Based on Deborah Cadbury's book of the same name, the Dinosaur Hunters is a fairly comprehensive telling of the earliest dinosaur discoveries. Running at two one-hour episodes it covers the period of time from Anning's first Ichthyosaur in 1814, to the publishing of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, although both of these are effectively bookends with minimal elaboration. The meat of the narrative is of course the discovery of the first dinosaurs, with the first episode looking at the trials and tribulations encountered by William Buckland and Gideon Mantell, in their describing of the first two dinosaur taxa, Megalosaurus and Iguanodon respectively. This documentary dispels many of the myths so commonly seen in other works. For instance, rather than Buckland enthusiastically publishing Megalosaurus the instant he identified it as a reptile, he sits on this diagnosis for years, worried about offending his colleagues in the church, only becoming motivated to publish when he finds out that Mantell has his own collection of similar animals (there are parallels here to Darwin and Wallace). Mantell is the character the documentary focuses on the most, as we see his struggle for acceptance as a working-class surgeon, looked down on my much of the Geological society besides Charles Lyell (who is as much a hero here as he is in Darwin's own life story). In the second episode we meet the villain of the piece, Richard Owen, who despite humble beginnings, has a few lucky breaks and uses his influence to undermine Mantell and establish himself as the name giver to the word "dinosaur". Mantell himself suffers from illness and family tragedy, while Buckland's mental health suffers, partially due to his own discoveries undermining his faith in a simple Genesis-inspired creation. Meanwhile it is the Origin of Species that spells the end for Owen's dominance in the field.
The presentation style of this documentary is one of its weaker aspects. Rather than letting the story play out like a conventional docudrama, we instead have a narrator effectively reading from the book, with occasional conversations audible between characters. Sometimes this narration doesn't even fit the tone of the scene - the tone of the second episode is constantly negative towards Owen, even in those scenes where he meets his wife or when his first child is born (who he truly loved - Owen was arguably a much better family man than Mantell, for all his flaws). It would be remiss of me not to mention the CGI dinosaurs, which even for the time are quite graphically primitive, but do the job well enough. However, the greatest problem with this documentary is simply that it is not long enough! The story in the book could easily make for 6 solid episodes.
All this being said, I have to rate this programme 10 stars. It is the only one of its kind, and an admirable effort at that. If it were three times as long, with better special effects and a more narrative structure it would be perfect, but for now, I am glad it exists and recommend it as a background for all paleo-enthusiasts. And if you can get hold of the book, definitely read that too!
