speculative-reviews

[speculative-reviews]

Starting Point

Speculative evolution is a wonderous thing. If done right, you can create entire worlds with fantastic (but still scientifically plausible) creatures of every shape and size. But sometimes, the results are, well... too weird. 

Take the Flish from The Future is Wild, for example: 

Look, I know that flying fish are a real thing. I saw wild ones during a cruise just a couple years ago. And I know that 200 million years could possibly be long enough for their gliding abilities to become powered flight. But was the xenomorph-style inner mouth really necessary? No fish has a mouth like that. The example that they provide in the show is similar to this: 

But as you can see, that’s not a second mouth. The fish is extending its jaw forward to create a vacuum effect that sucks smaller prey in. Not only is the Flish’s mouth covered by some weird beak seemingly just to make it look more like the canonically-extinct-at-that-point birds, but that vacuum effect only works in water. That’s why land animals can’t inhale their prey like Kirby. So either it has evolved to serve a different purpose, or the designers didn’t think about it too hard and just thought it looked cool.

I didn’t mean for this first review to be so cynical, I’m usually a lot funnier and more light-hearted than this, and I love the flish despite its flaws. I am fully capable of appreciating a creature design without it needing to make sense from a biological standpoint.