Dinosaur Fever

"Dinosaur Fever"
Season	2
Episode	3
Airdate	February 17, 2009
Writer	Jean Greig
Director	Paul Fox
Guests	Geordie Johnson as Barkeley Blake Matt Gordon as Rudolph Sutton Kerry McPherson as Mary Ann McConnell
Recurring	Lachlan Murdoch as Henry Higgins
Previous	Snakes and Ladders
Next	Houdini Whodunit

"​Dinosaur Fever​" is the third episode of the second season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the sixteenth episode of the series. It first aired on February 17, 2009.

Summary

Detective Murdoch and Dr. Ogden attend the Dinosaur Ball and put their recently acquired dancing skills to good use. At the appropriate time their host, Barclay Blake, is set to reveal his latest find from the fields of Alberta. A religious fanatic interrupts the proceedings but when the dinosaur is shown, the gigantic skeleton has a body in its jaws.

The dead man turns out to be Lukas DeWitt, a member of Blake's last expedition. Dr. Ogden believes that DeWitt was shot but using a new photographic device called radiography that takes special pictures with x-rays, they are unable to locate a bullet. As Murdoch investigates, there is no shortage of suspects, including one of Blake's rivals, Professor Rudolph Sutton.

When they find bits of concrete in DeWitt's wounds, the x-ray machine reveals something else about the artifacts Blake found.

Character Revelations

• William Murdoch has dreams, one about the Badlands of Alberta is revealed at the end of this episode and his desire for a family. Studying the woman's walk, he smiles recognizing who she is– Julia, (watch The Annoying Red Planet train station scene).

Continuity

• While William and Julia are dancing, he comments favorably about the money spent for dancing lessons in Snakes and Ladders.
• Murdoch's keen interest in dinosaurs will be whetted again in Season 7's Loch Ness Murdoch.

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1896 – Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 1819 - 1901) is Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Empress of India.
• X-rays, discovered by Röntgen in 1895.
• In 1901 Röntgen receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of x-rays.
• Alberta is mentioned for the first time in the series and it is featured prominently in this episode. In 1896, the District of Alberta was one of four districts of the Northwest Territories and the area covered only a portion of today's province. The Province of Alberta was formed in 1905.
• Murdoch mentions the "bone wars " a real-life rivalry between two palaeontologists, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh between 1877 and 1892.

Errors

• No such creature as a "Terrorsaurus" has been found, unless you count in Power Rangers universe.  
• The Albertosaurus was first described in 1905, when Alberta was formed as a province. Both Alberta and Albertosaurus were mentioned in the episode even though it takes place prior to this year. It is plausible that the reference is to the District of Alberta, which had existed between 1882 and 1905. If they meant to reference a "Pterosaur", the first one described from Alberta was in 1995. Interestingly enough, a show that is so involved in scientific advances put this bit of paleontology in the dark. 
• The dinosaurs in the episode are mounted in the modern horizontal posture, with the tail lifted off the ground. However in the late-19th century when the episode is set, the predominant theories put the animals in an upright, tail-dragging posture. 

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid
Jonny Harris as George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins

Guest Cast

Geordie Johnson as Barkeley Blake
Matt Gordon as Rudolph Sutton
Kerry McPherson as Mary Ann McConnell
Tyler Kyte as Clyde Dunbar
Sean Kaufman as Lukas DeWitt
London Angelis as Murdoch's Son

Gallery

Dinosaur crime scene

Working it out on the Blackboard

Taking an Xray

Where's the bullet

Xray a different story

Dreams of Alberta Badlands