Mammoth Season
Well, here goes nothing.
PROMPT: The BBC doesn't get enough "I Surrender!" love. Give us something British.
I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing she had in mind, but ah, well...
Mammoth Season
Six one-hour episodes
Opening Theme: Rebel Heart - The Corrs
Tagline: The past isn't just a foreign country - it can be an alien planet.
Mammoth Season was produced by the BBC, shot in the Yukon, and featured animatronics and digital effects by Impossible Pictures, the company that did Walking with Dinosaurs. Six episodes - half the proposed two-season arc - aired before the economic downturn forced cancellation of the expensive production, leaving the story unresolved on a cliff-hanger. ABC is currently in negotiation for the rights to remake the series with an American cast, a prospect that leaves a foul taste in fans' mouths.
The show tells the story of a time-travel expedition, sent to the ice-age Alps by a mysterious millionaire with orders to bring back a breeding pair of woolly mammoths. During their six months in this prehistoric wilderness, the time-travelers deal with a variety of dangerous creatures and become embroiled in the ongoing conflict between a Cro-Magnon clan living in the hills and the Neanderthals who inhabit the valleys below.
Major Characters include:
Dr. SEIKO SHIROYAMA (Maggie Cheung)
“Because I’m not the one who’s here to get us all killed on television, that’s why.”
Botanist and the practical, if not technical, head of the expedition. She is a careful perfectionist determined to get the best possible science out of this trip, meaning that she frequently butts heads with Gus, who is more interested in getting the best possible entertainment. She has a hard time trusting other people to get things done, which has led her to assume more responsibilities than she can really handle - she has, for example, taken charge of the effort to communicate with the Cro-Magnon, which is not her area of expertise and cuts into time she would rather be spending on her own research. She has a habit of comparing anyone who annoys her to her never-named ex-husband.
Dr. JEAN-PIERRE BEAUDRAIS (Dennis Waterman)
“I have always found elephants to be more human than many human beings.”
An elderly French palaeontologist who has spent much of his life digging mammoth remains out of the Siberian tundra in the hopes that enough DNA might be recovered to clone one. As cloned mammoths appear unlikely to materialize during his lifetime, he has come along on this expedition mainly in the hope of seeing a living mammoth before his cancer kills him. He is gentle but gruff, kindly but pessimistic about the future of humanity. His love of this ice-age world is deep and obvious, and it may be that he has every intention of dying here without ever returning to the present.
GUS STEPHENSON (Nigel Marven)
“Rhinos have crap vision, Boom. You could dance naked right in front of him, and he'd never see you.”
The star of Wilderness Overdrive, a Crocodile Hunter type show, Gus is here to film ice-age wildlife and piss it off as much as he can without getting killed. He is already enthusiastically talking about a trip to the Cretaceous next year, while his camera crew worries about whether they’re likely to be eaten by cave lions this year. However, much to the surprise of Seiko, Jean-Pierre, and the other professionals, Gus has proven to be a fairly competent wildlife behaviorist who actually did his research before they left, and the scientists are slowly learning to respect him.
'BOOM' MIKE MOFFATT (Lee Ingleby)
“I’m telling you, mate, every move I make, that rhino’s just waiting to separate me from the herd.”
Gus’ down-to-earth sound guy, who is usually the first to spot any incoming threat and the last to be listened to when he points it out. Despite a general common sense approach to the world, Boom does have a paranoid streak: he suspects that the ice age flora and fauna around them can tell that the expedition does not belong in this time and place, and worries that nature will take steps to correct the anachronism. In particular, he is absolutely convinced that Orwell the rhinoceros has it in for him personally.
Dr. KIMBERLEY HORNE (Joanne Froggatt)
“If you're able to complain, it means you're still alive.”
Kim is trained as an army field medic, and used to working in adverse conditions. Her usual modus operandi is simply to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, with minimal thought for patient comfort. In the hostile world of the ice age, her skills are frequently called upon. She is not an unpleasant person, however, and has a gift for seeing both sides of an argument - it is usually she who intervenes when Seiko, Gus, and John start arguing amongst themselves. John has made advances towards her more than once, but she has rebuffed him. Boom also has a crush on her, but her behavior towards John has made him wary.
DAME HANNAH HOWARD (Dame Judi Dench)
“I do whatever I like. It’s the main privilege of being a wealthy old woman.”
Dame Hannah is something of the Howard Hughes of her world, a wealthy and mysterious recluse. She funded the expedition on the condition that they bring back at least two mammoths for her - one male and one female. Why she wants them, beyond simply liking mammoths, is unclear. She has proven to be not quite a woman of her word, as she at first promised not to interfere with the expedition, but then sent her son along to enforce her wishes. She has so far been seen only in the first episode, and comes across as a shrewd woman with very expensive tastes and a sense of humor so dry it sometimes takes a few minutes to realize she's made a joke.
JOHN HOWARD (Andy Serkis)
“I have no personal attachment to this animal. I only want to ensure she’s returned to the twenty-first century unharmed. Isn’t that right, girl? Isn’t that right, princess? Who's Daddy's pretty girl, huh?”
Dame Hannah's son, sent along to babysit the expedition and ensure that she gets what she wants out of it. Although nominally in charge, he is usually happy to sit back and let Seiko run things - but when he does have input, he expects it to be obeyed without argument. He takes a certain amount of sadistic pleasure in watching Gus tease dangerous animals, and he and an unnamed member of Gus’ crew have a running bet on whether any given animal is likely to do him in. Although the first episode painted him as a low-key, menacing villain, he has become vastly more sympathetic since forging a bond with Angeline the mammoth calf.
Also along on the expedition are Dr. David Srinivasan, a climatologist; Dr. Jim Pegg, a second paleontologist who has professed to be a great admirer of Dr. Beaudrais; the rest of Gus' film crew; and Boyd, the team's jovial cook, who claims to have nurtured a lifelong dream of making (and eating) the world's first mammoth haggis.
The two most important Cro-Magnon characters are:
BROTHER OF THUNDER (Naveen Andrews)
“The last good thing the gods gave us was the green of spring. Since then, they have only taken good things from us.”
Brother of Thunder is the leader of the Cro-Magnon Sky Clan which lives in the foothills around the ice-age valley. The clan has been decimated in the ongoing war with the neighboring Neanderthals, and though Brother of Thunder puts on a show of bravado for the sake of his people, he was crushed by the recent deaths of his two sons, and had little hope of the clan surviving the winter - until the time-travelers came to the valley. He is now convinced that these mysterious sorcerers are the clan’s only hope, but many of the others are frightened of them. The unresolved sexual tension between Brother of Thunder and Seiko (whom he addresses as “Daughter of Stars”) is a topic of much fan speculation.
SISTER OF WINDS (Indira Varma)
“There is nothing they might do with magic that we cannot do by the strength of our hands.”
The clan’s medical and spiritual doctor, and Brother of Thunder’s sister. As his closest confidante, she is the only one of the clan who knows just how deeply the deaths of his sons hurt him, and how close he was to giving up before the time-travelers arrived. Now, although pleased to see his restored hope, she is warier than he and urges him not to trust them too quickly. At one point Seiko talked her into sharing some of her knowledge of herbs, but Sister of Winds felt insulted when Seiko would not share her own ‘magic’ in return.
There was some controversy surrounding the choice of Asian actors to portray 'cavemen' (though neither the Cro-Magnon nor the Neanderthals in the series are depicted as living in caves). It is perhaps notable that the Neanderthals, who are far less human, are shown to have blond or ginger hair.
And no Mammoth Season character list would ever be complete without:
ANGELINE
The expedition’s first mammoth, a female yearling orphaned when her mother fell through some thin ice and drowned. John insisted upon rescuing her from the circling scavengers at considerable risk to his own life, and as a result, she has ‘adopted’ him as her replacement parent and follows him like a duckling.
ORWELL
Quite possibly the last woolly rhinoceros on Earth - his species was supposed to have been extinct seventy-five thousand years before the time the expedition arrived. He is easily recognizable, as Gus managed to mark him with a splash of paint, and is just as surly as one might expect a sexually frustrated rhinoceros to be. Boom accidentally startled him their first day out, and was lucky to escape unharmed. The expedition named this animal ‘Orwell’ in honor of Boom’s conviction that he is watching them. “Orwell/Boom is my OTP!” banners and icons are a popular joke among fans.
EPISODE GUIDE: 1.01 : 1.02
PROMPT: The BBC doesn't get enough "I Surrender!" love. Give us something British.
I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing she had in mind, but ah, well...
Mammoth Season
Six one-hour episodes
Opening Theme: Rebel Heart - The Corrs
Tagline: The past isn't just a foreign country - it can be an alien planet.
Mammoth Season was produced by the BBC, shot in the Yukon, and featured animatronics and digital effects by Impossible Pictures, the company that did Walking with Dinosaurs. Six episodes - half the proposed two-season arc - aired before the economic downturn forced cancellation of the expensive production, leaving the story unresolved on a cliff-hanger. ABC is currently in negotiation for the rights to remake the series with an American cast, a prospect that leaves a foul taste in fans' mouths.
The show tells the story of a time-travel expedition, sent to the ice-age Alps by a mysterious millionaire with orders to bring back a breeding pair of woolly mammoths. During their six months in this prehistoric wilderness, the time-travelers deal with a variety of dangerous creatures and become embroiled in the ongoing conflict between a Cro-Magnon clan living in the hills and the Neanderthals who inhabit the valleys below.
Major Characters include:
Dr. SEIKO SHIROYAMA (Maggie Cheung)
“Because I’m not the one who’s here to get us all killed on television, that’s why.”
Botanist and the practical, if not technical, head of the expedition. She is a careful perfectionist determined to get the best possible science out of this trip, meaning that she frequently butts heads with Gus, who is more interested in getting the best possible entertainment. She has a hard time trusting other people to get things done, which has led her to assume more responsibilities than she can really handle - she has, for example, taken charge of the effort to communicate with the Cro-Magnon, which is not her area of expertise and cuts into time she would rather be spending on her own research. She has a habit of comparing anyone who annoys her to her never-named ex-husband.
Dr. JEAN-PIERRE BEAUDRAIS (Dennis Waterman)
“I have always found elephants to be more human than many human beings.”
An elderly French palaeontologist who has spent much of his life digging mammoth remains out of the Siberian tundra in the hopes that enough DNA might be recovered to clone one. As cloned mammoths appear unlikely to materialize during his lifetime, he has come along on this expedition mainly in the hope of seeing a living mammoth before his cancer kills him. He is gentle but gruff, kindly but pessimistic about the future of humanity. His love of this ice-age world is deep and obvious, and it may be that he has every intention of dying here without ever returning to the present.
GUS STEPHENSON (Nigel Marven)
“Rhinos have crap vision, Boom. You could dance naked right in front of him, and he'd never see you.”
The star of Wilderness Overdrive, a Crocodile Hunter type show, Gus is here to film ice-age wildlife and piss it off as much as he can without getting killed. He is already enthusiastically talking about a trip to the Cretaceous next year, while his camera crew worries about whether they’re likely to be eaten by cave lions this year. However, much to the surprise of Seiko, Jean-Pierre, and the other professionals, Gus has proven to be a fairly competent wildlife behaviorist who actually did his research before they left, and the scientists are slowly learning to respect him.
'BOOM' MIKE MOFFATT (Lee Ingleby)
“I’m telling you, mate, every move I make, that rhino’s just waiting to separate me from the herd.”
Gus’ down-to-earth sound guy, who is usually the first to spot any incoming threat and the last to be listened to when he points it out. Despite a general common sense approach to the world, Boom does have a paranoid streak: he suspects that the ice age flora and fauna around them can tell that the expedition does not belong in this time and place, and worries that nature will take steps to correct the anachronism. In particular, he is absolutely convinced that Orwell the rhinoceros has it in for him personally.
Dr. KIMBERLEY HORNE (Joanne Froggatt)
“If you're able to complain, it means you're still alive.”
Kim is trained as an army field medic, and used to working in adverse conditions. Her usual modus operandi is simply to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, with minimal thought for patient comfort. In the hostile world of the ice age, her skills are frequently called upon. She is not an unpleasant person, however, and has a gift for seeing both sides of an argument - it is usually she who intervenes when Seiko, Gus, and John start arguing amongst themselves. John has made advances towards her more than once, but she has rebuffed him. Boom also has a crush on her, but her behavior towards John has made him wary.
DAME HANNAH HOWARD (Dame Judi Dench)
“I do whatever I like. It’s the main privilege of being a wealthy old woman.”
Dame Hannah is something of the Howard Hughes of her world, a wealthy and mysterious recluse. She funded the expedition on the condition that they bring back at least two mammoths for her - one male and one female. Why she wants them, beyond simply liking mammoths, is unclear. She has proven to be not quite a woman of her word, as she at first promised not to interfere with the expedition, but then sent her son along to enforce her wishes. She has so far been seen only in the first episode, and comes across as a shrewd woman with very expensive tastes and a sense of humor so dry it sometimes takes a few minutes to realize she's made a joke.
JOHN HOWARD (Andy Serkis)
“I have no personal attachment to this animal. I only want to ensure she’s returned to the twenty-first century unharmed. Isn’t that right, girl? Isn’t that right, princess? Who's Daddy's pretty girl, huh?”
Dame Hannah's son, sent along to babysit the expedition and ensure that she gets what she wants out of it. Although nominally in charge, he is usually happy to sit back and let Seiko run things - but when he does have input, he expects it to be obeyed without argument. He takes a certain amount of sadistic pleasure in watching Gus tease dangerous animals, and he and an unnamed member of Gus’ crew have a running bet on whether any given animal is likely to do him in. Although the first episode painted him as a low-key, menacing villain, he has become vastly more sympathetic since forging a bond with Angeline the mammoth calf.
Also along on the expedition are Dr. David Srinivasan, a climatologist; Dr. Jim Pegg, a second paleontologist who has professed to be a great admirer of Dr. Beaudrais; the rest of Gus' film crew; and Boyd, the team's jovial cook, who claims to have nurtured a lifelong dream of making (and eating) the world's first mammoth haggis.
The two most important Cro-Magnon characters are:
BROTHER OF THUNDER (Naveen Andrews)
“The last good thing the gods gave us was the green of spring. Since then, they have only taken good things from us.”
Brother of Thunder is the leader of the Cro-Magnon Sky Clan which lives in the foothills around the ice-age valley. The clan has been decimated in the ongoing war with the neighboring Neanderthals, and though Brother of Thunder puts on a show of bravado for the sake of his people, he was crushed by the recent deaths of his two sons, and had little hope of the clan surviving the winter - until the time-travelers came to the valley. He is now convinced that these mysterious sorcerers are the clan’s only hope, but many of the others are frightened of them. The unresolved sexual tension between Brother of Thunder and Seiko (whom he addresses as “Daughter of Stars”) is a topic of much fan speculation.
SISTER OF WINDS (Indira Varma)
“There is nothing they might do with magic that we cannot do by the strength of our hands.”
The clan’s medical and spiritual doctor, and Brother of Thunder’s sister. As his closest confidante, she is the only one of the clan who knows just how deeply the deaths of his sons hurt him, and how close he was to giving up before the time-travelers arrived. Now, although pleased to see his restored hope, she is warier than he and urges him not to trust them too quickly. At one point Seiko talked her into sharing some of her knowledge of herbs, but Sister of Winds felt insulted when Seiko would not share her own ‘magic’ in return.
There was some controversy surrounding the choice of Asian actors to portray 'cavemen' (though neither the Cro-Magnon nor the Neanderthals in the series are depicted as living in caves). It is perhaps notable that the Neanderthals, who are far less human, are shown to have blond or ginger hair.
And no Mammoth Season character list would ever be complete without:
ANGELINE
The expedition’s first mammoth, a female yearling orphaned when her mother fell through some thin ice and drowned. John insisted upon rescuing her from the circling scavengers at considerable risk to his own life, and as a result, she has ‘adopted’ him as her replacement parent and follows him like a duckling.
ORWELL
Quite possibly the last woolly rhinoceros on Earth - his species was supposed to have been extinct seventy-five thousand years before the time the expedition arrived. He is easily recognizable, as Gus managed to mark him with a splash of paint, and is just as surly as one might expect a sexually frustrated rhinoceros to be. Boom accidentally startled him their first day out, and was lucky to escape unharmed. The expedition named this animal ‘Orwell’ in honor of Boom’s conviction that he is watching them. “Orwell/Boom is my OTP!” banners and icons are a popular joke among fans.
EPISODE GUIDE: 1.01 : 1.02