YMMV / Chased by Dinosaurs

• Aluminium Christmas Trees: Though the African species (S. imperator) is better known, there is a South American species (S. hartti) and it has been known since The '70s (it was actually named in the 19th century before being assigned to Sarcosuchus much later). S. hartti was much smaller than S. imperator though and is only known from fragmentary remains, which, along with its turbulent taxonomic history where it was placed and out of Sarcosuchus, tend to contribute to this obscurity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Sarcosuchus from "Land of Giants" is next to the main dinosaur stars of the series the most remembered creature of the documentary. Being a giant crocodile able to hunt big dinosaurs and almost eating Nigel made it quite memorable.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Therizinosaurus' eerie screeching cries, which sound like a Stuka Scream.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Ornithocheirus from Walking with Dinosaurs makes a small appearance in "Land of Giants" flying next to the ultralight aviation Nigel pilots to spot the Argentinosaurus herd from the sky, so the audience now has the chance to see just how big the pterosaur is next to the ultralight.
• Once Original, Now Common: The main twist of The Giant Claw (that Therizinosaurus was a bizarre, vegetarian theropod who used its claws to grasp then draw vegetation closer to it instead of a fearsome predator who used them to kill its victims like Nigel thought at first) was a genuinely surprising reveal back in 2002 when therizinosaurs were not as famous or prevalent in dinosaur media as they are today, with the Therizinosaurus from this program and the Nothronychus from When Dinosaurs Roamed America (who aired a year before "Chased by Dinosaurs") being the only species of the clade to appear in documentaries at the time. However, with therizinosaurs being more frequent in paleomedia today and especially with a certain franchise about dinosaurs depicting Therizinosaurus in its last film with a relatively similar behaviour to the one in "Chased by Dinosaurs" (herbivore but aggressive against trespassers and predators), the twist of "The Giant Claw" feels less like a surprise and more like what one would expect after knowing Therizinosaurus is going to be the main subject of the episode.
• Signature Scene:
  • The climax of The Giant Claw, involving the epic fight of the previously seen Tarbosaurus and the Therizinosaurus Nigel was searching through the episode, is perhaps the most remembered scene from the specials.
  • The gruelling fight between the pack of Giganotosaurus and Argentinosaurus from "Land of Giants".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Sarcosuchus has a prominent role in "Land of Giants" but it's never shown hunting large game (it's only alluded to), and it would also have been interesting to see it encounter the Giganotosaurus. The Deinosuchus from Prehistoric Park does get to hunt dinosaurs and confront large theropods.
  • There is some evidence of sexual dimorphism in Pteranodon, with males having longer cranial crests and a smaller jaw crest absent from the females. Perhaps the polygynous, territorial males may not have liked Nigel as much as the females.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The Argentinosaurus from "Land of Giants". Their faces are taller, shorter and more forward facing than other sauropods, giving them a weird humanoid look. This is even more noticeable when looked from the front.
• Unexpected Character: Nothing would make you expect to see Ornithocheirus in this series, what with being anachronistic and everything else.

---