The definitive UFO documentary premieres on May 2nd on National Geographic.

Since the early days of UFO investigation with Roswell and Project Blue Book, thousands of documentaries on UFO sightings and abductions have been produced. We are at the point that it’s become a little saturated and alien enthusiasts find themelves having to sift through the garbage in order to get to something that could be percieved as the truth. However authentic the footage may seem, it’s very often, all too easy to debunk the sources and the people involved. The process of finding credible documenatries has become somewhat tiresome. Step forward National Geographic who are presenting perhaps the most thorough and credible investigation ever, in a new 5-part series called UFO’s: Investigating The Unknown.

Directed by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ricki Stern (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work and Reversing Roe), the five-part series UFOs: Investigating the Unknown explores the US government’s decades long investigation into UFOs. Since the 1960’s, the US Government have had a top-secret program, investigating the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. This provocative series explores what the government made public versus what was kept hidden; as well as citizens’ push for transparency on mass UFO sightings.

Episode one focuses on the infamous videos showing Navy Fighter Pilots ‘chasing’ unidentified flying objects off the coast of California. Backing up the astonishing video footage are people directly involved in it’s investigation from former counter-intelligence agents, to former Naval pilots and Government officials, including former U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who demanded an investigation at the time. The documentary is told from several differrent view points which further lends creedence to the inquiry, as while the manouvres made by these craft defy any technology we currently have on Earth, the argument for them not being extra terrestrial in origin is put forward. Most importantly perhaps, the investigation asks, are these ‘crafts’ a threat to national and global security?

Is this the government subtly breaking it’s long held silence? E.T or not, at long last, it looks like the truth about UFOs may finally be revealed in what is sure to be a fascinating series.

See below for air dates and episode synopses

Episode: 1 – Secret Pentagon Program – TUESDAY 2nd MAY, 8PM

For more than five decades the US government has refused to discuss UFOs, but now, Navy pilots tell of seeing mysterious objects tracking their fighter jets – vehicles unlike anything they’ve ever seen before; top-secret Naval videos are leaked that captivate the world. Government officials, led by former U.S. Senator Harry Reid, demand an investigation. At long last, it looks like the truth about UFOs may finally be revealed. 

Episode: 2 – Project Blue Book – TUESDAY 9th MAY, 8PM

In 2008 in Stephenville, Texas a local pilot sees lights in the sky over his ranch coming from something huge. He is not alone: hundreds of people saw the craft, and a local reporter makes it her life’s work to tell their stories. From this classic encounter we head back several decades to the beginning of the UFO phenomenon in America and the launch of Project Blue Book to study the country’s growing “UFO problem.”  

Episode: 3 – Close Encounters of the Nuclear Kind – TUESDAY 16th MAY, 8PM

Project Blue Book and the investigation into UFOs closes. There is no evidence that mysterious objects represent any threat to U.S. national security. But harrowing incidents of UFO sightings continue and the unexplained malfunction of U.S. nuclear missiles after an incursion leave the U.S. defenseless. Three former Air Force officers who served at nuclear weapons bases in the late 1960s break two decades of silence to tell their story.  

Episode: 4 – Hundreds of Witnesses Come Forth – TUESDAY 23rd MAY, 8PM

From a 1986 sighting over Alaska by Japanese Airline pilots, to a 1997 UAP sighting over Phoenix Arizona and a flying disc over the Chicago O’Hare airport in 2008, hundreds of witnesses come forward without any official feedback from the US government. Years later many of the pilots and government officials who witnessed these sightings come together for the first time to share their story in a 2007 press conference.  

Episode: 5 – Government Breaks Silence – TUESDAY 30th MAY, 8PM

Area 51, a military outpost in the desert, shrouded in secrecy for decades, has long been the focus of many Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or “UAP” rumors. A pop culture phenomenon, Area 51 prompted one Facebook group to suggest storming the facility in search for answers. Civilian UAP groups continue making progress in providing those answers. For the first time since 1969, Congress questions high level officials in the Pentagon on UAPs.