Frozen Planet...

Wertz

I'm a real sucker for Attenborough's stuff (who isn't) and the output just keeps getting better every time. I honestly didn't think they could best Life, but Frozen Planet manages it...the difficult filming conditions for the crews belies the awesome shots and there is a lot of use of high speed filming.
It ranges from the intesnsely funny (thieving penguins) to the downright tragic (killer whales gang up on minke whale or fur seal) to the wondrous (polar bear cubs go swimming).
I don't mind admitting some of it brings a tear to my eye...the music is used well in that rgeard.

As a catalogue of a wilderness that may itself be disappearing it's a treausre trove...the four seasons make it criminally short, but it's quality over quantity. On the odd chnace you're not watching it, do so...in HD if possible.

trixie_belle12

It's a truly fantastic viewing experience, unfortunately don't have HD but loving it just the same.

wijam

totally agree, not usually big into these shows, but have been glued to Frozen Planet the last few weeks

Giruilla

I've a question about the caterpillar in the spring episode:

How do they know the catepillar was alive for 14 years?
Was the caterpillar(s) shown in the show the same one each year? How could they keep track of the same one??

This show is unreal...

Noffles

Yep, been watching this and raving about it to colleagues, a BRILLIANT show and in HD it is mind blowing... can not fault it!

Wertz

Yeah I was half wondering about that myself... I'd have to assume that they know this from previous research and followed a number of different caterpillars. The filming was done across 2+ yrs AFAIK, so they'd follow the same one in and out of the freezing cycle and then find one that was going to go to chrysalis/moth stage.

Insects are weird...that moth reminded me of the 17 yr cicada, except for the being frozen solid bit. You have to wonder how they evolve to obey non seasonal, multi year time periods.

Oddly one of my favourite bits of these shows are the making-of bit at the end... the contrast between a bunch of humans in all manner of clothing and survival stuff freezing their nads off whilst the wildlife goes about it's daily grind shows how fragile we are...that plane doesn't come back or a storm comes in and buries your team, the penguins have a better chance than you.
The winter one next week (last in series ) will be good.

Giruilla

My guess was they do some sort of carbon dating equivalent post death test on them.. 14 years is incredible.

I hope the bbc continue to put money into shows like this!

shayno90

Those male emperor penguins are dedicated parents trying to survive and protect their egg in the extreme Antarctic winter.

There was a series like this in the mid ninties called 'Life in the Freezer' by Attenborough which was similar to 'Frozen Planet'.

Also the scene with the wolf and young bison had quite an impact on the harsh realities of surviving in the Artic winter.

Wertz

Yeah that bitch wolf and the young bison was epic stuff. Puts a lot of things in perspective watching that show. I don't usually root for predators in wildlife shows, least of all pack hunters, but I was on the wolve's side in that...still felt sorry for the bison though

Saw "life in the freezer" myself, emperors are old hat at this stage but the leaps and bounds in technology since then makes this one look so much better and the undersea stuff simply couldn't have been done as well back then. The high speed and time lapse, the satellite composites, the flying steadycam... stuff like how the hell did they get into the weasel's nest? The polar bear den (and those cubs!)?

Oh and joy, this wasn't the last in the series, another one about human's living on ice next week.