You know she had to turn up. The it girl. Spinosaurus.

Many years ago, when I was still blogging for National Geographic, an editor there asked me about research said to prove the spine lizard was an aquatic dinosaur - claimed by the paleontologists as the first ever found. I said the findings sounded really interesting, if the conclusions were overblown. I half expected that the release of the new studies would be something of a disappointment, how little of the new skeleton was found.

Mercifully, I’ve learned to admit and accept when I’m wrong.

I still think the Spinosaurus media push in 2014 was heavier on the style than substance. But I was deep in a world of technical papers, academic conferences, and days on end in the desert. I was tired of dinosaur sensationalism, and, naively, I didn’t think Spinosaurus would sail on a surge of new popularity. I didn’t think about the fact that everyone loves a good monster. And what are dinosaurs if not monsters we can touch?

We could jaw about whether Spinosaurus is overplayed. The dinosaur’s in every documentary, even revived in the Jurassic World series after being at the center of the stinker that was JPIII. Everyone has an opinion on the dinosaur and how it should look, too, something I can certainly empathize with. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that Spinosaurus is the perfect modern dinosaur. It’s as big as T. rex, already working in a favorite rivalry, but far stranger. The sail, the paddle-like tail, the heavy claws, and, most of all, the crocodile-like profile that’s a fresh look despite Baryonyx getting it going in the 1980s. (As with punk music, whatever you like has another layer beneath it.) The fact that Walking With Dinosaurs would pick a Spinosaurus episode is not surprising in the least. It’s a matter of meeting the moment. The question is how a show balances spectacle and science regarding such a controversial dinosaur.

The second episode’s story, anchored in Egypt and paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim’s fieldwork, spotlights Sobek - a male Spinosaurus watching over a creche of babies, alligator style. We have no direct evidence that Spinosaurus looked over their offspring the same way modern alligators and crocodiles do, but then again we don’t have such evidence for most dinosaurs. Nesting adults and a few theropod perinate fossils, as well as parental care in modern archosaurs, point towards some form of widespread parental care among Mesozoic theropods. It’s reasonable to think crocodylian-style babysitting is a good outline (and I model the same behavior in Tyrant Lizard Queen).

Much like Steven Spielberg, though, dinosaur storywriters only introduce youngsters in order to put them in danger. In this case, the show reminds us that large crocodiles lived in the same waters as Spinosaurus, with the huge Carcharodontosaurus a frightening presence on land. I have to hand it to the show here, the feeding Carcharodontosaurus is menacing, creepy, and gross without acting like a Hollywood monster. Some dinosaurs surely would have been frightening to see. WWD captures the intimidation display well.

Much like the first episode, the show bounces back and forth between fossils in the field and reconstruction. I love the juxtaposition. Even though our focus is on dinosaurs, the broader paleoecology getting short shrift, the breakaway science scenes help viewers understand that dinosaur bones are found in the remnants of ancient environments that included many organisms and many types of fossils - as this episode showcases, tracks as well as bones. Dinosaur species are so often considered in isolation - unless they’re fighting - that who actually lived alongside whom often gets hazy. The Carcharodontosaurus confrontation is a good example of how WWD differs. Other dinosaur programs, such as Planet Dinosaur, have brought Carcharodontosaurus and Spinosaurus together before, but it’s still satisfying to see a carefully-considered scenario for how the two would have come into contact.

The problem with superlative carnivores, however, is that I was starting to feel predator fatigue by time Alanqa came on screen. Giant pterosaurs are nearly as popular as Spinosaurus these days. Azdarchids are awkward and weird, something fresh for this era of Mesozoic fans. And given the popularity of the “terrestrial stalker” hypothesis, this is what we often see them do. (Once more, I wrote something similar for Tyrant Lizard Queen.) But when we have so much emphasis on Spinosaurus being a majestic predator, Carcharodontosaurus being an equally majestic predator, there being crocs in the water that eat baby predators, and Alanqa being another menacing predator of predators, with the show repeatedly emphasizing the environment’s abundance of carnivores, the drama starts to feel a little flat. This is a significant problem with carnivore stories. We focus on what they eat, and what might eat them, but plucking that tension string too much starts to make it wind out of tune. Talking about teeth as “main weapons” and “killing tools,” for example, feels like overkill - as if we do not understand that these animals evolved to do what they do. When we get to see these animals move around, we don’t have to hype them so hard.

Nevertheless, I have to give the show credit for including repeated instances of theropod conflict that don’t rage like the climax of a summer blockbuster. Late in the show, another large Spinosaurus takes up near Sobek’s home. The two spar, Sobek loses, but he does not leave. The two fight again, this time Sobek driving the other Spinosaurus off (although he dramatically perishes soon after delivering food to his nestlings). The spats, while a little bloody, are brief. The animals do not want to risk injury by trying to kill another large predator for no reason, closer to the way large carnivores often move around each other and work out disputes today. It’s these little touches, the small differences, that make “The River Dragon” a more grounded and natural-feeling rendition of the Spinosaurus story than what we’ve seen in The Dinosaurs and other WWD-likes.

I’m sure I’ll come back to it. As we learn more about Spinosaurus, and the dinosaur undoubtedly changes, Sobek will be a fine summary of how we understood the celebrity dinosaur circa 2025.