On Jan 21, 12:44 pm, "Enzo Matrix" <enz> wrote:
> Dry Gulch Pete wrote:
>>
>> In the dialogue of the teaser, Cutter specifically referred to /Smilodon/ ..
>> Even if they make a complete and utter hash of it, it will still be better
> than "Torchwood".
>
> --
~
Torchwood has completely alienated me - two blokes kissing in the
street without so much as a Fear Flasher or a Horror Horn - it was
truly 'orrible! :-D

Enzo Matrix wrote:
> Dry Gulch Pete wrote:
>> Next week ought to be fun, though - well, it *ought* to be but they
>> will probably cock it up!
>
> Even if they make a complete and utter hash of it, it will still be
> better than "Torchwood".

They *didn't* make an utter hash of it. In fact it was most entertaining.

There were two obvious film homages. The first came in the scene where the
park director refused to close the park - an obvious reference to "Jaws", as
was the false panic caused by the manager in a lion suit. The second came
when Abby was fighting the /Smilodon/ in the little digger - a reference to
the scene in "Aliens" where Ripley fights the xenomorph queen in a
powerlifter.

There was a suspension of disbelief moment. What are the chances that
Cutter should decide to dig a pit trap in exactly the location where Valerie
had buried her boyfriend's body?

There was a moment of technical accuracy. The UFM-160 track inspection
vehicle actually exists!
http://www.railway-technology.com/co...strukton1.html

Why were they having a go at Connor? He proved himself to have been a
pretty good shot. Had his target *really* been the /Smilodon/ then Connor
would have been a hero. What on earth possessed the park director to do
what he did? He knows that there is a big cat on the loose which has killed
someone. He knows that there are armed people looking for the cat. So what
does he do? He dons a lion suit!

Oh... and is Lucy Brown pregnant? That long scarf thingy seemed to be
carefully placed.

Okay... as for the /Smilodon/ ... it was actually a reasonable
representation of the real animal - with certain reservations. It had a
short tail and was built like a large lynx, which is fairly accurate. It
could open its jaw wide enough to clear its incisors. All very good.

The bit that was definitely wrong was the size. It was at least twice as
big as /Smilodon/ would have been in life. As I have mentioned before, the
largest cats ever to have lived exist today - tigers. No extinct species of
cat has ever approached the size of a modern tiger. Very few have even been
the size of a modern lion. The largest species of /Smilodon/ , /Smilodon
populator/ was about the size of a large lioness, although it weighed about
the same as a modern tiger.

A bit that was probably wrong was the markings on the animal's pelt. Fossils
of /Smilodon/ have all been found in areas that would have been open
prairie, similar to the savannah where modern lions live. Therefore it is
very likely that /Smilodon/ had similar colouring to lions. The markings
shown on the animal on Primeval would be suitable for a cat living in
forested areas and spending a lot of their time in trees like a modern
leopard or jaguar.

A bit that was possibly wrong was the cat's vocal behaviour. It roared,
like a modern pantherine cat. There is no evidence that /Smilodon/ was able
to roar. Modern cats are divided into two main subfamilies, the pantherinae
and the felinae. The pantherines are what are popularly called "big cats" -
lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. The felines (in this case pronounced
"fell-een" rather than "feel-ine") are everything else, from pumas down to
the moggie fast asleep in front of your fire. Pantherine cats can roar.
Feline cats cannot. Even the largest felines - pumas - can only scream and
hiss. However, feline cats have a wider vocal range than pantherines. This
is because they have a hyoid ligament in their throats. In the pantherines,
this ligament has become ossified into a hyoid bone, severely reducing their
vocal range but allowing them to roar.

/Smilodon/ was neither pantherine nor feline. It came from an extinct
sub-family known as the Machairodontinae. /Smilodon/ is also the most well
known Machairodontid, with thousands of fossils having been found, many of
then being complete. Not a single one of these fossils has an intact hyoid
bone. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it seems highly
unlikely that one very specific bone would be missing from every /Smilodon/
fossil wherever they have been found, especially when no other Machairodont
fossil has ever been found with a hyoid bone. So, it is unlikely that
/Smilodon/ would have been able to roar like a lion as depicted in tonight's
episode. Nevertheless, every depiction of /Smilodon/ ever shown on telly
shows them roaring. After all, lions and tigers roar, right? And /Smilodon/
must have been far bigger than them, 'cos it's a prehistoric monster, right?
So it must have been able to roar, right?

Wrong.

Enzo Matrix wrote:
<snip>
> They *didn't* make an utter hash of it. In fact it was most entertaining.

Coo - that was probably the most informative and educational post I've
ever read on this newsgroup. Thanks Enzo! I look forward to hearing all
about mega evolved shark monsters next week ... ;-)

Neil Hopkins wrote:
> Enzo Matrix wrote:
> <snip>
>> They *didn't* make an utter hash of it. In fact it was most
>> entertaining.
>
> Coo - that was probably the most informative and educational post I've
> ever read on this newsgroup. Thanks Enzo!

*strutt*

> I look forward to hearing
> all about mega evolved shark monsters next week ... ;-)

LOL

Enzo Matrix wrote:
> Enzo Matrix wrote:
>> Dry Gulch Pete wrote:
>>> Next week ought to be fun, though - well, it *ought* to be but they
>>> will probably cock it up!
>> Even if they make a complete and utter hash of it, it will still be
>> better than "Torchwood".
>
> They *didn't* make an utter hash of it. In fact it was most entertaining.
>

<snip>

Very interesting, thanks :-) I wasn't paying too much attention to the
beginning of last week's episode but didn't they say the wormy creatures
were Precambrian?

Multi-cellular life certainly existed in the late Precambrian, but
terrestrial? When evidence of multicellular life has been found in the
Precambrian it's always been of an era when oxygen was free in the
atmosphere and all marine.

Enzo Matrix wrote:
>
> They *didn't* make an utter hash of it.

<snip explanation of how the Smilodon was the wrong size, the wrong colour
and made the wrong sound>

So what would you call an utter hash then? :-)

> Oh... and is Lucy Brown pregnant?

I think so. I noticed last week that her body seemed to be shouting things
at me that previously went unsaid.

On Jan 26, 10:31 pm, "Enzo Matrix" <enz> wrote:
[..]
> fossil wherever they have been found, especially when no other Machairodont
> fossil has ever been found with a hyoid bone.  So, it is unlikely that
> /Smilodon/ would have been able to roar like a lion as depicted in tonight's
> episode. Nevertheless, every depiction of /Smilodon/ ever shown on telly
> shows them roaring. After all, lions and tigers roar, right?  And /Smilodon/
> must have been far bigger than them, 'cos it's a prehistoric monster, right?
> So it must have been able to roar, right?
>
> Wrong.
>
~
So Ray Harryhausen's cat in 'Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger' was more
accurate! :-)

This Smilodon wasn't very bright - whey attack Abby's digger but not
Abby?

A LOL moment for me was the cat taking a couple of swipes at Cutter in
the pit - the cat's

expression was priceless.

Gillian Kearney seemed convincing and the railway station sequence was
very good - Marc

Bolan's '# You have the teeth of the Hydra upon you' was a nice touch
- I was reminded of Hound of

the Baskervilles and, oddly, Sapphire and Steel respectively.

Oh, also the Smilodon didn't look very bright but then perhaps they
didn't! :-D

Pretty good show!