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)

@Pattersonc @Qutezuce @Catbar Since the page was getting too long (with now 52 Seasons and still growing) I split the seasons into new List articles having 20-season increments (similar to Lists for The Simpsons and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), while keeping this extant "Main" "List of..." to house other info, such as the new {{Series overview}} table.

As for copying plot/synopsis from "Official" sources, this is a direct violation of Wikipedia policy & U.S. Law. See the topic below, "NOVA | Copyright_Information" for details on this, and how to update the Episode Plot ShortSummary values.

The "Official" NOVA site has been added to the External links section of all the List articles, as is appropriate for helping Users to learn more.

One thing I was not able to do, and could use Help with, is enabling the Transclusion of all 52+ Seasons, in summary (i.e., without the Plot Summaries), to this Main "List of..." article from the new 20-season list articles. I've included Code Comments under the Episodes section to render the 3 new {{Episode table}}s. While its able to display the first 20 seasons correctly, the next Transclusions (of Seasons 21-39, and 41–present) cause a WP:PEIS error: "Warning: Post-expand include size is too large. Some templates will not be included." If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd greatly appreciate your help. <-- Update: Problem Solved GreyElfGT (talk) 06:09, 28 November 2025 (UTC)

ThankQ for your efforts so-far. NOVA is one of my Fav' shows of all time. Hope this helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 01:26, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

NOVA | Copyright Information

"This Web site was produced for PBS Online by WGBH. Web site ©2006 WGBH Educational Foundation.

CONDITIONS OF USE

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE. By using this site, you signify your assent to these terms of use. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please do not use the site.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF MATERIALS.

This site is owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. No material from wgbh.org or any Web site owned, operated, licensed or controlled by WGBH may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way, except that you may download one copy of the materials on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Modification of the materials or use of the materials for any other purpose is a violation of WGBH's copyright and other proprietary rights. The use of any such material on any other Web site or networked computer environment is prohibited. All trademarks, servicemarks, and trade names are proprietary to WGBH Educational Foundation or Public Broadcasting Service or the owners of such trademarks, servicemarks, or trade names." Timothy Clemans 22:47, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

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)

"We're sorry, but due to rights restrictions this program is only available for online viewing in the United States. You appear to be connected to the Internet from outside this area.

If you feel that we have made a mistake in detecting your location, please refresh the page. If you continue to experience problems, please send in your comments. We are aware that many people within the United States are having difficulty viewing our program videos and we are working to solve it. In the meantime, thank you for your patience.

For viewers in Canada who may support nearby public television stations in the United States, we appreciate your support but regrettably cannot legally offer this programming online outside the United States. "Phillipbeynon (talk) 05:52, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

@Timothy Clemans @Qutezuce @Catbar @Phillipbeynon Since many of the episodes' plot ShortSummary values were {{Copypaste}}d wholly/directly and verbatim from pbs.org/wgbh/nova, it was a clear Copyright violation. Further, some episodes were copied in-part or wholly from descriptions at IMDb and/or pbs.org/show/nova/. I have reviewed all 52 Seasons and removed those descriptions which were obvious violations. As a result, there are now way more episodes withOUT a Plot Summary than those with one.

So if there are any intrepid editors out there willing to help provide new Plot Summaries, please do so. The best way is to simply watch the episode, take notes, and then write it out in your own words.

For guidance, see How to write a plot summary ^WP:PLOTSUM. Do NOT submit content you find from another web site as it is plagiarism and likely a copyright violation, which Wikipedia cannot accept and will be removed or reverted. Superficially modifying copyrighted content or closely paraphrasing it, even if the source is cited, still constitutes a copyright violation. As per the Television Plot Manual of Style,^MOS:TVPLOT summaries should be about 100 to 200 words in length, and those substantially less than 100 words are most likely to be scrutinized for possible copyright violation.

If the episode has been removed from pbs.org/show/nova/, you can use your Local Library Card membership to search and watch it for free on kanopy.com or hoopladigital.com or failing that, check archive.org or youtube.com.

Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 01:00, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

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 < sub> 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 <sub> 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)

@Jooler @Majorclanger @Sarilox @StuHarris There is a simple way to note Ep's previously aired on Horizon, BBC, et al, and I've updated the seasons list to reflect it. Simply put an {{hr}} (Horizontal Rule) after the plot ShortSummary value, and add Notes below the HR. For example, see the 1st episode at List of Nova episodes (seasons 1–20)#ep1. Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 22:27, 26 November 2025 (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)

@Sarilox @Majorclanger I re-added the "No. overall" column as its values provide Anchor points to link to from other related articles. Without that column, you could only link to the season Section headers. I further updated _All_ of the Episode tables to convert from using "wikitable" to {{Episode table}} to standardize formatting. If for whatever reason episodes are added/removed from the Episode tables, it's a simple matter to Update the Overall #s to compensate. Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 22:37, 26 November 2025 (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)

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)

@Eux2010 As @Bflaminio noted, I would not equate Production Codes with season-episode numbers for several reasons:

1. From where was the Code sourced? Unless the code is directly assigned/published by the Production Company itself (i.e., BBC, WGBH Boston, PBS, etc.), and referenced by an WP:RS Citation, then it is unreliable, and perhaps even arbitrarily assigned or {{Copypaste}}d from another site by some previous editor.
2. Never rely solely on IMDb's listing to place it within a given Season and Episode Order, as their Users frequently get these details wrong.
3. Even given an RS prod. code & cite ref, the Broadcaster may decide to air it out of order, or in a different season altogether.

Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 00:27, 27 November 2025 (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)

The six NOVA Wonders episodes aired during the regularly scheduled NOVA time-slot (as opposed to additionally having a regular NOVA episode before/after or in place of the NOVA Wonders episodes) for six weeks running from April 18 2018 onwards, followed by a June 27 2018 season-ending episode, "Rise of the Superstorms." IMO, since the NOVA Wonders episodes essentially replaced the scheduled NOVA episodes, there's no need to create a different TV Series Article, and this List article can faithfully document the episode list's weekly offerings. I've added columns with the Overal Ep.#s & Season Ep.#s to reflect this. Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 00:00, 25 November 2025 (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)

@Vchimpanzee I would not equate Production Codes with season-episode numbers for several reasons:

1. From where was the Code sourced? Unless the code is directly assigned/published by the Production Company itself (i.e., BBC, WGBH Boston, PBS, etc.), and referenced by an WP:RS Citation, then it is unreliable, and perhaps even arbitrarily assigned or {{Copypaste}}d from another site by some previous editor.
2. Never rely solely on IMDb's listing to place it within a given Season and Episode Order, as their Users frequently get these details wrong.
3. Even given an RS prod. code & cite ref, the Broadcaster may decide to air it out of order, or in a different season altogether.
4. This particular episode, "The Green Machine" was originally a 1972 (from the End-Credits: MCMLXXII) BBC-tv Horizon production in association with WGBH, Boston. IMDb has it airing on Horizon in Aug. 1977 (which might itself be incorrect?). As far as I can tell, it was broadcast by PBS for NOVA on January 11, 1978 which puts it squarely into the 5th (not 4th) Season.

Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 00:19, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. I let the person who asked the question know about this. Not that I ever expect the person to see that response after all this time. The user page has a red link so this user is not likely active.

Just a comment about IMDb: I'm one of the people who contributes content but I'm pretty sure only official people connected with the production provide information such as what you're referring to, and I would likely consider it reliable. I did once when they didn't have someone official doing it. They made a mess of it.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:16, 27 November 2025 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee ThanQ for your response. I too contribute to IMDb (rarely, and only if something is particularly irksome to me), for example, to correct their errors regarding incorrect attribution of roles for actors in the original 1985 The Equalizer. But even providing them screenshots of the actors performing their roles along with subtitle/CC dialog that names them, along with screen-credits, they refused to correct the errors citing insufficient grounds and my failure to prove my case; Idiots! For a 40 year-old show, they should've gotten it right by now, or they could've just watched the episodes 1st-hand (i.e., as a Primary RS Source) to see "sufficient grounds," but people are just plain Lazy, IMnot-so-humbleO. I also corrected IMDb's listing of episodes of Festival which had the wrong Season, or Ep.#, or order, or Title, so I know user updates can be lax, incorrect, or missing altogether, since IMDb data for that classic show is woefully incomplete. My problem with the Prod. Code is its Initial Source is unknown (or questionable), and IMDb's data collection process is unknowable; I mean, other than average Users, who contributes? Those in the production industry itself? If insiders are contributing, there's no way for an average user to know, as IMDb doesn't display Attribution (i.e., Cite-Refs). So who's to say if its from an RS or Not? And the same can be said of other DB sites out there. Conclusion, I don't rely on Prod. Codes at all. It's more important (to me) to get the Season & Ep. #'s & order correct to determine the "No. Overall" in the Ep. List, and Ep.#s per Season in the Season Overview, and Total Eps # in the Main TV InfoBox, and Episodes should be verified by the "Original release" dates. In the case of Festival, I manually checked each & every Broadcast Week for its Time-Slot via Canadian newspaper archives, with help from the official CBC Archive Sales site, for all 9 seasons to find Cite-Refs verifying the "Original release" dates (with the added benefit that some future editor of IMDb can fill in the blanks from Wikipedia, which Does require RS Cite-Refs). For a show as important as NOVA, the same attention to detail & accuracy should be required. Anyway...my 2¢ on the topic...</end rant> Hope that helps. ~<}:^> GreyElfGT (talk) 02:37, 28 November 2025 (UTC)

Season Cleanup (Season 40 to Season 45)

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

SWP13 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. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_DE5832DABB4E44B2A6A817CB8F77BF63>. 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)

Significant MOS:OUR violations

MOS:OUR should apply to this page. It was mentioned by Sumanuil that the summaries appear to be direct quotes. They do seem so, but shouldn't, as there are no quote marks and the summaries are thus presented in Wikipedia's voice. "Fixing" the page would take a lot of work, as there are over 1,000 episodes, although that shouldn't mean that when fixes are applied they should be removed. Thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:10, 2 October 2025 (UTC)