How is Doc still alive?

Animeboye · **on:** February 16, 2010, 03:03:16 AM

As much as I enjoyed Land Before Time 6, one thing seriously confused me: Near the end of the movie, as Grandpa Longneck and the kids are heading to Saurus Rock, Grandpa Longneck confesses that he doesn't exactly know the way and that he had only heard about it in stories told by his grandpa. Now how is that possible? If Doc is the original Lone Dinosaur, there's no way he could still be alive(I think Cera even points that out at some point in the movie) especially if he was around Grandpa Longneck's Grandpa's age.

So that got me to thinking. What if Doc isn't exactly the Lone Dinosaur from Grandpa Longneck's story? He could be the son of the Lone Dinosaur from the story. Which, in turn, would explain why he was stronger than Grandpa Longneck who was supposedly "younger" than him(It's seriously a lot to buy that Doc is supposed to be so much older yet he's somehow stronger than GL). Or the other two possibilities:

It's simply a huge, gaping plothole...OR...

Doc is a Highlander.

Kor · **Reply #1 on:** February 16, 2010, 04:24:36 AM

Those are some interesting questions. I think they leave it vague enough so one can say it is any of those. Though there are certain details that Grandpa Longneck's Story leaves out that we do see in the flashback.

Malte279 · **Reply #2 on:** February 16, 2010, 04:42:48 AM

Unlike what some seem to think neither LBT 6, nor the TV episode "The lone dinosaur returns" ever explicitly state that Doc was really the one and only lone dinosaur of the legend. As a matter of fact the TV episode might even suggest otherwise seeing that he has a mate. The final decision whether to believe it (or whether to believe in the bad luck thing for that matter) is left entirely to the audience. I must say I preferred this mysteriousness much to the "ram the aliens down your throat" departure of the rainbowfaces in LBT 7.
It is basically left to each of us to decide whether or not Doc is the lone dinosaur of the legend, how much of the legend we believe to be true. The movie actually gives a very good impression of how legends start and may be blown up as it is passed on. For all this I do not see a huge plothole there, but rather a gap with the offer of various fillers for the audience to pick from.

Dante · **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2010, 04:24:27 PM

this is rare

I

Nick22 · **Reply #4 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:23:40 PM

doc would have to be rioughly 160 years old if he was an old as Littlefoots great-great-grandfather. Assumning Grandfather Longneck is 80 years old of course.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #5 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:28:12 PM

I think I heard years ago that dinosaurs may have been long-lived like modern tortoises (what can live up to, perhaps over, 200 years). I'm not sure if there's any evidence to support this though.

Ptyra · **Reply #6 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:41:52 PM

That's precisely one of the reasons why I don't like Doc too much, other than being a relatively boring character.

I've thought that if there was one thing that would make the sixth movie a bit better for Doc to be a mistaken identity. At some point, he could say "Woah, kid, I'm not the guy you're thinking of, he's long gone!"...at which point Littlefoot would go into a kiddish state of denial. Which is then mostly vanquished when Doc and Grandpa Longneck save him and his friends from the Sharpteeth.

Malte279 · **Reply #7 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:46:51 PM

Cera suggests in LBT 6 that the whole stuff of the legend happened far too long ago for the lone dinosaur to be still alive or Doc being him. She does add a question mark to her statement though by adding something along the lines of "...could he?"
However, Littlefoot's grandpa also states that he was told the story by his grandpa which indeed suggests that whatever the legend is based on happened more than a dinosaurs lifespan ago.
however, we never ever learn for sure whether or not Doc is the dinosaur of that legend so it is mostly left to us to decide. There is no solid proof for either view IF we are willing to accept such supernatural things to happen in the world of LBT. Seeing the cloud image and "visions" from the first movie there are good points not to put anything supernatural beyond the scope of LBT, but then again the messages about stories told and retold in LBT 6 as well as the Doc from the TV series come across as rather down to earth so there may be nothing supernatural (though extraordinary) about him at all (I am inclined to the later view personally).

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this is rare I

What is?

F-14 Ace · **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2010, 11:21:50 PM

How is Doc still alive? It's simple. He's a legend and legends never die!

Ptyra · **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2010, 11:24:11 PM

Soo...if legends never die, does that mean that Romulus and Remus are still alive? The legend may live on, but the person IN the legend won't.

Malte279 · **Reply #10 on:** February 17, 2010, 04:13:32 AM

Elivs lives

Well, he does not, but there several legends which include the notion of a passed away character returning to help the own people in times of need. Such is the case with king Arthur and Friedrich Barbarossa (for example). This is how Littlefoot could interpret Doc as the character of legend while Doc may just so happen to have a few similarities.
There are not too many points to support this view. He is a loner, he doesn't talk much, he can fight Sharpteeth, and he has a scar (while we are aware of the scar similarity only through a flashback which Littlefoot never saw. We don't know how exact the description of the scar was and whether that flashback was actually what happened or how Littlefoot and the others interpreted the tale they were told. I consider the later more likely.

Almaron · **Reply #11 on:** February 17, 2010, 04:59:21 AM

If Doc is the Lone Dinosaur, it may be that he was a young adult when he fought the sharptooth (His age isn't mentioned, so they could have just assumed he was an adult), which is why he is young enough.

Or, the tale of the Lone Dinosaur could be an old Longneck fairy tale, and Doc inadvertantly emulated it because of his scar. This could also be why he shies away from talking about himself, because he might hate being mixed up with the Lone Dinosaur of legend, and if every now and then he visits a valley where one person calls him the Lone Dinosaur, after a while the entire area would be following him around nagging him.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #12 on:** February 17, 2010, 12:22:44 PM

Quote from: Almaron,Feb 17 2010 on 03:59 AM

If Doc is the Lone Dinosaur, it may be that he was a young adult when he fought the sharptooth (His age isn't mentioned, so they could have just assumed he was an adult), which is why he is young enough.

Or, the tale of the Lone Dinosaur could be an old Longneck fairy tale, and Doc inadvertantly emulated it because of his scar. This could also be why he shies away from talking about himself, because he might hate being mixed up with the Lone Dinosaur of legend, and if every now and then he visits a valley where one person calls him the Lone Dinosaur, after a while the entire area would be following him around nagging him.

This is my suspicion, too

.

I originally thought, since the series had cases of paranormal/supernatural activity previously shown and/or mentioned, that Doc was actually a ghost. I got this impression during his departure near the end, when he seemed to vanish in thin air before any of the fog got too thick. It all seemed to add up. Cera talked about the ghost of the Lone Dinosaur visiting Saurus Rock at night (suggesting LBT dinosaurs do believe in the afterlife, Cera included), then Doc coincidentally showing up at Saurus Rock that night, Doc showing up in the times Littlefoot needed rescuing, and then his final departure I had previously mentioned. This was my original suspicion until the TV series happened, and Doc returned with a mate, so now I agree with Almaron :blink:.

Malte279 · **Reply #13 on:** February 17, 2010, 04:15:05 PM

Hey Almaron

It sure is good to hear from you again

The problem about Doc as the lone dinosaur is Littlefoot's grandpa's mentioning that he was told the story by his grandpa when he was a kid. This would make any construction of Doc being the actual lone dinosaur of the legend and still have nothing supernatural about him a rather unlikely construction.

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I originally thought, since the series had cases of paranormal/supernatural activity previously shown and/or mentioned, that Doc was actually a ghost. I got this impression during his departure near the end, when he seemed to vanish in thin air before any of the fog got too thick.

Aye, the departure of Doc seemed a little strange, but it is not as definitely "not normal" as the one of the rainbowfaces was. Given the setting it might have been a combination of mirage, dust, Littlefoot's teary eyes, and his imagination. Still I admit that I am "cconstructing" here too

Summing it all up I like your second interpretation Almaron, but Doc sure doesn't act in a way to actively dispel any impression of him being the lone dinosaur. We never even know for sure if Doc knows the tale of the lone dinosaur at all though.

Kor · **Reply #14 on:** February 17, 2010, 10:55:27 PM

It could be like Almaron's second idea. Or he may be someone who likes wondering for some reason. Maybe just he likes to, or something dark happened in his past or something so he'd rather wonder then settle down in one place.

TheNumberOneShmuck · **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2010, 06:38:16 AM

I thought it was quite obvious that Doc wasn't the original Lone Dinosaur. Not only would he be stupidly old to be alive, even young, when Grandpa Longneck was a kid, but it wasn't even clear how long the tale had been around in the first place, which means that he'd likely be even older than that.

Actually, I thought the big mystery was about whether or not there was a Lone Dinosaur in the first place. Seems like that's what left up to the audience, to decide for themselves whether it was a real dinosaur or just a legend passed down through the generations. I think it was probably started to help frightened or nervous kids in the Great Valley get to sleep by impressing upon them the idea of an eternal guardian spirit who would always be there to help in the face of danger.

In fact, I'd imagine that other species caught on to the idea, simply inserting their own kind into the role of the Lone Dinosaur. The title itself seems to imply this, as it keeps things nice and ambiguous for any group that wants in on the tradition. Actually, there's not much reason to assume that the original version of the tale featured a longneck in the title role; it could just as easily have been a threehorn or a spiketail.

Of course, the discovery of Saurus Rock has a big impact on the species thing. Depending on when it was discovered, the theory of the ambiguous species might not hold any water (if the discovery happened before the story began to spread to different species) or else it might simply have set in stone that particular aspect of the story (if discovery happened after the spread)

LBTFan13 · **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2010, 01:49:53 PM

I think TheNumberOneShmuck has a point. To me LBT VI revolved around what some make of legends. If the Lone Dinosaur is a legend, then the whole movie is about how a legend is spread and what the reaction to it is. Littlefoot's reaction resembles somebody who believes it without question, where as Cera acts more reasonable and takes these things into fact.

The TV series kind assumes that Doc is the Lone Dinosaur, but like Malte said I think it's meant to be the viewer's opinion as to whether or not he is truly the real thing.

Lyon · **Reply #17 on:** February 18, 2010, 04:59:05 PM

Like most others here, I agree that there is no way Doc can be the Lone Dinosaur - he would be ridiculously old to be that. And even if the theory of dinosaurs had lifespans as long as 200-300 years, we still have to account for the fact that GL would be near the 270 year mark.

This mean Doc would have to be around the 900 year mark to have been around at the time of GL's Grandfather.
That scar does make him look like the dinosaur in the legend, but I don't think that's why he avoids others. He may have had an experience when he was younger and now he prefers being by himself. There are many possibilities.

The Lone Dinosaur may simply be just that, a legend. He may not even exist at all, except in stories.

DarkHououmon · **Reply #18 on:** February 18, 2010, 05:14:18 PM

I do think it's possible that Doc could have become associated with the legend of the lone dinosaur and could, perhaps, even be the new lone dinosaur. It may be possible that he's actually a relative of the original lone dinosaur (whoever his name may be), perhaps a son or, more likely, a grandson. And he learned everything he knew from the original lone dinosaur. And the original lone dinosaur may not have been the hero the tale says he is, but perhaps just an exceptionally good sharptooth fighter. Doc may be the same way. Nothing special about him; just good at fighting sharpteeth, likely due to him being a loner.

My guess is what happened is the event didn't even take place in the Great Valley, and that Doc's grandfather may have done something amazing involving sharpteeth (perhaps fight off a lot of big strong ones by himself) and dinosaurs who witnessed this with their own eyes may have started telling tales about him, spreading further and further away across the lands, and during each retelling, more and more things were changed, perhaps even how long ago it took place. The Great Valley may have become the location for the event maybe due to its legendary status in the first movie, and perhaps because of Saurus Rock.

I'm not sure if the lone dinosaur actually looked like how he did in the flashback; that was an interpretation and Doc just happened to fit that interpretation.

Animeboye · **Reply #19 on:** February 18, 2010, 11:07:23 PM

I personally would have liked to see a little of Doc's past. Or at least had the movie drop some hints at certain points on what may have happened in his life and allow us to fill in the missing parts. The problem here is that not much is explained about Doc if anything. On top of which he ironically, had hardly any screentime in the movie that was supposed to be about HIM.

@DarkHououmon, I had actually suggested that myself. That Doc could be the son of the Lone Dinosaur.