Clash of the Dinosaurs: Difference between revisions

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The series was followed by a special titled '''''The Last Day of the Dinosaurs'''''. This time, the producers told us their story of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|how these majestic creatures went extinct]]. This one had fewer problems.
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=== A list of tropes that appear in the series: ===
 
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* [[Anachronism Stew]]: Easily avoided, since not that many animals appear, and the ones that do were contemporaries in [[Real Life]].
** Actually, the program implies that ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]'' fed on juvenile [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|tyrannosaurs]], while there was a 30-million year gap between the two.
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* [[Crapsack World]]: The end of the Mesozoic.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: To paraphrase one talking head, using his hands to represent dinosaurs:
{{quote| (in high voice) "Hi, I'm a ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]''!"<br />
(in low voice) "Hi, I'm a ''[[Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Sauropods|Sauroposeidon]]''!"<br />
(squishing motion) }}
* [[Documentary of Lies]]: To quote Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., a talking head on the show:
{{quote| "For those going to watch the show, a warning: The documentarians often take anything that any of the talking heads speculated about, and transformed these into declarative statements of fact. In some cases this is particularly egregious, because I strongly disagree with some of these statements and believe the facts are against some of these (say, about tyrannosaurid [[wikipedia:Cranial kinesis|cranial kinesis]]…) and they present these as facts rather than suppositions."}}
* [[Eats Babies]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Quetzalcoatlus]]'' and ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]''.
* [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]]: Goes without saying.
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* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous {{spoiler|[[It Was His Sled|happens]]}}.
* [[Giant Flyer]]: ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Quetzalcoatlus]]''.
* [[Gorn]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]'' pack attacking the young ''[[Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Sauropods|Sauroposeidon]]''.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted, as the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Quetzalcoatlus]]'' preys on ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|T. rex]]'' babies.
** Same thing with the ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]'' pair and the young ''[[Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Sauropods|Sauroposeidon]]''.
* [[Mexican Standoff]]: This is what the [[Narrator]] calls the situation the ''Saurornithoides'' and ''Charonosaurus'' find themselves in. The former is trying to steal the latter's egg.
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: The narration suggests that ''Tyrannosaurus'' lived in Asia, when it was strictly North American. To be fair, some include the Asian ''Tarbosaurus'' in the genus, but most (both then & now) consider them distinct.
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* [[Ptero-Soarer]]: A scaly, UV-seeing ''[[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs|Quetzalcoatlus]]''.
* [[Quote Mine]]: Poor, poor Mathew Wedel.
* [[Raptor Attack]]: The ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]'' at least have feathers, but are shown killing a ''[[Prehistoric Life/Dinosaurs/Sauropods|Sauroposeidon]]'' with ridiculous ease.
* [[Rule of Cool]]: [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Hadrosaurs]] using a sonic weapon against [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|theropods]]? A pair of [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|small raptors]] attacking a sub-adult [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|sauropod]]? Do note, when the talking head<ref>The one who was quote-mined, at that!</ref> said "juvenile sauropod" and "pack of raptors", he meant tiny babies and a huge pack, but the animators instead used the largest animal that would still qualify as a "non-adult" specimen getting mauled by a pair of raptors.
* [[Seldom-Seen Species]]: ''Sauroposeidon'', ''Charonosaurus'' and ''Saurornithoides''.
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** Their [[Meaningful Name|duck-billed]] [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]] have fleshy lips.
** While the [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|raptors]] were nice and feathered, they still weren't quite feathered ''enough''.
** Recycling of animation models meant that the lean troodontid ''[[Prehistoric Life/- Dinosaurs/Birdlike Theropods|Saurornithoides]]'' looked the same as the relatively robust dromaeosaurid ''[[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs|Deinonychus]]''.
* [[Speculative Documentary]]: Maybe a bit too speculative.
* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: ''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Triceratops'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Parasaurolophus'', ''Deinonychus'' and ''Quetzalcoatlus''. Sadly, along with the sauropod ''Sauroposeidon'', [[Small Taxonomy Pools|those are the only creatures in the doc]].
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* [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]
* [[Viewers Are Goldfish]]: To quote the quote-mined paleontologist:
{{quote| "[The program] is incredibly repetitive, to the point that I found it hard to watch for any length of time without my attention wandering. Not just the CGI clips, but the narration as well. You’ll learn in 30 seconds why females tend to be choosier about mates than males (eggs are more expensive than sperm), and spend the next 15 minutes having that slowly beaten in your brain using as much empty verbiage as possible. Ditto every other fact on the show."}}
 
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