Dinosapien
What if dinosaurs evolved into intelligent beings?
Dinosapien is a 15-episode children's television program co-produced by BBC Worldwide and CCI Entertainment in association with BBC Kids, Discovery Kids and CBBC. Filmed in Bragg Creek, Alberta, the series debuted on March 24, 2007, on Discovery Kids and CBBC. Each episode runs 21 and a half minutes (30 minutes with commercials) and contains approximately six minutes of CGI.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Fantasy, Science fiction
- Composer
- Rob Lord
- Country
- United Kingdom; Canada
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 1
- Episodes
- 15
- Executive producers
- Rick Siggelkow
- Mark Young
- Arnie Zipursky
- Tom Cox
- Martha Ripp
- Simon Nelson
- Producer
- Jim Corston; Jordy Randall
Facts from the source article.
Premise
The series explores a scenario where dinosaurs continued to exist and evolved into more intelligent beings, as Lauren states in the opening credits. It takes place at Dinosaur Explorer Camp, a dinosaur-themed summer camp in Canada, where Dr. Hillary Slayton lives with her teenage daughter Lauren. Lauren's father Alan vanished on a fossil expedition into the Badlands, and she has not accepted his disappearance. Lauren becomes the first human to meet one of the evolved dinosaurs and gradually befriends it. Dr. Slayton forms a friendship with Dr. Aikens, who later plots to destroy the evolved dinosaurs out of fear they would eliminate humanity and reclaim Earth. Lauren makes friends while learning about dinosaurs and her father's disappearance.
Cast
Brittney Wilson portrays Lauren Slayton. Bronson Pelletier plays Kit Whitefeather, MacKenzie Porter plays Courtney, and Jeffrey Watson plays Chris Langhorn. Suzanna Hamilton appears as Dr. Hilary Slayton, and James Coombes as Dr. Clive Aikens. Alexandra Gingras plays Danny Ort, Brendan Meyer plays Nelson Ort, and Dean Manywounds plays Ten Bears. Eno is a 6-foot teenage theropod dinosaur, pale green with red and yellow stripes along his back, a grey underbelly, pheasant-like feathers on his head and tail, yellow hawk-like forward eyes, dromaeosaur-like feet, and a short snout. Lauren confirms Eno's kind evolved from Dromaeosaurus. Eno can mimic words almost in context but speaks with the grammar of a four-year-old child. He makes squawking bird-like sounds and is sensitive to high-pitched noises, which scare him away. He climbs trees for hiding or escape and appears omnivorous, eating hot dogs and leaves. The Diggers are two bipedal creatures resembling a cross between Prenocephale and Pinacosaurus with long grasping arms like a Dromaeosaur; Danny and Nelson call their species Ornithosapien in episode 12. They are insectivores, enemies of Eno, and chase everyone persistently. They can make and use tools but are temporarily disabled by bright lights due to nictitating eyelids. Lauren nicknames them Green Eyes (male) and Cerepta (female). The Diggers were apparently killed in the final episode when the Thunderbird cloud ignited Aikens' dynamite stash, though this is uncertain since Aikens survived. Cerepta being female and the leader may indicate female dominance in their species.
Broadcast
The series debuted on BBC Kids in Canada as a weekly Saturday show from March 24 to June 30, 2007. In the UK, it started on CBBC on May 10, 2007, with a double episode, then aired one episode each Thursday until its finale on August 9, 2007; it remained available there until October 14, 2010. In the US, it ran as a miniseries on Discovery Kids from July 7 to August 11, 2007, with a two-hour premiere of four episodes, followed by four hour-long blocks of two episodes, and a final 90-minute block of three episodes. Reruns aired on The Hub until March 24, 2012.
More in Canadian Children's Fantasy Television Series
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced