By Brendan Barnes, Staff Writer

Competing with the Discovery Channel has never been an easy challenge for any network on television.This past week, however, the National Geographic Channel, in an attempt to outdo all its competitors, featured a week-long event, aptly-titled “Expedition Week” that gives “Shark Week” a run for its money.

Sunday: Traveler Piers Gibbon treks up the mysterious and dangerous Amazon River to find an esoteric tribe that was purportedly employed in shrinking heads. Think along the lines of “Apocalypse Now,” but without the Vietnam.        

Monday: National Geographic’s direct answer to “Shark Week.” A creative marine biologist teams up with a group of fishermen to catch a 16-foot great white shark on a wooden platform, in an attempt to tag the shark for observation.        

Tuesday: Japanese naval secrets of World War II are revealed…by Americans? Off the coast of Hawaii, the remains of highly advanced submarines capable of carrying aircraft that were captured and sunk by the US Navy are located and explored.            

Wednesday: Robert Ballard, the discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic, lends his expertise to finding shipwrecks off the coast of Turkey that were sustained during the World War I Battle of Gallipoli. Though these shipwrecks do not carry the cultural resonance of Ballard’s most famous discovery, this special on the notorious Battle of Gallipoli offers a far more interesting story than James Cameron’s 1997 film “Titanic.”

Thursday: If we cannot find life on Mars, we will make it ourselves. Thursday’s special focuses on the possibility of transforming Mars into a second Earth, by way of the process known as terraforming. By introducing and sustaining plant life and water on Mars, Earth may have a backup plan, and science fiction may just have a purpose after all.

Friday: Friday’s episode presents a mysterious figure from ancient Israel who has all the attributes of Jesus but is named Simon instead. Shedding new light on archaeological practice, audiences are presented with a unique historical perspective on a region shrouded in religion.

Saturday: A fitting end, the final episode reveals the nature of today’s crocodiles’ gigantic ancestors. From hunting dinosaurs to living on land, these reptiles of the Cretaceous period make “Lake Placid” seem like child’s play.       
       

National Geographic gives Shark Week a run for its money with its new specials. (Photo Courtesy of nationalgeographic.com)