Palaeo-Redo: Dino Lab and Cameron and his Dinosaurs/Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day #14

We made it to 75 posts and 10,000 views and beyond everyone! To celebrate that and the launch of the new Mesozoic Mind Discord server (oh yeah, that's now a thing), here is a two-in-one: a new instalment of Palaeo-Redo, and a new Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day.

First up is Palaeo-Redo, this time if my selected work were made by me or updated. This time, what better to commemorate the start of my blog writings then my first big breakthroughs, Dino Lab and Cameron and his Dinosaurs.

My idea for Dino Lab (both I and II) is to make it a full series about six episodes long set on a whole campus, with both indoor and outdoor facilities to conduct the experiments with the dinosaurs, not just indoor ones that just raise all sorts of welfare concerns I have with the present version. Each episode and the experiments within them would focus on a different topic.
  • Senses
  • Locomotion
  • Feeding and Hunting
  • Sociality
  • Communication
  • Internal Organs
The expanded runtime would also allow for more plot and worldbuilding as it were, such as hinting about how the lab acquires its dinosaurs, mostly through time travel in a secret sector and some... illicit means.

Species lineup would be a mix of pre-existing species/models from Meteor Studios and new ones; at the moment I have ideas for different hadrosaurs (Corythosaurus, Lambeosaurus) having the function of their crests tested, and Spinosaurus' sail.

As for CahD, I'd also start by making it a whole ongoing comic series, with the book as it is being the first arc, but also give the story and beats time to breath and not awkwardly jump around, as well as add new scenes and plot beats; for instance, rather then just deciding offscreen not to obey Poppycock in being evil, the dinosaurs initially go along with it, but things happen that makes them change their mind. Further arcs would expand the rogues' gallery for the dinosaurs and Cameron to thwart, ranging from aliens to Professor Poppycock and BURPS (here not shut down at the end) making all sorts of new monsters.

I'd also make Cameron's wheelchair, barely touched upon for better or worse, more perient to the story. Not reduce him to just needing a wheelchair and the disability, but brought up time to time, and maybe tie in with an overarching theme, one about freedom to choose and go where you want. I actually borrowed a few ideas from an idea for a cartoon adaptation I had a while back, and may revive someday.

Now for the Random Palaeo-Work idea.

Prehistoric Canada

An epic documentary series (ideally about eight episodes long) about fossil life and sites of my great homenation Canada, and how they reveal the story of life on Earth as a whole.

Among the locations and species featured would be (organised by time period but not limited to).
  • Edicarian
    • Mistaken Point, Newfoundland
  • Cambrian
    • Burgess Shale, British Columbia
      • Anamalocaris
      • Hallucigenia
      • Waptia
  • Devonian
    • Fram Formation of Nunavut
      • Tiktaalik roseae
      • Eusthenopteron
    • Ontario
      • Sea Scorpion
      • Conodont
  • Carboniferous
    • Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Nova Scotia
      • Hylonomus lyelli
      • Asaphestera platyris
      • Arthropleura
  • Triassic
    • Sulfer Lake and Pardonet Formations, BC
      • Shastasaurus
      • Thalattosaurus borealis
      • Rebellatrix
    • Wolfville Formation and Wasson Bluffs, Nova Scotia
      •  Teraterpeton hrynewichorum
      • Coelophysis
      • Oryctorhynchus bairdi
      • Metoposaurus bakeri
      • Fendusaurus eldoni
  • Cretaceous
    • Redmond Formation, Labrador
      • Maculaferrum blaisi
    • Pierre Shale of Manitoba
      • Hesperornis regalis
      • Tylosaurus pembinensis
    • Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta
      • Albertosaurus sarcophagus
      • Styracosaurus albertensis
      • Corythosaurus casarius
  • Palaeogene
    • Ravenscrag Formation, Saskatchewan
    • Cypress Hills, SK
      • Mesohippus
  • Quaternary
    • Yukon
      • Woolly Mammoth
      • Cave Lion
  • Holocene
    • Ontario
      • Human
      • Pasenger Pigeon
      • Eastern Cougar

I hope you liked these. That wraps up Nostalgiavember. See you next month... but not before I give you a special surprise!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mesozoic Mind's Walking with Dinosaurs fan remake: 2nd Anniversary Special

Image
Two years. Two years at Mesozoic Mind , through ups and downs and bringing you the best I could give you, and expanded my horizons in life, to go where I could only dream of. To celebrate, here's what I made for all of you readers as a gift: remaking Walking with Dinosaurs for the 21st century as I'd do it. Yeah, I know, people stopped doing this kind of thing years ago, but what the heck, I wanted to do it myself, and I only really do the big ones for special occasions like these. The episodes would be quite different from the origials in setting, but would stil have enough rocognisable creature archtypes and plot beats to show which corresponds to which. Although I still see fit to tell you which is which. Also, please forgive any anachronisms in the lineups I have created. I tried my best to avoid them. Also also, the pictures used here serve to get an idea of what things would feel or look like, not be direct representations. Episode One - Archosauria Art by Olmagon Set in
Read more

Dino Lab review - Part one

Image
(Note: video provided may have stuff missing from original cut) In 2005 and 2009, two specials aired on the Discovery Channel, back when it was actually about science and documentaries. These were both called called Dino Lab , and they had a rather novel premise: instead of simply being a doc of talking heads with occasional vignettes of prehistoric life or a nature documentary-style presentation with the occasional talking head, the show has a laboratory in which dinosaurs are brought into and put through experiments for scientists to study. Such a premise is pretty interesting, if an unusual one that invites more questions (where did the dinosaurs come from? Why is the T. rex first not at the lab?). The first special, from 2005,had a special place to me, as the first one was one of the first docs I saw as a kid on TV, when I was very young. I remember seeing both a T. rex on a treadmill and a plesiosaur splashing a guy with water. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll start off with it's
Read more

T. rex: The Ultimate Predator at the ROM - a review

Image
Ah, T. rex. It needs no introduction, and even the youngest nor laypeople not familiar with all but the basics of palaeontology know what it is. It has easily solidified itself as THE dinosaur by default, and has studied countlessly more then arguably any other fossil lifeform on Earth. Ironically, being so well known has meant it's been taken for granted, even called overrated versus other dinosaurs, and many, many misconceptions about it, from like merely a scavenger that couldn't even hunt live prey. This is a shame, as Tyrannosaurus is a pretty cool dino on its own, able to crush bone like no other theropods couldn't and had one of the more fascinating growth stages of any of them. T. rex: The Ultimate Predator , organised by NYC's renowned American Museum of Natural History, which came to the Royal Ontario Museum this month and intends to educate visitors on what is known about the dinosaur, from how it evolved from other dinosaurs to how it lived, and bust those m
Read more