Follow TV Tropes

Following

Characters / Prehistoric Park

Go To

    open/close all folders 

Park Staff

    Nigel Marven 
Played by: Himself
Nigel Marven returns to play as himself, this time as an owner of a prehistoric wildlife park. He travels to the past in order to bring extinct prehistoric creatures back to life.
  • Badass Bookworm: Knows all about the prehistoric creatures he's about to face and constantly tries to capture them. Most of the time, he succeeds.
  • Expy: Think of him as a time-traveling Steve Irwin.
  • The Kirk: Plenty snarky, thought of a more jovial than sassing nature. He is prone to emotional and logical choices in equal measure.
  • Pragmatic Hero: In the final episode he nearly sacrifices Matilda to the Deinosuchus, the situation being that grave that even Nigel is willing to take the very likely chance Matilda will be eaten.

    Bob 
Played by: Rod Arthur
The Head Keeper of the park. In charge of cleaning, feeding, and taking care of the resident animals. Consequently, he often suffers the shenanigans that happened in the park.
  • Butt-Monkey: Usually on the receiving end of the whatever bad things that the prehistoric creatures brought, mostly from the Titanosaurs.
  • Cool Old Guy: He is a wise adviser to Nigel.
  • The McCoy: The most emotional of the main trio, especially when he has to deal with all the animals Nigel keeps bringing in.
  • Only Sane Man: The one who usually complains to Nigel whenever he's planning to bring back the dangerous creatures back to the park or points out potential issues. He's still fond of them all, even the Titanosaurs, but he will still point out issues.

    Suzanne 
Played by: Suzanne McNabb
The head-vet of the park. Tasked with treating the injured animals and looking after their health.
  • Hospital Hottie: Downplayed. She's a good-looking woman working as a veterinarian, but her attractiveness isn't in focus.
  • The Spock: The calmest of the main trio and the one working in a hard science the most.
  • Team Mom: Especially in the sixth episode where she had to nurse the surviving baby Smilodons because their mother's milk had run out.

    Saba Douglas-Hamilton 
Played by: Herself
A Kenyan conservationist with a lot of expertise in big cats. She joins Nigel on the second trip to the early Holocene in South America to help him find potentially the last sabretoothed cats on Earth.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Just as much as Nigel. All the more heartbreaking when they couldn't save the sabretooth cubs.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: She joins in on the expedition to try and save the last Smilodon left in the world.
  • Panthera Awesome: Some of her expertise, having done field work with lions, leopards, and cheetahs in Kenya.

Animals

    Theo 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8660.jpeg

A teenage Triceratops Nigel rescued from a Tyrannosaurus attack, becoming the park's very first animal.


  • Demoted to Extra: Other than his introduction episode, he's had only minor cameos.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Theo starts out as one of the smaller dinosaurs do to his young age. But he begins to grow rather quickly after his debut.
  • Temper-Ceratops: A combination of territorial instincts and teenage hormones mean that Theo develops an aggression problem. The zookeepers deal with by using tires and PVC to disguise a tractor as another Triceratops and using it to stage fights with Theo; this way, he can blow off steam in a controlled manner by locking horns with and chasing off a rival and becomes less prone to taking out his nerves on scenery and zookeepers.

    The Ornithomimus flock 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8595.png
A large flock of man-sized ostrich-like dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous that prove to adjust quite well to the present, even becoming the first animals to reproduce at the park.

    Terence and Matilda 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8597.jpeg
Terence on the left, Matilda on the right

A pair of T. rex siblings Nigel managed to bring back from the Cretaceous seconds before the asteroid collided. Brought back as juveniles, their fierce natures and rapid maturation make them difficult for the keepers to handle.


  • Artistic License – Paleontology: They're significantly more slender as adults than Tyrannosaurus were in real life, barely changed from their juvenile forms.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Terence gets a whole subplot to himself in Episode 5, revolving around him being seriously injured after a fight with his sister.
  • Big Sister Bully: Matilda is established as one since the end of the first episode, at first domineering over Terence and later outright trying to kill him. Even the narrator notes how Matilda's hostility towards her brother only seems to grow.
  • Butt-Monkey: Terence is the second biggest Butt-Monkey in the series (the other being Bob), given how much abuse he takes from his sister, nearly getting killed at one point.
  • Cain and Abel: A fight between the siblings ends with Matilda nearly killing Terrance. Nigel separates them afterward.
  • Demoted to Extra: While Terence shares focus with his sister in the first episode, later ones focus chiefly on the more active and troublesome Matilda and relegate Terence to the background.
  • Jerkass: Matilda, as much as an animal can realistically be one, given that she's far more ill-tempered and confrontational than her brother.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: They're both Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the most revered (and feared) dinosaurs in history. Nigel decides to give them the names... Terence and Matilda.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Constantly fight to the point that the park staff had to separate them. Culminates in Episode 5, in which Matilda seriously injures Terence in a fight.
  • Teens Are Monsters: Taken very literally with Matilda, who is a raging teenage T. rex that tries to attack anyone that crosses her path, including her own brother.
  • Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Matilda grows up to be a nasty T. rex, attacking her brother in a dispute which leads to the T. rex siblings being separated. By the end of the series, she becomes the main antagonist when the titanosaurs break through her enclosure, allowing Matilda to go on a rampage through the park.

    Terence and Matilda’s mother 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8596.jpeg
An unnamed female Tyrannosaurus who is, of course, the mother of Terence and Matilda. Unlike her children however, she doesn’t survive long enough for Nigel to rescue her.
  • Artistic License – Paleontology: Just like her children and the other T.rexes in the show, she’s a lot slenderer than the real thing.
  • Handicapped Badass: After getting gored in the left thigh by a Triceratops, she manages to hunt and kill an Ornithomimus (a species of dinosaur that usually runs too fast for even a healthy T.rex to catch) to feed to her young, and when a rival male T.rex attacks Terence and Matilda, the still-injured mother fights the male before he overpowers and kills her.
  • Mama Bear: She defends her young from a rival male despite being injured, but unfortunately she loses both the battle and her life.
  • Worf Had the Flu: She was killed by the male because of the leg injury she already had.

    Martha 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8659.jpeg
A lone female woolly mammoth Nigel discovered mourning its dead sister (killed by prehistoric human hunters) and seriously injured (by the same hunters). At the park, she is adopted into a herd of modern African elephants.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Aside from her debut, Episode 6 had her briefly go toe-to-toe with Matilda.
  • Gentle Giant: She's about as sensitive and sweet-natured as a giant hairy elephant-like creature can get.
  • Honorable Elephant: She's a Gentle Giant and very calm around her keepers. She was found by Nigel wounded but refusing to leave the body of her dead sister and is given a lot of sympathy.
  • Mama Bear: She once rushed to defend a baby elephant from Matilda.
  • Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Martha the mammoth loses her appetite after she's brought to the park. The zookeepers first assume they're feeding her the wrong kind of plants, but then they realize she's sad because she's a herd animal kept in solitary confinement. They introduce her to a herd of African elephants, which brings her appetite back.

    The Elasmotherium 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8653.png

A giant, hairy, one-horned Ice Age rhinoceros brought back by Nigel during a return trip to the Pleistocene.


  • Animal Stampede: Is seen fleeing the approach of Matilda alongside the Ornithomimus flock.

    The Microraptor
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8598.jpeg
A flock of crow-sized, four-winged raptor dinosaurs from Early Cretaceous China.
  • Raptor Attack: Fossilized melanosomes in the feathers of a Microraptor fossil suggest it was completely black in color, instead of being largely white like in the show.

    The Titanosaur Herd 
The park's resident sauropods, nine individuals of an unidentified species. Brought back alongside the Microraptors during a volcanic eruption, their massive size makes them a major source of headaches for Bob.
  • Gentle Giant: Despite their size, they're not really that dangerous. Unless they are spooked.
  • The Millstone: Due to their size, strength, and obliviousness, they frequently cause trouble for the park.
    • Their first breakout prevents Bob from hearing what size cage Nigel needs for the terror birds.
    • They also demolish part of the Bug House, setting Bob back a bit on his schedule.
    • Averted in regards to the breakout, though: that was more the Troodon's fault. Instead, they fill the role of The Millstone by knocking over the trees Bob is planting as future food for them.
  • Mundane Utility: In one episode, one of them is used to tow a stalled truck through the time portal by leading it with potential gastroliths. Who needs a tow truck when you have a dinosaur?
  • No Name Given: Their species is never stated in series, as at the time the series aired, no sauropods were known from their time and place. Since then, three species have been identified: Dongbeititan, Liaoningotitan, and Ruixinia (although none are true titanosaurs).

    The Sabertooths 
Two individuals of the famous sabertooth cat Smilodon (specifically the South American variation, Smilodon populator). One is an older female that recently lost its cub and the other is a young bachelor male.

    The Terror Bird 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8652.png

A giant, flightless, carnivorous bird, likely of the species Phorusrhacos, rescued by Nigel during his first trip to Pleistocene South America.


  • Escape Artist: At the park, it has a habit of managing to get out of its enclosure. You'd think a ten foot tall carnivorous bird would be a problem, but see below.
  • Feathered Fiend: Subverted. It is a big and potentially dangerous predator, but its behavior is downright placid once it's taken to the park.
  • Out of Focus: Though "Saving the Sabretooth" is promoted as being about Nigel saving the two apex predators of prehistoric South America, the terror bird gets little screentime and is quickly caught while most of the episode focuses on Nigel and Saba tracking down the last of Smilodon. It does get a bit more focus in the final episode though.

    The Carboniferous Arthropods 
A Pulmonoscorpius, Meganeura, and Arthropleura brought back from the Carboniferous and kept in a special, climate-controlled bug house with a high-oxygen atmosphere. They're the most ancient creatures kept within the park.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: A scorpion the size of a cat, a dragonfly with the wingspan of an eagle, and a millipede about two meters long. Notably, the Arthropleura manages to win the sympathy of the insectophobic Bob simply because it was just that big that it loses its creepy factor.

    The Deinosuchus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8651.jpeg

A gigantic alligator capable of killing and eating dinosaurs. It is the last animal that Nigel intentionally retrieves.


    The Troodon 
A small and highly intelligent theropod dinosaur that becomes a stowaway from the final mission.
  • Artistic License – Paleontology: It's depicted with only a thin feathered coat. The real animals are believed to have had a full covering of complex feathers.
  • Hungry Menace: How did it get into the park? It snuck on the jeep to eat the leftover Deinosuchus bait and was still in it when Nigel returned to the present.
  • Raptor Attack: Slit pupils, pronated hands and only sporting a very thin coating of fuzz (making it look practically scaly anyway).
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's the reason the mass breakout in the final episode happens: after stowing away on Nigel's jeep (it was eating the leftover bait meat), it attacks Bob, almost causing him to collide with a titanosaur. The spooked sauropod promptly runs off, smashing open every exhibit it comes by.

Top