Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy

Sea monsters is a 2003 documentary about the many prehistoric leviathans that once inhabited the Earth's oceans. It stars Nigel Marven who does a great job acting and enthusiastically describing each of the oceanic beasts. Overall, this is a great documentary that educates and entertains at the same time, deeply recommend.

This doc is atmospheric, interesting, and covers a lot of ground. The CGI is simple but effective. There is one very memorable scene with enormous reptiles (Liopleurodons) feeding on an 80-foot fish (Leedsichthys) in underwater near-darkness... epic for sure... and there are some other great moments.

The host, Nigel, does his job well. This 3-episode series takes the approach of transporting the narrator through time to actually swim alongside the creatures he's reporting on. The script of his exploits to this end is... okay. It's somewhat weak a lot of the time ... but the topic is engaging enough to balance it out.

Overall, a solid 7/10, maybe even higher. Worth a watch!

One year after Chased by Dinosaurs Mr Marven goes yet again in a time traveling adventure ,this guy should be pair up with the Doctor ,they would be a great team. To the main subject "Sea Monsters" is a three part series ,in which Nigel goes in to the most dangerous of prehistory in order to show what creatures ones called the ocean their kingdom and some of them are quit odd ,for a lack of a better word. It was a great experience to see this real life leviathans swim around and the way the crew tries to study them was not amazing ,but nevertheless a interesting subject ,which will have you hocked( no pun intended).

The reason why I did not score higher is the ending ,which is a cliff hanger and in all honesty, it did not need to be that way ,although if they continue the series and show me what happened it would be better from my point of view. Not that it is diminish the quality of that series , as its on I have seen it about four times ,like with all the Walking with program and still I am going to recommended it for those ,who want to watch a quality documentary, which unfortunately are a thing of a past I fear. Happy bench watch to everyone.

"What Nigel is about to discover, is that no matter how bad things get on land, the one thing you should never ever do ... is get in the water." Sayeth the female narrator at the series opening.

I must be a kid at heart, because my love of dinosaurs has never abated. At one time I considered being a paleontologist, but shows like this satisfy my inner scientist. Truly, my only complaint about this three episode miniseries is that there weren't more episodes. I could watch this kind of a series for hours.

It's of course not a real documentary, nor is it a comedic "mockumentary", but a fictional documentary about famed naturalist Nigel Marvin travelling back in time in his ketch with a band of researchers and cameras crews to capture footage of creatures of past epochs, and what a terrific ride it is.

I love guys who do science and make visual media to educate us scientist "wannabes". Sagan, Burke, Cousteau, Perkins and others ... you can add Nigel Marvin to that list. Shows like this really only increase my appetite to learn more about creatures, animals, birds and reptiles that are long extinct, and what natural forces effected them.

A little anecdote, as a young man, knowing where CGI was headed, it had been my dream to make this kind of a series, and discuss dinosaurs in their natural habitat as if I and my camera crew were actually back in time. Well, it's been done to death at this point, and I'm glad people with more expertise has accomplished this, but even though there've been numerous such "fake" documentaries that explore and discuss dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals like Sagan did with science back in the late 1970s, I find these kinds of shows just compelling as anything. They really draw you into the reality of what life was like millions of years ago, and the reality of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

Again, the only down-shot to this series is that it's a three episode miniseries of the larger Walking with Dinosaurs series, because there's so much more to discuss and show the public about Earth's oceans and other aquatic habitats that existed millions of years ago.

Wouldn't it be something to actually have an adventure like Nigel Marvin's? Well, hopefully this series can satisfy some of those fantasies, and perhaps inspire minds of all ages to crack a book, or maybe even change careers and go into marine paleontology.

Truly a great series to watch. Check it out.

Enjoy!

The most notable difference between the Chased By... series and its Walking With... predecessor is the addition of a live narrator and guide, zoologist Nigel Marven. This show would have scored a lot higher without this addition. Treating it like there was actually a guy interacting with the ancient creatures as in a regular nature documentary was off putting. Nigel Marven does a good job at mimicking these interactions but suspension of disbelief is something which should not be needed to enjoy a factual educational series. This spin off series is known in the US as the 'Chased By' series and in seeking to make the show more engaging it has caused the series to jump the megalodon by trying to inject cheap Crocodile- Hunter style action and theme-park thrills, rather than maintaining the scholarly objectivity of Walking With Dinosaurs' invisible narrator.

Some people will enjoy this series a lot and it could inspire some children to get into the field but I worry that the gimmick makes it harder to retain any of the information.