Dinosaur Britain: A Review (Part One)

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind, the blog that has reviewed Discovery Channel documentaries a bit too much at the expense of others and so will try to stay away from them a bit. Today, right after we hit 1000 views in a single month for the first time, we will tackle the 2015 British documentary Dinosaur Britain, hosted by presenter Ellie Harrison, travelling to various locales around the country, starting wirh visiting Dippy the Diplodocus at London's Natural History Museum (this was before it was taken off display) and waxing about how she much like other brits became enamoured with dinosaurs because of it.

However, that's not what Dinosaur Britain is best known for: rather, it is that the dinosaurs themselves are presented roaming about modern England and scaring its people, much like fellow ITV dino-show Primeval, with Ellie often encountering them. To start things off, we are first shown a Baryonyx wandering the halls of the Natural History Museum before heading to the Thames and catching a fish, shocking observers all the while.

There's a brief detour to a countryside mine, where the iconic jaw bone of Megalosaurus was first discovered, kicking off dinosaurs (before some obvious SFX maker her leave hasility). Harrison then goes to Oxford University Museum to meet with british palaeontologist Dean Lomax to look at the bones themselves, only to be interrupted by Meg itself on the rampage through the university, chasing after some biking man and eventually settling on scavenging from a garbage bin. 

I do like the tiger stripes on the design. However, there is the manner of the way its depicted, as an aggressive Prehistoric Monster that chases after humans, which really detracts from the educational elements of the show. This is something we'll bring up throughout both parts.

Next dino is Iguanodon, naturally among the Crystal Palace Park statues from 1854. Gideon Mantell and his discovery of it and thumb spike-horn mixup are discussed before it shoes up, browsing for leaves among its very scintifically dated counterparts. Alice even manages to feed and pet it... which makes it startled and flees, as you would imagine. It's a nice touch, is what I'm saying.

As for the Iguano itself, its a bit too thin for my tastes and more likely had a more bulky frame (something like this), but I do like it regardless.

One would expect the ankylosaur Hylaeosaurus to show up afterwards... but it doesn't. Really, that's something I noticed: anytime the early history of dinosaurs are discussed, its always Iguanodon and Megalo, with Hylaeosaurus never being mentioned in a major capacity. It's a shame, as with the spikes and body armour of it it certainly stands out from the other two IMO.

Ellie then goes to Stonehenge to meet back up with Lomax. to show the jawbone of the creature Nuthetes, who while still not exactly known from good remains, are here depicted as dromaeosaurs. Sure enough, a whole pack of them show up, and chase them around the monument before settling on raiding a picnic table and scaring off some poor family on holiday or something.

Designwise, the Nuthetes aren't too bad, although they have a bad case of tooth slippage and their wings aren't full enough. I do like how behaviourally they are not pacing-hunting menaces, but merely opportunistic generalists like raccoons or crows,. The segment is also pretty fun overall, and actually does teach audiences raptors weren't the giant clever pack hunters a certain film franchise portrayed them. There's even a funny fakeout where one seems to be about to open a door only to not do so, since as shown, they're hands can't grasp and pull like primates can. Overall, I think its the best segment so far, demonstrating the biology and behaviour of its subject the most effectively in a way that's rather clever.

The final segment in the first episode is a bit different: there's no dinosaur in the modern day, and it's instead about how a specimen of the early armoured dino Scelidosaurus at the Bristol Museum died at the bottom of the sea. Its depicted in situ in the Early Jurassic as one gets dragged out to sea, gets scavenged by ichthyosaurs (most likely Temnodontosaurus), and buried on the seafloor. They're pretty good, and while they're armour might be off and should be bipedal at the vert least some of the time, as evidenced by trackways. Most notably, since it focuses on a specific specimen, its actually in the past as opposed to the present.

The episode ends with Ellie Harrison driving off and recapping the episode, while declaring her adventures in searching for Britain's dinosaurs has only just begun, with a preview of the other half of the series following suite.

So now that we're done the first half of Dinosaur Britain, what do I think of it?

The sequence layout is mostly centred on Early Cretaceous and Jurassic taxa, mostly the first dinosaurs discovered during the initial age in Victorian Britain, with the exception of 80's-discovered Baryonyx. That does make sense, given behind Iguano it's the most famous British dinosaur, and arguably more relevent to 21st centjury viewers due to solving the longtime mystery of spinosaurids, so its a good choice as the first dino featured. However, I do admit I would have preferred Iguanodon as the first. Its also very episodic, mostly Ellie going from setpiece to setpiece with none of the dinosaurs appearing outaide of their own, save the intro.

Also speaking of, those pterosaurs that appears in the intro? Never even identified. Not sure why they were put in if nothing else would be done with them.

All of the dinosaur designs (and the pterosaur seen at the cold open) are very good, bar an issue or two. The theropods even have visible jaw muscles in their throats, which is a nice touch. They aren't very well integrated into the scenes, though, sticking out like a sore thumb. Did I mention that the effects are by Jellyfish Pixtures? That group previously did fellow british dinosaur docs Planet Dinosaur and Prehistoric Planet, so they did have plenty experience with this clade.

Ellie Harrison is a decent host and narrator, maintaining a fairly serious demeanor while maintaining a sense of awe and reverence towards the dinosaurs, selling their prescence pretty well (although her delievery could use work at times to be less flat). Recurring talking head Dean Lomax is also good, being a bit more casual then your usual palaeontologist (and thus closer to real life then the stuffy old stereotypes as he notes) and charismatic enoughto be enjoyed onscreen.

But what about the definig gimmick of the series? I'm quite mixed on it. On one hand, its certainly entertaining and keeps your interest, and its certainly unique a choice to make... but it rarely shows off actual natural behaviour save hunting and walking, and are more often then not divorced from their time. Dinosaur Britain thus veers often into the dreaded awesomebro territory, where spectacle over education is favoured, Harrison's narration barely doing anything to alliviate it. Even when the series doesn't do it, it just comes off as jarring, like its from an entirely different documentary. Just about the only positive is that at least its executed way better then Monsters Resurrected: the dinosaurs give up chase or flee whenever they can.

The sound design for the dinosaurs ain't half bad, with each dinosaur having district vocals; some are worse then others though, with the Megalosaurus in particular having an oddly distorted hiss that doesn't sound right, if not unintentionally funny. Music by Nainita Desai and Malcolm Laws meanwhile isn't too bad, although its hardly memorable.

• Accuracy - 7/10
• Aging - 8/10
• Presentation - 8/10
• Behaviour - 7/10
• Visuals - 8/10
• Music - 6/10
• Presentation - 8/20
• Rewatchability - 7/10

Overall, Dinosaur Britain is a decent doumentary with an interesting approach to presenting Englih dinosaurs and palaeontology, but undercut by straying too much into absurdity and quasi-awesomebro territory.

Stay tuned for the next part of Dinosaur Britain, with more dinos big and small, but until then we have other works to see.

Sources/See Also

• Gierliński, Gregard (1999). "Tracks of a large thyreophoran from the Early Jurassic of Poland" (PDF). Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 44. Retrieved 27 July 2016.