Mesozoic Mind

  Well, it's official: Tim Haines is BACK! After years of waiting, Tim Haines has made a new palaeo-doc. Surviving Earth , which covers many of the extinctions of Earth's history. The first episode, "When the Earth Burned" , naturally starts things off with the Permian Extinction. Set in Russia, we follow a family of the gornopsid Inostrancevia . Pretty inspired choice. Without spoilers, what are my thoughts on it? The effects and design are excellent. The cinematograohy is alsao very lush, with the Californian forests . The animal behaviour is up to par. I like the gorgonopsids have a lion-influenced social structure... though I do object to them fighting even as lava looms to be the alpha (which is a bunk term). The species selection is great, showing both the big guys of Permian Russia (Ino, Scutosaurus) and the dicynodont Elph  (no joke I genuinely thought they said elf and was wondering why they were calling them by snything other then their real name) and Sumini...

 If you haven't heard, two new palaeo-documentaries were announced just a few months ago, right after the success of Prehistorc Planet . While I did miss the initial announcements because I was on vacation, they excite me no less. Surviving Earth https://deadline.com/2022/06/nbc-dinosaur-docuseries-surviving-earth-1235053396/ The bigger announcement is Surviving Earth , an eight-part series intented to be about the many mass extinctions of Earth and how life bounced back. It is notable for two things: the first is that its being created by the legendary Tim Haines, who you may recall also invented the modern palaeo-documentary with a certain 1999 series, as well as the acclaimed exhibition Dinosaurs in their Time . The other is that instead of a streaming service or some cable channel, big network NBC will air it, along with another BBC Natural History Unit documentary. I admit my interested is at the very least not as big as you'd expect. I admit that extinctions are a bit ha...