Walking with Dinosaurs 2025: All episodes worst to best

Well, Walking with Dinosaurs 2025 came and went. The reboot to the icon of palaeodocumentaries, promising a new take that would appeal to audiences not versed in the nitty gritty by showing dig sites in action to show how palaeontology works alongside the usual nature doc-style life reconstruction sequences.

It .... was ....

Not very good. While no one ws expecting it to surpass the original, so much seems to conspire to make it subpar. There's a reduced budget compared to the original, so there aren't that many species, and to choose active dig sites only limited the sites, meaning half the series is Cretaceous North America. Conbine that with being made in the fog of COVID and at a time when nature docs are bing underfunded by a society caring only for sating the rich, and you thus get a series which feel thin and empty, not really a succesor to the classic.

But which reaches the heights of what came before it and which plunged deeper then even the movie? Let's find out.

6 - The Orphan

Man, talk about a bad first impression. Where do I even begin with it? The dig segments feels so intrusive and surface level (save one bit where they drone scene) they ruin the episode, and the only species that show up? It's the obvious choices. T. rex! Triceratops! Edmontosaurus! The recently described Infernodrakon! The animals' behaviour? All fights and fleeing, with the T. rex being a streotyoe. The story itself barely shows anything interesting or new to both paleonerds or audiences.

Maybe it was just issues with my TV as I was watching, but for a while, this soured my view of the series.

• Accuracy - 8/10
• Presentation - 4/10
• Music - 6/10
• Storytelling - 4/10
• Species selection - 4/10
• Behaviour - 5/10
• Rewatchability - 5/10
• Overall - 5/10

5 - The Journey North

Bold of the ep to focus on a species we already focused on before./sarcasm

Yeah, this episode feels like a rehash of the 3D movie, just with slightly different species, without the obnoxious voices, and a downer ending trying way too hard to pretend not to be, with even similar sequences. Some of the cinematography is great and there are a few decent bits, but overall, it feels like the most forgetable episode so far.

• Accuracy - 9/10
• Presentation - 5/10
• Music - 6/10
• Storytelling - 6/10
• Species selection - 5/10
• Rewatchability - 5/10
• Overall - 5/10

4 - Island of Giants

First, props to not being a cretaceous north american episode.

The episode has cinematography suitably epic scale making for some of the best shots in the series. Plus, you can't go wrong with scenes where herbivores do osteophagy.

Unfortunately, the biggest flaw is that there are only three species in the ep, and only two are alive, thus making the island feel rather empty. I don't see why they could squeeze in a Draconyx or an extra sauropod. Or were they not found at the dig site? Also, some the effects sem rather flat due to lighting, like its 2D. You may call that a positive as it makes..  but still.

• Accuracy - 8/10
• Presentation - 7/10
• Music - 6/10
• Storytelling - 6/10
• Species selection - 3/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10
• Overall - 7/10

3 - Band of Brothers

I give the episode credit to focus on a species that was only a supporting role in previous instalments, that being a thyreophoran, plus the action is nice.

it still has just a handful of species, just one more then the last on the list. Graned, the story is so tied to them, ny more would clutter, sooo...

• Accuracy - 9/10
• Presentation - 6/10
• Music - 6/10
• Species selection - 6/10
• Behaviour - 9/10
• Storytelling - 6/10
• Rewatchability - 5/10
• Overall - 5/10

2 - The Pack

Even if I weren't Canadian, I love this episode.

The pack dynamics of the Albertos are cool and make for an engaging episode, plus (sensing a pattern?) the cinematography is great. While the species lineup is standard (Edmonto again?), the appearence of the more obscure Arrhinoceratops makes it almost worth it.

• Accuracy - 8/10
• Presentation - 7/10
• Music - 7/10
• Storytelling - 7/10
• Species selection - 5/10
• Behavior - 8/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10
• Overall - 7/10

1- The River Dragon

Let's face it, any episode with Spinosaurus would be good in my book, but this was a brilliant episode.

Sobek is a compelling lead, and with the highest species count at seven, it actually feels like a proper OG WWD ep... even if not many interact with each other. The ending will leave you in tears, in a good way.

The only bad thing is that it tips its hat a bit too much to Nizar Ibrahim and some of his more contentious theories, like fast swimming spino. Otherwise, this ep is a must see in my opinion.

• Accuracy - 8/10
• Presentation - 7/10
• Music - 6/10
• Storytelling - 6/10
• Species selection - 7/10
• Behaviour - 8/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10
• Overall - 7/10

Overall

• Accuracy - 7/10
• Aging - 6/10
• Presentation - 9/10
• Music - 8/10
• Visuals - 6/10
• Cinematography - 6/10
• Storytelling - 8/10
• Species selection - 5/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10
• Overall - 7/10

While not as bad as I feared, the reboot of Walking with Dinosaurs falls short in many regards, even more then the movie did. Still, if you pretend it's a seperate doc from the franchise, its enjoyable. Anyway for yanks,