The Last Dragon | |
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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 | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | John Smithson David McNab Alice Keens-Soper |
Producer | Ceri Barnes |
Running time | 99 mins |
Original release | |
Network | Channel 4 Animal Planet |
Release | 1 December 2004 |
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
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 2004 British docufiction made by Darlow Smithson Productions[1] for Channel Four and broadcast on both Channel Four and Animal Planet.
It posits a speculative evolution of dragons from the Cretaceous period up to the 15th century, and suppositions about what dragon life and behaviour might have been like if they had existed and evolved. It uses the premise that the ubiquity 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 programme 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. Jack 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 of examining 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.