Prehistoric Park

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Prehistoric Park
Image:Prehistoric Park dvd box.jpg
Format Science fiction/Docu-drama
Starring Nigel Marven
Country of origin United Kingdom
Production
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Animal Planet
Original run 22 July 2006 – 26 August 2006
Chronology
Related shows Chased by Dinosaurs
Sea Monsters
Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking With Beasts
Walking With Monsters
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Prehistoric Park is a six part television series in documentary style, from Impossible Pictures Limited, (the makers of Walking with Dinosaurs) which premiered on ITV on 22 July 2006 and on Animal Planet on 29 October 2006. Each episode is an hour long including commercial breaks.

The programme is narrated by David Jason and presented by Nigel Marven. The fictional component is the theme that Nigel goes back to various geological time periods through a time portal, and brings back live specimens of extinct animals back to the present day, where they are exhibited in a wildlife park named Prehistoric Park, which is a big area between high steep mountains and ocean (which serve to help confine any escapes) with varied environments.

On the DVD of the series, the introduction says that "the events in these 6 episodes are largely to find the possibility of keeping animals from old geological periods alive in the modern world and later they may get breeding populations of more species".

In 2007, the show was followed by a similar title, Primeval, which involved the same premise (time-travelling to different geological eras), although it was much darker and had more inaccuracies than Prehistoric Park.


Contents

[edit] Characters

Image:Publication1.png
Nigel, Bob, and Susanne
  • Nigel Marven (as himself) - responsible for travelling back in time to collect the animals. Played usually by himself, sometimes by Physical Effects Supervisor Jamie Campbell: see [1]
  • Bob (Rod Arthur) - the long-suffering head keeper at the park.
  • Susanne (Suzanna McNabb) - the head vet.
  • Saba Douglas-Hamilton (as herself) - a big cat specialist, whom Nigel invites back to catch Smilodon in episode 4.
  • Bill - a crew member who travels back with Nigel. Introduced in episode 5.
  • Jim - an associate of Nigel who travels with him through time. Also introduced in episode 5.
  • Ben - One of Nigel's crew. Four Mei long attacked him for meat in his backpack. Introduced in episode 3.

There are various other staff members, but none of their names have been given. One of the more prominent is Susanne's blonde assistant, who appears in episode 2, whilst giving Martha (the mammoth) some hay.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of episodes in Prehistoric Park

[edit] Locations within the park

Main article: List of locations in Prehistoric Park

[edit] Animals

[edit] Animals needing treatment

Ep. Animal Symptom Diagnosis Cause Treatment
1 male Triceratops (Theo) kept charging a tree aggressiveness rutting made an artificial opponent
2 female mammoth (Martha) injury, later collapsed infected spear wound Palaeolithic hunters before capture (they killed her companion) antibiotic. (Vet went through time portal?)
2 not eating injury shock, bereavement introduced to a herd of African elephants
3 overheating park area summer weather after Siberian winter fur clipped
6 lonely again being separated from the herd elephant herd's leader does not make her feel welcome She solved her own problems: by protecting a baby elephant from Matilda the Tyrannosaurus she was again welcome to join the herd
3 female Ornithomimus isolating herself ultrasound showed eggs inside broody, looking for safely hidden nest site allowed to nest; she laid and sat eggs
3 Microraptor left arm injury simple fracture of left ulna near brush with Titanosaurus stampede after capture splinted
4 male Smilodon underweight and low condition chronic shortage of prey before capture big game dying out food and rest
4 female Smilodon severe underweight and starvation trying to lactate to feed cubs during chronic shortage of prey before capture big game dying out food and rest
5 male Tyrannosaurus (Terence) bite wounds on face and resulting septicaemia fight with Matilda dart tranquilizer on Matilda took time to work operation and antibiotics
5 Titanosaurs kept walking around looking uneasy would not eat when given food undigested food in stomach, needed gastroliths fed stones to grind the food in stomach
6 2 Smilodon cubs mother did not have enough milk for them their mother's milk dried up Unknown. Presumably due to age and long-term malnutrition of mother before capture Susanne bottle-fed them

[edit] Devices/vehicles used

Image:TIME PORTAL.JPG
The Time Portal and the secret behind Prehistoric Park

The time portal is generated by two metal poles about 3 feet tall. The tops of the poles need to be turned to switch the gate on. When activated, a blue light near the tops of the poles flashes, and the gate field develops between them. It is probable that when switched on, the poles exist in both time periods (the past and the present day) at once. They also appear to cut across distance as well as across time given they travel to China and Scotland without taking the present-day end of the Portal beyond the park boundary, implying that the time portal is a kind of wormhole. The park end of the Time Portal is always at the same place, and leads into a long strong high-walled stockade passage. In close-ups, a faint image of either the park or the time period can be seen.

A list of the (non-vehicular) technology seen in the series:

A list of all vehicles seen in the series:

  • Snowmobile (used in Mammoth Undertaking)
  • Covered truck/Land Rover (used in The Bug House)
  • RIB with an A-frame and a steering wheel (used in The Bug House)
  • Inflatable raft (used in Supercroc)
  • Tractor/mock Triceratops (used in T-Rex Returns)
  • Special containment vehicles for transporting the creatures that are fitted to the back of a jeep.

These items were taken through the time portal:

[edit] Where the prehistoric scenes were filmed

[edit] Miscellaneous points

  • Nigel's drawing of a terror bird is Titanis,[citation needed] a North American terror bird, though Nigel brings back a Phorusrhacos, a South American terror bird.
  • The Ornithomimus appear to show sexual dimorphism. The females are all grey and the males have bright blue heads and necks.
  • The Elasmotherium is captured in the second episode, but not mentioned again until the sixth, though not by name. Similarly, after the episode in which four Microraptor are caught, only one is shown again.
  • The snowmobile is never shown passing through the Time Portal.
  • In Nigel's headquarters, an aviary can briefly be seen below a balcony.
  • In Episode 5 CGI was used to create much of the vegetation (consisting of a species of lycopsid tree). Ground shots were made in a modern swamp forest in southern Florida: as a result, the bases of the tree trunks are not the usual Carboniferous lycopsid tree shape with the trunk splitting into 4 equal big roots (Stigmaria).
  • The DVD of the series contains some storyboard sequences. One shows a discarded early version of the confrontation between Martha and Matilda. In it: Matilda is smaller than in the movie. Matilda jumps on Martha's head, making it into a fight. Nigel throws a big stone at Matilda.
  • In the Animal Planet version of the series, many of the scenes present in the ITV original were cut, including Bob bringing an insufficiently sized bird cage, and Nigel's first encounter with the Parasaurolophus.
  • Episode 6 is the only one in which Nigel does not travel to the past twice, as Nigel does return to the past in Episode 5 but only to tie the rope to the Land Rover which was then pulled into the park by a titanosaur.
  • Episode 5 was the only one in which Nigel had no specific target species to catch.
  • Episodes 1 and 5 are the only episodes in which Nigel brings three species back to the park.
  • The actual species of the titanosaurs in the series is never stated. Titanosaur remains are known from the Yixian Formation which contains all the fauna in the episode, but they have never been given a scientific name or assigned to a genus.
  • When Nigel captures the Pulmonoscorpius in episode 5, he mentions how the scorpions are built more to suit the sea than the land. This is a refernce to the fact that scorpions are thought to have had an aquatic origin. One prehistoric marine scorpion, Brontoscorpio, was featured in a similar television documentary series, the BBC's Walking With Monsters.

[edit] DVD

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Impossible Pictures Productions
Walking with Dinosaurs • The Ballad of Big Al • Walking with Beasts • The Lost World • Chased by Dinosaurs • Sea Monsters •
The Legend of the Tamworth Two • Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets • T. rex - 100 Years in Pictures • The Story of One • Walking with Monsters •
Pickles: The Dog who Won the World Cup • Perfect Disaster • Ocean Odyssey • Prehistoric Park • Primeval
v • d • e
Walking with...
TV seriesWalking with Dinosaurs · Walking with Beasts · Walking with MonstersImage:Wws.jpg
TV specialsThe Ballad Of Big Al · Chased by Dinosaurs · Sea Monsters
Spin-offsPrehistoric Planet · Walking with Cavemen · Prehistoric Park
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