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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows a malevolent Elizabeth (Bridget Neval) at Sandy Bay High School indicating to Toby (André De Vanny) that she has interfered with his dodo cloning experiment. Indeed, when Toby and school friend Russ (Ben Schnideg) get to Toby’s 'lab’, a rapidly growing T-Rex has hatched. When Russ recalls what happened at the school laboratory, Toby concludes that Elizabeth mixed T-Rex DNA with axolotl DNA which somehow accounts for its spectacular growth. The 'baby’ bursts out of the shed. The clip includes music.

Educational value points

• This clip provides a modern-day science-fiction version of the traditional sorcerer’s apprentice fable written for a young audience. In this fable everything goes out of control when the apprentice secretly tries to use the sorcerer’s broomstick without knowing how to stop it. Here, Toby’s improbable discovery of a simple way to clone an extinct species goes spectacularly awry due to Elizabeth’s interference.

• This clip shows how the drama, comedy and horror elements of science fiction often derive from blending the improbable with the familiar. Elizabeth and Toby are outwardly ordinary students and initially Elizabeth’s mischief seems funny. However, as the story progresses, Elizabeth and Toby’s supernatural powers are revealed and Elizabeth’s interference is seen to have catastrophic implications.

• This episode of the science-fiction children’s series Wicked Science focuses on the concept of cloning, a process that, in this application, refers to the artificial generation of a complete animal from the DNA material of one individual. In 1996 the first successfully cloned mammal was born, a sheep called Dolly (1996–2003). The process of cloning involves introducing a DNA sequence or a nucleus of a body cell into an egg cell without a nucleus, to prompt cell development.

• 'T-Rex’ is a shortened form of Tyrannosaurus rex, the North American dinosaur that existed around the end of the Cretaceous period (136–65 million years ago). It was one of the largest biped carnivorous dinosaurs and grew to 15 m long. There has been controversy among experts over whether the ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex, which weighed around 7 tonnes, should be defined as a predatory hunter or a slow-moving scavenger.

• Many scientists believe that reproduction technology offers the potential to clone an extinct animal. In 1952 scientists cloned a tadpole but, until Scottish scientists cloned the sheep Dolly in 1996, the cloning of mammals was only possible by using embryo cells. Since 1996 researchers have cloned many animals using nuclear transfer technology, but cloning is very difficult, costly, poorly understood and has a low rate of success.

• Cloning, especially the possibility of human cloning, is controversial for many reasons. Some religious people believe that by cloning, a scientist is taking over a responsibility that ought to exist with God. Cloning of animals has a low rate of success and those that survive have a higher risk of abnormalities. Human cloning poses questions about parenting responsibility and issues related to unpredictable outcomes of such experimental processes, as alluded to in this clip.

• DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a large molecule in a cell or viral nuclei that contains genetic material and transmits genetic characteristics. The structure of the DNA is characterised by two intertwined spirals bonded by hydrogen atoms as a double helix.

• The computer-generated T-Rex in the clip was added to the live-action footage in post-production. The computer program used a dinosaur model as a template and re-created three-dimensional lifelike changes to muscles and skin to make the monster look authentic. Post-production and visual effects supervisor Barry Lanfranchi was nominated for an AFI award for his work in this series.

• This clip is from a series produced by Jonathan M Shiff Productions, which specialises in and is acclaimed for creating many children’s television series, such as Ocean Girl (1995), Thunderstone (1999) and Wicked Science (2003). Wicked Science won an AFI Award for Best Children’s Television Drama in 2004. Shiff was a lawyer, before graduating as a director from the Swinburne Film and Television School. He established his film company in 1988.