It is a very balanced scene. No one’s a winner here. Everyone’s struggling – Vanessa Berlowitz
Vanessa Berlowitz, the award-winning producer and director of the episode the fight appeared in, Ice Worlds, says that the scene beautifully represented the plight of the polar bear. “You admired [the polar bear] for having been forced to try and take on this huge adversary, and then you realised it was a real battle of the titans,” says Berlowitz.
“You felt for the walruses when they were attacked, you felt for the polar bear,” she says. “It was actually a very balanced scene. No one’s a winner here. Everyone’s struggling.”
Tom Smith, professor of wildlife science at Brigham Young University in Utah, the US, agrees. “Most people relate to both the plight of the polar bear and that of the walrus protecting its juvenile. These life-death struggles always make for gripping cinema as we can all relate, viscerally, at some level.”
Sir David narrates: “Unable to feed, this bear will not survive. If the global climate continues to warm, and the Arctic ice melts sooner each year, it’s certain that more bears will share this fate.” Shortly after the sequence was filmed, Ravetch was airlifted out of the location, and the bear’s ultimate fate is unknown.