Talk:List of Nova episodes

Please Help

 * This page needs a great deal of work. I'm not sure if I've chosen the best format for the tables.
 * This page is going to be extremly long and well over the limit of Wikipedia's standardization. Should it be broken into decades, or another format?
 * The Offical NOVA site has a list of the all the episodes w/synopsis. Should the synopsis be added?
 * Pattersonc 04:24, 20 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm going to leave this for a good week as-is. If anyone feels the format should be changed to allow for easier reading please do it now as after 30 seasons of data are added it will be much more difficult to accopmplish. Pattersonc 20:19, 23 January 2006 (UTC)


 * What about adopting the format of List of The Office (U.S. TV series) episodes. That way the episode synopsis are in the same place as the list of episodes. The current way there is essentially two lists that one must look at to get info about an episode. Qutezuce 20:35, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I looked at that before when looking for the best option. I felt the lack of episodic pics would make it look too confusing. Thank you for your assitance and replies.

The synopsis' seem to be copyed directly from the NOVA website. This is probably not allowed as that text is not under the GFDL. Qutezuce 20:38, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I hadn't thought of that. I will continue to just add the episode hard data sans the synopsis. Pattersonc 20:43, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Would a link to the NOVA official site within the episode list be appropriate? Catbar (Brian Rock) 02:13, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

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 * The same reasoning could be applied to every other episode list on Wikipedia. But they are still there, so there is likely some provision of copyright that allows such kind of copying of data of that nature. Qutezuce 23:06, 25 February 2006 (UTC)


 * As long as the WGBH can not prove the list came from their web site then it really does not matter. It could have come from PBS' shedule. Besides if I can not copy anything then I can not copy the copyright notice. Timothy Clemans 07:23, 26 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Sad and very disappointing that PBS/WGBH/Nova should take this attitude. If anyone should know the value of shared information, it should be these folks. Inappropriate and excessive use of copyright licences so damage our ability to share what should be free information. But it's the law. Catbar (Brian Rock) 11:21, 26 February 2006 (UTC)


 * It costs money to pay people as editors and cameramen, writers, hosts, producers, etc. They are no dout thinking of Wikipedia. Timothy Clemans 02:34, 27 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Too bad WGBH takes such a short view. I could see this article become a rich resource to explore the subject matter that NOVA has covered over the years, with all kinds of hyperlinks to the material covered in each episode. This could have worked to the greater glory of the NOVA staff and WGBH, at least in theory, increasing the value of their franchise. Since I'm prevented from mining their website (and I won't since they've demanded it), now that is less likely to happen. Sad. Catbar (Brian Rock) 03:18, 10 March 2006 (UTC)



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Horizon
This page should indicate which espisodes are re-edited/narrated episodes of Horizon Jooler 15:26, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I largely agree that the Horizon/Nova connection should be noted somehow, but the superscripted notes really make the table ugly. I propose either replacing the largely neglected "Topic" column with "Notes" or adding a "Notes" column.  There's not a lot of space to work with, though.  Any other ideas?  Majorclanger (talk) 20:04, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I agree the is not the best way to present this informaton. Yes, perhaps the 3rd column could be renamed notes. Jooler (talk) 20:34, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, I'll sit on it for a few days in case anybody else has any input, but unless there's an objection, I'll replace "Topic" with "Notes" and shift the content over to it. Majorclanger (talk) 21:34, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm an ex-producer of both progs and support Jooler's move to note where they're one and the same. It's pretty obvious that  doesn't work, so I support Majorclanger's initiative too. --El Ingles (talk) 23:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I think that getting rid of the topics column would be a good move. As it is now, this list is identical to the list on the PBS website. However, I would rather see a new row created for the Horizon information, rather than placing it into a column. Lengthy titles next to lengthy notes are going to break into new lines anyway, so why not plan for that and create a new row. New rows only need to be created as they're used, and this would prevent a lot of empty column cells. Using a new row might also encourage the addition of episode summaries, which would improve this list as well. - Sarilox (talk) 17:30, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Episode list template
I have converted this episode list to use Template:Episode list. In the process I found and added many episodes which were missing from this list and the list on the PBS website. As a result, I decided to remove the running episode count, since there may be more missing episodes. The total episode count can be found in the code at the end of the list. I have also removed the topics column because it may be a copyright violation as almost all of the topics were taken directly from the list on the PBS website. Instead of topics, it seems more appropriate to add an original short summary. I have also moved all of the superscripted production information from the title cell into a summary cell. Finally, to further differentiate this list from the version on the PBS website, I divided this list into actual broadcast seasons rather than by year. Sarilox (talk) 23:58, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Whoa! Great work!  My only reservation is with the removal of the Nova ScienceNow episodes - I'm not sure these should be considered a separate series... but I'm willing to be convinced! Majorclanger (talk) 00:01, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Oops, forgot to mention that. I did remove all of the Nova Science Now episodes as I had previously added them to the NOVA scienceNOW article. As of the third season (2008) it is its own series with its own time slot and production codes. Check out this press release(pdf) for more info. Convinced? Sarilox (talk) 00:22, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
 * It's a little bit too revisionist for my liking (the first two batches, anyway), but I can live with it. Probably ought to have a prominent link to the scienceNOW article somewhere, though. Majorclanger (talk) 01:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Minor corrections
Some of the later "Secrets of Lost Empires" are labeled on the cover as "Secrets of Lost Empires II". I made the correction to the Medieval Siege episode; however, this change was reverted. Comments?Phillipbeynon (talk) 06:40, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

New Season
A new season of NOVA has premiered. It should be mentioned.

Anonymous173.57.44.147 (talk) 00:45, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Season 41
Ground Zero Supertower and Megastorm Aftermath are part of Season 41.

Anonymous71.164.209.8 (talk) 18:12, 29 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I verified this on the PBS Pressroom site and made the necessary changes. Thanks! Metrowestjp (talk) 19:06, 29 August 2013 (UTC)

Episode code issue and motion to update
I am re-posting my issue here from the main Talk page:

The issue relates to the season "codes" resetting for no apparent reason and it starts between seasons 6 and 7. On March 29, 1979, the episode is coded as 0610 (i.e., s06e10 for season 6, episode 10). But for some reason the next episode -- the first one in Season 7 -- is coded as 0611 -- seemingly referring to season 6, episode 11. Where did that code sequence emerge? It disrupts the sequence for the rest of the list.

This is wrong, in my opinion. The season code should just continue the sequence for the remainder of the season. Therefore, I would like to change the numbering system used here to mirror the one at IMBD. Does that seem reasonable?

Thoughts? Eux2010
 * Production codes and season/episode numbers don't always line up. I'm not sure of the validity of the codes in the article, but I wouldn't support changing them just to line up with s00e00 format. It might be better to create a new column for seasonal episode numbers. See for example the list of Star Trek episodes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series_episodes -- there are three columns: one for the overall episode number, one for the seasonal episode number, and one for the production code (which rarely matches the episode number). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bflaminio (talk • contribs) 21:28, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you Bflaminio. That is a very helpful suggestion for me. I appreciate that and I will create a new column as you suggest. Good thinking!

Update: I can add a column heading but am unable to insert data in that column -- the formatting goes a bit crazy. Unless someone can explain what edit must be made to insert this data the only way for me to do it would be to recreate the entire table on the page. That seems too drastic for this minor change. So I shall leave this as status quo for now until I hear or learn further. I think adding an episode reference is helpful metadata but the wikipedia style html gremlins are not permitting it at this time. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eux2010 (talk • contribs) 01:26, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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wrong airdate
Season 44 "Eclipse Over America" August 21, 2017 airdate is wrong, not aired yet 70.26.0.91 (talk) 23:12, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080516083545/http://www.windfallfilms.com/productions/production-details/escape-colditz.html to http://www.windfallfilms.com/productions/production-details/escape-colditz.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080907134320/http://www.windfallfilms.com/productions/production-details/great-escape.html to http://www.windfallfilms.com/productions/production-details/great-escape.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080617110937/http://www.pioneertv.com/productions_2.php to http://www.pioneertv.com/productions_2.php
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Episode number
Episode numbers for seasons 40..45 has totally changed.. Why? What are the correct episode numbers?

before: Nova S45E01 Eclipse Over America

after: Nova S44E11 Eclipse Over America

episodes numbers are different here: https://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=seasonall&id=76119

70.49.99.63 (talk) 16:39, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Quotes or Italics?
While all the episodes listed on these tables are named in quotes like episode names usually are, about half the ones that have their own articles have italicized titles as if they were stand-alone films. For the multi-part episodes I guess that makes sense, but for stand-alone ones I'm not sure where the separation is supposed to be here between episode and film. --Jessietail (talk) 08:31, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

NOVA Wonders
Might want to consider whether NOVA Wonders is really a different TV show. The structure of the episodes is quite different. They are possibly targeted at a different audience. It has a separate website http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wonders/ where it is called a "6-part series" rather than, say, six episodes.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.100.13.113 (talk • contribs) 05:18, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Question on the Teahouse
A question on The Teahouse concerned the January 11, 1978 episode. Why is the episode code for that episode from season 4 when it follows a season 5 episode?— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  18:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

Season Cleanup (Season 40 to Season 45)

 * Season 43 >This is almost done. SWP13 (talk) 04:57, 2 November 2019 (UTC)


 * I have reverted much of your 48 edits of Nov 2019. No episodes were added or removed by the reversion. "Season" is not a standard column in TV episode lists. Table formatting was also messed up. IMDb info can be inaccurate.  Both TFC (below) and PBS have the April 26, 2017 (NOT on 24th) title as "Building Chernobyl's MegaTomb"
 * NOVA episode list at TFC (The Futon Critic): http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/nova/listings/
 * Official NOVA website at PBS.ORG: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
 * Rayhartung (talk) 23:04, 2 November 2019 (UTC)
 * I have added a "No. in season" column and reincorperated all of the "|EpisodeNumber2=" content from the reverted edits. Rayhartung (talk) 01:53, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Added WGBH open vault database listings as a source.
The actual Nova series producers database of episodes needs to be here as they are used as the main reference by three different major brick and mortar libraries as primary references for this series

How to cite:

Example:

Chicago: “NOVA; Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama, A,” 09/17/1987, WGBH Media Library & Archives, accessed November 14, 2019, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_DE5832DABB4E44B2A6A817CB8F77BF63. MLA: “NOVA; Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama, A.” 09/17/1987. WGBH Media Library & Archives. Web. November 14, 2019. . APA: NOVA; Man, a Plan, a Canal, Panama, A. Boston, MA: WGBH Media Library & Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_DE5832DABB4E44B2A6A817CB8F77BF63 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Egilman (talk • contribs) 05:19, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

The IMDB is so often wrong that it shouldn't be used as as a reference here in wiki. ESPECIALLY when there are source references of the quality linked. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Egilman (talk • contribs) 05:22, 14 November 2019 (UTC)