Daddy Dearest is the 28th episode of Dinosaur King, in Series 1.
Summary[]
In a dream, Dr. Z thinks he hears his Therizinosaurus calling out for his "daddy", so he uses his dinosaur bones to determine its location, then wakes up the Alpha trio using unconventional "alarm clocks". He explains how he'd raised Therizinosaurus from an egg, but Ursula points out how similar this story is to that of Pachycephalosaurus. Dr. Z cites the difference being that he "enforced the strictest discipline" for Therizinosaurus, training it as hard as he could. He then loads them into a jet and sends them to it.
In the city, the D-Team is having a fossil hunt as homework, and are searching a mall. They find a few small fossilized shells in a wall, but are unimpressed, and so split up to find rarer ones. Max finds what turns out to be chewed gum, Rex is convinced everyone around him thinks he's lost it, and all three of the D-Team's dinos get bored and wander off, quickly leading their owners to the mall's waterfall display because of the intense heat.
Searching in the same city for Dr. Z's dinosaur, the Alpha Gang decides to go to the top floor of the mall tower. The D-Team investigates limestone walls in other buildings until Zoe thinks she sees something, but can't find it again. As they walk away, a glint of refracted sunlight off a window shines over the wall and a Therizinosaurus card embedded in the rock activates!
As the D-Team marvels, Dr. Z shows up in a mechanized balloon with Seth and tries to crush them by dropping a cage, but they escape. The Therizinosaurus begins to go wild, slashing lampposts and walls with his claws. When Dr. Z tells him to get in the cage and come home, he remembers Dr. Z and, in response, slashes the cage to bits, then walks off. At the top floor of the mall tower, the Alpha trio comes face-to-face with a angry Dr. Z who mimes through luckily sound-proof glass to get back to to the ground.
Therizinosaurus wanders around and damages several buildings in what turns out to have been (unsurprisingly) Tokyo. The D-Team spots it on top of a building, but are blinded by its glowing rainbow aura. Dr. Z flies the balloon up to him, but he swats it away with his tail. The D-Team accuses Dr. Z of scaring the dinosaur with his presence, and he may have been too strict with Therizinosaurus when it was growing up.
The Alpha Gang see this and summon their dinosaurs, but as Dr. Z tells them to back off, Therizinosaurus defeats all three dinos. Then noisy police cars and bright media cameras show up, sending Therizinosaurus jumping away across rooftops and climbing a skyscraper with its claws, but Chomp (small form) ran up and bit onto the end of its tail, going along for the ride, so the D-Team took the elevator of the building up to follow them. Dr. Z follows in the balloon, trying frantically to apologize, but with no success.
Finally above Therizinosaurus, the D-Team summons Ace and Paris to shatter the glass and pull the dinosaur inside, allowing Chomp to join the fight. Therizinosaurus, however, quickly knocks them out, leaving only Chomp with any energy. Dr. Z shows up again, this time with a secret weapon: he reminds Therizinosaurus of how they used to play tag when it was young, finally regaining its trust. Out of joy, he jumps onto its face and they hug, but his weight has put Therizinosaurus off balance, and the dinosaur falls out the window!
Chomp runs up and bites onto its tail, trying to keep it from falling, but is too weak and falls out with it, hitting and shredding the balloon. Chomp returns to his card in midair as Seth escapes in a small plane hidden in the balloon's "basket" section. Therizinosaurus curls Dr. Z in its claws as it falls back-first, hitting the ground and returning to its card, which falls into a bush. Dr. Z is hanging on a branch by his lab coat until Seth flies by and retrieves him, but the D-Team finds and claims the Therizinosaurus card. At the same time, Zoe also sees a giant, nearly complete set of Therizinosaurus fossils, perfect for their project.
Elsewhere, the Alpha trio catches up with Dr. Z and Seth, adamant that they did everything they could, but get left behind and toasted by the escape plane's afterburner. At Max's house, Dr. Taylor is impressed by the fossil that Max and the others found, and also states that it's dangerous and irresponsible to artificially strengthen a dinosaur. Dr. Z, meanwhile, vows to get Therizinosaurus back from the D-Team.
Battles[]
Alpha Gang vs. Therizinosaurus[]
The Alpha trio summons their three dinosaurs to face Therizinosaurus. Dr. Z tells them to back off, but they charge. Therizinosaurus swipes its claws, knocking Terry and Spiny back and sending Tank falling off the building, and she returns to her card in midair.
Therizinosaurus then uses Gyro Claw, sending Terry and Spiny flying off the building, also returning to their cards in midair.
Therizinosaurus wins
D-Team vs. Therizinosaurus[]
Rex and Zoe summon Ace and Paris to pull Therizinosaurus in through the window, letting Max summon Chomp. They face Therizinosaurus, but he uses Claw Blade, defeating Paris and Ace in turn with two quick slices each.
Chomp charges but is held back by the extended claws of the Move, and Therizinosaurus swings its arms out, sending Chomp flying back and into the wall, leaving him at critical energy level.
When Dr. Z regains Therizinosaurus's trust, he jumps onto the dino, throwing it off balance and out the window. Chomp runs up and bites onto its tail, but is too weak and both fall. Chomp returns to his card in midair, and Therizinosaurus is defeated when he hits the ground, protecting Dr. Z in the process.
Draw (D-Team gets the card)
Quotes[]
(Dr. Z was saved from falling off the building by Therizinosaurus, then Seth)
-Zander: "We tried to help."
-Ed: "We really did. We were within seconds of coming up with a pretty good plan that might have had a slim chance of possibly saving you."
Transcript[]
New Cards[]
- Therizinosaurus dinosaur card
- Gyro Claw move ability (no card)
- Claw Blade move ability (no card)
Trivia[]
- The episode's English name is a reference to the infamous 1978 memoir and 1981 film "Mommie Dearest".
- This is the second Secret-type dinosaur to appear and have a nickname.
- It's unclear why Zoe comments, "I've never seen so many shops," upon arriving in the mall building, having visited the megamall in Downtown Runaround.
- It's possible that she hasn't seen so many in a while or it was a blooper.
- In the Japanese version, Therizinosaurus is female, but in the English dub, it's male. This is another gender change between a dinosaur's Japanese and English portrayals, like with Acrocanthosaurus.
- No real-life creature that size could be as agile as Therizinosaurus was when it jumped away across rooftops.
- This is the only time a Secret Dinosaur of Dr. Z's creation clearly accepts him as its master and obeys or even listens to a word he says.
- Dr. Taylor comments on how the Therizinosaurus fossil looks like it belongs to the same family as Tyrannosaurus and Albisaurus. Tyrannosaurus is only a close relative of Therizinosaurus by being part of Coelurosauria, an entire diverse branch of theropods much larger than a "family", and Albisaurus isn't even a proper dinosaur, unless he meant to say Abelisaurus, a theropod that isn't even a coelurosaur.
- In one of Dr. Z's flashbacks he scolds Therizinosaurus for wetting his blanket because he drank milk before going to bed. In real life, dinosaurs, since they were reptiles, would probably have been lactose intolerant by nature. A possible symptom of lactose intolerance is diarrhea, which could be the reason Therizinosaurus wet its bedsheets.
- When Dr. Z thinks about pushing the Therizinosaurus off the skyscraper so that it turns back into its card, Seth points out that it's also possible that the dinosaur might not survive the fall. This concern implies that while the technology Dr. Ancient used to turn the dinosaurs into cards made them much more resilient to attacks, it still couldn't prevent the fact that a too heavy injury could still prove fatal. Given this background, it would be possible that Therizinosaurus only didn't die when it fell from the skyscraper because, as a Secret Dinosaur, it is more resilient than most other dinosaurs (or it stayed activated through sheer willpower to continue protecting Dr. Z, given the below point).
- Chomp and the main dinosaurs of the Alpha Gang returned to their cards mid-fall after falling from the skyscraper, so the possibility that they might have died if they had crashed the ground cannot be ruled out.
- A close-up range segment of Dr. Taylor sleeping, which was cut in the English dub likely for time saving, wasn't cut in the Taiwanese version of the episode.
- The same thing also happens with the scene where Dr. Z shows Therizinosaurus the scars it left as a child. While this was cut in the dub, it wasn't with the Taiwanese version.
Dub Edits[]
- A flashback of Dr. Z and Pachycephalosaurus was cut in the dub.
- The scene where Dr. Z hits Ursula, Zander, and Ed was cut.
- A shot of a building was shortened in the dub.
- The subway sign had text erased in the dub.
- Text throughout the entire mall was also erased in the dub.
- A building with "EM" was erased in the dub.
- The "News King" opening for the news report was cut in the dub.
- In addition, all text of "News King" was erased in the dub.
- A shot of Dr. Taylor sleeping was cut in the dub.
- "LIVE" was erased in the dub.
- The scene where Therizinosaurus was electricuted on-screen was cut in the dub.
- "POLICE" on the barricade was erased in the dub.
- The news reporter's microphone had text removed in the dub.
- A scene where Dr. Z's scars on his back that was left by Therizinosaurus was cut in the dub.
- A flashback scene where Dr. Z was groaning in pain from the slash was also cut.