Of the nature films I saw (chosen by our biology teacher host, Dr. Cammer), the one that stands out was - zounds, I forgot the name, all right? But I always remembered it. An amazing tracing of the evolution of mammalian carnivores, including the slice of the tracing that struck me at the time, the long and winding evolution of canines, felines, and ursids (dogs, cats, and bears). Y'see, at times, the most successful doggy-dog-thing in the world looked like a kitty-cat-thing. Or the most successful teddy-bear-thing looked like a doggy-dog-thing, then like a kitty-cat-thing, and then, after hundreds of millennia, like a teddy-bear-thing. They traded off, or vaguely stole from each other, the traits we see as kitty-like, doggy-like, and teddy-like (if you will). These interwove; it all had to do with blood-lusty competition and the bleak, merciless evolutionary pressures of the going eon.
Nowhere in my life had I heard any of this talked about. Years... went by. Then years of occasional, lengthy searching went by, with no name. Nothing. I'd confabulated a long weave (woof? weft? warp?) of canines, felines, and ursids in a dream.
In the time since I identified the memory (from x-rays of its teeth) as BBC's The Velvet Claw, it's been unavailable or else so expensive I couldn't afford it. There's also a book, but that was expensive too, and I'm busy.
Just now on IMDb, in passing, I noticed The Velvet Claw videos have a not unslouchy grade of 5 out of 10. Oh, I thought. Well, maybe the videos weren't accurate. Maybe I was naive, my taste wasn't good - you know, I was a high schooler.
Then I came across this article.
The trouble with star numbers and online ratings is that they don't tell you anything in particular. Votes and popularity contests are, in themselves, single numbers in place of many feelings and colors and thoughts. They are, in fact, mathematically one-dimensional.
Anyway, if you get a chance, my high school self very highly recommends it.
