Chased by Dinosaurs/Sea Monsters Review (Part Two)

Welcome back to Mesozoic Mind, and we're concluding what I've dubbed Walking with Dinovember by finishing up the other half-erm, three fifths of the Chased by series, Chased by Sea Monsters*. Like the first two, CBSM features zoologist and TV presenter Nigel Marven and a film crew travelling though time in search of particular species.

* Again, not called this back home in Britain, only officially so in US and Canada, where the two are just called "A Walking with Dinosaur Trilogy", but let's face it, the former is way more memorable (even if technically Nigel isn't actually chased by them that much here).

This three-part series consists of them in a boat called the Ancient Mariner visiting the oceans of 7 points in time, each labelled as the Deadliest Seas of All Time thanks to the sea creatures which inhabit them. Episodes are "Dangerous Seas", "Into the Jaws of Death", "To Hell..... and Back?". In order visited, the periods, places, and species of target are:

• #7 - Ordovician New York 450 million years ago, where Nigel  encounters the sea scorpion Megalograptus and the giant cephalopod Cameraceras (albiet referred to as sea scorpion and orthocone respectively).
• #6 - Triassic Switzerland 230 mya, where Nigel swims with Nosthosaurus, grabs onto the long-necked  Tanystropheus, and tangles with the giant ichthyosaur Cymbospondylus.
• #5 - Devonian Ohio 360 mya, where from the safety of a cage, Nigel tries to feed the giant  armoured placoderm fish Dunkleosteus.
• #4 - Eocene Egypt 36 mya, where after nearly being charged by the horned and amphibious Arsinoitherium, Nigel and the boat try to lure in the basal whale Basilosaurus.
• #3 - Pliocene Peru 4 million years ago, where Nigel searches for Megalodon. Nuff said.
• #2 - Jurassic England 155 mya, where Nigel checks out two giants of the time: the biggest fish ever Leedsichthys, and our old oversized pliosaur friend Liopleurodon
• #1 - Cretaceous Kansas 75 mya - The deadliest sea is the Niobrara/Western Interior Seaway and nicknamed Hell's Aquarium, where the giant fish Xiphactinus is only on the lesser side of the dangerous fauna, and at the top are the giant mosasaurs Tylosaurus.

Oh, if you want to know how I rank them, I go from worst to best (and no, I'm not elaborating on why):

• Basilosaurus
• Dunkleosteus
• Megalodon
• Triassic
• Orthocone and Sea Scorpion
• Niobrara
• Jurassic

The visuals are excellent. It makes good use of the underwater settings to deliver some stellar cinematography. Even out of water, the. I hear CG filmed actual underwater is difficult to work with, but boy did they succeed here!

The cinematography underwater and above is great too, really making good use of worm's eye or low angle shots to accentuate how damn big every creature is. The lighting is also pretty good. Special mention goes to the sunset lighting at the end of the Niobrara segment that concludes the series: the harsh yellow of it give things an almost apocalyptic endgame feel. At the other end, the Ordovician features sunlight that due to a thinner atmosphere casts an eerie pale white on everything, as befits a basal world.

Finally, the creature designs themselves are all very eye-pleasing, and with a few exceptions, are up to date, if not for their time at least. My favourites would have to be the orthocone and the Tylosaurus..

The direction and story courtesy of Jasper James is great. His direction really gives use of Jaws-style suspense and tension as the creatures get within centimetres of Nigel and the risk of attacking with a single bite. Nevertheless, the show takes pains not to overdo it and treat them as simple animals.

Nigel's as usual a great host. If you've read my previous Chased By... review you know what I mean.

At the same time, Nigel gets more time to interact with the crew, since you need more then one and a handful to pilot a boat. We even see brief moments of conflict and drama on Nigel disagreeing on what to do. Both of these do get to give us some more nuance to the show it otherwise would have not.

In order to find their targets, the show and crew use various gadgets and tech to find them. These range from simple stuff, like mere cages, to undersea cameras and prey dummies, and in the case of the Basilosaurus, use sound recordings of on to lure them in. Honestly, using the sounds of one individual and playing them to get it to them is pretty creepy, like something Sirenhead would do. Meanwhile, to repel them in the case they get to close, Nigel has an electric prod for the Cymbospondylus, and for the Liopleurodon they build a special suit with tubes and valves to release a nauseous chemical to repel it and their sensitive noses.

As usual Ben Bartlett's score is amazing. Unlike the more reverent of WWD's and CBD's wondrous, this is distinctly more... harsher and dangerous-sounding, as befits the subject matter of huge sea creatures dangerous to be around. In addition to the standard orchestra, one of the highlights would be the theme for the Cymbospondylus uniquely has electric guitar. Definite banger in my book, and given the prod, does make sense. Worth mentioning that the main theme has a time signature of largely 7/8 (7 quavers), no doubt a nod to the Seven Deadly Seas presented in the series.

Probably my favourite part of the entire show would be one in the third episode where Nigel observes some Liopleurodon scavenge a dead Leedsichthys. While on the... surface it it may not sound like the most exciting scene, it's the way all the above praises mix together. You have the dead leedsichthys being able to be mistaken for a physical model, dark chiaroscuro cinematography where the boat light from above's the only one illuminating the dark water, the tension as Nigel gets so close to them because they're distracted by it, only fleeing and unleashing the smells when one lunges, and Ben Bartlett's score Feeding Frenzy dissonant and harsh to make for a foreboding, ominous feel that stand out in the series.

So is there anything bad about Chased by Sea Monsters? Yeah.

I think the biggest problem with it is that compared to its predecessors which are more naturalistic and relatively subdued, Sea Monsters is more awesomebro, only rivalled by the next proper instalment Walking with Monsters. That is a term used among palaeo-fans for depictions of prehistoric life as extremely violent and aggressive with little else to them. Sure enough theirs a lot of focus on the killing and hunting aspects of the subject creatures and Nigel does treat them as such (though to be fair, who wouldn't?). Indeed, you can see this continue in WWM, which between monsterising most arthropods and presenting the Palaeozoic as a battlefield between them and our very distant ancestors, might just be the most awesomebro work in the Trilogies of Life (and no, I'm only reviewing it when I want).

The second would be those pesky inaccuracies. Just like with the other Sea Monsters and Sea Rex, or literally most 2000's depictions of them, the plesiosaurs and mosasaurs should have tail flukes. Then you have creatures like Tanystropheus who age like milk. While if you've been keeping up with the science you'd probably know it's anatomy (at least of two species) wouldn't have made it aquatic, you then have Nigel, while gripping onto, inadvertedly ripping it off and swimming off and relying on feet to do so, but it'd okay because it will grow back, lizard style. That is just so wrong no matter how you slice it. 1: Tanystropheus was based off its anatomy a terrestrial creature, 2: it wasn't even a squamate (the clade lizards belong to) so it's unlikely it could do it like them.

This is all without mentioning the bevy of other, often minor inaccuracies the show has. Among them are:

• Anachronisms
• What is what's clearly T. rex 75 million years ago?
• Most of the species in the Triassic sequence didn't exist 230 million years ago, instead either earlier or later.
• Design flaws 
• Dunkleosteus not having a shark like fin.
• Leedsichthys being oversized instead of 16 metres, having oversized head scales, and a slight underbite.
• Most of the marine reptile being too thin, lacking the blubber needed for aquatic life. The moasasaurs and Elasmosaurus are notable offenders, as is Basilosaurus.
• Inaccurate behaviour
• It's unlikely based off the evidence so far Mosasaurs were engaging in complex social behaviour seen in the last segment. Would've made more sense for it to merely be a mob gathering like what komodo dragons and what certain crocodilians do.
• Its unlikely tylosaurs had the jaw strength to chomp through a shell as hard as thge giant turtle Archelon's, so that plot point could not have happened. They also didn't waggle their bodies outside of the tail when swimming as seen in the show.
• Really, oversizing a lot of the animals. Not just the jurassic life, but also Dunkleosteus and the Tylosaurus for instance.
• Time marching on:
• Cymbospondylus isn't considered a macropredator due to its small conical teeth.

On the note of the Tanystropheus, many including I feel it was wrong for Nigel to grab onto it's tail while with it, as they feel it's an out of character moment for the animal-respectful Nigel. At least one person has suggested instead, the Cymbospondylus could have attacked the Tany right there (instead of snatching the tail from Nigel's hands) while Nigel barely escapes. Definitely one of the lower points in the franchise, and the lowest of Chased by Sea Monsters.

Also, given that Nigel speaks through a full face diving mask, the audio can be a bit grainy and hard to understand and listen to. That's just me though.

Finally, I don't like how Nigel and a female narrating keep switching narrating duties even when it doesn't make sense. Just a minor nitpick.

Verdict: Nat Geo's Sea Monsters holds up better just over a decade later.

Honestly, if I could improve anything about it, I'd expand the series to four to five episodes. Meanwhile, I would add and swap out a few new species. For instance, added would be an eighth sea, Permian Idaho and home to what's what called the Buzzsaw Shark [relative] Helicoprion. Another would be swapping out Arsinoitherium (which is not entirely a Sea Monster because its more terrestrial) with one of the giant aquatic snakes of the time and place, like either Palaeophis, Pterosphenus, or Gigantophis. The final scene of this revised series would be the Ancient Mariner and Nigel returning to the present day, perhaps observing a Great White Shark, some kind of toothed whale like a Sperm Whale or Orcas, who would make Holocene seas among the Deadliest of All Time... if it weren't for us humans, which Nigel notices as he disembarks, and sadly comments that we humans are making the seas increasingly deadly for everything. 

And then the tylosaurs are revealed on the sonar to have somehow followed them back to the present. The end.

On an unrelated note, I'd probably do a third and final series with Nigel about giant flying creatures (giant Palaeozoic dragonfly Meganuera and kin, the bigger pterosaurs, birds like Argentavis, the pelagornids, and the Haast's eagle), but that's a Random Palaeo-Media Work idea of the Day™ for another time.

But overall, it's still a great watch that I highly recommend, especially back to back with the other Sea Monsters.

• Accuracy - 6/10
• Aging - 6/10
• Presentation - 9/10
• Visuals - 9/10
• Music - 9/10
• Storytelling - 9/10
• Rewatchability - 9/10

Well that's it for now. Who knows what we'll do next? Perhaps we'll look at some episodes of a certain Walking With... series next in line, or look at a very, very obscure palaeo-documentary. Farewell for now!

See Also:

• Chased by Dinosaurs/Sea Monsters Review (Part One)
• Sea Monsters Review/Gushing for the other documentary called Sea Monsters

Sources

• Renesto, S. (2005). "A new specimen of Tanystropheus (Reptilia, Protorosauria) from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland and the ecology of the genus". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 111 (3): 377–394.
• Witton, Mark (11 December 2015). "Mark Witton.com Blog: The lifestyle of Tanystropheus, part 2: coastal fisher or first-day-on-the-job aquatic predator?". Retrieved 23 September 2018.