Dr. Robert Ballard (NGT / Stefan Wiesen)
Len Goodman (
)
A scene from Titanic, 1997 (20th Century Fox Licensing/Merch)
The Titanic sank 100 years ago this month, and today, many people remain obsessed with the ship that’s now disintegrating 2.35 miles below the ocean’s surface, 375 miles south of Newfoundland. To commemorate the shipwreck’s centennial, everybody’s getting into the act with specials and documentaries between now and next week.
TITANIC: THE FINAL WORD WITH JAMES CAMERON
Tonight, 8 p.m., National Geographic
James Cameron, who took his obsession with the Titanic and turned it into an Oscar-winning blockbuster, still has a jones for the big boat. For “The Final Word,” he made more than 30 dives to the shipwreck site, works with engineers, naval architects and artists to determine why the “unsinkable” ship sank.
“At the time, the Titanic was the pinnacle of human and technological achievement. There’s no comparison today to what that might be. This was the single biggest accomplishment of the history of mankind,” says Michael Cascio, National Geographic’s executive vice president of programming.
SAVE THE TITANIC WITH BOB BALLARD
Monday, 10 p.m., National Geographic
Dr. Robert Ballard first discovered the Titanic’s remains in 1985, after 12 years of searching. In “Save the Titanic,” he travels back in time to visit the shipyards of Northern Ireland and talk to the descendants of the engineers who built the great boat. Ballard also considers whether Titanic’s wreck, enduring rough conditions deep underwater, will last another 100 years.
THE TITANIC
Tuesday, 8 p.m., PBS
Len Goodman, chief judge on “Dancing With the Stars,” knits together the Titanic’s story by talking to various descendants of the disaster, including those of shipbuilders, those who died in steerage and some first-class passengers. Years before he was a dancer, Goodman worked as a welder for Harland and Wolfff, the company that built the Titanic.
TITANIC’S FINAL MYSTERY
Thursday, 8 p.m., Smithsonian
On April 15, 1912, the largest ship of its day struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. The disaster — more than 1,500 passengers died — spawned formal inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic. In the end, two critical questions remained unanswered: Why did the ship hit the iceberg? And why did the ship closest to the Titanic, the Californian, never come to its rescue?
Author and historian Tim Maltin re-opens the case. Maltin has spent 20 years researching the Titanic tragedy and has uncovered evidence of a rare natural phenomenon that will forever change our understanding of the disaster. Maltin has found proof that both the Titanic and the Californian were deceived by mirages, dooming the passengers to their fate.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Saturday, 10 p.m., TCM
One of the earliest films about the sinking of the Titanic was this 1958 British drama based on a non-fiction book by Walter Lord. The tone of the film is documentary-style, and it stars Honor Blackman, who went on to tempt Sean Connery in “Goldfinger” as Pussy Galore.