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Walking with Dinosaurs

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Walking with Dinosaurs
GenreDocumentary
Developed byAndrew Wilks
Narrated byKenneth Branagh
Theme music composerBen Bartlett
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1 series
No. of episodes6 episodes + The Making Of
Production
Executive producerJohn Lynch
ProducersTim Haines, Jasper James
Production locationsCalifornia, Chile, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Tasmania, The Bahamas
Running time180 minutes + 50 minutes
Original release
NetworkBBC
Release16 April 1999
Related
Other shows in the Walking with... series

Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television mini-series that was produced by the BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the UK in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of Avery Brooks. It is the first entry of the Walking with... series and used computer-generated imagery and animatronics to recreate the life of the Mesozoic, showing dinosaurs in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films.

The programme's aim was to simulate the style of a nature documentary and therefore does not include "talking head" interviews. The series used paleontologists such as Peter Dodson, Peter Larson and James Farlow as advisors (their influence in the filming process can be seen in the documentary The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs). The Guinness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made.[citation needed]

A £40million 3D movie based on the TV series is being produced by the BBC.

Episodes

Episode One: "New Blood"

220,000,000 BC − Late Triassic − Arizona, New Mexico

The episode followed a female Coelophysis as she tried to survive in the dry season. The Coelophysis was shown hunting a herd of Placerias, looking for weak members to prey upon. Early pterosaurs (specifically Peteinosaurus) were featured, depicted cooling themselves in what little water was present during the drought. A female rauisuchian (Postosuchus, one of the largest carnivores alive in the Triassic) was shown following the Placerias herd, and kills one of the members who had earlier been bitten by her and weakened by blood loss. Still searching for food, the Coelophysis are shown discovering a burrow of the small mammal-like cynodont. Eventually, one young cynodont strays too close and is eaten and the father attempts to protect the youngster, but to no avail. At night, the pair of cynodonts are shown eating their remaining young, then moving away. The female Postosuchus is later shown to have been wounded by Placerias's tusks (the wound is on her left thigh), and is beaten out of her territory by a rival male Postosuchus. Wounded, sick and without a territory, the female dies and is eaten by a pack of Coelophysis. As the dry season continues however, food becomes scarce and the Coelophysis start killing and cannibalizing each other. Finally, the wet season comes again, and the majority of the Coelophysis have survived, along with the cynodont pair, who have a new clutch of eggs. The episode ends with the arrival of a herd of the prosauropod Plateosaurus, foreshadowing the future dominance of giant sauropods after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.

Episode Two: "Time of the Titans"

152, 000, 000 BC - Late Jurassic - Colorado

This episode followed the life of a young female Diplodocus. After hatching at the forest edge, she and her siblings retreat to the safety of the denser trees. As they grow, they face many dangers, including predation by Ornitholestes and Allosaurus, and a Stegosaurus, which kills one by accident while swinging its tail. Close to adulthood, the group of young Diplodocus are nearly all killed by a huge forest fire and fire storm that night, leaving three, then two survivors including the female. They are driven out onto the open plains, where they find a herd. The protagonist female mates, but not long afterwards is attacked by a bull Allosaurus. She is saved when another Diplodocus strikes the allosaur with its tail.

Episode Three: "Cruel Sea"

149, 000, 000 BC - Late Jurassic - Oxfordshire

The Ophthalmosaurus breeding ceremony is the main event of the episode, but sharks and other predators, including Liopleurodon are on the hunt. The opening portrays a Liopleurodon snatching a Eustreptospondylus from the land, but there is no evidence of this ever occurring (according to the producers, they were influenced by similar attacks by killer whales on land creatures). A pod of Opthalmosaurus arrive from the open ocean to birth. Many of the babies slip out successfully. But when one mother has trouble giving birth, a pair of Hybodus go after her, but are frightened off by a male Liopleurodon, which eats the front half of the Opthalmosaurus, leaving the tail to sink down. Meanwhile a Eustreptospondylus swims to an island. It discovers a carcass and must fight another Eustreptospondylus for it, though the fight really consists of them roaring at each other. Later during the night,a group of horseshoe crabs gather at the shore to lay their eggs, which attracts a flock of Rhamphorhynchus in the morning, however a small amount are caught and eaten by a Eustreptospondylus. While the Opthalmosaurus juveniles are growing up, they are still hunted by Hybodus, which in turn, are prey for the Liopleurodon. While the male Liopleurodon is hunting for prey, he is encountered by a female Liopleurodon, and after biting one of her flippers, she retires to escape. In the end of the episode, a typhoon kills many Rhamphorhynchus, and washes the Liopleurodon ashore and he is then suffocated by his own weight and is eaten by a pair of Eustreptospondylus. The episode however ends on a more positive note, as it shows that the juvenile Ophthalmosaurus have survived the storm, and are now off to live and breed in the open sea.

Episode Four: "Giant of the Skies"

127, 000, 000 BC - Early Cretaceous - Brazil, North America, England, Spain

The story begins with a male Ornithocheirus dead on a beach. It then goes back six months to Brazil, where the Ornithocheirus flies off for Cantabria among a colony of Tapejara. He flies past a migrating column of Iguanodon and a Polacanthus. He reaches the southern tip of North America, where he is forced to shelter from a storm. To pass the time, he grooms himself, ridding his body of Saurophthirus. Then he sets off across the Atlantic, which was then only 300 kilometers wide and, after a whole day on the wing, reaches the westernmost of the European islands. He does not rest there however, as a pack of Utahraptor are hunting Iguanodon. He flies to the outskirts of a forest, but is driven away by Iberomesornis. He reaches Cantabria, but was delayed by the storm and cannot reach the center of the many grounded male Ornithocheirus. Consequently, he does not mate and dies from exhaustion. In the end, a young Ornithocheirus is seen feeding on his carcass.

Episode Five: "Spirits of the Ice Forest"

106, 000, 000 BC - Middle Cretaceous - Antarctica

This episode focuses upon a clan of Leaellynasaura as they struggle to survive in the south polar region over the course of a year. In the beginning of the episode, a group of Leaellynasaura are seen preparing for the spring season when suddenly, the sentry detects a predator nearby. However it turns out to be a Koolasuchus, crawling from his hibernation shelter to the river home he resides in during the spring. While the clan starts building nests, a male Australovenator attempts to ambush the clan of Leaellynasaura but the attack fails and they escape unharmed. Later, a herd of Muttaburrasaurus arrive and are seen feeding on the trees and shrubbery in preparation for the upcoming winter. Later, the male Australovenator is seen roaming around the herd of Muttaburrasaurus, looking for old and sick adults to attack. However, a bull Muttaburrasaurus wards him off and he is forced to search for other prey. By late spring, many of the Leaellynasaura clan's nests have been raided already, but the matriarch's eggs have finally hatched. Now in full summer, the Leaellynasaura clan sleep, while the young which have grown, play around. On the banks of the river, an old Muttaburrasaurus has succumbed. The male Australovenator finds the corpse and feeds on it. A female Australovenator comes, but the male defends the corpse and he drives the female away, and she is forced to return later when the male has finished eating. Later, one of the young Leallynasaura ventures near the river alone, unaware that the Koolasuchus from before is nearby. Luckily, the Koolasauchus is unable to catch the young male and the Leaellynasaura runs to his mother for protection. Eventually, the forests become flooded due to summer thunderstorms, and another Leaellynasaura clan is spotted. But the other clan eventually drives them off. After a few more months, autumn has finally arrived and the Muttaburrasaurus herd head north. The Leaellynasaura continue to prepare for the winter, but due to some of the Muttaburrasaurus herd getting lost in the forest, the sentry does not detect the male Australovenator from before. He attacks, and this time however he is successful as he manages to kill the matriarch Leaellynasaura. The clan is now forced to continue preparing without her, and the forest descends into the eternal darkness that envelops the winter months. The Leaellynasaura are able to see during the winter months through their eyes that serve much like night-vision goggles. During this time, the clan, the Koolasuchus and other fauna use various methods of dealing with the cold such as suspended animation, hibernation or using group body temperature to maintain heat. Finally, spring returns, and the Leaellynasaura males challenge one another for the right to mate, and after a short confrontation, the clan establishes a dominant pair once again.

Episode Six: "Death of a Dynasty"

65, 500, 000 BC - Late Cretaceous - Montana

This episode starts months before the extinction of the dinosaurs. The last dinosaurs are depicted living under stress due to excessive volcanism. The episode focuses on a female 14 metre long Tyrannosaurus who abandons her nest, the eggs rendered infertile due to volcanic poisoning. Her calls for a mate are answered by a smaller male who has killed a young Triceratops and is eating it. Later, after repeated copulation, she eventually drives him off. The mother fasts for an extended period as she tends to her nest, dealing with raids by dromaeosaurs and Didelphodons. Only three eggs hatch and the mother brings down an Anatotitan to feed herself and her brood. While defending her two surviving offspring several days later, the mother tyrannosaur is fatally injured by an Ankylosaurus. The chicks remain next to the carcass of their mother until they, and the rest of the non-avian dinosaurs, are killed when an asteroid slams into the Earth, a catastrophe that triggers the K-T extinction. A short final sequence shows the present-day Earth, dominated by large mammals, but still populated with numerous dinosaurs known as birds.

Companion book

A companion book was written by Tim Haines to accompany the first screening of the series in 1999. The settings of some of the six episodes were changed between the time the book was written and the screening of the television series, and some of their names were changed: 'New Blood' is set at Ghost Ranch; 'Cruel Sea' is set at or near Solnhofen in Germany near what then were the Vindelicisch Islands. The book elaborated on the background for each story, went further in explaining the science on which much of the program is based, and included descriptions of several animals not identified or featured in the series.

Reception

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted on by industry professionals, Walking with Dinosaurs was placed 72nd. The series won three Emmy Awards: Outstanding Animated Program, Outstanding Special Visual Effects and Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Programming - Sound Editing.

Censorship

In the initial U.S. broadcasts of the series, a few scenes were omitted from some of the episodes. The most notable deletions were a shot of the cynodont pair devouring their offspring, and a scene where a dead-in-shell Tyrannosaurus embryo is preyed upon by a pair of Didelphodon. The DVD and VHS contains the original UK broadcast, so the omitted scenes were restored, yet in the DVD release, most of the original dialogue for "Time of the Titans" is missing.

BBC Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibition

The first exhibition to be based on the series was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 at the Yorkshire Museum, York, UK.

'Walking with Dinosaurs - The Exhibition' was developed by museum curator Paul Howard and Dr. Phil Manning. The exhibition featured replicas of many of the dinosaurs that appeared in the TV series, the scanning models (maquettes) used to create the animated stars of the show, the animatronic and puppet heads made for close-up shots, high-resolution large format printed graphics, extracts from the series and various interactives.

Targeted at family audiences, the travelling exhibition took a more in depth look at the science that informed the series and the technology that was used to create it.

Exhibitions based on sequels

The BBC Walking with Beasts Exhibition (2003) followed a similar format to the BBC Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibition and featured the full-size woolly mammoth from the series, along with replicas of Gastornis, Phorusrhacos, Leptictidium, Moeritherium, Smilodon, Woolly Rhinoceros, Cro-Magnon man and Neanderthal.

BBC Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibition opened at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, England in 2004. Developed by exhibitions company Tour-Ex under licence from BBC Worldwide, it featured replicas of the Cameroceras, Nothosaurus, Archelon, Basilosaurus, Coelacanth, Giant Squid and Megalodon. Presenter Nigel Marven was digitally removed from extracts and stills in order to maintain scientific integrity and the established 'Walking with ...' exhibition format.

BBC The Ballad of Big Al: A Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibition (2005) was based on the special programme of the same name and followed its narrative.

BBC Walking with Prehistoric Life Exhibition (2008) combines the BBC Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, Sea Monsters and Ballad of Big Al exhibitions with additional content and exhibits from sequel series Walking with Monsters, Walking with Cavemen and special Land of Giants and Giant Claw.

Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular

Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular, is a live adaptation of the series that originated in Australia in January 2007 (as Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience), and toured North America in 2007-2010; it currently travels through Europe until 2010 and is scheduled through to 2011 returning to North America. An Asian tour is also on the road, starting with Singapore shows on December 1-4, 2010 in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.[1] The show has played to over 6.5 million people and has made over $350 million at the box office.

Artistic director William May developed the creative vision of the show based on an original idea by entrepreneur Bruce Mactaggart to create an arena version of the Walking with Dinosaurs television series. The show features animatronic and costumed dinosaurs and are narrated by an on set paleontologist (actor) named Huxley.

The show is directed by Scott Faris, a Broadway veteran. The creatures are designed and built by Sonny Tilders; the set and projected image design are by Peter England; the show's lighting is by John Rayment, the score is composed by James Seymour Brett; Warner Brown wrote the script. Tim Haines, producer of the original BBC series serves as project consultant.

The show featured in an episode of C.S.I. in 2010.

Dinosaurs

Up to 20 costumed and animatronic dinosaurs varying from the size of a small cat and up to 72' (22m). Weighing up to 1.6 tons and driven on six roller blade wheels, the larger being operated by three people; a driver and two "voodoo puppeteers" controlling body movement and minor or detailed movement.

The dinosaurs featured are:

Subsequent work and production

Main articles: Chased by Dinosaurs, Sea Monsters – A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy, The Ballad Of Big Al, and Prehistoric Park

Tim Haines and Paul Chambers wrote a Walking With... encyclopedia known as The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, featuring most animals from the series, including those in the specials.

A child-oriented re-version was released in America as Prehistoric Planet for the Discovery Kids Saturday morning line-up on NBC, with new narration read by Ben Stiller and Christian Slater. Some violent scenes were cut.

Tim Haines followed with the Walking with... series. In 2001 the sequel Walking with Beasts, set in the Cenozoic era. This series featured extinct mammals and birds such as Indricotherium and Gastornis. In 2005 the prequel Walking with Monsters, set primarily in the Paleozoic era, was produced.

In 2008, BBC released a re-worked version of Walking with Dinosaurs series. The original six 30-minute episodes were reworked into three hour-long episodes, done in the style of When Dinosaurs Roamed America and Dinosaur Planet, which includes commentaries by various paleontology experts. It includes scene footage from When Dinosaurs Roamed America and Dinosaur Planet. The script changed little from the original, though some scenes and plot lines, such as the evolution of the birds were deleted, while others were altered (Leallynasaura is no longer considered nocturnal, for example).

Chased By Dinosaurs, two episodes featuring Nigel Marven, stars Giganotosaurus and Therizinosaurus. In the first episode Marven tracks the biggest prey and the biggest predator. In the second episode he takes a look at the longest dinosaur claws. The Ballad Of Big Al follows the life of an Allosaurus (inspired by evidence found on a single Allosaurus skeleton). Marven returns in Sea Monsters Trilogy, trying to survive the seven most dangerous seas of all time - Cameroceras, Cymbospondylus, Dunkleosteus, Basilosaurus, Megalodon, Liopleurodon and Tylosaurus. Nigel also stars in the latest special: Prehistoric Park, six episodes in which he tries to collect Tyrannosaurus, Woolly Mammoth, Smilodon, Microraptor, Arthropleura, and Deinosuchus for a prehistoric zoo known as Prehistoric Park.

A 3D movie based on the original TV series is being produced by the BBC. Announced in November 2010, the £40 million venture is to be set 70 million years in the past and the story will follow a migrating herd that gets separated.

Dinosaur World is a free downloadable, Walking with Dinosaurs game available at the BBC website.

Notes

  1. ^ "Walking With Dinosaurs Singapore". dinosaurlive.com.sg. Retrieved 12 October 2010.

See also

Walking with Dinosaurs is part of a series of BBC documentaries that also include:

The following are Walking With ... series specials:

The following are similar programs, produced by the BBC:

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