I thought it was very well done. They took a myth and fleshed it out as to how it might have been had they been real.
Catch the re-run if you can.
We did, and they did a fantastic job on it. The promo’s for the show were great, totally peaked my son’s interest and we’d already explored dragonsarecoming.com and sent e-cards to assorted friends and relatives reminding them to watch.
Loved the narration, loved watching my son’s face light up as they made his favorite mythological creature appear feasible, we definitely enjoyed it.
I caught this somewhere in the middle, with no real idea at all of what it was. I was almost completely fooled - there was a bit about the dragon mother fighting a T. Rex, then some scientific-looking lab work, at which point I turned to my husband and said, “No way! They found a dragon preserved in ice??? COOL!”
Next commercial, I heard the voiceover “fantasy made real” or words to that effect and I must admit, I was kinda disappointed.
LifeOnWry: I knew someone would be taken in by that. It was well-done, and even a skeptical plot-hole-poker like me was entertained.
People believed The War of the Worlds, too.
I think they missed something.
They should have had one line become marine iguanas.
They already look like dragons.
One thing I didn’t get though. I liked how they had Cretaceous dragons with their forelimbs as wings, and then they become extinct and winged dragons re-evolve from a separate lineage. (Crocidilans actually did this) But they didn’t explain where the four-legged dragons got their wing limbs from. Articulated ribs?
I saw a bit of the frist half hour. I wasn’t very impressed, and I was surprised there weren’t disclaimers. I didn’t see anything that said it was fictitious, and I suspect a lot of people could be fooled.
The title of the show was…Dragons…a fantasy made Real
But I guess you missed that.
They said “what if” and “fantasy made real” a lot. Does that count? 
Dammit.
It was an awesome show. I am constantly amazed at the strides CGI has made since crap like the Last Starfighter and Tron. (Not that Tron was a crappy movie, but the CGI looked like crap.)
Maybe Patrick Stewart’s narration had something to do with that, too. The guy ALWAYS sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.
As I said, I caught this somewhere in the middle, so I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was certainly interested - right until I twigged to the fact that it was fictional.
I stopped watching before the end. It was because I like it, and it was getting sad. “Finding” the young one in the ice, going back to her mother’s solitary existence, the nomad male and so on. Watching a “species” die out was a bummer.
That’s how Peter Dickinson explained the dragon’s wings in The Flight of Dragons (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0879518391/ref=pd_sbs_b_1/102-4906561-5327360?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance). Dragons are usually portrayed with finger-membrane wings (like those of a bat or a pterodactyl) growing out of their shoulders. But, as Dickinson points out, “That means you have a six-limbed vertebrate – impossible.” Sometimes dragons are portrayed with their forelimbs doubling as wings, but “That always looks wrong. Everybody knows dragons had four legs.” His theory is that the wings were extended ribs, like those of a Draco volans (a small, flying lizard). Also, they were used for propulsion but not lift, because a dragon was essentially a living hydrogen-lift airship (and much, much larger than those portrayed in this TV show – we’re talking blue-whale-sized).
Was it a 3-part show, or did they just rerun it 3 times in a row? I Tivo’d them all, just to be sure, but…
They just reran it 3 times in a row. The first hour and and a half was the actual show. The last half hour talked about the making of the show.
I liked it, and thought it was interesting. My brother, who watched it with me, was taken in for a little bit until the first commercial break and the narrator’s “what if?” I thought it was very cool, but it was depressing towards the end when the dragons were forced into remote areas and eventually died out. The domestic strife with the caretaking of the eggs had me amused though.
I was confused about the ‘story’ that was going on with the forensics and all, though. They found the baby dragon, which was one of the ‘mountain’ dragons, which evolved separately than the prehistoric dragons, right? Then how did they use the mountain dragon’s body to determine how prehistoric dragons acted, or even if they ‘existed’ at all?
I didn’t catch it, but then I only watched a bit of it. I was expecting some kind of disclaimer after the comercial breaks like you see for “adult content” TV shows.
Hit submit too soon.
I stopped watching when the Momma dragon fought off the T-Rex. I looked at the dragon and said: No way could that thing fly. No freakin’ way. I didn’t wait around for the scientific explanation of the fire breathing part…
The “cretaceous dragon” did look rather tail-heavy. Hydrogen bladders or no, the wings were too far forward.
I am so glad that they made the “mountain dragon” four-legged. Too many Hollywood dragons end up looking like wyverns.
I thought it was kind of neat, the way they incorporated Chinese dragons into the story. Their semi-aquatic “forest dragon” looked less farfetched than the European variety.