I always like watching these dramatisations (when they're well
done and don't dump the equivalent of Raquel Welch in a fur bikini
into the mix) because attempting to portray these animals in
graphic, moving form according to a present theory can give one
new ideas about that theory. I have to say that I enjoyed this series
more than the original Walking with Dinosaurs. Maybe it's the
novelty value. After Jurassic Park it's a bit hard to make dinos look
fresh with the same cgi tech.
Turning the cgi on animals with some living analogues, but that
don't often get covered, was quite fascinating, though. Yes, they
picked and chose which palaeontological theories they wanted to
show, but I thought they did well, overall. The first episode was
especially good, and I also liked the Ice Age sections. The whale
ep was compelling, too, though I ultimately found it a touch too
depressing. They were able to get across some very telling points
with a few images. One of the most striking for me came from the
Pleistocene ep where some wolves are feeding on an old, frozen
carcass--which turns out to be a Human who had straggled too far
from the group. That really brought home the idea that, until very
recently, Humans were not the top predators in the food chain.
Finally, for some reason, one of my cats found this series
absolutely fascinating. Being a cat, he of course has the attention
span of a fruit fly and ordinarily ignores the tv (unless a Wild
Discovery show is on--"'Cops' for Cats", I like to call that one). But
whenever I put this series on, he sits there, six inches in front of
the tube, for an entire 30 minute segment. I think it must have
something to do with the sounds, since the only ep he ignores is
the whale one. I have no idea what he thinks of it all, but I do
wonder if the makers of the show may have hit on something in
their recreation of the possible sounds these animals made.
