Perfect Disaster
Encyclopedia
Perfect Disaster was a one-hour American documentary
television mini-series that premiered in 2006 on the Discovery Channel
. The program depicted the worst-case scenario
that major cities could expect in the near future if hit by extreme disaster
. A large part of each episode was based around the lives of citizens from each city, with the remainder of the program showing us real-world scientists discussing the very high probabilities of these disasters. The trademark tagline of the show was "When the conditions are right, it will all go wrong." The series currently airs on the Science Channel.
Though seemingly unrealistic, each disaster was represented as terrifyingly large and powerful, in order to show the worst possible scenario in the case of each city. The series was produced by Impossible Pictures
, the same group that made the 1999 BBC
mini-series Walking with Dinosaurs
, which was screened in the USA on the Discovery Channel
.
The computer graphics were completed by Gareth Edwards (Super Tornado and Solar Storm), Lola (Firestorm and Ice Storm), and Red Vision (Flood and Typhoon).
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
television mini-series that premiered in 2006 on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
. The program depicted the worst-case scenario
Worst-case scenario
Worst-case scenario is a situation where everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong.It may also refer to:* Worst Case Scenario , by dEUS* "Worst Case Scenario" , by The Hoosiers* Worst Case Scenario...
that major cities could expect in the near future if hit by extreme disaster
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...
. A large part of each episode was based around the lives of citizens from each city, with the remainder of the program showing us real-world scientists discussing the very high probabilities of these disasters. The trademark tagline of the show was "When the conditions are right, it will all go wrong." The series currently airs on the Science Channel.
Episodes
- Dallas: Destroyed by what is declared a super-tornadoTornadoA tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
, one exceeding an F5 on the Fujita scaleFujita scaleThe Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
. The presentation also describes the fact that the probability of this catastrophe is the highest of all the proposed scenarios. - New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
: In the year 2012, being subject to a powerful geomagnetic stormGeomagnetic stormA geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in the interplanetary medium. A geomagnetic storm is a major component of space weather and provides the input for many other components of space weather...
, causing widespread damage to electronics, and several bizarre extraterrestrial anomalies. - SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
: Engulfed in the flames of a large firestormFirestormA firestorm is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires, forest fires, and wildfires...
that is brewing out of control. Similar to some phenomena seen in the 2009 Victorian bushfires - Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
: The victim of a super typhoon from the West Pacific. - LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
: Deluged by a massive floodFloodA flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
that breaks past the city's leveesThames BarrierThe Thames Barrier is the world's second-largest movable flood barrier and is located downstream of central London. Its purpose is to prevent London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the sea...
. - MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
: Stricken by a severe ice stormIce stormAn ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or in some parts of the United States as a silver thaw. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on exposed surfaces...
, in a manner similar to the North American ice storm of 1998North American ice storm of 1998The North American ice storm of 1998 was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms which combined to strike a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the...
.
Though seemingly unrealistic, each disaster was represented as terrifyingly large and powerful, in order to show the worst possible scenario in the case of each city. The series was produced by Impossible Pictures
Impossible Pictures
Impossible Pictures Ltd. is a London-based independent TV production company founded in 2002 by Tim Haines, creator of Walking with Dinosaurs and Jasper James....
, the same group that made the 1999 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
mini-series Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television miniseries that was produced by BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that...
, which was screened in the USA on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
.
The computer graphics were completed by Gareth Edwards (Super Tornado and Solar Storm), Lola (Firestorm and Ice Storm), and Red Vision (Flood and Typhoon).
See also
- Mega DisastersMega DisastersMega Disasters is an American documentary television series that originally aired from May 23, 2006 to July 2008 on The History Channel. Produced by Creative Differences, the program explores potential catastrophic threats to individual cities, countries, and the entire globe.The two...
, an almost exactly similar but longer-running television series on The History ChannelThe History ChannelHistory, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
. - It Could Happen TomorrowIt Could Happen TomorrowIt Could Happen Tomorrow is a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It explores the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America's cities...
, another worst-case scenario series on The Weather Channel.