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The Best Episodes of NOVA Season 1

Every episode of NOVA Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of NOVA Season 1!

Binge this in 11h 55m•Peaking at 10.0/10

PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    NOVA Season 1 Episode 12 - Fusion: The Energy of Promise
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    S1:E12

    Nuclear fusion offers the promises of an unlimited, clean source of energy. But achieving fusion has proved one of the most difficult and elusive goals of the physicist. NOVA tells the story of the twists and turns and the international competition along the road toward the achievement of fusion; and details the recent breakthroughs which seem at last to have brought it within reach.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. NOVA Season 1 Episode 1 - The Making Of A Natural History Film
    8.0/10(29 votes)

    S1:E1

    NOVA premieres on public television with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a nature film. Oxford Scientific Films Unit shows how it tackles such problems as filming a wood-wasp laying its egg inside trees, the hatching of a chick and the courtship rituals of the stickleback.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. NOVA Season 1 Episode 7 - The Crab Nebula
    8.0/10(14 votes)

    S1:E7

    In 1054 AD, the Chinese recorded the explosion of a star so bright that it lit the sky for three weeks, even during the day. It was the explosion of a dying star that was bigger than our sun. NOVA explores this mysterious explosion that led to the discovery of Crab Nebula.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. NOVA Season 1 Episode 2 - Where Did the Colorado Go?
    7.9/10(18 votes)

    S1:E2

    NOVA explores the mighty Colorado River which today has become the life-blood of the Southwest, providing water and electricity to the farms and cities of California, Nevada, and Arizona. The program examines the political expediency and technological over-optimism that has led to some major miscalculations of the river's capacity.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. NOVA Season 1 Episode 4 - The Search For Life
    7.9/10(13 votes)

    S1:E4

    Does life exist outside this planet? The Viking lander will set down on Mars in July 1976 to try to find out just that. NOVA explores how life started on Earth and examines the Viking Lander being built in its germ-free room before starting its long journey.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. NOVA Season 1 Episode 3 - Whales, Dolphins, and Men
    7.8/10(17 votes)

    S1:E3

    NOVA explores the impact of whaling and the goods it produces for the industry, verses the grace and beatury of this intelligent mammal of the sea.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. NOVA Season 1 Episode 6 - Strange Sleep
    7.6/10(20 votes)

    S1:E6

    Medicine was transformed in the 19th century by the discovery of anesthesia; surgery, until then hasty, bloody and completely unable to deal with internal disorders, subsequently took its place in the front rank of medical practice. This NOVA docudrama depicts the pioneers of medicine.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. NOVA Season 1 Episode 13 - The Mystery Of The Anasazi
    7.6/10(13 votes)

    S1:E13

    Who were the people that built the first cities -- complete with apartment blocks -- in North America? They were the Anasazi Indians, who lived in the Southwest for some eight or nine thousand years and who then, in about 1300 AD, abruptly abandoned their cities and apparently disappeared. NOVA traces the steps of this ancient sophisticated culture.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. NOVA Season 1 Episode 10 - The First Signs Of Washoe
    7.5/10(14 votes)

    S1:E10

    Washoe is a chimp more like a person: she talks with her hands. NOVA visits with Washoe and her teachers—Professor Allen Gardner and Dr. Trixie Gardner—to learn more about this unusual animal.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. NOVA Season 1 Episode 5 - Last of the Cuiva
    6.7/10(11 votes)

    S1:E5

    How does a primitive nomadic tribe of the Amazon basin cope with the encroachment of Western settlers? NOVA looks at both sides of the story, revealing the misunderstandings between the two cultures.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. NOVA Season 1 Episode 8 - Bird Brain: The Mystery of Bird Navigation
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E8

    Birds migrate in search of perpetual summer, sometimes traveling as much as 20,000 miles every year. NOVA uses radar to track and identify migrating birds that travel at night, focusing on how they coose routes tat avoid bad weather and make the best of prevailing winds—information that can aid meteorologists.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. NOVA Season 1 Episode 9 - Are You Doing This for Me, Doctor?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E9

    The advance of medicine depends inevitably on the testing of experimental procedures on human volunteers from either the healthy or the sick. Yet such procedures are often dangerous, and may not be of direct benefit to the subject. NOVA examines how individuals' interests are safeguarded, and asks, under what circumstances experiments should be conducted on children.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. NOVA Season 1 Episode 11 - The Case of the Midwife Toad
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    S1:E11

    When Paul Kammerer committed suicide in 1926, it was taken by most of his fellow biologists as a tacit admission of guilt that he had faked his experiments purporting to show the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Arthur Koestler joins NOVA in an in-depth examination of Kammerer's infamous experiment.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"Fusion: The Energy of Promise" is the best rated episode of "NOVA" season 1. It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 5/19/1974. This episode is rated 2.0 points higher than the second-best, "The Making Of A Natural History Film".