The Last Dragon docudrama
| The Last Dragon Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real (U.S. title) |
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Title Screen
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| Genre | Fantasy, science fiction |
| Created by | Charlie Foley |
| Developed by | Charlie Foley David McNab Justin Hardy Kevin Tao Mohs |
| Directed by | Justin Hardy |
| Starring |
Paul Hilton Katrine Bach Aiden Woodward |
| Narrated by |
Ian Holm (English release) Patrick Stewart (U.S. release) |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
John Smithson David McNab Alice Keens-Soper |
| Producer(s) | Ceri Barnes |
| Running time | 99 mins |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Channel 4 Animal Planet |
| Original release | 2004 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Last Dragon, known as Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real in the United States, and also known as Dragon's World in other countries, is a British docufiction made by Darlow Smithson Productions for Channel Four and broadcast on both Channel Four and Animal Planet that is described as the story of "the natural history of the most extraordinary creature that never existed".
It posits a speculative evolution of dragons from the Cretaceous period up to the 15th century, and suppositions about what dragon life and behavior might have been like if they had existed and evolved. It uses the premise that the of dragons in world mythology suggests that dragons could have existed. They are depicted as a scientifically feasible species of reptile that could have evolved, somewhat similar to the depiction of dragons in the Dragonology series of books. The dragons featured in the show were designed by John Sibbick.
The program switches between two stories. The first uses CGI to show the dragons in their natural habitat throughout history. The second shows the story of a modern-day scientist at a museum, Dr. Tanner, who believes in dragons. When the frozen remains of an unknown creature are discovered in the Carpathian Mountains, Tanner, and two colleagues from the museum, undertake the task to examine the specimen to try to save his reputation. Once there, they discover that the creature is a dragon. Tanner and his colleagues set about working out how it lived and died.
The docufiction features two interwoven stories. Jack Tanner, an American paleontologist working for the Natural History Museum in London, suggests the theory that a carbonized Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton on display was killed by a dragon. This ruins Tanner's reputation. As viewed in a flashback, Tanner's theory is proven true, as said Tyrannosaurus battles a female dragon in the Cretaceous but is mortally wounded. The female dies from her wounds, forcing her infant to survive on his own, escaping a male dragon by learning how to fly for the first time. A later vignette shows the dragon, now an adult, trying to mate.
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Wikipedia