A new season of Apple TV’s docuseries “Prehistoric Planet” follows mammals fighting to survive in shifting climate. The five-part season begins with “The Big Freeze,” one of the coldest periods of the Ice Age, and ends with “The Big Melt,” when global temperatures began to warm up and many species of megafauna became extinct.
The average person might be surprised to learn the Ice Age was not all ice.
“One of the consequences of [the Ice Age was] huge amounts of water were locked up and taken out of the global ecosystem,” said Mike Gunton, Executive Producer and Director of Factual and the Natural History Unit at BBC.
The result? An era of colder and drier global temperatures where nearly a quarter of the Earth was covered by ice. During this time, snowy tundras, barren deserts and grasslands played host to megafauna like woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers.
Following two prior seasons on the Cretaceous period, Gunton said he felt it was only natural to explore a new period of Earth’s history.
“We are creatures of the Ice Age. Many of the animals alive today are also Ice Age legacy survivors. There’s nowhere on Earth where you could go and see a T-Rex,” said Gunton, “but there are a few places [like] the north of Canada or Siberia where you could go and say ‘Is that a mammoth?’ You feel they could be there.”
With the development of new VFX technology to animate fur, Gunton said he felt better equipped to showcase these creatures to larger audiences while remaining scientifically accurate.
“Everything starts with the physical evidence, the DNA evidence, the behavioral evidence … If you get the science right, then the [animals] will also look right.”
For Gunton, the challenge of creating an Ice Age documentary doing justice to the colossal nature of the environment and the creatures that once inhabited it.
“It’s impossible to go back and see these creatures, because they’re extinct. So there is a wonderful opportunity to take people on that journey. To experience something that would otherwise be impossible.”
The series, narrated by Tom Hiddleston, premieres Wednesday, Nov. 26 on Apple TV.
