Planet Dinosaur

In the wake of the dinosaur documentary craze of 2011, the BBC has released their contribution to the phenomenon, a TV show titled Planet Dinosaur. Following in the footsteps of the BBC's very own Walking with Dinosaurs, this docu-show is also broadcast as a six-episode Miniseries, but unlike its famous predecessor, it doesn't merely tell six half hour-long stories, but a whopping 24, putting onto the screen 50 (that's fifty!) different types of prehistoric monsters, from dinosaurs to pterosaurs and marine reptiles. The lack of Talking Heads means the narration, provided by John Hurt, plays a crucial role in bringing the prehistoric stories to life.

Scientific accuracy based on the very latest palaeontological finds and spectacular visual effects have been a priority in creating the series. The entire imagery is CGI, including the environments, and the animals show painstakingly crafted details on their bodies. At various times during the show, the stories take a break for the narration to explain the scientific evidence behind each scene.

Not to be confused with the very similarly titled Dinosaur Planet, which is a Discovery Channel production.

Tropes used in Planet Dinosaur include:
  • Always a Bigger Fish: Sinraptor pulls this on one of the Epidexipteryx, Gigantoraptor on Saurornithoides, Sinornithosaurus on Microraptor, "Predator X" on Kimmerosaurus and Saurophaganax on Allosaurus.
  • Anachronism Stew:
    • Ouranosaurus and Sarcosuchus in the first and fifth episodes. Microraptor in the second episode. Though one of the creators partially justified Ouranosaurus based on some trackways that apparently belonged to a similar dinosaur.
    • Also, Xianglong is on late Cretaceous Romania and New Mexico in episode 6, being severely displaced in time and space. It could have been just a placeholder for a random lizard, though.
  • Animal Jingoism:
    • Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus, both ultra-large carnivores that shared the same habitat, though only one of them is a "true" hunting predator, the other an overgrown fish-eater. Another docu, Monsters Resurrected, toyed with the idea of pitting them against each other, but their scenario just made dino-fans cry.
    • The third episode details the rivalry between tyrannosauroids and ceratopsians.
  • Audible Sharpness: When the Nothroynchus claws are first shown.
  • Author Vocabulary Calendar: The word "killer" is used as many times as possible. Even if an animal isn't a killer, it's described as "no killer".
  • Big Eater: Sauropods, the biggest prehistoric feeding-machines of all. At their best, according to the narration, a growing Argentinosaurus packed 40 kilos a day.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Stegosaurus and Camptosaurus. Of course, "little" is relative.
  • Bigger Is Better:
    • A regular-sized oviraptorid is easy to frighten off. But no one messes with Gigantoraptor.
    • Saurophaganax frightens away Allosaurus from its kill purely because it's bigger.
  • Badass:
    • Subverted at first with the Spinosaurus. The narration makes it out to be the most fearsome predator of all time, and the music score plays along too. Then it walks past the scared herbivores and goes fishing. Later, however, as the river recedes, it manages to beat up a giant Carcharodontosaurus.
    • Other candidates include Majungasaurus, Chasmosaurus, Stegosaurus, Gigantoraptor, and "Predator X".
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: Stegosaurus.
  • Butt Monkey: If an ornithopod shows up, expect at least one member of its species to get killed.
  • Camera Abuse: The BBC paleo-shows love this. This one has blood squirting and mud splattering on the lens.
  • Downer Ending: The first and last episode. And within the latter, the story of Gigantoraptor in particular.
  • Eats Babies: Pterosaurs, Skorpiovenator, the generic oviraptorid, and Troodon. Sarcosuchus and Carcharodontosaurus try, but don't succeed.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Subverted. Squatina only serves as prey for Kimmerosaurus, and fellow cartilaginous fish Onchpristis is the main prey of Spinosaurus.
  • Eye Open: Used a few times.
  • Eye Scream: The Hatzegopteryx eating the eye of a (dead) Magyarosaurus.
  • Feathered Fiend: The generic oviraptorid (likely Nemegtomaia), Gigantoraptor, Microraptor, Troodon, Sinornithosaurus and Nothronychus. Some of these are perhaps among the most accurate reconstructions ever to be put on TV screens. Other feathered dinosaurs include Epidexipteryx, Rahonavis, Saurornithoides and Bradycneme, though none of these are portrayed as being particularly fiendish.
  • Foot Focus: The intimidating kind. Some predators tend to make an entry by dramatically stomping in front of the camera.
  • Giant Flyer: Hatzegopteryx, although this program showcases just how terrifyingly good it was at being a "Giant Strider" on ground.
  • Gorn: Can't go without it. One marine plesiosaur gets chopped up pretty badly. The dinos inflict all kinds of wounds on each other too, one Mapusaurus gets gruesomely squashed by an Argentinosaurus, and there is a huge focus on blood splattering.
  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Microraptor is chasing Xianglong, until a nearby Sinornithosaurus sets its sight on it.
  • Jittercam: A virtual variant. Sadly, it's quite irritating for the eyes.
  • Lost World: Aside from the first episode being called exactly that, not really.
  • Mama Bear/Papa Wolf:
    • The Saurornithoides pulls this on an oviraptorid, but is then eaten by the much larger Gigantoraptor. The Jeholosaurus also tries to defend its young, but is overwhelmed by three Sinornithosaurus.
    • Played straight by the Paralititan. The Edmontosaurus is also successful, but the juvenile it saves still succumbs to its injuries. Also played straight by the Gigantoraptor, ironically enough.
  • Meaningful Name: Nearly all the animals.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • First the Spinosaurus defeats the Carcharodontosaurus in an epic battle. The next scene discusses reasons why Spinosaurus might have gone extinct...
    • You may also count the final episode, The Great Survivors. It deals with, as the title suggests, survival tactics, but then suddenly, the Gigantoraptor who's been fighting hard for its nest gets suffocated and buried in a sandstorm, and then the remainder of the episode discusses the great extinction event.
  • Narrator: John Hurt
  • Never Smile At a Crocodile:
    • The gigantic Sarcosuchus makes an appearance. To emphasize its size, there are regular-sized crocodilians strolling along in the foreground, and they are tiny.
    • An aquatic crocodillian, probably Deinosuchus, attacks one of the Centrosaurus when they are swimming.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: Mr. Hurt admittedly struggled with a few of the fancier dinosaur names, and this is at times evident in the finished product. One example is Sinraptor, which is pronounced in the show as "SIN-raptor" [1].
  • Nobody Dies: The Paralititan montage.
  • Noisy Nature: Averted!
  • Off with His Head: This befalls a Kimmerosaurus.
  • Palette Swap: This series is a rather heavy offender in this category: Rugops and Skorpiovenator; Saurornithoides, Troodon and Bradycneme; Sinornithosaurus and Rahonavis; Jeholosaurus and the small ornithopods in The New Giants (likely Notohypsilophodon); Allosaurus and Saurophaganax.
  • Ptero-Soarer:
    • Hatzegopteryx is depicted properly as the terrestrial macropredator it was in real life; while the neck is slightly too flexible and the wing membranes are folded in a way not likely to have occured in real life (a problem Walking with Dinosaurs pterosaurs also faced), it was otherwise very accurate.
    • Episode one has undescribed chaoyangopterygids acting as "om nom nom" material for spinosaurs, and in episode five, they appear as nest robbers and scavengers; while the shown vulture like habits may not be accurate, otherwise they are fairly realistic, except for the really pointy wings (real pterosaurs had rounded wing tips).
  • Raptor Attack: Averted hard by the dromaeosaurids. (However, they do have one major blunder: their primary feathers attach to the third finger, not the second as they should.) The troodonts play this straight (i.e.: not feathered enough) though.
  • Rule of Cool:
    • The venomous Sinornithosaurus.
    • Bradycneme simultaneously plays this straight & averts it. As noted under the Science Marches On entry, Bradycneme may simply be a harmless alvarezsaurid instead of a deinonychosaur. As far as Hateg deinonychosaurs go, it would be rather weak, and the contemporary Balaur (which may have had two killing claws per foot) could've been used instead.
  • Science Marches On:
    • Or at least may be marching on very soon. There is reportedly unpublished data showing that the troodont skulls in the oviraptorid nest actually tumbled into the nest, instead of being evidence of interspecific interaction.
    • Bradycneme was just recently reclassified as an alvarezsaurid by one paleontologist. Oops.. (but it's pretty fragmentary, so one hypothesis is almost as good as another.)
    • Raptorex, which is briefly mentioned in the third episode, may be an inaccurately dated juvenile of a larger tyrannosaurid. Doubles as Rule of Cool, as Dilong would have been equally acceptable, and there are no doubts about its validity. [2]
    • It turns out we now have an idea of what the colours of Microraptor were.
    • New tyrannosauroid Yutyrannus shows that even large members of the group had feathers.
  • Sea Monster:
    • Predator X and Onchopristis, although Onchopristis, being a sawfish, is largely just a menace to small fish and is the favourite prey of the semi-aquatic Spinosaurus. Also, it's more of a "River Monster" as it is a freshwater species. Amusingly enough, Spinosaurus died out because it failed to be a sea monster.
  • Seldom-Seen Species: Gigantoraptor, Daspletosaurus, Microraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Saurornithoides, Epidexipteryx, Majungasaurus, Rugops, Sinraptor, Magyarosaurus, Centrosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Jeholosaurus, Rahonavis, Saurophaganax[3], Camptosaurus, Skorpiovenator, Mapusaurus, Bradycneme, Alectrosaurus, "Zunityrannus" (an undescribed tyrannosauroid), Nothronychus, the sawfish Onchopristis, the gliding lizard Xianglong, the gigantic pterosaur Hatzegopteryx (the chaoyangopterid pterosaurs being even more of an example), the angelshark Squatina, and the plesiosaur Kimmerosaurus. Note that a few of these may already be on their way to becoming Stock Dinosaurs, having appeared in recent media a handful of times.
  • Shell-Shock Silence: A variation of this is used. There is no explosion or loud noises of any kind involved (unless you count one less-than-Mighty Roar), but the bulk of the Carcharodontosaurus fight has no sound effects or narration, only music and low-frequency grumbles. It's a very effective scene until jerky animation kicks in.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work:
    • Taken to extreme levels: every minute or so, the story stops for the narrator to meticulously explain what evidence supports the scene we have just watched. Well, most of the time, that is. Some stuff is presented as pure (but generally educated) speculation. This is probably in response to criticism of the original Walking with Dinosaurs.
    • Many of the feathered theropods are (almost) properly feathered, and most don't have pronated hands.
    • While not particularly recent discoveries, this show gets the abelisaurid, sauropod and hadrosaur hands right when most other depictions do not.
    • The show uses Camptosaurus' actual skull, while even recent works will use that of Theiophytalia, which has been distinct since 2006.
  • Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying:
    • As accurate as the dromaeosaurids are, their primary feathers inexplicably attach to the third finger instead of the second as they did in Real Life.
    • Although most of the theropods in the show don't have pronated hands most of the time, the Spinosaurus and Epidexipteryx do in many shots.
    • The "venomous Sinornithosaurus" idea is brought up, even though this study was debunked online as soon as it was published and later officially debunked in a rebuttal paper (the accompanying book gets this right).
    • They still can't get the number of claws on archosaur forelimbs right. The maximum number should be three, on the inner digits, while the rest don't have actual claws.
    • Ornithopods chewing like some mammals do, by moving their lower jaws from side to side. This would have been impossible.
    • Onchopristis was probably an entirely freshwater species, not one that occasionally swam upriver from the seas.
    • Dinosaurs and birds are regarded as two separate, distinct groups by the schematics at the end of the last episode, and the narrator doesn't even mention that not all dinosaurs are gone, in spite of the fact that a certain other BBC documentary made more than ten years ago points this out. (Particularly strange because Planet Dinosaur does get this right at the end of the second episode.)
    • The narration in the last episode also implies that plesiosaurs are dinosaurs (the "survived rising sea levels" line shows Predator X), and arguably also the pterosaur Hatzegopteryx. However, in the latter's case (as well regarding plesiosaurs in episode four), this is largely just because they don't mention the fact that plesiosaurs and pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but since they don't mention that they are dinosaurs either, it can be interpreted as a generous inversion of Viewers are Morons, since it is now expected that the public is not moronic enough to consider plesiosaurs and pterosaurs to be dinosaurs.
    • The oviraptorids are shown digging with their forelimbs, even though using their feet would be more likely (especially given that they had large wing feathers attached to their hands).
    • Rugops is claimed to be an obligate scavenger, but studies on energy efficiency show that only large soaring animals can be obligate scavengers. At the same time, however, this may actually be based on an unpublished study showing that Rugops was at least well built for scavenging, rather than just wild speculation. However, a 2006 Dougal Dixon book made a similar claim, so the producers aren't necessarily aware of the new study.
  • Stock Dinosaurs: Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus, Argentinosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and Troodon.
  • Stock Sound Effect: There are very few animal sounds for the program, and each giant theropod, small theropod and mid-sized herbivore seems to be using the same ones. For example, the herbivores tend to make pig screeches. And this doesn't make much sense, considering how important hearing was in identifying their fellow species.
  • The Great Flood: Such a flood washes away a herd of Centrosaurus.
  • Time Passes Montage: The "everyone eats the Argentinosaurus" scene in episode 5.
  • Under Crank: Many fight scenes are filmed this way, but unfortunately, it backfires, and just makes the animation look like bad Stop Motion.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Two large Alectrosaurus lunge themselves at a Gigantoraptor, but it fights back and kicks one straight to the ground. It doesn't take long for both to run away. A group of American tyrannosaurs also attempt to kill a pair of Nothronychus, but they drive them off quickly with their huge claws.
  • Use Your Head: The Carcharodontosaurus use it for head-butting each other.
  • Zerg Rush: Daspletosaurus against a lone Chasmosaurus first, then against a whole herd of Centrosaurus. Giant troodonts also attempt this maneuver, but even an Edmontosaurus calf is too tough to take down when adults are nearby.
  1. ↑ Actually SYN-raptor
  2. ↑ Unless, of course, you happen to be Dougal Dixon.
  3. ↑ Unless it turns out it's just a large Allosaurus
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