Review for Dolphins: Spy in the Pod

Everyone loves Dolphins. They are generally regarded to be the most popular animal in the world and certainly one of the most intelligent. Now the BBC show them like never before with their 'Spy Cam' series. Previously we have seen Elephants, Penguins with special spy cams, but now it is these quick agile animals and that's what makes this so much more impressive.

We get to see the Dolphins doing what they do best: Everything. From hunting to acrobatics, these creatures are just miraculous and watching them here makes it even more so. To achieve this, there are multiple 'spycams' in the guise of a dolphin, turtle, squid, clam and even a real dolphin itself takes a camera to the ocean. This is all fascinating to watch and seeing a real turtle trying to mate with the spyturtle is both curious and hilarious.

Through the two episodes we see how the dolphin interacts with other animals such as stingrays, deadly orcas, turtles and even other dolphins. The sight of two pods coming together to create a 'megapod' is amazing with over 3000 dolphins coming together. We also get to see the development of one dolphin from curious infant into independent adult. The hunting of the dolphins is explored in detail and the sight of the dolphins herding fish onto a mudbank to eat is something I had never seen before as is most of the things I saw throughout.

David Tennant is perfect as the narrator and if David Attenborough ever decides to hang up his boots, I think Tennant would be an ideal choice. His calm nature and easy narration helps you appreciate what you are seeing and does not over-exaggerate what is being shown.

My only issue with this set is the lack of extras. With only a picture gallery I felt this is a set that has been slighted somewhat. This is one of those documentary series that really would have benefited from either a commentary or a behind the scenes featurette on how they created it. It would have been lovely to have seen how they created the spycams and also how long this was going on for as you get the feeling they were filming for a good number of months, maybe even years to get this footage.

Dolphins-Spy in the Pod is one of the best documentary series about the creature that I have seen. If I had to nitpick (apart from lack of extras) it's that two episodes was not enough and I wanted more. It would have been nice if they had created a few other ones which followed the turtles they encountered, orcas or any of the other ocean life shown. That being said, if you love dolphins you will love spying on them in this wonderful show.