The millions of species that we share the planet with today represent just one percent of all those that have ever existed. These survivors are the final links in an unbroken chain of existence that stretches right back to the first life that appeared billions of years ago. Along the course of this journey there have risen and fallen great lineages. Each has had its time at the top, only to be brought down for any number of reasons.
This is the story of Life on Our Planet. This episode sets out the rules by which this game of life is played: from the role of the planet as a constantly changing stage on which the dramas of life play out, to the subtle yet massively powerful force that is evolution that ensures only the best adapted make it through, to the battles for survival that rage both between and within species. Yet perhaps the biggest surprise is the role of luck in this whole spectacle – the bad luck of a mighty lineage destroyed by a random event that changes everything, and the good luck of those that come to take over the empty throne.
Key moments
Smilodon and Terrorbird. The iconic Smilodon is brought to life through photorealistic VFX and filmed to look exactly like natural history, setting the stage for the “familiar, yet unfamiliar” experience viewers will come to expect throughout Life on Our Planet. As Smilodon stalks the Terrorbird, we see the story of life in miniature: two highly evolved creatures, competing to “win” at the game of life. For the last four billion years, that’s been the story for life on our planet.
The Tree of Life. The series’ title sequence celebrates the “grand narrative” of life. As the tree grows, creatures reveal themselves in the order in which they appear in the story of life: fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, and more. At times, disaster befalls the tree – branches explode into flame and then freeze over. This represents the mass extinction events, when whole limbs of the tree of life are torn off and cease to be. But the tree never dies. As we will come to know, life always finds a way.
The Beginning of Life. Somehow in the chemical soup of the primordial world, a single cell was formed. This cell is so ancient and tiny that it left no fossil record, so no one knows quite what it looked like. Life on Our Planet presents this cell similarly to some bacteria. Known as LUCA, this is the Last Universal Common Ancestor – from which every single plant animal that has ever existed evolved.
Depicting Evolution with Caterpillars. To illustrate how evolution works, the research team looked to Ecuador, where scientists have been able to record the intricate evolutionary arms race between Heliconid butterflies and the passion vines they feed on. In an unending cycle, plants, caterpillars and butterflies evolve adaptations for survival to give them an edge. Adaptations like these are responsible for the diversity of species we see today.
T-Rex Hunt. Painstaking research went into constructing this sequence so that it showed off T-Rex’s strengths in a world where its prey – like the Triceratops – was frequently armoured to the hilt. Fossil trackways of T-Rex suggest that this kind of ambush strategy did happen. Slow and heavy, T-Rex could barely amble, let alone run. Her faster youngsters, however, would be able to easily catch Triceratops. The sequence was filmed on military land in the UK to allow the crew to drive at the high speed the chase required. However, it meant that ILM then had to transform what amounted to a parking lot into a beautiful meadow – no mean feat in and of itself.
