History Literature / Expedition

* AfterTheEnd: Darwin IV itself, possibly. There are many indications from the drones' observations that, as beautiful and unspoiled as the planet is, its biosphere is a mere shadow of its former self. Apparently, the planet is currently in the process of recovering from [[UnspecifiedApocalypse a mass extinction event of uncertain origin]] sometime in the recent ([[TimeAbyss as in a couple million years]]) evolutionary past that was so horrific it wiped out most of the planet's lifeforms and radically altered the composition of its atmosphere and oceans -- in fact, all surface water is gone; this catastrophe led to the evolution of the Amoebic Sea, as organisms banded together to trap what water was left. It's possibly similar to prehistoric Earth's "Oxygen Catastrophe" or, [[AbusivePrecursors more ominously]], the current runaway Greenhouse Effect.

** Flight evolved several times on Darwin IV, but virtually only in the form of jet propulsion. Why flapping flight, the only form of flight that ever appeared on Earth (and appeared at least four times independently, not including the countless underwater fish which flap their fins to move through water) evolved so rarely is not made clear, especially since jet propulsion is much more energy intensive than flapping (other than the Doylist explanation that [[BizzareAlienBiology it made them more alien]]).

** Flight evolved several times on Darwin IV, but virtually only in the form of jet propulsion. Why flapping flight, the only form of flight that ever appeared on Earth (and appeared at least four times independently, not including the countless underwater fish which flap their fins to move through water) evolved so rarely is not made clear, especially since jet propulsion is much more energy intensive than flapping (other than the Doylist explanation that [[RuleOfCool it made them more alien]]).

* ViewersAreGoldfish: ''Alien Planet'', ''a lot''.
** After live commentators mention the name ''Arrowtongue'', the narrator announces, "Scientists may call this creature... the Arrowtongue".
** Every creature feature ends with "on Darwin IV" as if the audience was likely to forget the planet's name.

* AHeadAtEachEnd: Littoralopes and Symets have head-like tails and tail-like heads, in order to confuse predators and divert their attacks away from the creature's true head. Given that nothing on Darwin IV has any eyes or mouths, this trick works just fine.

* AlienSea: The Amoebic Sea is purple, gelatinous, slimy, and alive. What's a more alien sea than a Texas-sized living blob that sends out tentacles to ensnare unfortunate critters flying above it? (Only in the documentary though, it's mostly inert and defenseless in the original book.)

** An animal on Darwin IV may be an Earth creature's equivalent in terms of ecology, but looks nothing like it (the Sea Strider is supposed to be the Darwinian equivalent of a ''whale''.)
** A lot though, are so bizarre,and truly surreal enough to put Salvador Dali to shame, one doesn't think "That's a really weird creature," but "What the *&#! am I looking at? Is this ''even'' supposed to be alive?" The Sea Strider in particular looks utterly abstract. Many other creatures hardly are even comprehensible as creatures at all.

** After live commentators mention the name ''Arrowtongue'', the narrator announces, "Scientists may call this creature... the Arrowtongue."

* AdaptedOut: Of the over 50 creatures in ''Expedition'', only a handful make it into ''Alien Planet''. The Yma, the human characters and Earth's ecological collapse are also not featured.

* CompositeCharacter: The Arrowtongue is portrayed as a predator of the Gyrosprinter, a role filled by the Rayback in the books.
** The Symet's armor and and head-tail symmetry is switched to the Littoralope, and the Symet irself does not appear.

** The Skewer is a giant flying predator that kills its prey by spiking it from above with its lance-like head at jet-like speeds. How the Skewers are not pulverized on impact is not explained (especially because it's stated the lance is ''hollow''). There's an obvious reason no military ever tried inventing a warplane that destroyed ground targets by ''impacting'' them, nor is there any bird that hunts by impaling its prey on its beak mid-flight...

** A lot though, are so bizarre,and truly surreal enough to put Salvador Dali to shame, one doesn't think "That's a really weird creature," but "What the *&#! am I looking at? Is this ''even'' supposed to be alive?" The Sea Strider in particular looks utterly abstract. Many ither creatures hardly are even comprehensible as creatures at all.

** The Skewer and Sea Strider nymphs remain airborne via active and continuous combustion in jet engine-like organs. The viability and efficiency of armoured, whale-sized, flying animals that never land relying entirely on chemically produced flammable gases as fuel is up for debate (never mind how this doesn't scorch their flesh).

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: ''T. rex''-like Arrowtongues, raptor-like Daggerwrists and Prongheads, pterosaur-like Skewers and sauropod-or-ankylosaur-like Grovebacks.

* RedShirt: The probe ''Balboa'', whose only role in ''Alien Planet'' was to show how easily things can go wrong on missions like this. It was not nicknamed, never called by its full name (''Vasco Nunez de Balboa'') once, and was even [[LampshadeHanging colored red]].

** All of the animals living in the tundra habitats are depicted with naked exposed skin, without any explanation of how they keep themselves from freezing in the sub-zero temperatures with no obvious insulation. Admittedly, this is a common attribute for many alien designs in media, but this is especially egregious for a book attempting to be scientifically grounded.

* BizarreAlienLocomotion: All sorts. There's the Rimerunner, a vaguely kangaroo-like creature that hops on one leg; the Skewer, which flies with jets of gas generated in its stomach; the Tundra Plow, which drags its face along the ice; the Gyrosprinter, a horse-like creature with a single front leg and a single hind leg; and a number of keeled animals such as the Groveback and the Forest Slider, which are born as quadrupeds but lose their hind legs when a hind skid replaces them.

** A lot though, are so bizarre,and truly surreal enough to put Salvador Dali to shame, one doesn't think "That's a really weird creature," but "What the *&#! am I looking at? Is this ''even'' supposed to be alive?" The Sea Strider in particular looks utterly abstract.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: ''T. rex''-like Arrowtongues, raptor-like Daggerwrists, and sauropod-like Grovebacks.

* SelfInsertFic: Similar to one of his other works, ''Barlowe's Inferno'', the main character who visits and documents Darwin IV is Wayne Barlowe himself.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Many of the much larger creatures of Darwin IV, such as the Flipstick, the Groveback, and the Emperor Sea Strider are highly questionable in regards to SquareCubeLaw, being motile terrestrial life-forms of {{kaiju}} scale. Even taking into account the lower gravity of Darwin IV (stated to be 0.6 G), something as massive as a Sea Strider would, at minimum, need to be tens of thousands of tonnes just to stand up, but would certainly collapse under its own weight if it actually tried to walk around. And there's the Flipstick, which is a ''fifty metre tall'' organism (the same height as the first Godzilla) which only moves by ''leaping'' hundreds of feet into the air and somehow isn't pulverized into a fine paste on impact. The ''Alien Planet'' adaptation notably downsizes both the Groveback and Sea Strider considerably (and leaves out the Flipstick entirely). Not mentioning the Ebony Blisterwing, which is described as having a wingspan over 300 meters.

* BizarreAlienLimbs: The Emperor Sea Strider's legs are where its ''mouths'' are.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Many of the much larger creatures of Darwin IV, such as the Flipstick, the Groveback, and the Emperor Sea Strider are highly questionable in regards to SquareCubeLaw, being motile terrestrial life-forms of {{kaiju}} scale. Even taking into account the lower gravity of Darwin IV (stated to be 0.6 G), something as massive as a Sea Strider would, at minimum, need to be tens of thousands of tonnes just to stand up, but would certainly collapse under its own weight if it actually tried to walk around. And there's the Flipstick, which is a ''fifty metre tall'' organism (the same height as the first Godzilla) which only moves by ''leaping'' hundreds of feet into the air and somehow isn't pulverized into a fine paste on impact. The ''Alien Planet'' adaptation notably downsizes both the Groveback and Sea Strider considerably (and leaves out the Flipstick entirely).

* PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay: Pregnant Daggerwrists are cannibalistic and are executed by their tribes when their single offspring is born. If you can't do the math, this means that ''at least two Daggerwrists will die for every one born''.