New Doco: Clash of the Continents

[Candlelight]

You're probably wondering why I'm posting this in SciFi/Fan when it's a doco about future techtonic activity, but trust me, it has a very sci fi feel to it.

It's about a human that returns to Earth after 250 million years in hibernation to find the Earth has become one huge super continent.

The two-part series will screen sometime in Sep/Oct on Nat Geo.

The reason I'm telling you all this is it's peppered with sci fi references. The producer is a big science fiction fan and he spent a great deal of time going through putting references, homages and easter eggs through the documentary.

When we had the advanced screening we played sci fi bingo to see how many people could spot (there are officially twenty, but more if you look harder).

And in no way am I pushing this cos my name is in the credits.

None at all.

 

[Checkmate]

Doco? Nat Geo? Are you speaking some alien language?

 

[Canadave]

^ Documentary and National Geographic. It's really not that hard to work out.

 

[Checkmate]

God forbid people spend the half second it takes to type it out. Especially when the abbreviation makes you sound like you're mentally challenged.

 

[Candlelight]

God forbid people spend the half second it takes to type it out. Especially when the abbreviation makes you sound like you're mentally challenged.

??

When you've worked in the industry as long as I have, you abbreviate.

 

[Candlelight]

Oh, forgot to mention, the FX are provided by Sir Peter Jackson's Weta Digital.

Sorry - the special effects...

 

[Canadave]

^ Glad you spelled that out. I would never have got it.

Curious, what's the main thrust of the documentary? I am interested in plate tectonics, so it sounds like it could be cool.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Strange, I figured out what "doco" and "Nat Geo" meant pretty quickly. But you could also just say "doc."

 

[Candlelight]

Curious, what's the main thrust of the documentary? I am interested in plate tectonics, so it sounds like it could be cool.

Essentially what I said in my initial post; a traveller returns to Earth after 250 million years in stasis to find the Earth has evolved and the land masses that make up the world as we know it are now one. He accesses "historical records" with interviews from leading scientists as to what they believe the world will be like, how it gets like that, etc.

It's a pretty cool documentary. I spent many long hours in the edit suite so I hope you enjoy it!

Oh and I've worn the space suit that was in it! It was a great production to work on.

 

[Allochthon]

Science is overwhelmed by science fiction in this series. Too bad. It is misleading, and wrong. There is no mention of geologic time. For example: Pangea took about 250 million years to form, and then it began to split apart immediately. The Siberian Traps took one million years to build up. the Atlantic Ocean is 135 million years old approx.

The new Pangea, Pangea Ultima, will almost certainly not be a vast desert with mountain ranges at the edges. As the new Pangea forms 250 million years from now, it will be by continents bumping together. Mountain ranges will cross the interior of the super continent not on the edges.

 

[B.J.]

I saw this a few days ago. The science and the imagery created were all pretty cool, although the overall tone was a bit pessimistic for me. Unfortunately, I didn't really see many of the easter eggs since my attention was divided between this and watching the kids. Any chance of putting up some sort of list or anything?

BTW, it was pretty funny when that volcano made that loud crash during one of the interviews pretty much right on cue!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought the "amended cosmic clock" that showed that complex life on Earth would last only from 4-5pm was interesting but I kept waiting for some explanation why it's inevitable humans and all other non-algae type animals will die out. Not just because of the whole one-big-continent thing?? Couldn't humans survive on the coastal areas at least? Couldn't cockroaches survive?