this man's Y chromosome is shared by every man in the world. But now that we have found him, what did he look like and how did he live? This new program sets out to find the answers.

#12 - Violent Earth

Season 2005 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/5/2005

This special gives a harrowing look at a planet experiencing more destructive natural disasters with each passing year. Join tsunami scientist Jose Borrero of the University of Southern California on his trip to visit Banda Aceh with a National Geographic film team, barely one week after the December 26, 2004, tsunami. From visiting areas affected by the stunning 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia, to investigating the massive fault threatening Istanbul, "Violent Earth" gets to the bottom of some key questions. Is Earth getting more dangerous? What can we do to protect ourselves? Where and when will the next mega disaster strike?

#13 - Surviving Maximum Security

Season 2005 - Episode 7 - Aired 4/10/2005

Lisa Ling gets rare access to California Sacramento State Prison where one-third of the inmates are serving life sentences, and violence, rape, and gang warfare are part of everyday life behind bars.

#14 - Hogzilla

Season 2005 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/20/2005

Summer 2004. Stories are circulating in the swamps of southern Georgia, USA about a huge and terrifying wild boar lurking in the woods. Local resident Chris Griffin encounters the animal and kills it. After taking a photograph, he buries the hog. Within weeks, stories of 'Hogzilla' rocket around the world via the Internet. Chris' 12-foot-long, 1000-pound wild hog becomes international news. But was this giant pig a hoax, or was it real? In 'Hogzilla', National Geographic Television & Film travels across the globe looking at the evolution and behavior of hogs and their interaction with humans. In the UK, the recent demand for wild boar meat has lead to increased hog production for food. The escape of some of these hogs from a farm in the UK however, has apparently led to a rebirth of the species in the wild. In Berlin, wild boars are invading people's homes. In China, hog farmers are feeding hogs with the aim of increasing their size as much as possible, creating their own 'Hogzillas'. Back in Georgia, hog experts dig up Chris Griffin's giant hog in a bid to discover its secrets. In the process, they create some interesting theories about how Hogzilla came to be and conclude that this monster may have been a product of man's own doing.

#15 - Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores

Season 2005 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/13/2005

In an extraordinary discovery that made front page headlines around the world, scientists uncovered evidence of a race of "hobbit-sized" prehistoric species on a remote Indonesian island. A full-grown adult would have been as tall as an average three-year-old child today. Most amazing of all, researchers believe this ancient race lived at the same time as modern humans, sharing the earth for at least 80,000 years. "Explorer - Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores" delivers the world's first in-depth documentary of this groundbreaking find that could to rewrite the textbooks.

#16 - Inside Shock and Awe

Season 2005 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/20/2005

Target: Saddam Hussein's Baghdad. Mission: unleash a bombardment so massive that it destroys the enemy's will, yet kills as few people as possible. Using spectacular exclusive imagery and CGI, National Geographic Television & Film investigates the planning and execution of Shock and Awe, putting it into historical perspective and looking to the future of warfare. Inside Shock and Awe will deconstruct the bombing campaign that launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. In the most intense bombardment in history, 800 missiles were launched in two days - more than twice as many as were dropped during the six weeks of Gulf War I. Yet the bombing was carried out with surgical precision, minimizing "collateral damage". Amazingly, there has been no detailed inside look at what happened during those 48 hours in March 2003. We'll get an inside view of the technology that allows overwhelming firepower to be accurately targeted, and investigate how exotic missiles, like the thermobaric "bunker busters," work. At the same time, we'll put the Shock and Awe campaign into the context of history's most dramatic bombardments - from the catapults and trebuchets of the Romans, to the firebombing of Dresden. And we'll provide a unique, exclusive look at what was going on in Baghdad during a bombardment that was designed to destroy peoples' wills, while saving their lives. This controversial campaign was part of a new approach to war, based on the latest technology and a modern-day concern for human life. NGT&F was in the middle of this awesome watershed in the history of warfare, and now has the insight and access to provide a comprehensive investigation into the planning, execution and outcome of this amazing military feat.

#17 - The Witchcraft Murder

Season 2005 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/13/2005

A story on witchcraft in Mexico City. Anthropologist Anthony Zavaleta and healer Alberto Salinas inspect hill where they find several objects buried in order to cast spells and hex others.

#18 - The True Face of Hurricanes

Season 2005 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/30/2005

When four hurricanes hit Florida in 2004, NGC deploys an army of film crews into the vortex of these monster storms. Their amazing footage reveals what's happening inside a hurricane's super-destructive eye wall.