NOVA: Season 27
Season 27 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of NOVA Season 26.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 27 Progress Shield
Fall of the Leaning Tower
Oct 5, 1999 · 55 min
Even before it was finished 800 years ago, the Leaning Tower of Pisa - a masterpiece of medieval architecture - began to topple, shaken by earthquakes and sinking slowly into the u
Time Travel
Oct 12, 1999 · 55 min
In the program, leading physicists delve into the mystery of whether time travel is possible, and if so, how one might go about building a time machine.
The Killer's Trail
Oct 19, 1999 · 55 min
The death of Marilyn Sheppard in 1954 is one of the most famous unsolved murders in America. The indictment of her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, quickly became the "Trial of the Centu
Island of the Spirits
Nov 2, 1999 · 55 min
In the far north of Japan, thrust out into the north Pacific, is the remote island of Hokkaido. It's a land of towering volcanoes and steaming lakes, marshy valleys and fairy tale
Decoding Nazi Secrets
Nov 9, 1999 · 55 min
Most historians agree that by enabling Allied commanders to eavesdrop on German plans, Station X shortened the war by 2 or 3 years. Its decoded messages played a vital role in defe
Voyage of Doom
Nov 23, 1999 · 55 min
Buried in mud beneath the shallow waters of Matagorda Bay in Texas, lay a glorious remnant of one of the most ill-fated voyages of the Age of Discovery. After years of searching th
Electric Heart
Dec 21, 1999 · 55 min
The program tells the story of a handful of brilliant, obsessed surgeons and researchers who have pursued the target of a practical artificial heart for decades.
Tales from the Hive
Jan 4, 2000 · 55 min
NOVA chronicles a year in the life of a bee colony with stunning images that take viewers inside the innermost secrets of the hive. The documentary team spent a year developing spe
Lost on Everest
Jan 18, 2000 · 55 min
The program chronicles a successful 1999 NOVA expedition to investigate the mysterious disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine high on Everest in 1924. During this expedi
Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (1)
Feb 1, 2000 · 55 min
In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, a team of timber framers and other specialists design, build, and fire a pair of trebuchets, a devastating
Diamond Deception
Feb 1, 2000 · 55 min
The film documents the efforts of researchers around the world to create synthetic diamonds, some of which have become so indistinguishable from natural diamonds as to fool experts
Secrets of Lost Empires: Pharaoh's Obelisk (2)
Feb 8, 2000 · 55 min
In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, NOVA brings together a team of Egyptologists, engineers, stonemasons, and timber framers to probe the myste
Trillion Dollar Bet
Feb 8, 2000 · 55 min
The film tells the fascinating story of the invention of the Black-Scholes Formula, a mathematical Holy Grail that forever altered the world of finance and earned its creators the
Secrets of Lost Empires: Easter Island (3)
Feb 15, 2000 · 55 min
The film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, showcases the efforts of a team of archeologists, engineers, and other experts to transport an Easter Island m
Mystery of the First Americans
Feb 15, 2000 · 55 min
In 1996, near Kennewick, Washington, a suspected murder victim is identified by forensic anthropologists as Caucasian - but turns out to be almost 10,000 years old. For fifty years
Secrets of Lost Empires: Roman Bath (4)
Feb 22, 2000 · 55 min
In the film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, an international crew of archeologists, engineers, and historians designs, builds, and tests a functioning
Lost Tribes of Israel
Feb 22, 2000 · 55 min
At the heart of Jewish tradition lies the haunting mystery of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Ever since their defeat and banishment by the Assyrians in 722 BC., the Lost Tribes fate ha
Secrets of Lost Empires: China Bridge (5)
Feb 29, 2000 · 55 min
The film, which is a part of the NOVA series Secrets of Lost Empires, documents a 1999 effort by a NOVA-assembled crew of scholars and timber framers to design and build a Chinese
What's Up with the Weather?
Apr 18, 2000 · 55 min
In "What's Up with the Weather?" NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to investigate the science and politics of one of the most controversial issues of the 21st century: the truth about
Stationed in the Stars
Apr 25, 2000 · 55 min
The broadcast explores America's manned space program and the crisis caused by Russia's delay in delivering the critical third piece of the International Space Station.
The Vikings
May 9, 2000 · 55 min
In this two-hour special, NOVA presents a dramatic investigation of a people who were much more than axe-wielding pirates. It features stunning camerawork in Scandinavia and the fa