Prehistoric Park

ambox
type = content
text = This article or section describes {described_object|a work or element of fiction} in a primarily style.
Please [fullurl:FULLPAGENAME|action=edit rewrite this article] to .{category|}Infobox television
show_name = Prehistoric Park


caption =
size =
format = Science fiction/Docu-drama
runtime = 60 minutes
starring = Nigel Marven
channel = ITV
Animal Planet
country = United Kingdom
first_aired = 22 July 2006
last_aired = 26 August 2006
related ="Chased by Dinosaurs"
"Sea Monsters"
"Walking with Dinosaurs"
"Walking With Beasts"
"Walking With Monsters"
"Primeval"
imdb_id=0760139
tv_com_id=66259

"Prehistoric Park" is a 6-episode mini-series in documentary style, from Impossible Pictures Limited, (the creators 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"."

The soundtrack to the series, composed by Daniel Pemberton, was released on iTunes in August 2007 by 1812 Recordings.

Characters

*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 [http://www.nigelmarven.com/photo_gallery.asp?g=6&id=59]
*Bob (Rod Arthur) - the long-suffering head keeper at the park.
*Susanne (Suzanne 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.

Episodes

Locations within the park

Animals

* "Triceratops" (one male, named Theo)
* "Ornithomimus" (at least 13, males and females, plus 8 chicks)
* "Tyrannosaurus" (a brother and sister named Terence and Matilda)
* Woolly Mammoth (one female, named Martha)
* "Elasmotherium" (one male)
* "Microraptor" (four, males and at least one female)
* Titanosaur (nine, males and females)
* "Phorusrhacos" (nicknamed "terror bird") (one male)
* "Smilodon" (one male and one female, who later had two cubs)
* "Meganeura" (one, sex unknown)
* "Pulmonoscorpius" (one, sex unknown)
* "Arthropleura" (one, sex unknown)
* "Deinosuchus" (one female)
* "Troodon" (one, sex unknown) There are also several non-extinct animals in the park. These are:

* African Elephants (a herd of ten, females and one male calf)
* Cheetah (one, male)
* Nile Crocodile (over seven, males and females)

Nigel also has several pets at his base, including Blue-and-yellow Macaws, a Western hog-nosed snake, a Hermann's Tortoise and two Jackson's Chameleon.

Devices/vehicles used

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. 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:
* Gas mask
* Watercannon

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:
* Portable air-cylinder-powered bicycle horn. In episode 6, Nigel uses it to scare away some "Troodon". (He uses it when he is being threatened by "Velociraptor" in "The Giant Claw".)
* Carbon dioxide detector. (Carbon dioxide is lethal at high levels.)
* A light strapped to the head without a helmet.
* Microlight
* Netgun
* Tranquilliser gun
* Videocamera, fitted with movement detector and night vision device.
* Walkietalkie
* Aquarium truck, with bluish water in a tank.

Where the prehistoric scenes were filmed

*Episode 1: Montana, U.S.: the Andean national parks of Chile where there are plenty of Araucaria and Nothofagus trees.
*Episode 2: Siberia: the Yukon in Canada.
*Episode 3: China: Rotorua, New Zealand, in the Redwood, Ohakuri, and Tikitere forests.
*Episode 4: South America: dry grassland near Brasilia in Brazil.
*Episode 5: coal forest in Scotland: swamp forest in southern Florida, but some of the vegetation was CGI.
*Episode 6: Texas, U.S.: the freshwater lakes of Fraser Island, Australia.

Miscellaneous points

*Nigel's drawing of a terror bird is "Titanis",Fact|date=January 2008 a North American terror bird, though Nigel brings back a "Phorusrhacos", a South American terror bird.
*The "Ornithomimus" are shown to have sexual dimorphism (This is entirely speculative). 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.
*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 reference 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".
*Although this series is related to the Walking With series, all of the CGI dinosaurs are completely new models.

DVD

*The Region 1 DVD was released on June 5th, 2007 by BCI Eclipse, under license from Fremantle Media.
*The Region 2 DVD was released in Britain on 28 August 2006 by Fremantle Media. [http://www.itvsuperstore.com/cgi-bin/itv.filereader?44e6dd8500ba6aee2740c0a801a50710+EN/products/682302]
*The Region 4 DVD was released in Australia and surrounding islands on October 6 2006. Charles Wooley narrated the series when broadcast on Australia's Nine Network, and the Region 4 DVD has the original narration by David Jason.

External links

* [http://www.citv.co.uk/pp "Prehistoric Park"] at itv.com/citv (including episode guide and images)
* [http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/prehistoricpark/prehistoricpark.html Animal Planet - "Prehistoric Park"]
* [http://www.prehistoricpark.com "Impossible Pictures" minisite]
* [http://www.jplegacy.org/board/showthread.php?t=2690 A Prehistoric Park RPG at Jurassic Park Legacy]
* [http://www.nigelmarven.com/photo_gallery.asp?g=6 Nigel Marven's production photos]
*imdb title|id=0760139|title=Prehistoric Park