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Septimus Prime · Jun 4, 2015

https://nerdist.com/national-geographics-t-rex-autopsy-is-a-roaring-return-the-science-special/

I had come to London to watch the taping of T. rex Autopsy, an upcoming science special from National Geographic, joined by a group of journalists as curious as I was to see a procedure we were told next to nothing about. The dissection was to take place at Pinewood studios, which you probably know better for the movies that have filmed there than by its name. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man had all recently wrapped up shooting at Pinewood. Walking up to the sound stage where a T. rex was waiting, I saw a sign for 007s next outing: Spectre.

Using a chainsaw is pretty extreme, remarked John Hutchinson, professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the University of Londons Royal Veterinary College. Hutchinson was the consulting scientist on T. rex Autopsy, the one in charge of making sure all the science was sound. He was watching in the observation room with us, as excited to see Edwina come apart as we were. For the last six months, Hutchinson had been coordinating and compiling the most up-to-date anatomical data we have on T. rex.

A lot of these scientists never speak to each other, Hutchinson told us. Scientists who specialize in T. rex skulls, for example, have expertise that stops at the neck. It was Hutchinsons job to bring these different experts together and direct the anatomically correct construction of Edwina, something that had never been done before.

Edwina looked real enough fool me standing next to her I could have sworn I saw her twitch and I worried that T. rex Autopsy would be filmed as another documentary showing off some secret creature held in a government lab that they dont want you to know about. The other journalists nodded at my questioning.

This is definitely not a mermaid showWe dont make fake documentaries, said Wooding, taking an obvious and frankly welcome swipe at the recent fabricated documentaries that were Animal Planets Mermaids and Discovery Channels Megalodon.

Instead, T. rex Autopsy is like a grand thought experiment made real imagining what a real T. rex would look like, then cutting it open to hopefully learn something interesting. We do this with drama, why cant we do it with science?

T. rex Autopsy is thought experiment that expertly toes the line between real and fake. The science is real, the dinosaur is not, but nothing is ever presented in a way that is intended to fool or deceive. It wants to help you wonder with some of the best practical modeling Ive ever seen.

T. rex Autopsy also covers the cold-blooded vs. warm-blooded, the scavenger vs. hunter debate, how T. rex walked, how they saw, and how they were feathered. Nothing goes too far into speculation. Its a nature documentary using a fake animal specimen, and its better than most.

There's a lot more at the link.

I just heard about this show today, but I am so, so, so looking forward to it. NatGeo is the last bastion of TV that still has quality documentary programming, and dinosaur documentaries are the best.

Cow Mengde · Jun 4, 2015

This has been hyped for a while. There's another dinosaur documentary coming out in the next few days about the Dueling Dinosaurs. They're trying to make the case for Nanotyrannus being a valid genus.

It's call Dino Death Match

trailer

Septimus Prime · Jun 4, 2015

Cow Mengde said:
This has been hyped for a while. There's another dinosaur documentary coming out in the next few days about the Dueling Dinosaurs. They're trying to make the case for Nanotyrannus being a valid genus.

It's call Dino Death Match

Oh man! I loved Jurassic Fight Club, so I'm all over this, too.

I actually like the documentaries about the creatures that lived before and shortly after (but mostly before) dinosaurs, since there's so little info on them.

Mike M · Jun 4, 2015

*Necropsy.

Toa TAK · Jun 4, 2015

Damn. Now I know what programming I got to set my DVR for soon. Nice swipe with the "Mermaid" comment.

Cow Mengde said:

Man, I long for the days they can just do what BBC did with the "Walking With" series and just film a real location and put the Dinos there. It's still pretty damn believable looking back at them now.

Cow Mengde · Jun 4, 2015

Toa TAK said:
Damn. Now I know what programming I got to set my DVR for soon. Nice swipe with the "Mermaid" comment.

Man, I long for the days they can just do what BBC did with the "Walking With" series and just film a real location and put the Dinos there. It's still pretty damn believable looking back at them now.

I think this looks fine.

There was Dinosaur Revolution from 2011 that used real backgrounds combined with CGI dinosaurs.

Toa TAK · Jun 4, 2015

Cow Mengde said:
I think this looks fine.

There was Dinosaur Revolution from 2011 that used real backgrounds combined with CGI dinosaurs.

Yeah it's not bad. I just have a preference I guess.

Septimus Prime · Jun 4, 2015

Toa TAK said:
Damn. Now I know what programming I got to set my DVR for soon. Nice swipe with the "Mermaid" comment.

Man, I long for the days they can just do what BBC did with the "Walking With" series and just film a real location and put the Dinos there. It's still pretty damn believable looking back at them now.

Have you checked out the other Walking series? I really liked the one that got brought to the US as "Before the Dinosaurs."

Toa TAK · Jun 4, 2015

Septimus Prime said:
Have you checked out the other Walking series? I really liked the one that got brought to the US as "Before the Dinosaurs."

Yeah, "Beasts", "Monsters" are what I consider as the "Walking With" series (and Dinosaurs, of course). They were pretty good. When Dinosaurs Roamed America was a fun event as well.

Kyleripman · Jun 4, 2015

Toa TAK said:
Man, I long for the days they can just do what BBC did with the "Walking With" series and just film a real location and put the Dinos there. It's still pretty damn believable looking back at them now.

What is generally considered the "best" of this type of film? I wouldn't mind checking them out but there are so many.

Cow Mengde · Jun 4, 2015

Toa TAK said:
Yeah it's not bad. I just have a preference I guess.

Fair enough. There is a certain charm to seeing live action and CGI interact.

Lamel · Jun 4, 2015

"Walking with" series has been the best so far imo.

Monsters, Dinosaurs, Beasts was all great.

Cavemen was also excellent, and very educational.

Kyleripman said:
What is generally considered the "best" of this type of film? I wouldn't mind checking them out but there are so many.

Watch the "walking with" series.

Start with Monsters (pre-dinosaurs) --> Dinosaurs --> beasts (pre-historic mammals and other animals) --> cavemen (from bipedal apes all the way to humans).

Each has like 3-6 episodes.

Pimpwerx · Jun 4, 2015

Mdgalodon should come out of nowhere and eat Edwina. Maybe via tornado taxi. Whatever. It makes no sense either way. PEACE.

Cow Mengde · Jun 4, 2015

Lamel said:
"Walking with" series has been the best so far imo.

Monsters, Dinosaurs, Beasts was all great.

Cavemen was also excellent, and very educational.

In terms of pure educational value, the new Planet Dinosaur is much better than the Walking With series. It's all facts with very little fluff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDAAbZonfOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1uuErJ8X5A

That's my current favorite dinosaur documentary.

Toa TAK · Jun 4, 2015

Kyleripman said:
What is generally considered the "best" of this type of film? I wouldn't mind checking them out but there are so many.

Recently, I'm not so sure, but do yourself a favor and check out all of the "Walking With" series. Dinosaurs, Beasts, and Cavemen are fantastic if a bit outdated. Also "Allosaurus" or "The Ballad of Big Al" (depending on where you are. Here in the US they called it Allosaurus").

Dinosaur Planet is cool as well if you're looking for stories on certain dinos.

Cow Mengde said:
Fair enough. There is a certain charm to seeing live action and CGI interact.

For documentary series like these, it helps sell that these were living creatures once. At least for me.

It's no biggie, but it's something I loved about the "Walking With" series.

Kyleripman · Jun 4, 2015

Lamel said:
Start with Monsters (pre-dinosaurs) --> Dinosaurs --> beasts (pre-historic mammals and other animals) --> cavemen (from bipedal apes all the way to humans).

Each has like 3-6 episodes.

Cow Mengde said:
In terms of pure educational value, the new Planet Dinosaur is much better than the Walking With series. It's all facts with very little fluff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDAAbZonfOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1uuErJ8X5A

That's my current favorite dinosaur documentary.

Toa TAK said:
Recently, I'm not so sure, but do yourself a favor and check out all of the "Walking With" series. Dinosaurs, Beasts, and Cavemen are fantastic if a bit outdated. Also "Allosaurus" or "The Ballad of Big Al" (depending on where you are. Here in the US they called it Allosaurus").

Dinosaur Planet is cool as well if you're looking for stories on certain dinos.

Cool, thanks. I have a feeling watching Jurassic World will put me in the mood for more dinosaurs.

I just youtube'd Walking with Dinosaurs and found some hilarious clips of the movie of the same name. Did they really do voiceovers in it?

tcrunch · Jun 4, 2015

Kyleripman said:
Cool, thanks. I have a feeling watching Jurassic World will put me in the mood for more dinosaurs.

I just youtube'd Walking with Dinosaurs and found some hilarious clips of the movie of the same name. Did they really do voiceovers in it?

Yeah don't confuse Walking with Dinosaurs (TV series) with Walking with Dinosaurs (movie).

Septimus Prime · Jun 4, 2015

The only issue with the Walking With series is that the information in it (as well as the CGI) is dated now. It was also produced in standard definition, so it looks even worse in upscaled HD (I don't think they ever released BD copies, so you're stuck with DVD).

Cyberius · Jun 4, 2015

I haven't kept up with TV dinosaur specials. All I want is an updated version of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5cXQj80PxM

My parents recorded this for me when it came on PBS and I wore that tape out.

Fuchsdh · Jun 4, 2015

Cyberius said:
I haven't kept up with TV dinosaur specials. All I want is an updated version of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5cXQj80PxM

My parents recorded this for me when it came on PBS and I wore that tape out.

That, too, was my favorite dinosaur special growing up. I recently transferred the VHS tapes I had and gave them to a guy on Youtube who posts dinosaur programming from the 80s and 90s, because apparently only half the episodes had managed to get online before that.

The animation is a bit jerky, but it's absolutely beautiful illustration and boggled my mind at the time that one person and a few assistants could actually create something on that scale.

The music is also top-notch. I wake up to the theme song when I wanna' get pumped.

Gravidee · Jun 5, 2015

Septimus Prime said:
The only issue with the Walking With series is that the information in it (as well as the CGI) is dated now. It was also produced in standard definition, so it looks even worse in upscaled HD (I don't think they ever released BD copies, so you're stuck with DVD).

The DVD seems almost unwatchable now because of the bad compression. Would be nice if they could do some sort of remaster someday, upping the CG models as well as the video quality.

Ithil · Jun 5, 2015

The Walking With series can only be watched with Kenneth Branagh narrating.

Leynos · Jun 5, 2015

Mike M said:
*Necropsy.

You would think that National Geographic would get that right, but it still is nothing more than trash TV, so my expectations are not offended.

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