Palaeo-Documentary Trope Discussion: Prehistory In the Modern Day

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Have you ever noticed a reccuring thing in your favoyrite genre but no one ever discusses? I have, and I'd like to do that.

Dinosaurs (andotherprehistoriclife) living in our modern, anthropocene world is very common in palaeo-media. The most common way is either time-travel, the Lost World trope of isolated lands, or genetic ressurection, or even whatever phlebotinum is at hand, magic or scientific. However, it usually reserved for hard fiction: books, games, and movies all apply, but never documentaries, based in rigorous science and truth, which stick to their respective time periods for portraying life. Right? Right? RAAIIIIGHT?

Palaeo-documentaries have actually had a long history of showing prehistory in our time, which primarily occupies the 2000's onwards, particularly during the latter period of it. It's always entertaining to watch prehistory walk about our cities or chase us dumb apes, but what is the meaning of it? They're more often then not just for the Rule of Cool, with no explaination of how they got in the present. I however, believe there is are correct ways and incorrect ways of dinosaurs in our time as opposed to theirs.

(L-R: Dinosaur Britain, Monster's Ressurected's Bear Dog)

A bad way is to have the prehistoric subjects be aggresive rampaging creatures chasing after people and menacing modern animals, like the average Syfy movie. Examples are particularly found in the Awesomebro period of the late 2000's and from Discovery Channel's palaeo-documentaries of the era. The most notable example was Monsters Resserrected, which in every episode. Even earlier was 2004's obscure special Mega-Predators, which had scenes of a Titanis, a Varanus priscus Megalania, and an Archaeotherium all go after humans to eat them. A year earlier, Animal Planet's Giant Monsters (2003) saw nature presenter Jeff Corwin encountering and getting chased by (and on occassion getting eaten) by various creatures that get aggresive at him, most notably Megarachne (back when it was a giant spider and not a sea scorpion) and Sarcosuchus, all of whicch are incredibly nightmarish and jarring to watch. More recently in the Naishian, ITV's Dinosaur Britain saw many of its theropods (and even some of the herbivores and omnivores) cause havoc and terror as they inexplicably roam around Britain. Really, the creatures always just show up in this way, with no indication or thought process on how they get here or the implications they'd have if they've always been there.

These scenes don't provide much educational worth beyond how they would have hunted (and even then that's not always in correct manner). They instead unintentionally give the idea that these creatures are little more then monsters that would gladly eat you up and so are well-deservedly extinct. In other words, awesomebro to the core. It's telling this trope is most associated (though hardly limited to) the Awesomebro period of the mid and late 2000's, where accuracy and nuance were sent out to die and sensationalism replaced next to all of it. The kicker is these parts aren't always entertaining even if you are in the mood for them.

A second way this trope occurs is much more simple, with the creatures simply walking about or doing other natural behaviours amongst our urban helllandscapes or the places where they were found. Dinosaur Britain also engages in this, mostly with the herbivores. The painfully generically-named Discovery Channel documentary Prehistoric (2009) does this a lot, showing prehistoric life walking around various metropolises in the US. These are often to illustrate the size compared to humans or host where applicable.

Linked to the second option and Prehistoric (2009) in particular is that scenes in the modern day to transition to their time: around the creatures, buildings and landmarks get levelled down, plants spread, and the terrain changes. It's pretty fun to watch and clever to see, and actually does have some informativeness through demonstrating what the location was like in deep time.

Top: Monsters Ressurected's "Great American Predator"
Middle: When Dinosaurs Ruled's "The Real Jurassic Park"
Bottom: David Attenburough's Natural History Museum Alive

In both cases a common scenario which forms a third one is that there is a fossil that comes to life, whether in the field at a dig site or mounted in a museum, with blood vessels, flesh, and skin spreading over a skeleton before the creature stirs to life, often roaring or otherwise vocalising, before walking away or breaking out of the museum and into our cities. These are also about the specatacle and are often more linked to the first option as museum visitors or diggers often flee, although its often used on famous fossil specimens, such as SUE the T. rex in the museum film Waking the T. Rex: The Story of SUE. I can also see such a thing being used to illustrate the internal biology and antomy of it... not that I've seen any do such. By any rate, this subtrope is rarely focused on, and are usually often just one-off sequences, whether it's the Rhomaelosaurus in Sea Rex, a Pterodactylus flying about Paris's museum in National Geographic's Sky Monsters, or a Stegosaurus poofing to life at a digsite in... Okay, I don't actually remember the title of this example besides being in the 2000's, but I can assure you its real. 

An exception to all this is the 2014 documentary David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive, where the celebrated nature presenter observes select specimens at the Natural History Museum of London, from a Dodo bird, a Moa, the giant snake Gigantophis, to Dippy the Diplodocus as they come to life at night (much like a certain film), thus making it the central focus. The animals act fairly subdued and as animals should, even in the artificial surroundings or the museum, and don't react too strongly to David's presence (admittedly even when they should).

Then you have more fanciful ones where them being in the modern day is treated as part of the everyday setting. First is would be (non-avian) dinosaurs explicitly being brought to the present day through some form of time travel. The most famous is Prehistoric Park (2006), where a whole campus of prehistoric life is formed via a time travel device and host Nigel Marven. National Geographic's T. Rex Autopsy was about a T. rex, if a dead one, being found and also brought to a lab to be dissected and studied. This approach is... interesting to say the least, especially when it brings up how different both times are and how they could have survived.

Another is where dinosaurs are just part of the setting of the documentary. My Pet Dinosaur, for instance is about what if the asteroid never struck and how non-avian dinosaurs might live alongside humans. Meanwhile, Discovery Channel's Dino Lab had its non-avian dinosaurs in the present and even being transported by truck around which suggest they are commonplace enough to allow that to happen. For obvious reasons, these are the least common out of them, relegated to what if-style shows as single episodes or one-offs.

The crowner would hav 2005's T-Rex: A Dinosaur in Hollywood, one in a category of its own. The basic premise, T. rex's history in pop culture, is represented by it being treated as an actor as it stars in movies over the years. It must been to be believed.

So with all that said, just what is the point of the "In the Modern Day" trope? As I have itterated throughout this blog post, its spectacle, aimed to catch audiences' attention, especially before an informative segment where the real science is. Such a thing isn't by itself bad, espcially if one considers if it could help keep the attention of audiences who may be losing theirs. A pessimist might say that this indicative of the brain rot that occured during the 2000's and fed each other, and I admit it's possible. Neverthless, this trope can also help add flavour and increase the memoribility of otherwise obscure and unmemorable docs, especially ones that aren't narrative-driven like the Trilogy of Life, Meteor Studios, or Prehistoric Planet are, rather skewing more to talking head-centric ones with the ocassional reconstruction sequence.

Overall, the In The Modern Day trope usually bears a very cheesy, sensationalist nature with little in the way of actual informativeness, and your opinion on it depends on how willing you are to tolerate it and the Rule of Cool (I for one actually do like it, if not am willing to tolerate it). However, when done well, they are very memorable, which means they are doing are doing what was intended.

Are there any other tropes or cliches you notice in palaeomedia? Let me know in the comments! Also, check back soon for a glossary of examples of "Prehistory In the Modern Day" I'm writing at the moment.

Bye for now!