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.

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 believe 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.

Continuity

While William Murdoch and Julia Ogden are dancing, he comments favorably about the money spent for dancing lessons ("Snakes and Ladders").

Historical References

• X-rays, discovered by Röntgen in 1895.
• 1901 Rontgen receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of x-rays.
• 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. 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. 

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 Starring

Geordie Johnson as Barclay Blake
Matt Gordon as Rudolph Sutton
Kerry McPherson as Mary Ann McConnell
Tyler Kyte as Clyde Dunbar

Other Cast

Sean Kaufman as Lukas DeWitt
London Angelis as Murdoch's Boy

Gallery

Dinosaur crime scene

Taking an Xray

Where's the bullet

Xray a different story

Dreams of Alberta Badlands