Premise
Envisioned as the first "Natural History of Dinosaurs" and a series that would provide viewers with "a window into a lost world", ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' explores life in theProduction
Background and concept
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was the brainchild ofPilot episode and funding
The BBC liked the concept of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' but were nervous whether a series of its scale was actually achievable. After also pitching the idea toPre-production and filming
Haines spent two years speaking with scientists and reading both primary and secondary palaeontological sources to create the stories for ''Walking with Dinosaurs''.Haines, T., 1999, ''"Walking with Dinosaurs": A Natural History'', BBC Books, "Introduction" Though the goal was to make the programme feel as if it was just relaying natural events without intervention, as actual nature documentaries, ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' required Haines to plot out narratives and create storyboards. Production of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' took 18 months. It was essential to the vision of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' that the age of the dinosaurs be represented as accurately as possible based on current scientific understanding. In addition to Haines's own research, the production team for the first six months devoted all their time to research and carefully chose particular moments during the Mesozoic that were most well-studied and well-understood by scientists and which would be representative of the era and showcase interesting animals. In addition to the producers doing their own research, over a hundred experts were consulted for every aspect of the series. Slowly, the production team focused in on animals about whom sufficient information was known to create larger narratives. As an example, ''Coelophysis'' was selected for ''New Blood'' (the first episode) because it was a typical early dinosaur which scientists knew a lot about. Since the series also aimed to showcase the environment and other animals around the "star" dinosaurs, ''Coelophysis'' also presented an opportunity since it had been found atSpecial effects
Computer graphics
Mike Milne and Framestore, consisting of fifteen designers, began working on animating the dinosaurs at the same time as Haines and James were shooting footage for the series. Production of several hours of high quality photoreal animation had never been done before, not even for feature films. The process of making the computer models began with creating clayAnimatronics
Though most of the animal shots in ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' are CGI, the series also made extensive use ofMusic
Episodes
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' (1999)
Specials (2000–2003)
Three special episodes of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' have been produced since the end of the original series. The first special was ''Reception
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was broadcast to record audiences and is sometimes considered the biggest science documentary series ever created. With 15 million viewers viewing the first episode on 4 October 1999 and another 3.91 million viewing it on its repeat the Sunday afterwards, ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is by far the most watched science programme in British television history. By late 2000, 200 million people worldwide had seen the ''Walking with Dinosaurs''. By 2005 the number had increased to almost 400 million and by 2009 it was around 700 million; unprecedented numbers for a palaeontology programme. In theReviews
Critical reception to ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was mixed; there were both wildly enthusiastic and dismissive and contemptuous reviews. Among others, ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was praised in ''Awards
In other media
Books
A companion book, ''Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History'', was written by Tim Haines to accompany the first screening of the series in 1999. The settings of some of the six episodes were changed between the time the book was written and the screening of the television series, and some of their names were changed: ''New Blood'' is set atExhibition
The success of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' resulted in the creation of both exhibits and traveling exhibitions. Only a few months after the series had aired, ''Walking with Dinosaurs: The Exhibition'' was put up in the summer of 2000 at theLive theatrical show
In 2007, ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was adapted as the live stage show ''Film adaptation
Released in 2013, ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a feature-length film about dinosaurs in theVideo games
''Dinosaur World'' is aWebsite
To accompany ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', the BBC launched a website filled with both palaeontological information, behind-the-scenes information on the series, games and puzzles, glossaries, and a section where visitors could ask questions and make comments. The creation of a companion website, which went online in September 1999, was considered innovative for the time. Before the release of the series, the website included a trailer, still a new concept for a website in 1999. The website was updated weekly as new episodes were released, eventually becoming a large resource with educational material.Legacy and influence
Scientific response
Scientists largely applauded ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', some going so far as heralding it as the "most credibly accurate depiction of dinosaur life ever produced." Despite some complaints of scientific inaccuracies, the series was seen, and continues to be remembered, as mostly a "force for good", showing both the possibility of producing documentaries of its scale and for portraying dinosaurs and other Mesozoic animals as animals and not movie monsters. Michael J. Benton, who worked as a consultant on the series, praised ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' as a progression in both reconstructions of prehistoric life and in the promotion of the public understanding of science; Benton in a 2001 article referred to the series as not just a documentary but also a "powerful piece of palaeobiological research", showing to the public what the "best minds in palaeobiology have been able to achieve." Numerous scientific journal articles have been written on ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' and the phenomenon it created.Scientific errors
Although the academic response to ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was largely positive, the series was criticised by some palaeontologists for its speculative storylines and the boldness of some of its claims, noting that some aspects presented as fact were very much speculative and possible to be challenged in the future. In the companion book of the series, Haines admitted that speculating about dinosaur behaviour in of itself is unscientific since the theories cannot be tested, but maintained that it "seems well worth trying to find out more about how he dinosaursmay have lived", using both science and reasoned speculation. A handful of decisions and sequences in the series came under particular palaeontological criticism. Several supposed errors identified in the first weeks after the series aired fizzled out after a while, as critics found points about which they disagreed with one another and were unable to definitively prove their views. Most of the errors or otherwise questionable decisions of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' were not the fault of the production team since they worked based on the advice of their consultants. ''New Blood'' shows a male ''Television and popular culture
''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was recognised by several commentators as marking a watershed in television imagery and a scientifically and technologically significant benchmark in television history. ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is often credited for inspiring modern interest in the distant geological past. Scientific papers have credited ''Jurassic Park'' and ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' as the two major productions inspiring increasing public interest in dinosaurs and other Mesozoic life in the 1990s and 2000s. The success of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' led to the inception of an entirely new genre of documentaries that like ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' also recreated past life with computer graphics and were envisioned in the style of nature documentaries.Sequel series
The success of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' led to the creation of an entire nature documentary media franchise on prehistoric life, commonly referred to as the '' Walking with...'' series. The first sequel series to ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' was ''Notes
References
External links
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