Critique: Dinotopia Night One (Channel 4) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Problems

 

Watching this mini-series in my youth, I never really noticed these issues. However, rewatching this as an adult has given me a new perspective.

 

Sometimes, how Dinotopians act don’t match their values. Sure, people are often contradictory, but these appear to be institutional issues.

When crossing the Rainy Basin, Marion told Karl they didn’t have weapons. Yet the hadrosaurs have staffs that clearly aren’t used for walking. So clearly they’re weapons. So, no weapons for fighting dangerous predators, but yes weapons for the city full of peaceful citizens? That isn’t at all feasible.

Crabbe asks Karl to get a book from the library for him. Crabbe himself isn’t allowed in the library because of something his ancestor did. Punishing someone for something someone else it is bizarre, especially for a people who are usually kind.

 

 

Sometimes, things just didn’t make sense.

They call the groups of t-rex a herd. However, herd is a word only ever used for herbivores, not carnivores (i.e. what t-rex are), so a ‘t-rex herd’ is peculiar. A pack is a common term for carnivore groups. Flock is another possibility, given how t-rex and birds share relations (the Dinotopians might not know this, of course). Maybe ‘pride’ could be used because lions are the ‘kings of the jungle’ and ‘rex’ in t-rex means king.

Karl introduces Zipeau to table tennis. Karl even has the right-sized ball. The balls must be used for something in the library because it doesn’t make sense for the library to have the balls otherwise. As we never see their purpose, this makes their presence suspect. Unless Karl had the ping-pong ball in his pockets since before the crash. But this seems more a cop-out that an explanation.

The signs reads, ‘School for Mammals’. Why not ‘Humans’? The show doesn’t show any non-human mammals, let alone any smart enough to go to school.  (Yes, there are simian calls in the rainforest in ‘Night Three’, but without visual there’s no confirmation.) So to use the group term for one specific species isn’t appropriate.

At the Stone with all the Codes of Dinotopia, a child reads one out. Marion tells him, “Very good” and the kids grins and nods his head at an angle. Seeing as the children know how to read and write (they write an essay, after all), he shouldn’t be so arrogant and proud to be able to read it aloud. Even if he couldn’t read, the Codes are how Dinotopians live their lives, so he’d know them anyway.

At school, their exam asks, ‘How are we to live?” Considering Dinoptians are expected to live by the Code, this seems more like a bullet point answer that shows their memory rather than an exam demonstrating they understand the Code. Karl’s answer is the first few lines of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Whilst this is funny (especially considering he won), those lines aren’t about how to live, so they aren’t relevant, meaning Karl shouldn’t have won.

 

There were two other issues.

Karl grabs David by his shirt and David says, “Let go of me. Let go of me.” This was delivered so awkwardly, especially in regards to timing, tone and volume. It was a stiff performance. David’s character is stiff (which matches his personality), but considering how David delivered this line, it makes me wonder if the stiffness is instead a problem with his acting skills.

The same mosasaur is shown as both 3D animation and a 3D model. Yet the model is shorter than the animation. Considering they’re the same animal, this is problematic.

 

 

Unanswered Questions

 

The buses of Dinotopia are brachiosaurs, their backs reached via perfectly vertical ladders.

For someone with a cane like Crabbe, this would be incredibly difficult. For someone with more serious disabilities, this ladder would be impossible; with how tall and vertical the ladders are, it’s not like people can be carried up it, either. This can be applied to the young and injured, too.

Dinotopia makes itself out to be a kind place but making life inaccessible for people definitely isn’t kindness. Mind you, they use cranes to lift brachiosaur armour onto the dinosaurs, and presumably do the same for goods, so maybe they might use it for people that need it, too?

 

Questions aren’t always relevant to the plot but they are to the worldbuilding.

Marion says the convoys carry meat to appease the carnivores. Considering Marion shows disgust at the idea of eating meat, it’s clear this appeasement meat doesn’t come from farm animals. So where does it come from? Dead dinosaurs? Dead people?

The brachiosaurs walk right into Waterfall City. Even other dinosaurs are small compared to the brachs, let alone humans. It seems very risky.

The Mayor of Waterfall City is also the Speaker of the Senate. Both jobs in their own right would be a big undertaking, so for Waldo to be both seems odd.

Dinotopians have fireworks and vinyl. How did they replicate these?

In the Senate, humans are lower down and dinosaurs stand on the second tier. This seems odd: why make the larger dinosaurs climb when their weight would damage the masonry? Although perhaps humans descend into a lower level.

Every Dinotopian has a saurian life partner yet Marion lacks one. However, David and Karl only get theirs after they graduate from the Earth Farm. Marion joins them for this, implying that she’s graduating at the same time they are. Then, because she’s not assigned a habitat, maybe she can’t be assigned an appropriate dinosaur?

 

Why did David and Karl get invitations to the Sunstone Parade? It looked open to everyone: having an invitation to an open event is odd.

Maybe it was so that David and Karl knew about it and were welcome to join (as newcomers, they wouldn’t know about Dinotopian festivals). But if this were the case, surely someone could have just told them about it?

Maybe they were invitations for their particular seats? There was a free space of the bench big enough for Karl when he showed up. If the seat was free for anyone, someone would have taken it considering how crowded the parade was, with so many people standing. So the fact no-one was sitting there could suggest people knew it was a reserved seat.

 

David is unconscious after Karl pulls him from the river.

Marion puts her hand on David’s shoulder which causes him to wake up. Yes, she shows she can calm dinosaurs and pteranodons.s etc, but I don’t see how this translates to healing. (Plus she doesn’t show any healing capabilities ever again.)

However, maybe she woke David up by controlling his heartbeat, and he could have calmed the reptiles in the same manner. Considering sunstones have magical properties, it’s not unfeasible for Marion to have this unusual ability.

 

Marion tells the messenger bird to fly down river until sunset.

Karl makes a campfire after dark and, when it’s light again, the messenger bird arrives. So the messenger bird didn’t follow instructions, as ‘until sunset’ would mean stop at sunset, not continue until to following sunrise.

Marion makes a whole deal about how reliable messenger birds are, so the audience’s first experience of messenger birds not following orders doesn’t seem like a sensible choice. Maybe it’s rebelling against being kidnapped but that’s me grasping for straws.