"Swimming With Sea Monsters" TV mini-series

[neuropteris]

Bathing with Blue Green algae? The bbc should be paying us commission for all these new ideas!

The crab is Lancashire born and bred Phil and very nice it is too.

Andy

[Jean]

Crivens Jean! Are we talking about the same series here? Walking with Monsters has barely been announced by the BBC yet, I didn't know NZ was actually showing the darn thing. Well, was it any good?

yup twas from the beeb, we got all 3 parts at once as a "one off special" I'll try to find the time to watch it asap and give you my for what its worth (given the exchange rate ~ about 0.5 pence!!!)

J

[Jean]

OK watched last night! Not too bad (not that I'm in any way shape or form qualified to discuss pre history!!) I like the idea of hitching a ride on an orthocone! But I won't comment too much cos I know that in some places its been shown as a 3 part series........but the animations and special effects were pretty good and I WANT a research vessel like the one they had!!!!!!

J

[Phil]

Ah....yep that was 2003's 'Swimming with Sea Monsters', not the new 'Walking with Monsters' series.

It was good fun, naturally Nigel Marvin encountered the biggest examples of each animal he bumped into. It would have been nice to see more trilobites at work in the Ordovician segment, but you can't have it all. The pin-hole camera type eyes was a nice touch and I was impressed that the animators did not give the nautiloid suckers, that would have been an easy mistake to make. Of course we have no idea how many arms Cameroceras really had, and that bendy syphon just looked, well, odd somehow.

I think the research vessel should dematerialised with a TARDIS sound effect, but it was good fun, I'm glad you enjoyed it Jean.

[Jean]

AHHHHH I should've known we wouldn't get anything new THAT fast!!!!

But definitely fun..................I wonder did the family of Mosasaurs congregating on the ship at the end, get it

J

[Phil]

But definitely fun..................I wonder did the family of Mosasaurs congregating on the ship at the end, get it

Well, since then, I have seen Nigel Marven in a documentary about Piranahas, so I can assume that somehow he escaped.

Jammy devil.

[Nik]

Just thought i'd jump in here - the company i work for makes all the Walking withs. Walking with Monsters is in the final stages of post production at the mo, to be delivered in a few weeks. I haven't been involved with that production so i can't remember all the creatures they're doing but i'm headed over to the other office in a bit so i'll check out if they're doing any ceph related stuff. From the bits i've seen so far it looks pretty darn good...

Nik

[Phil]

Wow, thanks Nik! An insiders view....am really looking forward to this.

Here's a few pre-dinosaur episode suggestions for you you might like to pass on up the line:

Staring at Stromatolites
Filtering with Brachiopods
Grappling with Graptolites
Talking to Trilobites
Ambulating with Ammonites
Crawling through Crinoids

....er... that's quite enough of that.....

[spartacus]

could try "Sipping Primordial Soup" with Gordon Ramsey ?

Keef

[neuropteris]

Perhaps a cross over with one of these home makeover shows -

Decorating with Dactylioceras

Seriously though, I'm really looking forward to the new Walking with Monsters and the current "Truth about Killer Dinosaurs" showing on the BBC has been good aswell. More please.

Andy

[Phil]

HEADS UP! Anyone interested on the UK may like to know that Walking with Monsters is on BBC3 this Saturday 5th at 8:20pm. The full 90 minutes is being shown together.

Walking with Monsters
Sat 5 Nov, 8:20 pm - 9:50 pm 90mins

This is the extraordinary story of evolution as it has never been seen before. From the creation of our earth 4.4 billion years ago, we see life evolving in the oceans, meeting our bizarre earliest ancestors who battle against terrifying three metre long sea scorpions and giant carnivorous fish. We travel with our amphibian ancestors who finally struggle onto land facing monsters more deadly than ever before. We visit the eerie Carboniferous swamps - the insects and arthropods here have taken over and grown into giants, from the Mesothelae, a spider as big as a human head, to three-metre millipede-like monsters. As the swamps dry up, the world becomes dominated by the first ever giant reptiles - the huge, sail-backed Edaphosaurus and the vicious super-predator, Dimetrodon. Finally we observe the biggest extinction in Earth's history when a world full of giant sabre tooth reptiles and huge armoured herbivores was obliterated when global temperatures soared and vast deserts blanket the land. As the environment recovered populations of one tough reptile exploded until it alone dominated the planet, but its reign was short lived because dinosaurs were on the way.

[spartacus]

COOL ! see you there
Keef

[ob]

That's a shame, we're only getting BBC 1 and 2 around here

I take it it's a collage of previous programs?

Any chance of a DVD release?

[Phil]

That's a shame, we're only getting BBC 1 and 2 around here

I take it it's a collage of previous programs?

Any chance of a DVD release?

Ob,

It's a brand new programme, not a re-hash, and is 90 minutes long. I think it covers the earliest rise of life up to the Permian extinction. The intention of the whole series was to make a CGI story of earths prehistoric life in 3 parts, before, during, and after the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were covered in Walking with Dinosaurs, and rise of the mammals in Walking with Beasts. After five years or so part 1 has finally been done.

After the success of WwD, the BBC commisioned the same production company (Impossible Pictures) to make a few other bits and pieces, i.e The Ballad of Big Al, Walking with Cavemen and the Nigel Marven time-travelling zoologist episodes.

It's out on DVD (R2) on 21/11 in the UK, but will be released in the US by Warners in January or February. You should be able to pick up a copy quite easily; I've got mine on pre-order from Play.com.

Cheers!

[ob]

Ta! I'll pick up a copy at amazon, so I can watch it, accompanied by an appropriate beverage of sorts

[neuropteris]

Hooray! Better clear the diary, cancel the fireworks and settle down in front of the telly on Saturday night! I'm intrigued to know what a Mesothelae is - here's me, a particular fan of the Carboniferous, and I've never heard of it - a quick web search didn't turn up anything either other than it being a group of arachnids.......

Andy

[ob]

Mesothelae? Aren't we talking about Megarachne?

That's a considerable spider along those size lines, although the Reader Emeritus in Palaeontology of Manchester University Dr. Paul Seldon now has a different theory....

[Matt H]

Argh! so its released at last! I've been waiting for this for almost a year - i saw the book in WHSmiths aaggeees ago and have since spent a fair amount of time searching for the DVD but alas to no completion... Next step is get a TV i think... hmm... Cash Converters here we come....

Matt :o)

[Phil]

Hmm..Matt. A DVD is indeed a useless item without a television. I suppose one could always sew fifty of them to an old jacket and pretend it's the seventies again....

These programmes get better and better technically and I'm looking forward to it too even though the fiends at work have dumped me on a night shift Saturday. I don't think it'll feature any cephalopods, but at last we'll see a fully rendered Anomalocaris snacking on trilobites! All good fun. I wonder if Nik can contribute any tit-bits to the thread?

Nice to see you back Matt, please come back more often.

[Matt H]

Nah, sewing takes way to long but sticking them to the ceiling is always cool although it doesn't beat the glow in the dark jellyfish on my walls :oD

True, the technology is way cool and amazing but im not sure i'd want it to get too realistic - it'd be like star wars ep. 3 being so much more graphically advanced and with much better choreography than episode 4, the next in the series.

I'd post more if i had more to say - right now i'm going to be up all night making final touches to my overseas essay (the whole reason i was in seattle)