“Dinotopia” on TV

Parts 2 and 3 of an epic, $85 million (US) TV mini-series “Dinotopia” will be aired across North America on Monday and Tuesday evenings, 13-14 May. This six-hour dinosaur fantasy series will also be broadcast worldwide and then distributed on video, and thus merits a response on this international Web site where we often proclaim that dinosaurs are best explained within a Biblical framework, not an evolutionary one. [See “Jurassic” Dinosaurs? No Mystery!]

Although the opening episode on Sunday night began with heavy pro-evolution themes, this fantasy-something of a blend of “The Land that Time Forgot” and “Shangri-La’-is not expected to be filled with allusions to evolutionary themes as have some recent Hollywood productions (e.g. the “Jurassic Park” series). The plot: dinosaurs are alive today on a hidden continent and live alongside humans in an almost-Utopia (hence “Dinotopia”), where dinosaurs talk with people and are highly evolved in their intelligence. The mini-series is based on two books by writer and “National Geographic” illustrator James Gurney. (In Gurney’s books, he places the two main characters in a shipwreck setting of the 1800s-the TV series takes place in modern times and after a plane wreck.)

For the scientific and Biblical explanation for the appearance and disappearance of the dinosaurs (and whether they could still be alive today), read Ken Ham’s book The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved. There you’ll get the real story about dinosaurs.