Walking with Cavemen
1193265
225212789
2008-07-12T14:18:07Z
83.26.233.9
/* First Ancestors */
{{Infobox Television
| show_name = Walking with Cavemen
| genre = Documentary
| runtime = 100 min.<ref name="Amazon.com">Amazon.com product description [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008AOWQ]</ref>
| developer =
| series producer = [[Peter Georgi]]
| producer = [[Nick Green]], [[Mark Hedgecoe]], and [[Peter Oxley]]
| executive_producer = [[Richard Dale]]<ref name="bbcpress">BBC - Press Office - Walking With Cavemen [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/03_march/12/walking_cavemen.shtml]</ref>
| starring = Suzanne Cave, Ruth Dawes, Peter Elliott, Caroline Noh, and Anthony Taylor<ref name="Amazon.com">Amazon.com product description [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008AOWQ]</ref>
| narrated = [[Robert Winston]] in Great Britain, [[Alec Baldwin]] in North America
| theme_music_composer = [[Alan Parker (composor)|Alan Parker]]<ref name="bbcpress">BBC - Press Office - Walking With Cavemen [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/03_march/12/walking_cavemen.shtml]</ref>
| country = UK
| location =
| language = English
| network = BBC and Discovery Channel
| first_run = April 1st, 2003
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 4 in UK<ref name="bbcpress">BBC - Press Office - Walking With Cavemen [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/03_march/12/walking_cavemen.shtml]</ref>; 2 in North America
| related = [[Walking with Dinosaurs]], [[Walking with Monsters]], [[Walking with Beasts|Walking with (Prehistoric) Beasts]]
| website = http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/tv_radio/wwcavemen/
| imdb_id = 0370053
| tv_com_id =
}}
'''Walking with Cavemen''' is a four-part [[television]] [[Documentary film|documentary]] series about [[human evolution]] produced by the [[BBC]] in the [[United Kingdom]]. It was originally released in April 2003. It was subsequently presented in the [[United States]] as a two-part series by the [[Discovery Channel]] and its affiliates. The documentary was produced largely by the same team who produced the award-winning documentary series ''[[Walking with Dinosaurs]]'' (1999) and ''[[Walking with Beasts]]'' (2001), though the original series' director, [[Tim Haines]] was not involved.
==Overview==
In the previous ''Walking with...'' documentaries, extinct animals were recreated with [[computer-generated image|CGI]] and [[animatronics]]. For ''Walking with Cavemen'', a slightly different approach was taken. While most of the [[animal]]s depicted were still computer generated or animatronic, the human ancestors were portrayed by [[actor]]s wearing [[makeup]] and [[prosthetics]], giving them a more realistic look and permitting the actors to give the creatures a human quality.
Like its predecessors, ''Walking with Cavemen'' is made in the style of a wildlife documentary, featuring a voice-over narrator ([[Robert Winston]] in the British release, [[Alec Baldwin]] in the North American release) who describes the recreations of the prehistoric past as if they were real. As with the predecessors, this approach necessitated the presentation of speculation as if it were fact, and some of the statements made about the behaviour of the creatures are more open to question than the documentary may indicate.
Each species segment takes the form of a short [[drama]] featuring a group of the particular [[hominid]] in question going about their daily lives (the search for [[food]], protecting [[territory (animal)|territory]], and caring for the sick and injured). The intent is to get the human viewer to feel for the creatures being examined, almost to imagine being one of them (a trait that the documentary links to the modern human brain).
==UK Episodes==
The UK transmission and DVD contained four episodes. The North American release merged the first two and last two episodes into two single, separate episodes<ref name="bbcpress">BBC - Press Office - Walking With Cavemen [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/03_march/12/walking_cavemen.shtml]</ref>
===First Ancestors===
*3.2 million years B.C. - [[Tanzania]]
In the first episode, we see ''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]'', and focus on their evolved bipedality (walking on just rear feet - our [[leg]]s). More specifically, the story follows the famous [[Lucy (Australopithecus)|Lucy]] and her relatives, as they first develop a leadership conflict following the death of the [[alpha male]] due to a [[crocodile]] attack, and then are attacked by a rival troupe. The attack ends with death of Lucy herself, and her eldest daughter caring for Lucy's now-orphaned baby (her sibling), as a sign of the developing humanity in these "apemen".
*''[[Australopithecus afarensis]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Ancylotherium]]''
*''[[Deinotherium]]''
*[[weaver]] (live-acted)
*[[crocodile]] (puppet)
*[[eagle]] (live-acted)
*[[beetle]] (CGI and puppet)
*[[dragonfly]] (live-acted)
===Blood Brothers===
*3 million years B.C. - East Africa
The second episode leaps forward to a time when ''[[Paranthropus boisei]]'', ''[[Homo habilis]]'' and ''[[Homo rudolfensis]]'' co-exist. ''H. habilis'' is depicted as an intelligent [[omnivore]] that is more adaptable than the herbivorous ''P. boisei''. The two species are contrasted, with ''H. habilis'' being "a jack of all trades", while ''P. boisei'' are "a master of one" - i.e. they are specialized herbivores while ''H. habilis'' are generalized omnivores. Consequently, though ''P. boisei'' are able to eat termites, tall grasses and hard [[acacia]] pods in difficult times, they will not be able to survive in the future, when at the beginning of the next Ice Age the climate the climate will change, and these plants will be gone for good. ''H. habilis'', on the contrary, have become smart by eating carrion and bone marrow among other things, and evolving a basic social behavior, which is more firm than that of ''P. boisei'', will continue to survive, until it evolves into ''[[Homo ergaster]]'', seen in the next episode, who has developed these traits to a greater extent.
The episode alsobriefly shows the ''H. rudolfensis'', remarking that albeit they are taller, they are very similar to the ''H. habilis.''
*''[[Paranthropus boisei]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Homo habilis]]'' (live acted-by actors)
*''[[Homo rudolfensis]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Ancylotherium]]'' (stock footage from ''Walking with Beasts'')
*''[[Deinotherium]]'' (stock footage from ''Walking with Beasts'')
*''[[Dinofelis]]'' (stock footage from ''Walking with Beasts'')
*[[lion]] (live-acted and puppet)
*[[gazelle]] (live-acted)
*[[termite]] (live-acted)
*[[bee]] (live-acted)
*[[snake]] (live-acted)
*[[eland]] (live-acted)
*[[vulture]] (live-acted)
*[[dung beetle]] (live-acted)
===Savage Family===
*2 million years B.C. - [[Africa]] and 1.5 millons years B.C. - [[Asia]]
In the third episode, ''[[Homo ergaster]]'' is depicted as the first creature to master the art of [[tracking]]. This was made possible because their diet has grown increasingly more carnivorous, and the nutrients in meat made them even smarter than ''H. habilis'' of the previous episode. They also begin to form into [[tribe|tribal societies]], with genuine bonds between their men and women, though violence is still occuring.
The episode later shows ''H. ergaster''spreading into [[Asia]], becoming ''[[Homo erectus]]'' and encountering the enormous herbivorous ape ''[[Gigantopithecus]]'', "the original King Kong".
However, for the next million years, ''H. ergaster'' is still very much an animal, following its [[instinct]], but then, they are shown developing or inventing [[fire]] and beginning to break-away from their direct dependence on their environment. (This ties neatly into the next and final episode, which is centered on human mind and imagination.)
*''[[Homo ergaster]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Homo erectus]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Gigantopithecus]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*[[wildebeest]] (live-acted)
*[[giraffe]] (live-acted)
*[[vulture]] (live-acted)
*[[elephant]] (live-acted)
*[[baboon]] (live-acted)
*[[swallow]] (live-acted)
*[[weaver]] (live-acted)
*[[tarantula]] (live-acted)
===The Survivors===
*500 thousand, 200 thousand and 150 thousand years B.C. - [[Europe]]
The fourth episode talks about the mental evolution of the humanity, as opposed to the physical in previous ones. First we leap forward to a time when ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' is living in [[Great Britain]]. '' H. Heidelbergensis'' is depicted as intelligent and sensitive but lacking in the ability to comprehend an [[afterlife]], or anything that isn't in there "here and now".
Next, the episode shows a life of a clan ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'', how they lived and hunted, including the mighty [[mammoth]] during the latest [[Ice age]]. They are intelligent but still lack the [[imagination]] of modern humans.
Finally, we see modern ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' (represented by [[Bushmen]]) in Africa, who had to become imaginative and inventive to survive the long drought, and finally glimpse the [[cave painting|cave painters]] of Europe, who had "evolved" the idea of the afterlife and the supernatural, and who are now ready to start the human history as it is now known (and drive-out the Neanderthals to extinction).
*''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Homo neanderthalensis]] (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Homo sapiens]]'' (live-acted by actors)
*''[[Megaloceros]]''
*[[Woolly Mammoth]]
*[[Arctic Hare]] (live-acted)
==See also==
* [[Prehistoric Park]]
* [[Walking with Dinosaurs]]
* [[Walking with Beasts]]
* [[Walking with Monsters]]
* [[Chased by Dinosaurs]]
* [[Sea Monsters]]
==External links==
*{{imdb title|id=0370053|title=Walking with Cavemen}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Walking with series}}
[[Category:BBC television documentaries]]
[[Category:Prehistoric life in popular culture and entertainment]]
[[Category:Prehistoric people in popluar culture]]
[[Category:Cavemen]]
[[Category:Discovery Channel shows]]
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[[ru:Прогулки с пещерным человеком (телесериал)]]