Prehistoric Planet Season Two: Islands - First Thoughts (SPOILERS)

WARNING: This will have spoilers. READ AT OWN RISK UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN EPISODE ALREADY

"IT BEGINS"

It has arrived. Prehistoric Planet Season Two debuted today, starting with an episode on island-dwelling fauna. I was so hyped for it I convinced my parents to reboot my old account for it, worth it to watch and support the show. Now I won't spoil too much of it if you haven't watched it (DO IT NOW), but here is a summary of the episode and what I first thought of each segments.

The first segment is about a Zalmoxes getting washed out to sea by a raft of vegitation, where with the tree too small to support him, it chooses to flee to another nearby despite risk of getting eaten by a mosasaur, just like with the Rexes in season one. I think it does a good job setting up the theme of island dispersal for evolution, by any rate.

Second comes a segment for the small hadrosaur Tethyshadros who find themselves beseiged by Hatzegopteryx, who given what the show has become notorious for, naturally go after the babies. The segment is nice and tense.

The narrative then returns to the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar previously seen in season one's Freshwater. I admit, this was the highlight of the episode for me, as it showcases the bizarre life of the island formation well. There are two:

• One for the tiny herbivorous crocodilian Simosuchus. It was definitely one of the creatures I wanted to see in this series the most, and indeed more crocodilians in general, so I'm very glad it's in. Not only is the sppearence cute, but they have plenty of personality to them, especially when a maraudering Majungasaurus comes, but one manages to scare it off but mock charging and generally being pugnacious.

• The other are for the very recently discovered mammal Adalatherium. The segment is alternately adorable as a mother cares foir her newly-hatched babies sand horrific as we see the dangerous creatures that pose a threat to them, like the giant snake madtsoia madagascariensis. Also, I wasn't sure if they used CG or physical effects for the baby Adalatheriums, so I was gonna praise that... but it tuens out they just used actual baby rodents. Slurpasaur much?

I would be remiss not to mention what is easily my favourite creature in the series: the snake Madtsoia madagascariensis. As a snake lover I am quite pleased at it's inclusion, and the fact that it proves helpful to the adalas by eating a muradering Masiakasaurus is much to my liking. Positive depictions for the win!

Oh, and even though the segments contain quite a few of the same fauna (and an upcoming ep also does), i'm not gonna change my WWD remake episode which has a similar lineup, because A) its a coincidence, and B) mine was released first.

The narrative then goes to Antarctica, where the theropod Imperobator hunts an ornithopod... but fails. I admit compared to the rest of the episode it feels a bit short and forgettable, and honestly probably belongs more in s1's Ice Worlds, but there's a neat bit at the start with thermographic imagery for the feathered imperobators. And honestly, it's still good from a creative standpoint. Really, there are no truly bad segments in this show - so far at least.

The final segment sees a Hatzegopteryx male, one of the ones we saw earlier, court a mate on a sandbar. It's a beuatiful scene that shows a more sensitive look to a creature we associate with eating babies. Now wonder it was so prominently featured in marketing for the series. I also admit I was taken aback by as fakeout where it looked like the courting was unsuccessful; I thought the show would pull another Carnotaurus where just like many times in nature the male fails, but nope, she was just hiding after another well-done azhdarchid fight. It's a great and heartfelt cap off to the episode that really .

My only complaints about the episode are incredibly minor. The first is that a few species and locations I wanted to appear didn't, like more of Hateg Island, and Appalachia and the tyrannosauroid Dryptosaurus, which I admit is the one creature I want to appear the most. While it may appear in the upcoming North America episode, that seems unlikely. While I'm not disappointed, I am annoyed regardless - to the point I started writing a script for an Appalachian documentary myself out of impulse - but more on that later.

The second was that the final segment is not actually one of the in situ ones, but the Uncovered minisode, which unlike season one's where they were seperate from the series proper is in the episode. While it was nice seeing Darren Naish and Mark Witton, the whole thing feels tacked on, like a time-filler, wasting time that could have been given to flesging out the segments.

Finally, I kind of wish the Hatzegopteryx segments were at the direct start of the episode. Would have made a nice book ends coming off season one, although then again using Zalmoxes already does so.

But otherwise, Islands is not just a solid start to the season, but also an excellent episode. It allievates the admittedly minor criticism of season one not having enough of mammals and crocodilians with a bang to deliever a stunning work that is definitely among the series' best. I can hardly wait for what will come next for

• Accuracy - 9/10
• Aging - 10/10
• Presentation - 0/10
• Visuals - 10/10
• Music - 10/10
• Story - 8/10
• Species - 9/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10

Thank you for reading this blog post. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do soon - legally of course.

Oh wait a minute, this is the 99th post? Well good thing I got something good coming up. Himt: it's something I promised at the start of the month.