Walking with Cavemen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Walking with Cavemen
Genre Documentary
Suzanne Cave, Ruth
Dawes, Peter Elliott,
Starring
Caroline Noh, and Anthony
Taylor[1]
Robert Winston in Great
Narrated by Britain, Alec Baldwin in
North America
Theme music
Alan Parker[2]
composer
Country of origin UK
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
4 in UK[2]; 2 in North
No. of episodes
America
Production
Executive
Richard Dale[2]
producer(s)
Nick Green, Mark
Producer(s)
Hedgecoe, and Peter Oxley
Running time 100 min.[1]
Broadcast
Original channel BBC and Discovery Channel
First shown in April 1st, 2003
Chronology
Walking with Dinosaurs,
Walking with Monsters,
Related shows
Walking with (Prehistoric)
Beasts
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
Walking with Cavemen is a four-part television 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.

Contents
[hide]
 1 Overview
 2 UK Episodes
o 2.1 First Ancestors
o 2.2 Blood Brothers
o 2.3 Savage Family
o 2.4 The Survivors
 3 See also
 4 External links

 5 References

[edit] Overview
In the previous Walking with... documentaries, extinct animals were recreated with CGI and
animatronics. For Walking with Cavemen, a slightly different approach was taken. While most of
the animals depicted were still computer generated or animatronic, the human ancestors were
portrayed by actors 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, 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).

[edit] 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[2]

[edit] 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 legs). More specifically, the story follows the famous 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
 Ancylotherium
 Deinotherium
 weaver
 crocodile
 eagle
 white rhinoceros
 beetle
 dragonfly

[edit] 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 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 also briefly shows the H. rudolfensis, remarking that albeit they are taller, they are very
similar to the H. habilis.

 Paranthropus boisei
 Homo habilis
 Homo rudolfensis
 Ancylotherium
 Deinotherium
 Dinofelis
 lion
 crocodile
 gazelle
 antelope
 termite
 bee
 black rhinoceros
 snake
 eland
 vulture
 dung beetle

[edit] Savage Family

  2 million years B.C. - Africa and 1.5 millions 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 tribal societies, with genuine bonds between their men and women, though violence is
still occurring.

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 harnessing 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
 Homo erectus
 Gigantopithecus
 wildebeest
 giraffe
 crocodile
 vulture
 white rhinoceros
 elephant
 baboon
 swallow
 weaver
 tarantula

[edit] 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 the "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 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
 Homo neanderthalensis
 Homo sapiens
 Megaloceros
 Woolly Mammoth
 Cave Bear
 lion
 hyena
 wolf
 zebra
 African wild ass
 Coelodonta
 Arctic Hare