1) - David Jason's commentary. i am a firm believer in that the narrator should KNOW what he is talking about, to add a level of credibility. if something is narrated b David Attenborough, i am open to it, for example, as I know he knows his subject inside and out.
I once saw a program about Wolves narrated by the guy from 'At the Kumars'.. what does he know about wolves, exactly? and what does Delboy know about Dinos? little, i bet.
Aren't Jason's lines written for him? If so, how much or little he knows is irrelevant.
- in the first episode - Nigel Marvin encounters 3 t-rexs. 'no sudden movements' he says (cut to advert break) , as soon as the program comes back he shouts 'run!' then legs it.. what the hell? what happened to no sudden movements?
Maybe he realized that the creatures would smell him, and he'd be able to reach the nearby trees if he was fast enough.
- 'T-Rex has an amazing sense of smell thats how she's managed to track this dead carcass along this river'
so she has an amazing sense of smell but she cant smell you 10 feet below her?
Surely the smell of a huge rotting carcass would be enough to hide Nigel's smell?
- 'wow getting hit by that triceritops is like getting hit by a train'
then you'd be dead.
Who says it hit him head-on? It looked more like it brushed past him, knocking him down.
- 'that triceritops beak is so powerful, it could snap through branches as thick as my arm'
so could it bite through the wooden enclosure fence then? coz that isn't much wider than your arm, nigel
It has no reason to bite the wooden fence, there are no edible leaves on it.
4) - the terrible acting back in modern day.
Bob is atrocious. 'i'm gonna try and incubate these eggs, there is nothing i don't know about incubating eggs.' (later) why aye, i've managed to save these babies, of course, it's before the 9 o'clock watershed and there is kids watching, so there weren't ever going to die, were they? but they bonded to me, thinking i'm their mum'
hang on bob, i thought you said you knew everything there was to know about hand rearing eggs? so how comes you didn't take precautions to ensure they didn't bond to you?
because i know in modern day zoo's they do that. like they use glove puppets of birds to ensure they don't become too attached to humans, so why didn't you think of that?
While I don't think the acting is
bad, I do think it's wrong for this series- they made a mistake in hiring professional actors and not have amateurs playing themselves, like Nigel. Nigel acts completely real, natural and exactly like when he's dealing with real animals, whereas Bob and the others come across like they're from a movie. That's their problem- they're
acting.
5) - we find out very little about dinosaurs.
what have we learnt from this program? that ornithamimus are a bit like ostriches and that sabertooth cats are a bit like lions.
I've only seen one episode so far, and we learn more than that.
Ornithomimus can run at 65 kilometers per hour and travel in groups. When feeding, the group makes sure there's a sentry looking out for predators. This sentry will sound a warning call when spotting a threat.
Ornithomimus have ridges in their beaks, like ducks and geese have, which they use to crush their food.
I got that from just the first episode, and if I understand the nature of the show correctly we'll see more of the captured
Ornithomimus in subsequent episodes.
6) - the horrible use of time travel.
we are constantly reminded 'there isn't much time! quickly! get to the van / jeep whatever', but they have a time machine. why go to the last day of the dinosaurs reign? just go back further? i'm sure t-rex's were around for many millions of years, why even go to the last week of their reign?
Since we know nothing about the workings of the time portal technology (which is good- elaborate explanations would turn this from a nature program into geeky sci-fi), this could be anyone's guess. Maybe it's not that specific?
7) - illogical reasoning
this wolly rhino has died out because it's habitat is disappearing. it's habitat is obviously snowy plains.
i'm going to save the species from extinction by taking ONE back to a hot grassy park.
huh?
The Ice Ages also had summers, you know.
8) - bad CGI / effects.
the close ups of the dinosaurs look like glove puppets. the wide shots look like a 5 year old computer game.
I don't think it's
that bad, but it's definitely not on the level of
Walking With Dinosaurs. The creatures look less detailed and don't move as fluently.
Dutch90, the ninth wonder of the world
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bumleg-1
18 years ago
SPOILERS AHEAD
The most flawed episode was the last when Nigel searches for a giant croc.
1. Nigel sees a dinosaur stampede. Instead of doing the sensible thing and running for cover, he runs straight into the middle of it and worries about the jeeps paintwork. Bit out of character if you ask me. He does the same thing when he sees as big fight. He says "this is terrifying" but goes in even closer.
2. He flies a plain over the sea to spot a croc. He then sees one swim up a creek. He then paddles up the creek in a small boat made of rubber. He should have followed the river by plane and landed when he found the lake.
3. The crew meet up with him at the lake. But they leave the jeep unsupervised
on the beach. A predator could attack it (which is exactly what happened).
4. Why didn't they put the meat in tightly locked containers to stop it from being stolen.
5. When tempting the Deinosuchus out of the water Nigel goes right up to the drop. He should have stayed in the shallows to get a headstart.
6. Why didn't they put feathers on the Troodon if they endorse the theory of dinosaurs with feathers.
I thought the giant croc SFX were awesome as opposed to the atrocious looking sabre-tooths
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foreverfaded
18 years ago
Aren't Jason's lines written for him? If so, how much or little he knows is irrelevant.
I was talking more about credibility than knowledge. if a well respected naturalist tells me something about animals, I believe it. if Granville from
Open All Hours tells me, my reaction isn't so immediately positive.
I'm reminded of Brass Eye's pranks (getting famous faces to read out utter-nonsense in the hope of positive publicity). where as if you gave Attingborough something completely ridiculous about animals, he'd see through it immediately, if you did the same to David Jason, are you so sure that he would?
'oh yes mr Jason, now read out the part about T-rex's being made completely out of a kind of wax.'
if what he knows is irrelevant, why use him at all? just for the 'famous voice' potential crowd puller?
I don't think his voice over was that great, added nothing to the program, and his lines sounded stilted and like they were trying too hard to be dramatic.
Maybe he realized that the creatures would smell him, and he'd be able to reach the nearby trees if he was fast enough.
It amazed me how one fallen tree could stop three T-rexs. maybe just try, going around it?
Surely the smell of a huge rotting carcass would be enough to hide Nigel's smell?
if it's sense of smell is as amazing as we are lead to believe, surely it could still smell him, even with the presense of an overpowering odor quite some distance away in a fast flowing river.
Who says it hit him head-on? It looked more like it brushed past him, knocking him down
in which case, how can he tell it was like a train? if it only brushed past him? also, how many people survive getting 'brushed past' by a train?
It has no reason to bite the wooden fence, there are no edible leaves on it
my point was it could have easily chosen to escape from its feeble pen, if it so wished.
The Ice Ages also had summers, you know.
lol, brilliant. and I suppose wooly rhino's could also reproduce a-sexually? no? then how is taking one back to prehistoric park going to save the species?
I don't think it's that bad, but it's definitely not on the level of Walking With Dinosaurs. The creatures look less detailed and don't move as fluently.
while some of the dinosaurs looked nice, the sabertooths looked atrocious. but yes,
walking with was much better.
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