While I did enjoy the show (hope to build a model of an old Egyptian ship some day) I would have enjoyed it more without the hokey reality show format. I would hope Nova would be above the fake "drama" stuff. Just document it like they would their other science shows. I don't watch Nova to be entertained by fiction drama.
True, not only the format, but the fellow they got to be the "captain" sounded like he was some sort of gearhead dinghy sailor, with no experience with replica sailing ships ( turtle? I was taught that 'capsize' was the correct term). Also the hand wringing about leaking and structural integrity was a bit over done, especially since the Egyptian builders and crew seemed to have very little concern!