The Future Is Wild — Season 1, Episode 7: Flooded World
Documentary • 25 min • 1 season, 13 episodes • ★ 7.6/10
Episode synopsis
The episode is set in shallow seas of Paris, 100 million years into the future. The episode focuses on three species which all live together: (1) Ocean Phantom, a type of portuguese man-of-war that can grow to ten metres in diameter; (2) Reef Glider, a descendant of the sea slug which hunts ocean phantoms. The young, however, are prey to the ocean phantom; (3) Spindle Trooper, sea spiders that live in chambers on the Ocean Phantom and protect it from danger. The Ocean Phantom in return feeds it. This episode focuses on the extinction of the coral reefs and their replacement with red algae reefs. It shows how this food chain works and how the animals have evolved together. It also shows how Ocean Phantoms can be ripped apart by a severe storm but still carry on living.
About The Future Is Wild
The Future Is Wild was a 2002 thirteen-part documentary television miniseries. Based on research and interviews with several scientists, the miniseries shows how life could evolve in the future if Homo sapiens left the earth. The version broadcast on the Discovery Channel modified this premise, supposing instead that the human race had completely abandoned the Earth and had sent back probes to examine the progress of life on the planet. The show took the form of a nature documentary. The miniseries was released with a companion book written by geologist Dougal Dixon, the author of several "anthropologies and zoologies of the future", in conjunction with natural history television producer John Adams. For a time in 2005, a theme park based on this program was opened in Japan. In 2008 a special on the Discovery Channel about the development of the video game Spore was combined with airings of The Future Is Wild. A film version of the series was picked up by Warner Bros.