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This herd life's not for me. Too much talkin'. |
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— Doc
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Doc is a wandering longneck who goes "where the road takes him." He is shown to be very taciturn and not forthcoming of his past. He first appears in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock, and he also reappears in the TV series.
Legends in the story[]
As Grandpa Longneck tells the children at the beginning of The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock, The Lone Dinosaur was a legendary hero long ago, before Grandpa Longneck was alive, as he states later in the movie, who would just show up out of nowhere whenever there was danger afoot in a community. One day, what was declared the "biggest, meanest, most ferocious Sharptooth ever" came to the Great Valley, and while everyone ran away, the Lone Dinosaur appeared and battled with the Sharptooth on his own. His opponent managed to lacerate the skin around his eye, which apparently left a permanent scar running down the side of his face, but he emerged victorious after tossing the brutal beast toward a pile of boulders, and later down a canyon.
A short while after he had defeated the Sharptooth and left the Great Valley, a rocky formation rose up out of the ground, shaped like a Longneck, with a ring of teeth encircling its neck. The teeth were said to be those of the same Sharptooth as the one he had killed. It was also believed (and later in the film seems to be proven true) that if Saurus Rock got damaged in any way, it would unleash a curse on the entire valley.
Comparisons in the present[]
Shortly after appearing in the Great Valley, Doc saved Littlefoot from falling and hitting the ground too hard, who quickly went on to idolize the wanderer. Littlefoot believed Doc to be the legendary "Lone Dinosaur", who saved the Great Valley long ago from the most terrible Sharptooth. He based these assumptions on the fact that Doc can do cool tricks with his tail; that he had been to the Great Valley before; that he has a scar on his eye, and that he has a resemblance to Saurus Rock. Cera, however, pointed out that the legends took place a long time ago, and that the real Lone Dinosaur couldn't still be alive, but Cera then doubts her theory on the speculation.
Role in the show and films[]
To a degree, after Littlefoot starts idolizing Doc, he places him above his own grandfather and defends him when he is accused of bringing bad luck to the Valley. Towards the end, Doc and Grandpa Longneck work together to save Littlefoot from an Allosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus; Littlefoot asks Doc to stay in case the Valley should ever need a hero; Doc replies that the Valley already has a hero and looks towards Grandpa Longneck. Doc then leaves.
In an episode of the TV series, The Lone Dinosaur Returns, Doc returns to the Great Valley. In this episode, he shows great hostility towards the fact that Littlefoot is friends with a Sharptooth named Chomper. This severely weakens Littlefoot and Doc's relationship, until they save Doc's friend Dara, and Doc apologizes to Chomper and makes peace with the young Sharptooth. He is voiced by Kris Kristofferson in the film and Jeff Bennett in the TV series.
Personality[]
Doc is very quiet, distant and reclusive, and tends to recede into the background whenever there's a crowd. He does not want to give away much on his history, perhaps to avoid the dinosaur's equivalent of legend or because he doesn't believe himself to be a hero and believes he's the cause of everyone's troubles. He has a brave and pure heart, as stated in the song, "The Legend of the Lone Dinosaur." He indeed always shows up whenever help is needed. However, he calls it off each time as merely being "lucky".
His belief in luck is examined in The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock when Littlefoot inquires if he believes in bad luck. He says that with all the bad luck he's seen happen, it's hard not to believe in it. He also theorizes that the way to handle bad luck is to change all that you can, and if you can't change something, just accept that and move on.
Doc claims he is a loner. At one point he said, "I'm a loner. That's the way I've always been." While Doc admits he does sometimes feel lonely, other times he says that he feels a bit crowded. At one point he also said, "My footsteps were planted on the wandering trail long ago. I'm too old to change now." Nevertheless, in "The Lone Dinosaur Returns", he has gotten himself a lady friend, named Dara, which Littlefoot finds surprising, as he feels you can't be a Lone Dinosaur if you're travelling with someone else.
When Doc first meets Chomper, he's at first skeptical about him due to his experience with sharpteeth. But when he learns about how kind and helpful Chomper is, he realizes he had judged him too soon and makes peace with him.
"The Lone Dinosaur" seems to be a parody of The Lone Ranger. Doc also contains similar traits to characters played by John Wayne; his name even sounding similar to John Wayne's nickname, "Duke". However, this may be a coincidence.
Reception[]
The Dinosaur Filmography describes his voice as being as gravelly as a bone bed.
Prominent appearances[]
- In the movies:
- In the television series:
Trivia[]
- A bonus feature on the DVD for The Secret of Saurus Rock identifies Doc as a Diplodocus.[1]
- In comparison to the "Lone Dinosaur" legend, Cera says that Doc couldn't have been the real Lone Dinosaur because it happened so long ago, but she quickly doubts her theory on this occasion. In reality scientists have examined the fossils of Diplodocus and found that they have been know to live over 100 years, meaning it is possible that Doc may indeed be the Lone Dinosaur.
- In "The Lone Dinosaur Returns", Doc says that there aren't many of his kind left. He, Dara and Mrs. Mama are the only named Diplodocus seen in the series, and Doc is the only recurring Diplodocus character. It is entirely possible that, in the Land Before Time universe, Diplodocus is nearing extinction.
- If Bron hadn't been introduced into the series as Littlefoot's father, it is entirely possible that Doc could have been the father. Apatosaurus and Diplodocus are so closely related in genetic terms that successful interbreeding is possible.
- The Lone Dinosaur may be a parody of The Lone Ranger.
- Although it is never explicitly revealed, it is likely that Doc is in fact the Lone Dinosaur. He had been to the Great Valley before, and he claims that the scar on his neck came from "something sharp". When Littlefoot asks if it came from a Sharptooth, Doc diverts the topic. Given his introversion, it is most likely that Doc didn't want the dinosaurs to know that he is in fact the Lone Dinosaur to avoid being the center of attention.
