Prehistoric Planet - Season 1

Walking With Dinosaurs has a successor. Prehistoric Planet is a beautiful documentary about life millions of years ago. As a child, I was very impressed by Walking with Dinosaurs. This 1999 BBC documentary offers a fascinating portrait of life in the age of the dinosaurs. Even more than twenty years later, this documentary is strong, even if the visual effects and scientific information are a bit dated. In 2022, Apple TV+ presents the spiritual successor to this award-winning documentary: Prehistoric Planet.

In five episodes, David Attenborough (Planet Earth) tells about life on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period (66 million years ago). Reptiles of all shapes and sizes dominated the land, sea, and sky. Each episode shows a different biotope and its inhabitants. Salty coastal areas, arid deserts, and even snowy forests form the backdrop to Prehistoric Planet.

This setup makes the series more like documentaries like Planet Earth than Walking with Dinosaurs. The latter is also more of a general history of the three great eras that dinosaurs lived in (and they lasted more than 150 million years together). Prehistoric Planet shows as many images as possible of life at one specific moment in time. This would make the series ideal for any follow-up seasons that take place at other times in geological history.

Prehistoric Planet shows a great diversity of dinosaurs

Because only a small part of this history is highlighted, the creators also have room to show different life than the dinosaurs we already know. Almost everyone will have heard of a Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops or Velociraptor. They also get enough screen time. But have you ever wondered what a Tarbosaurus is? Or a Mononykus? Or a Deinocheirus? These animals now also get the chance to build a reputation. In addition, the creators not only show dinosaurs, but also other animals from that time, such as flying pterosaurs (strictly speaking not dinosaurs), giant turtles and prehistoric squids.

Scientific knowledge has improved over the past 23 years. For example, we now know that certain dinosaurs had feathers, and we have also learned a lot about the social behavior of this group of reptiles. Prehistoric Planet also takes these developments into account. Sure, a T-rex can be a ferocious predator. However, they do more than just roar and bite, and the creators of Prehistoric Planet show that well. Furthermore, there are several types of dinosaurs in the series that have only been discovered very recently. What I kind of missed was information about how scientists figured out how dinosaurs behaved. The conclusions they draw come from petrified traces millions of years old, and many things remain guesswork. It would have been nice if they had paid some attention to this.

The visual effects are really beautiful

We've also seen an incredible development of visual effects. Everything looks beautiful and lifelike. As if a camera team has traveled through time to film all this. In addition, the music, co-composed by Hans Zimmer, gives the series a sense of grandeur and spectacle. Furthermore, it is of course a pleasure to hear how David Attenborough narrates over these beautiful visuals. His enormous enthusiasm and love for this subject seep through in that iconic voice. The episodes typically consist of smaller stories that you often see in these types of documentaries. There is always a story in which an individual dinosaur is looking for food, trying to mate or defending its territory. The idea is familiar, but it remains entertaining.

The 'sequel' to Walking with Dinosaurs is breathtaking, looks beautiful, presents interesting new insights and, with the voice of David Attenborough, is like a warm bath. And now I really hope that Apple TV + will make more documentaries like this. After all, this was fantastic.