Mesozoic Mind

IT'S BACK! I'M BACK! Do I mean my blog or Prehistoric Planet ? Both. This time, instead on continuing with the dinosaurs, we go to our era, or rather the period before the human era: the Pleistocene. Granted, there are key differences that at least for me make it feel more like a spinoff then a proper new season. I rank the episodes (without elabouration): Grass Lands New Lands Desert Lands Big Melt Big Freeze The effects are great as ever. Framestore takes over from MPC after they sadly went the way of the di-, nah, pterosaur, and they still have have it 20 years on from a certain other cenozoic palaeodocumentary. Also ever, the sequences and photography are brilliant as ever. The species selection is good, going beyond the usual stock genera/northen hemisphere fauna, from australian megafauna to deep cuts like the giant otter Enhydriodon . That was a thrilling sequence. But all that said, I do admit Ice Age feels a bit... downgraded from the first two seasons. Here's why ...

Happy holidays! Today's article isn't by me, but an acquaintance of mine Mason Pierce, A.K.A Mr-Ultra, and I helped work on it. He's a guy who already posted this on his Tumblr , we agreed it would also be posted here with a few mods added (see if you can spot them). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Prehistoric Planet Season Three Now, it should be no secret that I frankly adore Prehistoric Planet for what it is. I’ve already done a whole article going over what a possible 2nd season would be like, and now that it’s been months since the release of the actual Season 2, I’ve come to accept how it returned to the Maasrichtian of the Late Cretaceous. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for PHP to showcase animals and habitats from other time periods as much as the next guy, as I think a season based on the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic would be great. However, with that said, I’m content with the show staying within the Maasrichtian for a...

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 be...

Ever since it premeired, palaeo-fans jave been clamouring for more of Prehistoric Planet. Once a season was confirmed, fans went in wondering what it would be about, and many thought it would not be released until many years. But lo and behold: first came a tweet of a Tarchia , and now what has showed up last week: the teaser trailer for  Prehistoric Planet : Season Two . Despite just being, well, a teaser, the teaser looks great, and gets everyobe even more hyped up. Let's dissect it scene by scene, shall we? The teaser itself starts off with Hatzegopteryx , a fitting choice when it was the last creature seen in season one. Here, it's not seen devouring baby dinosaurs, but two courtshipping one another as the beautiful music plays and David's narration for the teaser waxes about how there's always more to discover about Earth, which is quite befitting for seeing more of what we already loved. As every teaser does, we then see glimpses of what's to come in the secon...

Yeah, I'm just gonna say it: while its definitely an incredible doc, Prehistoric Planet does falter in some spots. Some groups get shafted entirely, and the series' jumping around locations a la Planet Earth doesn't help give a connection to the animals in my humble opinion. But hey, no work is perfect. Even Walking with Dinosaurs had quetionable creative choices and designs. Here's how I would make the already great Apptle TV+ show into downright, absolute god-tier material in my book, while still retaining as much as I can. In my version, episodes are done by regions or continents instead of environments, as I feel unlike the original, mine can maintain a better sense of focus and continuity. Also, rather then the same intro with the Oxford T. rex over and over each episode, each one is different with a different skeleton of a Mesozoic creature featured. So without further ado, in honour of 6000 views, here's how I would Palaeo-Redo (trademark pending) Prehisto...

It is done. I have finished Prehistoric Planet . While I had some difficulties setting it up and thus had the hype deflated a bit for me, I loved it through and through, and its certainly one of the best documentaries I've seen in a while. SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 5. Freshwater By no means is Freshwater a bad episode. As I have wrote before , it's merely the least good of the series: not many of the sequences take place within lakes, wetlands, and rivers, so we don't get any fun swimming scenes and none of the cool fish or crocodilians of the time (ignoring they're practically mundane conpared to other mesozoic ones). A T. rex scene is completely superfluous, only having one wade in river as a connection, and for got knows what reason they stuck Quetzalcoatlus  in Madagascar of all places (even if it was just for breeding). It doesn't help it barely has its own identity in technical side: the colour palates of each segments, or even segments themselves,...