Walking with Dinosaurs 2025

[dinosauria101]

Sept 4, 2024 1:11:26 GMT 5 theropod said:

Aug 27, 2024 19:18:32 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

Nope.

x.com/TomHoltzPaleo/status/1828194088862335316

In other words, the people on the production, the same people who literally had so few ideas for settings that they resorted to doing T. rex vs Triceratops all over again, still didn’t see a need to include a Triassic episode?

Honestly it seems like the paleo-documentary-sphere is decidedly moving in the wrong direction at the moment. LESS varied representation of diverse organisms and ecosystems, in favor of MORE focus on the same old classics we’ve seen many times before. We’ve seen it with Prehistoric Planet (as much as I appreciated the genius and vision in that show, it’s still guilty of an exaggerated focus on Maastrichtian North America, when a show with the same concept could just as easily have been set in any other stage of the Mesozoic). We’ve definitely seen it with Life on Our Planet. And we are going to see it again with WWD 2025, as much as it pains me to make that prediction.

In a way, it mirrors how other major media franchises are developing; an overfocus on fan service, endless sequels that all look and feel the same, and revisiting old favorites instead of thinking of fresh, new material.
But somehow it disappoints me more when it comes to paleo documentaries, because it’s not like they have run out of source material or like it would be particularly challenging to come up with new stuff. There are literally hundreds of possibilities for what to show that have so far been rarely or never portrayed. But instead it feels like all the creativity instead flows into finding new excuses to show us the same things over and over again.

On a side note, I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of including Spinosaurus either. It has, firstly, also become a somewhat overhyped dinosaur by now, and secondly, any depiction of Spinosaurus is both likely to be outdated a few years down the line, and probably will entail picking sides (more or less arbitrarily depending on who happens to be hired as adviros) in the ongoing controversies.

PS: Sorry I’m being so negative

If it helps, one major upside of including Spinosaurus is that this will hopefully be the first documentary to feature the short legged and paddle tailed Spinosaurus: we aren't just stuck with depictions like Monsters Resurrected Spinosaurus or the (good for the time but obviously outdated) Planet Dinosaur Spinosaurus. I think there is validity to your criticisms of including Spinosaurus, but there is at least that upside as well.

And of course as you already know, I 110% concur with your criticism of too much Maastrichtian North America. If only there was some way for viewers such as ourselves to voice our criticisms of that choice and suggestions for unrepresented alternatives to producers considering locations and times for new documentaries.

[razor45dino]

I think the reason is because it's easier to find filming locations for later time periods

[theropod]

Sept 4, 2024 1:32:49 GMT 5 dinosauria101 said:

If it helps, one major upside of including Spinosaurus is that this will hopefully be the first documentary to feature the short legged and paddle tailed Spinosaurus: we aren't just stuck with depictions like Monsters Resurrected Spinosaurus or the (good for the time but obviously outdated) Planet Dinosaur Spinosaurus.

Well yes, I expect as much. Of course it’s still likely that it will at least give us the best Spinosaurus depiction as of yet, which is something I guess. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I have mixed feelings on the matter. I’m sure their Spinosaurus will be better than what we’ve seen before (which is more than I can say with such confidence for T. rex and Triceratops), but I’m still not sure it is the best possible choice. It does however mean we are going to get an episode set in the Kem Kem, and that ecosystem as a whole will be interesting to see. I just hope the episode gives some attention to some of the other fauna from that formation as well, and doesn’t just overfocus on Spino.

And of course as you already know, I 110% concur with your criticism of too much Maastrichtian North America. If only there was some way for viewers such as ourselves to voice our criticisms of that choice and suggestions for unrepresented alternatives to producers considering locations and times for new documentaries.

Well, there are ways to voice it, it’s just unlikely that it will change anything. But I certainly plan to keep advocating for this issue.

[Infinity Blade]

I'm honestly just curious to know what ongoing work is going on that they're able to make a 60 minute long episode about Spinosaurus of all things.

[dinosauria101]

Sept 7, 2024 8:20:25 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

I'm honestly just curious to know what ongoing work is going on that they're able to make a 60 minute long episode about Spinosaurus of all things.

In Spinosaurus' case I hope more than any other episode that they restrict the talking heads to Dinosaur Planet-style timeframes. What makes me more concerned about this than the rest of the episodes is how much talking head footage from Nizar Ibrahim etc on National Geographic etc there is about the new Spinosaurus, especially compared to the lack of CGI animated new Spinosaurus footage: they had better be breaking this trend.