Discovery Channel - Moments in Time (2003)

Discovery Channel series looking at key dates in history and the days before and after them. 'Moments in Time' blends history, archaeology, and vivid re-enactments to recount decisive moments in world history. Hosted by James Woods, the series presents the political and social contexts of events ranging from the first permanent English settlement in America to the first slave revolt in Caribbean history to Napoleon's plan for conquering Russia. Each program highlights an archaeological dig of a site related to the event, connecting modern research with primary source material for a multifaceted view of history.
'Moments in Time' uses computer graphics and dramatic re-creations to evoke the times and sensations around key events in history, from the fall of Napoleon to the affair between Roman general Marc Anthony and Queen Cleopatra.
The series shows us that historic dates often reflect the final chapters in key events of world history : the battle at Actium in 31 B.C., the spread of the plague from Black Sea to Europe in 1347, the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and the battle of the Valley Forge in 1778.

Part 1: Famine to Freedom - The Great Irish Journey
During the years known as "the great hunger", half a million families in rural Ireland were forcibly evicted from their homes. The devastation and the loss of family members was just about unparalleled. The force behind this disaster was a deadly biological agent, a pathogen so strong that it had the power to take out the potato crop of a whole Country in just one month!
The Great Irish Potato Famine of 1845-51 saw an estimated 1.2 million people die of starvation and disease, and another 1.5 million emigrate to other countries such as Canada and the United States, which proved another hardship in its own right. Indeed the conditions on the ships were so harsh many didn’t make it across the Atlantic alive.
The Irish Potato Famine was a moment in time that changed the face of the old world forever. Today, archeologists uncover this hidden story; a fragment of forgotten horror, a relic from a catastrophe that left over a million dead.

Part 2: Valley Forge - the Crucible
During the autumn of 1776 the British Army descended on the American colonies with a vengeance; King George had unleashed a massive invasion to crush rebellion once and for all. Leading the Americans against this onslaught was the 6 ft 3" commander, George Washington.
Following many bruising encounters, what was Ieft of the practically defeated, cold and malnourished American army limped into a forlourn piece of real estate 20 miles from Philadelphia known as Valley Forge. It was at this destination that the US troops would set up their winter camp. Many had felt that it would be here that the US army would finally fall to the British Empire.
However, during the brutal winter of 1777-78, the rag-tag Continental Army, encamped at Valley Forge, underwent a miraculous transformation., thanks to both the inspiring leadership of General George Washington and the intensive training of Baron Frederick Von Steuben, a Prussian aristocrat.

Part 3: The Crusades
In the 11th Century, Muslim sultans ruled most of North Africa, Spain and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Acre, today Northern Israel, was a lively Muslim city, a major port and an important commercial centre. Acre was also the gateway to the western world's most sacred piece of real estate, the Holy Land, a city sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Over the next two centuries, Christian and Muslim armies Iocked themselves into a deadly embrace, each vying for the rulership of this coveted piece of land. From 1096 to 1291, the lands of today's middle-east changed hands repeatedly in a series of eight crusades. Before the sides finally parted, tens of thousands of soldiers had been killed in a glut of bloody battles and massacres.
For some, the dark history of the Crusades evokes the violence that still plagues the middle-east today. A thousand years ago, a war between two worlds transformed this centre of faith into an unholy battlefield. Today, archeologists probe the moment in time when the cycle of intolerance and violence began.

Part 4: Anthony and Cleopatra - Battle at Actium
By the end of the Battle of Actium, on September 2, 31 B.C. The Roman navy, led by Octavian, had defeated the formidable fleet of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, sealed the fate of the two ill-starred lovers and created the Roman Empire.
Some say the battle never took place, that the victory was only a creation of Octavian's propaganda. However recent discoveries of catapult balls used in the battle and bronze rams that served as the ship's "warheads", not only provide evidence that the epic battle took place, but show how it was won.
This fascinating programme explores what the three military Ieaders were thinking and doing before, during and after the alleged battle, what tactics Octavian used to defeat his enemies. and how Cleopatra and Anthony died after fleeing the defeat.

Part 5: Jamestown - Against All Odds
In the early 1600's, England was in a race with Spain to gobble up the New World. Spanish conquistadors were cleaning up in South America, rich with gold and silver. The English, therefore, decided to try their luck in Virginia. They had planned to come back to England rich with gold, but most never returned alive.
Following many troublesome years, including disputes with Native Americans, malnourishment, hardship and disease, in 1610, the founders of the first permanent English settlement in North America were ready to give up. Of the 500-600 settlers that arrived in the colony's first three years, only 60 were now still alive The false promise of easy riches had lured Jamestown's first settlers. But those who survived the ordeal found that the true promise of a new Iand lay inside them; the determination to survive against all odds. The survivors Ieft the colony behind and set sail down the Jamestown River on the treacherous journey toward England. This is their story…

Part 6: St John's Slave Revolt
The island of St. John sparkles in the Caribbean sun like a jewel set in blue crystal. Seven miles Iong and three miles wide, it's part of the Virgin Island chain, a necklace of eight main islands and 75 islets. A US territory since 1917, three fifths of the island is a national park. St. John's idyllic coves are heavens for the welI-heeled and world weary. But underneath the plush towels and designer beach bags, lies a more troublesome past.
Flash back to 1733 and the island of St John was in the midst of a revolution. In one coordinated attack, African slaves had revolted and managed to gain a foothold of freedom in the new world. Although short-lived this was the first successful slave revolt in Caribbean history. Ultimately, French manpower from the island of Martinique helped quash the revoit, and for a time, the slave trade continued to pour people from Africa into the island's sugar cane fields. However, recent discoveries have unearthed a community of free men that evidently flourished on the island in the years following this brave uprising.

Part 7: Curse of the Rat - the Black Death
Was the disease known as the Black Death, which killed one-third of Europe's population in just 3 years during the Middle Ages and the bubonic plague the same disease? What could cause the spread of such a horrendous plague?
In 1347 A.D, a Mongol army attacked Kaffa, an ex-patriot Genoese city located in the Crimea. The Mongols employed a crude form of germ warfare by catapulting bodies of their own men, dead from a mysterious disease, over the fortification wall. It turned out that they were infected by "the black death". Soon the fort's Genoese defenders were infected. Some of the Genoese sailors managed to escape and sail back to their homeland, but they took with them an unwelcome stowaway, a black rat that spread the disease at every port.
Between 1347 and 1350, one third of the people in Europe perished. A death toll so great that the population did not return to pre-plague levels until the l8th century! This insightful programme aims to shed light on some of the many questions surrounding this heinous "curse" known as "the black death".

Part 8: Napoleon's Lost Army
In 2002 in Vilnius, Lithuania, scientists were stunned to discover the remains of some two to three thousand French soldiers, the first mass grave of its kind ever uncovered. How they died opens a window on one of the greatest military disasters in history.
Having fought their way across Europe, Napoleon’s armies, freezing cold, malnourished and exhausted, were stalled outside Lithuania's capital. Thousands of those who reached Vilnius either died outside the city gates or inside of shock, gangrene, typhus, dysentery, or starvation. No one really knows for certain how the French soldiers died the way they did, the victim's names were unrecorded and their deaths were unmarked. This insightful documentary aims to shed new light on this long standing military mystery and attempts to explain what happened to Napoleon's lost army.

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