| The Ballad of Big Al | ||||||||||||
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| Previous episode Death of a Dynasty |
Following episode Big Al Uncovered | |||||||||||
The Ballad of Big Al (broadcast in North America as Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special) is the first special in the Walking with Dinosaurs franchise.
Full synopsis[]
The story starts in the University of Wyoming Geological Museum on a stormy night as an office lady works as best she can to get some papers done. First we see a Diplodocus skeleton, and as the camera pans rightward, the narrator states all that is left of the dinosaurs are their fossils - stone mimics of long dead bones, as it is easy to forget that they were living animals surviving in a world of unimaginable violence. But if one knows what one is looking for, the signs and scars of life are clear, as seen in this impressive skeleton of a teenage Allosaurus named Big Al. The narrator states that by studying his bones and comparing him to other fossils and modern animals, there is just enough evidence to raise the soul of Big Al from his 145,000,000 year old grave. The spectre of Big Al takes a moment to inspect the skeleton and the egg fossil and walks away, with the narrator stating that bit by bit, the fable of how Big Al himself might have lived can be pieced together, as it is a fable that started, like all dinosaurs, with an egg, as the scene transitions to late Jurassic Wyoming.
Inside a pile of Jurassic sands is a clutch of Allosaurus eggs. It is the end of the dry season, and there are signs of life: the young hatch out of the eggs, and one of the broodlings calls for aid. A female Allosaurus appears onto the scene having heard the squeaks of the whelps and approaches the nest. While they are at her mercy, she is their mother. The narrator explains that smell is important to all allos, and the moment the mother and whelps smell each other, a bond is formed to ensure their survival. Then, mother carefully digs them out using her powerful claws. This is Big Al's first day: In about seven years, he will be a gigantic allo, just like his mother, though the narrator states the odds of surviving that long are low.
The narrator explains that Al is born into a world that is lorded by giants, that for a carnivore, no meal comes easy here: some prey items, like the Apatosaurus, are giant fortfications of meat... too big to attack even by an adult allo. Some prey items rely on lighting fast speed, while others, like Stegosaurus, stand and fight with spear like spikes.
Big Al, his siblings and his mother taking a sleep
Big Al and his mother
Al and his siblings were gathering around their mother, with the narrator stating it is a daunting prospect for them. The whelplings will have to learn fast, and fighting among themselves is a good way to start, As they are recently hatched, they are just as likely to be hunted as the hunters, and watched by a pair of hungry Ornitholestes that are waiting for a chance. The mother Allosaurus is fifty times heavier, so the thieves decide not to venture too close while the mother allo is present. The scent of the hatchlings will attract other predators, so the mother wisely leads her unruly legacy away.
A Brachiosaurus is getting a drink in a vast flood plain that will one day be the badlands of Wyoming and concurrently is covered in lush conifer forest as a stego strides past. This floodplain is where the allo mother chose for her new domain, and the babies, including Big Al, are quick to take their first meals. Some prey require skill to snag, as they are liable to fly away or stand and fight. A scorpion stings one of the whelps, but is then felled itself. When Al tries to grab a dragonfly, he plunges into the lake, as some of his siblings stride by, yet he resurfaces. The whelplings all have a lot to learn.
Later that evening, the mother abandons her young in search for her own food as the babies play. However, she is not the only allo on the prowl, as an intruding Allosaurus, who is around a year old, watches them from the bushes. The intruder charges forward, causing the hatchlings to scatter about and hide. When Al hides, the intruder leaps in, grabs one of the whelplings, scoring a kill, and scoots off, as the mother is coming home from hunting. Luckily, the victim is not Al, as the attacking allo is merely a teenager, and the intruder strides away. The narrator states that the whelps only have a few more weeks of protection before their mother's maternal instincts give out, as she might view them as dinner as well.
The next two years, Al now hunts alone, now measuring almost 10 feet. He wants dinosaur meat, as insects are not on his menu any longer. Shortly, he finds a wide choice in a small forest consiting of cycads and conifers. Though the Othnielia look ideal, a problem appears in the form of a Stegosaurus bull, who gorges onto a stand of small cycads. The othnies decide to eat the smashed cycads the stego leaves in his wake, meaning they are sticking close to the stego; too close for Big Al to get in between and attack, as the stego and the othnies continue to eat. A mother Ornitholestes might prove to be a more promising target, but Al realizes he is no match for the overprotective mother, and she puts on an aggressive display that makes him trot away. So, nearby, a flock of Dryosaurus offers Al one more chance. When he charges, every dryo scatters about in all directions at a neck-breaking speed. Al angrily gives a growling howl, as he cannot run down such swift prey, as he needs to learn how to ambush. Realizing he is too near the edge of the forest, Al turns around and strides off.
Later, a herd of apatos is crashing through the outer forests looking for food, as these monoliths are not precisely suitable prey for Al. Back in the woods, Al finally finds something to take the edge off his hunger: a lizard. He grabs the lizard off a tree branch and swallows it down.
Elsewhere is a stagnant pool that provides plentiful chances to scavenge meat as many animals come to drink and get stuck in the thick mud. One recent victim is a stego that lies where it died of exhaustion trying to get free. Cadavers also attract adult Allosaurus. This female may be big enough to defeat Big Al, but she would prefer a free meal. However, the churned up swamp left by the stego is dangerous, and another allo has already become trapped next to the cadaver. Disobeying the danger signals, the new allo approaches the corpse and tries to eat, only to realize too late she is trapped when she tries to get away. Al watches from nearby, escaping the same fate as he has learned to avoid carrion, and the large carnivores that it usually attracts when he turns away and leaves the swamp. That evening, 2 more carcasses lie near the stego. Before the stego will finaly decompose away, many more carnivores will fall to its attractions, and all three corpses are left for the scavengers that can eat them in safty, in the form of a flock of pterosaurs.
Three more years later, there is a vast and gargantuan salt lake known for its crystaline white crust. Occassionally, its shores see the movements of herds of dinosaurs. One example of this is a herd of Diplodocus heading for a nesting site to the south; a grim journey for these mighty sauropods, as the heat and lack of water weeds out weaker animals, to which predators such as a five-year old 25 foot long Al know. He is not quite full grown. Though Al is an experienced hunter, the herd provides a formidable barrier to predators. But Al is not the only allo stalking the herd; they can all smell that someone within the herd is not feeling well at all. The allos are getting impatient, and they need to break up the herd and isolate the weakling, and so they all charge. The diplos panic and flee for their lives. Some of the allos snap and howl at the diplos, though Big Al accidentally collapses onto the salt upon tripping. An allo is smacked away by one of the diplos, and the sick diplo rears up as the rest of the herd makes a mad dash for their lives. The panicked herd leaves the sick diplo far behind, and the allos gather for the feast. However, even when sick and tired, a diplo is a fierce adversary, and he shoves Al off his feet with his neck and bellows defiantly. Al gets to his feet, as he is frequently wounded in situations like this, but he cannot let this slow him down, as the competition is getting too intense. The allos decide to hold their assault and wait for the heat and time to finish the giant herbivore. Several hours later, a combination of illness and heat exhaustion bring the diplo to heel, and he collapses in defeat. The allos finally get their much needed reward. The narrator states that while there is enough meat for weeks, there is an urgency in their feeding, with the smell of blood attracting others, and every allo wants to eat his and her fill. In the hour, another allo - a full grown and gigantic female - appears out of the haze and joins the younger allos in the feast, establishing her dominance. The narrator states when predators get to her size, they rarely need to bring their own food down, scavenging other kills when possible, as the newcomer gives a loud growling howl. Al, on the other hand, grabs a piece of meat for himself and tries to find a safer place to eat.
The next year, as the stegos and othnies make to drink and bathe, the narrator explains the flood plains where Al dwells are ruled by the seasons; it is now the end of the wet season, and with the flood waters still receding and lush, it is a time of plenty for the local dinosaurs, as a dryo swims across the lake. As a flock of othnies and the stego get some water, the narrator explains for many it is also a time to mate, as a second stego appears onto the scene, and they are about to try a complex process of mating, forcing the othnies to flee. As Al arrives for water, now six years old, the lacrimal crests in front of his eyes are reddening, meaning he is sexually mature at 30 feet long, he is well on the to being big enough. He is making the floodplain dinosaurs nervous as the scent of blood he has brought is enough to interrupt the amorous stegos, and he takes his intake of water and walks away as the stegos bellow a warning, to which Al silences with a growl. Away from the lake, Big Al picks up a new scent; stool left by a female Allosaurus has an immediate effect on Al, and for the first time in his life, he issues a mating call. The female, who was sleeping in the bushes, is not far, but she can hear the low sounds of his call. When she gets up, the narrator explains that the female is bigger than Al, as he will have to be careful. However, the female shows no interest in mating and tries to leave. Unfortunately, Al's inexperience at seduction makes him get way too close for her comfort, which makes her angry. After a brief shouting match, the female savages Al viciously, but is merciful enough to let him get up and let her be, with the narrator stating that he is lucky, and though he has sustained a torn arm, ripped claw, and busted ribs, he has walked away without getting his throat torn out. The next scene shows a dryo trotting in, stopping for a moment moment to look around, and then striding off.
Five months later, the dry season begins the bite, with sick and old animals being weeded out, which means good news for scavengers. A carcass of a dead dryo has dried hard, with a pterosaur probing the interior for softer meat, meaning it is too distracted to notice a charging Big Al rush in, snag it off the body, and toss it onto the ground. The pterosaur twitches it's wings a bit, squeaking in pain, before Big Al picks it up after a few bites and swallows it down. Al may have recovered from his failed attempt at seduction, but his right arm is not fuctioning properly. The pterosaur was not much of a meal, and there is little left on the dead dryo. Al needs fresh meat. In the blistering heat, Al starts to stalk a flock of dryos. It will take skill, yet he has done this hundreds of times before. He charges forward, to which the dryos scatter and flee shortly after. However, Al trips onto a log and collapses onto the soil, meaning his attack is a disaster; he has fallen horribly. He gets up and limps away, howling in agony, as the narrator explains he broke something in his right foot. With prey getting scarcer and scarcer, Al's survival chances now look remote. The dryos look on.
Two more moths pass, as a herd of apatos trudge along the barrens, the narrator explains that the drought has gone on longer than usual, which has cost Big Al dear, and if anything, his limp has gotten worse, and due to his poor condition, his body is not healing properly. It is revealed that he unintentionally broke his right middle toe in the accidental fall, and sadly, it is now terribly infected; meaning that he is too weak to hunt, and he will be lucky to survive much longer. The drought continues.
Elsewhere, a pair of allo whelps are hunting for insects amongst the dunes. Instead, they find something bigger - the emaciated body of Big Al. Al never did reach his adult size, as he died as a mature adolescent in a dried up riverbud. Someday, the rains will arrive, and gently bury his body in silt for 145,000,000 years. The final scene shows Big Al's skeleton in the museum, with the narrator explaining the process preserved his skeleton perfectly, even the lumps where his ribs healed after they were broken, and the raging infection on his right middle toe and seventeen other injuries and sicknesses, finishing that in death, Big Al himself represents the frozen moment of the fast and furious life of a carnivorous dinosaur.
Organisms[]
145 Million Years Ago (Wyoming, USA)[]
- Allosaurus
- Anurognathus (identified as pterosaur)
- Brachiosaurus
- Stegosaurus
- Apatosaurus (first appearance)
- Dryosaurus
- Ornitholestes
- Dragonfly (live-acted)
- Axolotl (live-acted)
- Scorpion (live-acted)
- Othnielia (first appearance)
- Cycads
- Paramacellodus (live-acted)
- Diplodocus
Trivia[]
- A Stegosaurus walking in the bushes near the river is too large compared to the Brachiosaurus in the foreground.
- In the game Dinosaur World, the mud trap appears along with Big Al and the Stegosaurus.
- The online single player RPG game Big Al Game roughly picked up the events of this film.
- In July 15, 1990 a new Allosaurus specimen was discovered in Utah, Nearly 30 years later as of 2020, the newest Allosaurus species within the genus, has been identified; named Allosaurus jimmadseni.
- The sunrise shots are reused in a re-release of New Blood.
- A short scene with Anurognathus, Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus, Othnielia and Apatosaurus was reused in a full version of Walking with Monsters.
Gallery[]
Screencaps[]
Screenshots[]
Broadcast[]
Original airdate[]
- 25 December 2000 16.35 BBC One
Repeat[]
- 25 June 2001 20.30 BBC One