Terra Nova: S01 Ep12 – Resistance

What happened?

Jim is captured and interrogated by Lucas, but gives away nothing. Skye aligns herself with Lucas and grants Josh his freedom and Jim a reprieve, and so the Shannon family make their escape. Washington aids them, but her endeavour is a sacrifice when she is shot and killed.

Jim is sent through the portal in a container on a mission to release a massive bomb to destroy the portal facility and cut off Terra Nova from the future. The plan succeeds, and Jim manages to return to the now isolated prehistoric world.

Skye reveals she was working against Lucas all along and, when Taylor fights with him and looks as though he may be about to killed, she shoots Lucas. Unseen, however, he crawls away. Meanwhile Terra Nova is vacated by the military who have relocated to the Badlands, and a strange item has been recovered from there: the prow of a 19th century ship.

Thoughts

Good for Terra Nova. From shaky beginnings, and an inherent cheesy vibe and a clumsy way with dialogue and plotting, this is a show that had great potential and appeared to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. But there was always something likable about it, despite all of the flaws and maybe even because of them. So good for this show to have managed to pull itself together to deliver a rousing finale and sow seeds of promise for future seasons – if it ever gets to have any.

The death of Washington was the episode’s coldest and most brutal moment. I knew the instant she died, however, that everyone else was bound to be safe. There was no way Terra Nova was going to deliver a massacre, but the nature of Washington’s sacrifice and death was definitely the show delivering its biggest impact moment. It’s just a shame her character hadn’t had more screentime and development previously. As it was we knew who she was but we didn’t really know anything about her. Her death was shocking in its execution, but not in generating any sense of loss. Terra Nova will go on just as well without her.

Liz got given something to do other than be doting towards Jim or do something science-y, at least. The trick with the injection showed she’s got some guile about her, too, and I’d like to see more of that from her to give her more vitality. From a promising beginning she is a character that has been somewhat pigeonholed. Even entanglements with Malcolm fizzled away into nothing and she became a one-note stock personality.

Mind, few characters really had much in the way of development. Taylor was always the most interesting, and remained so. Yet credit to Skye, as well. At first presented as an improbable object of affection for Josh, she’s developed into something more layered. Her shooting of Lucas here showed she had flourished into a character that could have more guts and courage than most other characters. She could almost blossom into a Starbuck-like figure. Well, OK, a Starbuck-lite figure. She more than anyone has definitely benefited from the last few episodes and the relationship between her and Taylor is also one that possesses plenty of mileage.

(It could be a bit like Adama and Starbuck, actually! Ha!)

The father-son showdown between Taylor and Lucas did really well to undercut the audience’s expectations. Terra Nova is guilty of going down the cheesy route all too readily, so when Lucas had a sudden about-face and pleaded for forgiveness from his father it looked farfetched and unbelievable – but that fit in with Terra Nova! To have it turn out to be a genuine ruse after all was cool. And, sure, having Lucas manage to crawl away and survive was hokey, but it does mean that the father-son relationship can take a few more twists and turns. Fact is, Lucas has promise as a deranged wildcard in the Terra Nova jungle and any second season would miss him.

I still think there will be an eventually father-son redemption bonding!

Am I supposed to figure that the Carnosaur that ran riot from the container was the equivalent of a T-Rex? I had predicted a T-Rex would make a big appearance in the finale, so to that end the Carnosaur just about fit the bill. The image of Jim running from the exploding facility with the dinosaur rampaging behind him but ahead of the blast was an eyeball-popping moment, that was for sure.

Mira will, naturally, have to assume that her reward of being reunited with her daughter was one that would have been fulfilled had the portal remained intact. As such she and the Sixer gang are sure to remain an enemy of Taylor and Terra Nova as they were the ones that destroyed the portal connection. It’s unclear if the Sixers have gone with the military, to the Badlands, but that’s the impression I got. What’s at the Badlands is, naturally, the big question mark Terra Nova presented to entice the prospect of a second season.

The recovery of the piece of ship suggests that there was/is a civilisation on Terra Nova. The most obvious idea would be that there was another rift in time back in the 19th century that people slipped through to this prehistoric world and set up life there. What became of them is a key question. Maybe they still exist. It is an entire world, after all, and not even bound by being a part of Earth’s history – so anything is possible.

It may even be that the rift is open already, and is connected to the 19th century. Perhaps the rift there is out at sea, and as such remains largely undetected except for when some ship happens to stumble into it and then runaground in the badlands. Perhaps there are rifts all over the place, connected to all different times! The possibilities are endless!

I am pleased that Terra Nova has cut itself off from the future (though, no doubt, the future is hastily resurrecting the portal should there be, say, a season 3 or 4 when they can make a re-appearance to liven things up!) so the world can be focussed as a more self-contained environment. That these remaining people may form the basis for a new civilisation is an intriguing premise. And as much as Terra Nova has been cheesy and poorly-written, and all too often clumsy in plot executions, I’d like to see it return.

In a funny way, it really grew on me. Not once did I ever think it was brilliant, and it was rarely captivating. But for a nice dose of easy, fun viewing with more than a dash of interesting potential, Terra Nova has been a good show.

What was the best part?

The moment where Lucas appeared to plead for forgiveness from his father only for it to be a fake so he could get in close and stab him was a deft reversal of Terra Nova’s usual mawkishness. Having Skye then enter the frame at the crucial moment and pump a bullet into Lucas not only showed her character has a serious edge, it also made for the best moment in the episode.

What do I think will happen next?

Terra Nova will re-build and, no doubt, be forced to investigate just what on Earth is at the Badlands. As said above, I expect there to be a rift connected to the 19th century, and perhaps signs of a former civilisation. Beyond that the show has pretty much given itself a clean slate, with the Terra Nova people left to start a new independent life for themselves.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep11 – Occupation

What happened?

The plans to stop the attack from the future on Terra Nova go awry when they send through a suicide bomber and destroy the portal. Jim is knocked unconscious for days and when he wakes he finds that Lucas and the people he is working for have taken over Terra Nova and are already making plans to mine the place of resources once they have wiped out plants and animals.

Whilst the people of Terra Nova that survived are kept as prisoners there under military rule, Taylor and a few soldiers are in the jungle staging a fightback. Jim groups with them and they manage to thwart the first assault to decimate the jungle. However, when Lucas begins beating Josh (working in the bar to try and eavesdrop for intel) Jim storms in and, though he makes a good fight, is overhwhelmed – and Lucas demands he tell him where he can find Taylor.

Thoughts

Things didn’t turn out how I, nor the people of Terra Nova, expected. And it made for the best episode yet. Cheese got to take a backseat when the show decided it was time to get serious (well, about as serious as it can be allowed to). It actually had a bit of a Battlestar Galactica season 3 feel to it, with our heroes and their homes under occupation from the enemy. And in the short space this episode allowed enough was done to make you hate the villains and want our good guys to come good.

Interesting start to the episode, beginning back with a stunning view of future Earth (apparently mostly a desert wasteland with giant pods erected in which humanity lives) it served to remind that the old world is a dying place – though it isn’t one that’s not without its own interesting angle and, if the show could find the scope for it, if Terra Nova chose to spend more time outside of Terra Nova to uncover plot machinations in the future, then that might prove fertile ground.

Another stylish choice was to have Jim taken out by the suicide bomber blast (I liked that he wasn’t a willing suicide bomber) and then awake disoriented, finding that the worst had happened and the enemy had, for the meantime, won. Of course it also meant the show didn’t have to go to the effort of showing the big battle and could cut quicker to the insurrection – but it worked well, perhaps more so here with this show than in others, because here we’re used to seeing our heroes plan's work out and them overcome the odds. To see them taken down, to see the enemy erecting flags and holding our main characters prisoner in their homes, that somehow felt more brutal because of the wholesome pedigree of the show’s previous episodes.

It’s not like Terra Nova suddenly found a mean, gritty streak, mind. The nastiest part of the episode showed the big bad corporate military guy shooting a brachiosaur in the head. Apart from giving him a cape and moustache to twirl it couldn’t really be less subtle in giving us someone to boo and hiss at. Even Lucas winced at it. As for Lucas himself, well, I did previously assert that I expected a father-son reunion to occur. Now I’m not so sure – Lucas did try hard enough to kill Taylor and he’s been something of a bastard about the place. I’m not calling off a total redemption arc here, because there is the other big bad man that could assume the role of chief villain, but it seems less likely.

Also, I did previously reckon that the Sixers would eventually come good and join in the fight with the good guys. Well, so far at least, that hasn’t panned out either. Mira I just can’t pin anything on at the moment because she wasn’t really allowed any moment to voice her own perspective. She did seem suspicious of Jim when he was pretending to be injured and delirious, but that didn’t go anywhere. I am sure that she expects her end of the deal to be fulfilled (if I remember rightly she wanted her daughter?) and if that doesn’t happen she’ll swiftly change allegiances. I don’t know if she or the Sixers actually will – but I find it hard to believe that both Lucas and Mira will remain bad to the finish. If they don’t get killed off (Mira, possibly, but Lucas surely not – but honestly I don’t expect either of them to) then I’d be very surprised if one of them didn’t stand up against the oppressors and help Taylor.

Indeed, if Lucas does manage to get the information he wants from Jim then Taylor’s going to be compromised and his people, already in a bad way, are definitely going to need a break from somewhere. Jim, meanwhile, will surely have a big part to play. Can’t exactly say the rest of the Shannon family have been showing much in the way of revolutionary spirit, and whilst Josh is well-meaning he’s also genuinely an idiot (let’s antagonise the chief bad man holding you and your people captive when he’s a had a drink!), so at least Jim has been showing some can-do attitude and is ready to bring the fight.

I liked the detail of Washington kicking her conscience around for surrendering. Not quite sure what the thinking was in having her sit in a bar all day to make a public example of her, though (particularly when she was left free to cavort with the drunken soldiers!). Still, I hope she gets her kick ass moment. And if it falls down to a girl-on-girl slug out between her and Mira then that can’t fail to be a great moment.

Terra Nova needed an episode like this; it needed to raise the stakes and give us some characters to really root for and the circumstances be dire enough to warrant proper drama. Whilst it still wasn’t what you would consider great television, it was the best episode so far and in an odd way I found it more enjoyable perhaps because of the low standards previously set through the season (particularly the first half) and because it undercut that nice, decent, cheesy vibe the show otherwise had. It wasn't great, but it was very good.

I genuinely can’t call it at the moment. Will the season end with things getting even worse and a cliffhanger at the most awful moment? Or will the current crisis get resolved, and the insurgent efforts come to fruition and take down the oppressors, Terra Nova getting reclaimed by Taylor and the slate wiped relatively clear? I lean towards the latter, but that’s because I’ve got low expectations that Terra Nova has the guts to be brutal. This episode went some way to undercutting my expectations with edgier surprises, so maybe the next and final one will really go for it. . .

What was the best part?

The boo-hiss villainy of the bad man killing the harmless brachiosaur was then followed up by the suspense driven cliché of the ‘bomb’ being diffused by cutting wires and the clock ticked down. It’s been done a stack of times before but it’s one of those staples that can’t help but generate some excitement – and this was a good example of it. I liked that it was Lucas urging the car to get out of the blast zone because he so wanted to detonate and kill his father. And when the detonation failed I especially liked how he got that cool multi-rocket launcher (not a bad shot) and tried to nail his old man that way.

What do I think will happen next?

Lucas won’t die but he will get thwarted (and perhaps either slope off into the jungle again, or return to the future to hatch another scheme). Mira will either die, or become a part of the Terra Nova camp along with the rest of her Sixers. Taylor will return to camp and reclaim Terra Nova and all of the Shannons will survive. Oh, and maybe Skye will make some kind of move on Josh or something. Because what would Terra Nova be without some pointless and saccharine scene of gooey love? (As you can see, my expectations don’t spell out terrific last episode finale – but I’m setting my hopes low so that they can be blown out of the water.) Out of the box prediction: just when all seems lost, a T-Rex will come charging into the fray. We’ve not had one of those show up yet. The season finale seems like a perfect place to make a debut appearance.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep10 – Within

What happened?

As Jim’s investigation leads him closer to revealing that Skye is the spy in camp, Skye herself is under pressure from Lucas to supply him with information he needs to complete his work on making the portal work both ways. With her mother’s life under threat, Skye gives Lucas what he needs. Jim and Taylor work out what Skye has been doing but they are unable to stop Lucas from using the portal to venture back to the future, threatening to return with an army to wipe out Terra Nova.

Skye’s mother is recovered from the Sixer camp by Taylor’s previous banished soldier, Curran, and Taylor himself addresses the entire colony to inform them they must prepare for the oncoming enemy that threatens to destroy their entire way of life.

Thoughts

The steadily-improving Terra Nova doles out another decent episode, and sets the stage for what feels like could be an almighty showdown. And you know, the optimist in me holds a candle of hope that the show has got it in it to deliver the goods, to end this first season with a stunning climax that will validate it as one that has been getting better and better with every episode.

Everyone loves an underdog story. Terra Nova feels like that underdog, and all it needs to do is come good for the finish.

I’ll tell you what I noticed and thought was good this episode that I can’t say I’ve noticed before: the music. It really seemed to stand out and grab my attention (previously I thought it sounded rather dreary – here it had a bit more edge to it). Just like the show, it’s like the music has been struggling to figure out its identity but now is on the right track and all the better for it.

This episode couldn’t help itself entirely – no episode of Terra Nova is complete without some truly terrible dialogue and/or patient-testing plotting. Here we had Maddy’s subplot where she got all stressed out because her computer “Plex” core had burned out and she needed a new one so she could read and do homework. (Again, the script tells us she’s incredibly geeky but her performance really doesn’t sell it.) And so this peripheral froth of a subplot saw her bartering with the wheelchair trader and then turning to Boylan – and just when you thought it wasn’t bad enough he then had a sudden character transplant and was jittery and fearful of Jim so much so he gave Maddy what she wanted for absolutely nothing.

Awful. It’s better to pretend that whole part of the episode didn’t happen. Along with the terrible opening shots of bad-CGI pterodactyls (or whatever they call flying dinosaurs in Terra Nova); pointless and poor and all the more maddening by being completely unnecessary.

Skye took a fair share of the limelight here and it was probably her strongest episode for it. I particularly liked the detail that her mother called her ‘Bucket’ because she used to wear a bucket on her head as a child when she had dreams of being a soldier. That detail shed more light and depth to her character than anything else I can think of, humanising her in an instant.

Whilst more could have been made of the dramatic conflict inherent in her being rumbled as the spy (Jim far too easily reached the conclusion that she was behaving as a double agent against her will and I’d have liked to think Josh’s sense of betrayal would be pretty acute) it was better that it wasn’t dragged out. But Terra Nova, soft-hearted soul that it is, wasn’t quite prepared to have Skye live with the guilt of walking away to leave her mother to die. Up she popped at the end of the episode, conveniently rescued off-camera by Taylor’s once-banished soldier.

It’s not that I begrudge convenient, happy event plotting – it’s just that sometimes it can feel altogether too unbelievable if not handled right. The rescue of Skye’s mother fell on that side of disbelief for me.

Bad dialogue of the episode fell to Taylor, when he encountered Skye and demanded she tell him something that would make him believe what she was saying about Lucas. Of course, Lucas had previously provided her with enough backstory information of a date when it all went sour between him and Taylor, and so she could use that to prove herself. Again, that’s just really too convenient; so clumsy and heavy-handed it lands with a clunk.

Further criticism for Lucas, too. His character here came off worse than it has before. Instead of sounding like some righteous genius with a genuine viewpoint that runs contrary to his father’s he just came across as a petulant little brat that was prepared to cut off his nose to spite his face just so long as he could get one over on his dad. For someone so smart those daddy issues are provoking him towards a mass murder and destruction of a new world – and he doesn’t even seem to particularly care if it’s right or wrong.

If his hatred for Taylor was simply colouring his judgment that would be fine – but it’s actually dictating his behaviour beyond rational morals and that, for me, needs better justification. If I thought he was going to make a proper villain I would be more in-line for rooting against him, however this being Terra Nova I still expect a father-son, feelgood reunion is on the horizon.

With all this criticism it doesn’t sound like there was anything good to report about this episode, but that’s not the case. Despite all these detractors it went about its business briskly and wasted no time in getting the plot moving towards some serious action. In its own way, it’s made me care about the Shannon family. The image of Jim at the end, holding on to his family with a grim foreboding at what was coming, of what he and everyone was being called on to do to save themselves, brought home the stakes and made me realise that I do hope for the best for these cheesy, goofy Shannons!

What was the best part?

Despite Lucas sounding like a whiney teenager, his capture of the portal – blasting the conveniently positioned all on one side soldier guards – and then his confrontation and declaration of intent to Taylor really put a line in the sand between them. His stepping into the machine with a full-blooded promise that he would be back felt like a genuine threat. I didn’t doubt for a second, after seeing and hearing him, that when he came back he was going to be bringing some serious shit back with him.

What do I think will happen next?

Camp Terra Nova is going to have to conjure some serious defence strategies to protect themselves from the imminent onslaught. I fully suspect it to be a major battle (although the question of just destroying the portal ought to be raised, surely!?). I expect the Sixers to side with Terra Nova when it counts, too. And, furthermore, I anticipate Lucas and Taylor finding some kind of resolve between them. Mostly, though, I am just hoping for something spectacular and climactic.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep09 – Now You See Me

What happened?

Whilst on an excursion outside of the colony looking for his son, Taylor is captured by, and then subsequently captures, Mira. The pair of them are forced to work together from a couple of territorial dinosaurs. They part on amicable terms, with the suggestion that things could have been different between them.

In Terra Nova, Skye is revealed to be the mole in the camp, though she is seemingly only acting out of a need to save her dying mother in the Sixer camp. She has to act to prevent Jim and Liz from discovering her identity by destroying her blood DNA evidence. Never-the-less, Jim now has a list of under 50 females as his list of suspects and his investigation continues.

Thoughts

Well well well, I don’t want to get enthusiastic, even giddy, at the prospect of Terra Nova actually showing signs of becoming a decent television programme, but I can at least enjoy the fact that my perseverance is being rewarded by the last couple of episodes being rather good. It’s by no means anything special, but it’s much-improved!

The little adventure of Taylor and Mira was a splendid angle to take, and unexpected. (Not sure what she was doing out on her own, mind.) There was some clarification that Mira and the rest of the Sixers are basically mercenaries, hired-help, and as like Skye would prove to be, she’s acting in the interests of protecting her loved ones.

Whilst their see-saw power struggle over who had captured who was fun, the potential legacy of what their coming together may mean is the most intriguing. I am staking a guess that the Sixers may eventually switch from being enemies to allies, with the two sides uniting against this powerful organisation back in future Earth looking to drain resources from the new world.

Taylor made a remark that Mira didn’t realise what the people she was working for were really all about, and I suspect she’ll see the error of her ways and convince her people to stand with Taylor and fight for Terra Nova. I would certainly welcome this plot line. As I’ve said previously, I kind of hope the business of this battle of the portal can get cleared up in the first season – and if that leaves the situation where Terra Nova and the Sixers are left in Terra Nova to forge a new life for themselves (and all the potential challenges and struggles that presents) then that’s fine with me.

Lucas, as well, I expect will be returned to his father’s favour and the two of them will get along. Ordinarily I wouldn’t feel so optimistic about future plot lines from a sci-fi drama, but Terra Nova has a near-perverse level of wholesome decency about it that makes me assume that there’s a level of darkness it’s not quite prepared to drop to.

Take Skye as a clear example. Here she was revealed to be the mole in the camp (fair enough, I can buy that, considering our first introduction to her was when she escorted Josh over the fence). As it turned out, however, she wasn’t a duplicitous schemer of evil intent. She was working for the Sixers to somehow aid her dying mother. In Terra Nova, no one is turning out to be a bad person – they just do occasionally bad things for what they perceive are good reasons.

Taylor mentioned that there had been some kind of disease that was responsible for more deaths than anything else they’d encountered in Terra Nova. First we’d ever heard of it, of course, though it does lend some weight behind the motivation for making Josh steal the drugs from the clinic for the Sixers. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sixers, courtesy of Lucas, had got close to formulating a cure for this terrible sickness.

See? Even Lucas won’t turn out to be all bad!

Terra Nova can’t quite dispense with the cheese, mind. Nursing the young dinosaur and releasing it into the wild to reunite with its own kind for a sweet, feelgood finish sums up what the show won’t easily dispense with – and I’m not saying it even should. There’s room for serious drama inside a family-friendly show, it’s just a matter of finding the right balance. Terra Nova hasn’t, for me, ever really got that down to a fine art but it’s getting better at it.

The business with Jim and the young solider suitor courting his daughter verged on the absurd. The boy’s trepidation at stating his intentions to Jim didn’t completely go over for me, mainly because the person Jim states he is, the intimidating, short-tempered person that he is written as in the script, isn’t how he appears on screen. He may talk the talk but you can’t help but see him as a thoroughly decent, teddy bear of a father before the tough-talking, head-busting cop.

It was also absolutely risible that Taylor would leave him in charge of the entire camp during his absence. . . He’s only been there five minutes! But these are niggles in a show that is thankfully gaining some momentum and a sense of identity. I'd really like nothing more than for these next few episodes in the run up to the finish deliver some total zingers and, hey, if it has the guts and the gaul to go darker and meaner than it'll hit all the more harder due to the good-natured quality it has exhibited thus far. Maybe that's the point!

What was the best part?

All the parts with Taylor and Mira (and who knew she had quite the hot body tucked away!?) were enjoyable, though the pick of the bunch was the scene at their night campfire when the dinosaurs attacked. Sure, the effects looked a little bit Ray Harryhausen rather than state of the art CGI, but in an odd way that gave it more charm.

What do I think will happen next?

Big bold prediction time! Lucas will successfully get the portal to do what he wants, which will herald the arrival of the big bad corporation doing something terrible and/or reneging on their deal with the Sixers. The Sixers, and probably Lucas, will then unite with Taylor and battle to turn the portal off and oust the evil corporation to defend the world for themselves.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep08 – Vs

What happened?

Captured and interrogated, Boylan reveals the whereabouts of a body to Jim. Recovering and examining the body, it appears the person was murdered years back and indications are that Taylor did it. Taylor explains that he was sent to Terra Nova under false pretences, and killed his superior officer when his rule was to be overturned and the place was merely to be plundered for resources rather than used as a new place for humans to exist.

Taylor’s son, Lucas, had been working on a way to create a two-way portal to the future so that the old Earth could harvest resources from Terra Nova and kill the world. Taylor refused to allow that to happen, and explains to Jim that he and Terra Nova stand against the Sixers, and Lucas, who are intent on sacrificing this new world to try and save the old one.

Thoughts

Terra Nova finally gets around to showing its hand and displaying the true set-up, the meaning behind the strange calculations on the rocks and the message behind the oblique warnings about the “truth of Terra Nova”. In doing so the show has actually stepped up a notch and delivered its best episode, as well as lifting the curtain on the stage things are being played on to better determine the drama.

It was still rather predictable. I expected the truth would suggest that Taylor had gone against the initial plans for Terra Nova and, whilst for a short while there might be the impression he wasn’t to be trusted, ultimately it would transpire he was on the side of ‘right’ and the Sixers and their agenda were working for a cause that was ‘wrong’.

It’s worth taking a moment here to discuss that notion, of course. Whilst Terra Nova was quick to side with Taylor, via Jim and his assent to fight with him and for his cause once he learned the truth, and the depiction of Lucas as a scheming, angry, vengeful son, it’s worth considering the view of the Sixers and ‘future Earth’.

From Taylor’s view there’s this new world that a handful of people have been permitted access to away from the pollution and decay. And now they have it, they don’t want anyone taking it from them. Only the world they left behind presumably has millions of people that are living under a death sentence.

Fundamentally Taylor’s willing to sacrifice the vast majority of the old population for the few lucky souls that are forging a new life for themselves. There’s an extremely selfish principle at play there. I’m not saying Taylor is some monstrous despot – I just hope Terra Nova doesn’t just gloss over this crucial dynamic and expect us to accept that fresh, innocent Terra Nova is good because the old world of pollution and technology is bad.

If they can make the suggestion that Terra Nova is to be plundered of resources just for one major corporation’s gain, for example, or to benefit the few in future Earth rather than replenish and rescue the planet there’s a better argument being made. Perhaps if it’s established that even ravaging all the resources would only be a temporary fix then there’s better justification for Taylor’s strident position towards defending Terra Nova from ‘future Earth’. It needs a better explanation than it just being about Taylor liking Terra Nova and wanting to keep it for himself and the few hundred with him and to hell with the billions of others back home.

The episode title, and Terra Nova, are apparently setting out their stall for a ‘them vs us’ scenario, so I would like the battlelines and battle reasons properly marked out if I am being provoked into siding with one faction.

As stated, however, this advancement does definitely mark an improvement. It does make me wonder where else the show can go, though. I quite like the idea that the portal to old Earth gets destroyed completely by the end of the first season and so this ‘battle’ can have a line drawn under it; the people of Terra Nova left then to face their brave new world and the show can introduce an entirely different set of challenges. This is, technically, a parallel universe in the past which paves the way for anything being possible.

The plotting regarding the flying insect was rather clumsy. That it just happened to flutter around the rehearsal stage and get thwacked so they could learn that it was like a carrier pigeon was altogether too convenient. And I’m not sure why Taylor was such an ass about marking Jim out as a suspect and so leaving the real mole at large. He actually had the potential of finding out who the traitor was in his midst and he squandered it!

I am glad there is still a secret mole, though, and that it’s been made clear that this is as much a secret to us as it is to the characters. I’d still have to figure it’s the young soldier, too, although he did get ambushed and injured (though we didn’t see it directly, unlike when Washington got into a proper fight with a Sixer).

It’s rather risible how Josh has been treated rather lightly (for making pacts with the Sixers and providing them with the entire stash of lifesaving drugs, Josh is sentenced to. . . being grounded!). Whilst Boylan was eventually released he sure did have to suffer under Taylor’s hand. Interesting reveal that they used to be friends, though – Boylan has moved from being a clichéd side character into someone with depth and intrigue. Same can’t be said for Malcolm who has gone in entirely the opposite direction. There’s the odd ruffle that suggests he’s a rabble rouser against Taylor’s command but there’s scant sight of it, and even his scheming affection for Liz appears to have died down.

Lucas is a welcome addition to, I suppose, the ‘bad guys’. Mira’s one-note tough girl aggression played out more like an irritation than a credible threat. Lucas appears to be the mastermind and if the show wants to go down the route of making him a proper villain then I’m rather in favour. . . However, with how saccharine Terra Nova can be I wouldn’t for one moment write off the possibility of their being a father-son reunion before the season’s end.

What was the best part?

Taylor’s flashback was absolutely the best part, shifting the little plot details about the calculations on the stones and the body in the woods into focus, and with it pushing Terra Nova into the light as a show that was marking out exactly what it was about. At least for the foreseeable future. I don’t see how a battle over a portal gateway between a new world and an old world can support an entire show indefinitely but, for a season at least, there’s a lot of mileage in it.

What do I think will happen next?

I would expect that the emerging crisis of Lucas working out how to get the portal permanently open will be next on the agenda. I fully expect him to get to the point where he can succeed with this, and it will fall on Jim and Taylor to stop him (or convince him to stop). Potential season end? For sure. In fact, it might pull a massive cliffhanger and the season could end with the portal being opened permanently.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep07 – Proof

What happened?

Maddy became suspicious of an explorer idol of hers when he returned to Terra Nova and yet appeared to lack memory of key things from his past. She eventually uncovered that he was really the assistant and had murdered the explorer on Earth and stolen his identity to get to Terra Nova.

Josh, having been promised reunification with his girlfriend, steals drugs on behalf of the Sixers using his mother’s passcard. Learning that lives depend on the drugs, though, he confesses what he has done and in the process outs Boylan as a mole.

Taylor tracks down the soldier he banished, helps him recover from near-fatal injuries and suggests that if he can infiltrate the Sixer camp and obtain information for him he may allow him back into Terra Nova.

Thoughts

You know, once you just accept the cheese and clunk that is Terra Nova in script and screen acting, there’s something rather likable about it. Unless there is a tremendous rug pull around the corner – the equivalent of the all the gloss and lights been yanked away to reveal a dark, twisted truth – then it would appear Terra Nova isn’t to be treated as seriously as other shows, and is perhaps geared more towards a family Doctor Who audience.

It doesn’t quite have the right tone for that, because I think it wants to cater to a family audience whilst also being considered serious dramatic sci-fi. In trying to straddle both genres it’s not a fine example of either, but it’s muddling along in an amusing, bumbling, near-inoffensive way.

Maddy’s excursion into detective work this episode, for example, was actually rather engaging. Was it serious adult drama? No. But it was an intriguing mystery that was slowly peeled away to reveal a murderous truth. Quite how Horten thought he was ever going to get away with killing Maddy after Zoe had been sent off is beyond me, mind. What did he think he was going to do? Style it out despite being the last man to see Maddy alive when her father is the sheriff and would be beyond enraged and ceaseless in his hunt for the all-too-obvious culprit?

No, that was dumb. Better would have been to play up the contradiction of a murderer with his own not insignificant intelligence and positive benevolence; like curing the apple crops. He’d have been better played as a good man taking desperate measure after doing a bad thing out of a sense of necessity. I guess Terra Nova just doesn’t have the time to get beneath the surface in that way. Another example of a good idea squandered in favour of simplistic skimming over: it’s this show’s worst trait.

There were some unintentional laughs to be had here. Jim’s fishing exploits were one. The effects on his ‘catch’ were truly awful. The people in charge ought to have seen the CG in those scenes, cut their losses and edited the scene at the point where Jim was seen getting a bite on his line. Given how inconsequential it was anyway it would have been better leaving his struggle to land the dino-fish to our imaginations.

Other unintentional laughs: Taylor hissing and yelling at the cowardly dinosaur; Jim surveying a huge broken window and remarking about how that was the point of entry for the robbery (no fucking shit, Sherlock); the Shannon family having a panic codeword “asparagus” – would have been clever if that had been seeded in a previous episode rather than feeling somewhat conveniently conjured here.

Taylor’s tracking down of the banished soldier, Curran, was an enjoyable detour, though I am somewhat confused by the pertinence of it considering Josh’s confession and ousting of Boylan as the Terra Nova link to the Sixers. I mean, for a good few episodes now I’ve been confused whether the ‘mole’ in Terra Nova is meant to be a secret from the viewers (as in a key character will be revealed as a double agent) or if Boylan is it, and has been all along, and we’ve known about it all this time.

If Boylan truly is the one and only mole then Taylor has sent the solider on a redundant mission; infiltrating the Sixers to find out something already known. Unless the soldier comes back with a revelation that there really is a double agent then it’s pointless.

It was interesting that the belief of Jim, and perhaps Taylor, that the Sixers were primitive was shown to be false. Taylor instantly figured his son Lucas was the man to have developed such communication technology and, since Terra Nova apparently doesn’t have this, it still leaves the door open for the idea that Taylor has been ruling autonomously in a way not agreed by ‘future Earth’ and is the reason why the Sixers wish to overthrow him.

I’d really love Terra Nova to be pulling that kind of surprise but it just feels too wholesome, too set on making Taylor and the Shannons as good people and everyone else. . . not necessarily bad but in conflict with their well-meaning goodness. If Taylor is disobeying the original schemes for Terra Nova then it’ll no doubt be for a ‘good’ reason, and the Sixers and Lucas will have plans that we, as an audience, are probably supposed to feel isn’t the best thing to do.

I’d be thrilled to be absolutely wrong on that last point.

What was the best part?

Really struggling to think of a standalone scene that impressed, despite this episode generating an overall good impression. For sheer dumbness, I’m going with the fishing scene. Not only did they choose to fish on a cliff edge where the dino-fish could swiftly drag them to their doom, the visual effects were so shockingly bad I couldn’t help but crack a smile at the poor quality. Uniquely, then, the best part of the episode is one that really ought to have been left on the cutting room floor!

What do I think will happen next?

Hopefully there’ll be some clarification as to why the Sixers wanted the medication. I’m not convinced there really was an epidemic in their ranks they needed curing, but I can’t imagine that other purposes they needed it for. I’d have to assume Lucas requires it, but since what he is up to is the most oblique part of the show I’m literally clutching at straws in the dark wearing boxing gloves trying to grasp any sense from it. Now there’s an image.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep06 – Nightfall

What happened?

A meteorite falls near Terra Nova and explodes in the air triggering an EMP, disabling the fence security, weapons, vehicles and medical equipment. As a solution to craft new chips and return power to Terra Nova is sought Taylor and his men are forced to defend their colony the old-fashioned way.

Spying a chance at reclaiming the box, Mira launches an assault on Terra Nova and, using a dinosaur decoy, manages to take the box back and deliver it to its intended recipient: Taylor’s son.

Thoughts

Oh, Terra Nova walked a fine line with the opening minutes. It was almost, almost, as though it was self-aware enough to parody its worst traits as a means of delivering a surprise. I’m not sure it was being that clever. I just think the schmaltz and sweetness of seeing the Shannon family hurrying around in the morning to get to wherever they are going just all felt like it was being played for maximum mawkishness.

Really I think they were just trying to create the feel of an everyday, normal run of things that was then abruptly interrupted by the sudden impact of the meteorite knocking out the electromagnetics. I don’t think Terra Nova has displayed enough self-aware credibility to claim it was sending up its own tacky qualities before it dropped a big explosion on it all.

The meteorite delivered an EMP that knocked Terra Nova for six. (Note to writers: If you want to make us believe in Maddy as an intelligent geek girl (which she plainly is way too hot to play with ease) then don’t let her use the phrase “EMP Pulse”. If you don’t know why that’s wrong you’re too stupid to write the show.) Briefly I hoped for something of an old-school siege episode, with Taylor defending the weakened colony from dinosaurs smelling free lunch.

As far as I could tell they didn’t get troubled by a single dinosaur except for the massive lumbering one the Sixers directed towards the camp. I’m 50/50 on whether or not I thought that was the dumbest thing ever or the show managed to sell it convincingly enough. It was all basically a plot device to let the Sixers get into Terra Nova and get the box and get back out again. Felt like a waste, to me. There’s any number of ways that box could have been liberated (most dramatically would have been to use the mole in camp, yet to be revealed, I think!) but the programme-makers had the camp crippled to make them vulnerable.

As stated, a more fun, crowdpleading episode would have been a defence against a dinosaur assault under those circumstances. If there’s one thing Terra Nova could use it’s a rousing, crowdpleaser of an episoder.

Still, Taylor and Jim (once he got out of ‘the eye’ room, which better be used again for better purposes than rollercoaster simulators!) were good value for some punching and kicking action with the Sixers. And I don’t know the name of Mira’s right-hand man, the one that Jim chased, but he had some nifty moves and could certainly handle himself in a fight. Hopefully there’ll be a dust up between Washington and this guy; a right-hand sidekick face-off!

The subplots were reasonably decent, I thought. Sky and her friend, that she thought of as a brother and he wanted more, felt a bit fumbled. Up until that point the business with the tapeworm creature thing was unpleasant and amusing. Although just when you thought that Liz might have some tense, surgical procedures to perform, with lives in the balance due to the lack of power, Terra Nova elected to just not bother. She’s at risk of becoming seriously redundant and/or boring. Still hot, though.

Maddy and solder boy’s picnic/night in a tree was about as good as the blossoming romance between these two has been handled so far, though it’s still being ladled on syrup-thick with insipid chivalry. Unless teenagers in the future all live like The Waltons it’s highly unlikely and unclear why they behave in such a quaint fashion.

Soldier boy being away from the camp on the day the power went down and the night the Sixer’s apparently had inside help to retrieve the box suggests he’s not the mole. Shame, he would be infinitely more interesting if his noble goody-two-shoes front was a mask for sinister intent.

It has occurred to me that, regarding this mole, possibly I am giving Terra Nova too much credit and assuming it’s staging a mystery to be revealed. It could be that the bartender is the mole, we’ve been well-informed about it for some time, and now we just need to see if and when Taylor finds out! The bartender's actions here in shooting the Sixer were surely to prevent him from being captured and potentially telling Taylor about him, as opposed to stepping in to save Taylor’s neck – though it could be a handy bonus that he is winning back some trust.

There was absolutely no surprise to anyone who has paid the mildest bit of attention to the show that the man at the end was Taylor’s wandering son. Whilst the exact nature of what was in the box remains a mystery (there’s no more clue in the graphics that appeared than was present in the rock carvings from the first episode) it’s the most compelling plot thread Terra Nova has. Indeed, the idea that Taylor’s rule is flawed and that the truth about Terra Nova the place, its original intent and its potential future, have been subverted by his leadership are the best things Terra Nova has waiting to spring. The big question is: Will the mystery deliver a payoff that justifies the suspense and takes the show to a new level?

All in all, it was actually a decent episode, it’s just that all the shortcomings Terra Nova is riddled with (simplistic characters, cheesy values and a confused tone) were present here and, as ever, made watching it and enjoying it a matter of overlooking its flaws and holding onto the few good bits. It desperately needs to get better to be considered ‘good’, let alone ‘great’, television.

It’s a shame, really, because it’s actually a show with a terrific concept and good ongoing ideas. Somehow it just keeps getting in the way of itself from delivering them.

What was the best part?

You know, for all the crashing meteorites and huge stomping dinosaurs, the best bit of the episode for me was the all-too-human and non-effects scene where Jim and Taylor engaged in some smackdown with the infiltrating Sixers. Brutal without being overly-violent, it was succeeded by a nice chase to the fence. But, really, the cherry on top was Taylor’s “Let’s dance” taunt. It’s like 80s machismo never went out of fashion!

What do I think will happen next?

The plot ball really sits in the Sixer’s, and Taylor's son's, court. If that doesn’t get picked up and taken some place then there’s really not a whole lot else of ongoing interest worth getting invested in enough to make predictions about. Maddy and soldier boy will continue their romance. Josh might wake up to the fact Sky likes him, egged on by his mum. . . Is this really all there is going on!?

Terra Nova: S01 Ep05 – Bylaw

What happened?

An apparent dinosaur attack that killed a man turns out to have been a murder. Whilst the initial suspect is the first person to be tried in Terra Nova and sentenced to a very public banishment, eventually the real murderer is revealed to be another soldier who owed the victim money. He is more privately sent out for banishment by Taylor who says he will lose no sleep over his actions.

Liz and her daughter are in the laboratory where a dinosaur egg they retrieved is cared for and eventually hatches. Meanwhile Josh has fulfilled his bargain with the bartender and meets with the Sixers and Amira. She tells him she can get him his girlfriend back, so long as he promises to one day fulfil a request from her no matter what.

Thoughts

How is it that this show can take powerful ingredients of a murder mystery, an issue of dictatorship against social equality, and traitorous behaviour, pack them all into a single episode and still make it all seem a bit blah? For the answer you just needed to watch this episode of Terra Nova which, as ever, continues to make the intriguing and amazing seem tedious and overcooked.

The opening murder was a nice introduction sequence, and was a rather cool idea. That someone would trap a dangerous dino in a confined building they knew someone was going to turn up to was a decent method of murder. The reveal of who eventually perpetrated the crime felt rather fumbled. Initially a red herring regarding a husband and young wife (another interesting question raised, regarding people who had won the lottery then getting married purely to bring people with them – what kind of quality control issues would that create?) it turned out to be a soldier we’d never seen before.

It was all rather convoluted, particularly when the episode had employed the bartender to be part of a pre-arranged ruse to trap the soldier. I didn’t get that. Why did they have to stage such an elaborate scheme? And what about the original innocent guy who was so publicly banished? Aren’t people going to be raising their eyebrows when they see him walking around camp free as a bird? If that matter got addressed I missed it.

The issue of Taylor’s rule over Terra Nova is meaty territory. From the very first episode I pondered what Terra Nova would do about law and order in this new civilisation. Turns out that Taylor’s word is pretty much law and, whilst he claims to have never encountered such a serious crime as yet, it’s still curious that he has maintained such a rule over these people for so long, unchallenged and unquestioned. (There was brief mention of it from Malcolm, I recall, in his first episode.) I definitely feel like this is quite a crucial aspect to the show, and one that the programme could really use to good effect. It would seem from the Sixers that they have a problem with Taylor and the fact that he has absolute rule over the camp if his character has moral grey areas or reason for dispute makes it an especially juicy scenario.

I say all that with reservation, of course. Terra Nova being Terra Nova can have all the terrific ideas in the world and manage to blunt them of any edge and squander pulse-quickening tension for safe and sound tied up plots.

Like, for example, the whole business with Liz and her daughter and the hatching egg. What the hell was that all about? It just felt like something cute and wholesome dropped in and nestling very uneasily against everything else in the episode. If it was there to provide balance then for me all it did was create problems with tone. Is this dinosaur now going to live with the Shannon family? Are they turning into The Flintstones!?

Josh and his deal with the Sixers was presumably meant to feel more dramatic than it played out. I’m not sure where Skye fits into this picture. Was her urge to go along purely because she’s worried about Josh? Or is she potentially the mole in the camp and she accompanied Josh to ensure he got there and would be on hand to be used? I fear that it was the former, because Terra Nova feels like that kind of show, but hopefully it’s springing a shock surprise and it will be the latter.

As could perhaps be deduced, I wasn’t a big fan of this episode. I feel like the honeymoon period is over and Terra Nova needs to start taking itself seriously and start producing some serious goods for me to continue with it. There’s a lot of good television on at the moment and right now Terra Nova isn’t sitting there in the schedules screaming ‘must-see’.

What was the best part?

I’d have to go with the pursuit and capture of the dinosaur. At least this episode did have the saving grace that the dinosaurs which are the show’s big calling card delivered the standout scene. Terra Nova needs to keep remembering that it is set in a world with dinosaurs and dinosaurs are cool and if they want to do an episode where the camp is under siege by T-Rex and raptors then it’ll be a storm and be a total hit. Play to your strengths, and hit the lowest common denominator if you must!

What do I think will happen next?

Josh will invariably have to be made to do something he doesn’t want to do. (Really, though, once he gets his girlfriend back what’s to stop him reneging on the deal and telling his father everything he knows?) And, I guess, the Shannon’s will have a baby dinosaur living with them for a while. Which will be fun!

Terra Nova: S01 Ep04 – The Runaway

What happened?

A small girl, Leah,was seen around the perimeter of Terra Nova, an apparent escapee from the Sixer camp. Whilst she claims to want to remain in Terra Nova it turns out she was sent to retrieve a strange box from the house that Sixer-leader Mira used to live in.

Whilst Taylor manages to prevent the girl escaping with the box (she was doing so believing that her brother would be hurt) Jim is captured for a brief period by the Sixers and told that Terra Nova is not what he thinks it is. Unable to open the box, Taylor has it kept safe until they can figure it out. The Sixers do reunite Leah and her brother and they remain in Terra Nova as permanent residents.

Thoughts

Almost symbolically, the penultimate scene of this episode pretty much encapsulated what the whole thing had been about. The box containing an unknown thing was unopened and locked away in a safe. A mystery presented and then left unresolved. That was pretty much the nature of this episode, from the unopened box to Mira saying to Jim that he didn’t know the truth about Terra Nova but that he’d eventually find out. . .

OK, I don’t expect Terra Nova to reveal all its secrets but let’s hope a few things get let out of the bag before the show gets cancelled! It’s a fine line between building a mystery that fuels audience anticipation and annoying the viewers by dangling secrets with no answers. Lost successfully walked this tightrope very well (especially in the early seasons) but that was because it reeked of quality and grabbed interest. Terra Nova, for me, hasn’t earned those credentials, that seal of quality, and so it dangling intrigue is more irksome than intriguing.

What most struck me about this episode, when it ended, was a sense of, Is that it? It actually felt like it was an episode that was dealing with a deeper, dramatic thrust and yet came out feeling more insubstantial than the previous standalone episodes had done. Weird.

So in the main it was disappointing, but at least it has generated some mystery and questions to make tuning in weekly more essential (because if it had kept up the standalone format for much longer I think it would have been far worse than the drip-feeding of intrigue presented here). The question of what is in the box is certainly interesting (and suggests that the Sixers departed Terra Nova in such a hurry they couldn’t collect all their things). My best guess would be that it is some means of communication, or potentially even travelling back, to the ‘present’ day of 2149. Or else it's a key of some fashion, something that Sixers needs to enable whatever it is they are out in the jungle getting up to!

Mira stated that there were people from their original world that were not happy about Taylor, but then if that’s the case why not send someone through the portal when it’s next opened that has the might or the authority to overturn Taylor’s rule? Is it because Taylor is running things in a way that was not intended (presumably so, he was the first guy through and must have been tasked with something but perhaps disregarded that)? Maybe the Sixers were the means to overturn what Taylor had disregarded and they are out in the jungle getting stuff done – Leah did mention they travel around a lot. It’s definitely got mileage, when written out and considered like this, the trouble with Terra Nova is communicating this sense of fascination on screen.

More tangible is the mystery of who the spy in camp is. Since there’s only a few key characters outside of the Shannon family and Taylor then the suspects rapidly dwindle. It’s surely not the female Lieutenant Washington, since she had a fairly rough battle with the Sixers at the start of this episode (maybe that was a staged bluff but it didn’t look like it). More likely is the young man attempting to woo Maddy, Mark Reynolds, since he does seem improbably involved in everything that goes on.

The other major candidate is the scientist Malcolm, whose manner and quick opposition to Taylor’s dictatorship certainly mark him out. Outside bet falls to the guy with no legs being the spy, though how he gets messages outside of the compound is anyone’s guess (why is the idea that the spy could be using telecommunications not taken more seriously as opposed to them having to be someone physically meeting the Sixers?). There’s always Skye, not present this episode, but there’s literally nothing about her to lend credence to that as presented so far.

Right now I’d plump for Mark Reynolds to be the spy. It would at least make his sappy romance with Maddy have some edge to it.

Strangely deflated episode, then, considering it’s the one that’s generated the most for me to discuss. The best scene in it, for me, was the moment where Jim Shannon got caught in a trap and was left dangling whilst a dinosaur (I’m tempted to say Raptor but I think the species presented in this show aren’t quite sticking to known dino breeds) attack him. It was an eye-catching situation to be clipped into a trailer and I felt like they really could have tacked on an extra minute or two and made it a truly nasty, desperate predicament for Jim to hopelessly try and extricate himself from before it looked like he was done for.

Instead the Sixers arrived and ended the scene and took Jim away, diffusing the tension and moving things along to a more ‘safer’ vibe. Shame. Sometimes a show doesn’t realise when it’s onto a good thing, and a scene like that could have been really protracted and eked the most out of to deliver a properly memorable, tense sequence. Missed opportunity for that scene, but in general this is a step in the right direction for the show.

What was the best part?

As stated, Jim in the booby trap. Despite it not quite reaching the potential I could have imagined for it, it was still the best part in an episode otherwise laden with mystery and mawkishness but little in the way of visceral thrill. (Kudos for the smackdown at the start with Washington and the Sixers, though – more of that and she’ll become a cooler character.)

What do I think will happen next?

Hopefully they’ll get to work on opening that box and not just leave it in the safe. And also they’ll dig further into the Sixers (rapidly assuming a vibe not dis-similar to The Others in Lost as an enemy tribe that hold more answers than our heroes) and quite what it is they’re about. Right now I’d be happy to ditch the Shannons and Terra Nova for an episode and hang out with the Sixers, but I doubt that’ll happen.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep03 – What Remains

What happened?

A team at a research outpost have gone offline, so Liz is sent along with Nathaniel Taylor to check the place out. There they discover the people were infected with a virus that caused them to lose their memories and briefly shift mentally to some time in their past before catatonia set in. It’s not long before Liz and Nathaniel are affected.

Worried for his wife, Jim goes there with Malcolm, and whilst Malcolm suffers from the same malady it transpires that Jim is immune due to his cold. Whilst a cure his hastily put together Nathaniel, believing he is a soldier in Somalia, returns to Terra Nova and attacks some of his people but is knocked unconscious and cured when Liz and Jim return.

Thoughts

Another episode and one that very much played it safe with a plot that anyone dropping in new to the show could pick up and watch. Aside from the ending scene, which offered prospects of ongoing dramatic development with Josh being used by the Sixers, there wasn’t anything here that would particularly alienate a brand new viewer, and nor was there anything here which made you feel like you needed to have seen this episode in order to keep up with the show.

I suspect it’s intentional, in order to try and attract new viewers to the show that might not have got there right at the start. Fair enough, I can get that. But what’s not clear now is whether or not Terra Nova is going to stick to this formula of having episodes that function mostly on their own terms or whether it will eventually become a more serialised affair.

If I was forced to choose, I’d plump for it sticking to the more standalone format. It’s expensive and it wants to try and keep viewers and attract new ones. As I said, it’s understandable, but of course the problem is that for people like me that are prepared to stick around we are poorly rewarded for our loyalty. What we get are what feel like a lot of filler episodes with the odd bit of plot progression and peeled away layers of mythology tacked on at the end or paid brief lip service during proceedings.

This episode was OK if taken on its own merits. The structure was similar to last week in that the build-up and execution of the main threat was nicely handled and then the too-easy resolution felt unearned. I mean, really, Jim just happening to catch a cold turned out to be the only cure to this deadly, genetically-produced virus? That’s rather fortuitous to say the least!

Keeping Malcolm in the mix was good, although I thought that they could have played more on the idea that he was faking the symptoms of memory loss when he was making his moves on Liz. It seemed to transpire that he really wasn’t faking after all when I’d have hoped for a tad more ambiguity, or even genuine duplicity, to have injected a little bit more edge.

I also didn’t really buy the chemistry between Jim and Liz, here. When she had forgotten who he was, the news that she was married to him, with kids, was delivered and accepted with little fuss. Then, before long, she was passionately kissing him – even though to her this was a man she had never met before in her life and had not so long since held at gunpoint. Again, it just felt a little rushed, a little lacking in the willingness to not take the ‘nice’ route.

Taylor’s mental breakdown offered the darkness Liz, Jim and Malcolm’s plot lacked. Going all Colonel Kurtz with warpaint, holding Josh at knifepoint, when he was informed his wife was actually dead and this was news he was yet to be reacquainted with the speed at which he was set to slit his throat was startling. Sure it was probably a slight contrivance just so Washington got to save the day and, at last, make her mark on the show, but it’s nice to hope that there may be turmoil beneath the austere surface of leader Nathaniel Taylor that suggest he's not the ideal leader for this brave new world.

The plot with the Shannon kids was largely negligible, particularly the romance part. Josh and the smuggler just set things in motion for the last scene – though the conversation with the Sixers did reveal that they can communicate with the ‘future world’ when the portal opens, too. I have to trust that this issue of what can be communicated, and how, gets explored much more in future instalments because it’s a big piece of the show that’s been glossed over so far.

I don’t know how long the show will be able to sustain itself with these types of episode. Not quite standalone enough to be able to go into syndication and shown out of order (and thus generate lots of revenue) and not quite driven with continuing plot threads to support an ongoing dramatic arc, Terra Nova can perhaps survive a few more episodes like this before it’s in danger of becoming extinct.

What was the best part?

I liked the part where Jim and Malcolm were dragging the unconscious soldier and the raptor appeared at the open entrance port. It was just a cool little sequence, injecting a dinosaur into the thick of things at close quarters, to create an instant and deadly problem that required some quick thinking to resolve. If Terra Nova has a big ace up its sleeve, its that it has dinosaurs. Kudos, too, to the bit where Taylor drove through the legs of the Brachiosaur. Badass or idiotic: you decide!

What do I think will happen next?

The plot by the Sixers to use Josh via the smuggler will perhaps take further shape so we can gain a better indication about what it is they intend to use him for. Right now I can only imagine that they intend to somehow get Josh to make Jim get them guns and ammo, the commodity they seem to value. Or, possibly, they may even try to get Josh to join with them. . .

Terra Nova: S01 Ep02 – Instinct

What happened?

The Terra Nova settlement area has a problem – the area they settled in is the migration point for reptilian birds that have come home to roost as part of their cycle. Coming in dribs and drabs at first, they attack and kill various settlers. Whilst Liz Shannon works with a man she knew in college, called Malcolm, who is also responsible for requesting her to be there, it becomes clear that thousands of these birds will descend on the compound and decimate the place unless something is done.

A plan is conjured where the pheromone scents the birds are attracted to is manufactured and relocated to a point further away. Terra Nova is saved once more, though during the operation Jim has become aware of Malcolm and his possible intentions towards his wife and has issued a warning to steer clear.

Thoughts

This ‘proper’ first episode outside of the pilot episode perhaps demonstrates better what kind of show Terra Nova is. And, by the looks of it, it’s rather old-school sci-fi with modern day effects. There is something distinctly old-fashioned about it; I have actually wondered if the tale of The Shannon family in prehistoric times might not harken back to the old shows like Land Of The Giants and, in particular, Lost In Space, high-concept shows that week by week stick with the same core characters through various adventures.

There was really nothing about this episode that pushed ahead with anything like a sense of progression in the drama. Ostensibly birds attacked Terra Nova until our heroes figured out a means of resolving the situation. Status quo resumed. That's not really a put down, mind. It was actually rather good in delivering a decent build-up, a credible threat and a decent set piece in the main attack on the Shannon household. The resolution was a bit lame and thus the only real weak point - it's hard to imagine a species would be so easily-fooled into a new breeding ground by the dispersal of manufactured pheromones elsewhere.

Actually, the dialogue was interspersed with a lot of cheese. If Terra Nova wants me to take it more seriously as a credible drama show then it needs to take itself more seriously.

There was promising future drama in the introduction of Malcolm, the scientist who clearly still holds a torch for Liz (don’t blame him, she’s smoking). This antagonism did at least allow Jim to stop being quite the douche about the house for a minute or two when he got to play alpha male regarding his wife. Hopefully that’s a side-edge that will continue (though if it goes down the route of Jim getting paranoid and jealous over really pathetic schemes by Malcolm I’m going to get annoyed – it’ll be better if Liz genuinely becomes conflicted between the two of them).

There wasn’t much else, character-wise, going on. The story involving the migrating birds did unsubtly parallel their quest to get down to some action alongside Jim and Liz getting some one-on-one time. To be fair to Jim he has spent many years in a prison with absolutely nothing so, frankly, how he hasn’t ravaged Liz before now is hard to fathom.

I did think that those Terra Nova homes didn’t exactly scream privacy. Those poor Shannon kids are going to grow up to the sounds and silhouettes of their parents at it. That’s unfortunate. Though the two eldest siblings already have their respective romances burgeoning, though Sky and the soldier-boy one (so bland I haven’t even identified his name) were hardly given much to do other than hang around the Shannon’s. Honestly, what did they do before they arrived?

It’s the tone of Terra Nova that was most prominent here, though. And I very much got the sense that it was a more family-oriented, early-evening kind of slot that this show is aiming at. If it weren’t for the gory, scratched-out eyes of one of the victims this would have been Doctor Who standard family viewing. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't think that's exactly where Terra Nova is aiming to be. As it is, with the blood, this isn’t exactly a show for kids. So the tone is a little bit of a concern, unless it’s a show that’s starting off light before it goes into darker territory.

For the moment I’m still enjoying the show, in the sense that it’s more interesting than most television, but it’s nowhere near got me hooked or gripped. If it’s aiming to be light and enjoyable, then it needs to up its game. If it’s aiming to be mysterious and thrilling then it needs to cut through the froth. There’s time yet, and to be fair I think the show does need to spend time with the characters and the world of Terra Nova before it heads out into grand territory, but my early instincts are telling me that this doesn’t feel like a show that’s got the legs to last longterm.

What was the best part?

It was a brief moment, but the wide shot showing the masses of gathering reptile birds spiralling into the sky before they made their attack, watched on by Jim, was good stuff. It reminded me a lot of the movie Pitch Black, an effect that was probably intentional.

What do I think will happen next?

I can only assume that the introduction of Malcolm will also introduce complications between Jim and Liz, and meantime I expect the other Shannon kids will further blossom their romances with their paramours. In terms of the wider mythological drive of the show, however, there was little forward momentum in that regard to make further speculation.

Terra Nova: S01 Ep01 – Genesis Parts 1 & 2

What happened?

Earth in the 22nd century is over-polluted and oxygen-deficient. The Shannon family have contravened the laws that state only two children per couple, and the father Jim Shannon is locked away as a consequence. However, his wife Liz is granted passage to Terra Nova – a colony set up from a discovered crack in time and space leading to Earth 85 million years earlier. The Shannon family manage to all escape together to Terra Nova, and there set up life in the prehistoric compound.

Liz Shannon is enlisted as a doctor, whilst Jim Shannon is at first given agricultural duties before his instincts as a cop prompt Terra Nova founder and leader, Nathaniel Taylor, to give him a badge and a gun. He needs it when he is called out to rescue his son, Josh, and a bunch of other kids that ventured outside the fence and got caught up with Sixers (a rogue faction of colonists that splintered from Terra Nova) and attacking dinosaurs.

Everyone is brought home safe, though the kids all discovered a secret that Nathaniel would rather remained unknown; an area of diagrams and equations that the Sixers believe was written by Nathaniel’s missing son, harbouring information about the truth of Terra Nova.

Thoughts

Ah, that tricky first episode. Carrying the burden of introducing new characters, a new world, a new concept, and having to make the whole thing quickly appealing, engaging, but also providing fertile ground from which the show can grow and develop. It’s no mean feat, and as such, so long as a show keeps my interest, I am prepared to overlook other deficiencies at first on the basis that with time the actors, writers and crew will all settle down into understanding what their show is, what its strengths are, and grow into itself.

Terra Nova definitely has room for improvement.

Main character Jim Shannon was rather problematic for me – I didn’t really take to him. He basically came across as a bit of a dork. That would be fine if that was his character, but instead he’s supposed to be straddling both the everyman and action man role (which he does also manage) so these douche-elements aren’t blending well.

His wife Liz fares better (helped by the fact that she’s gorgeous) in terms of her credibility, but she doesn’t escape the trap of being rather one-note. It’s a fate that the Shannon family share. Son Josh does petulant, the geeky daughter is really unsubtly sold as being brainy (much of the exposition falls to her but her shoehorned in dialogue ain’t as pretty on the ear as she is on the eye) and youngest daughter Zoe has little to do but look cute.

As stated, this is just the first episode so there’s time for these people to be fleshed out. And Terra Nova did do the smart thing in focusing on them for the majority of the time rather than deluge us with an extended cast. Keep it simple, let the complex stuff come later.

The only other non-Shannon family characters to get any kind of exposure were founding father, Nathaniel Taylor and hot girl with balls, Sky. The relationship between Sky and Josh felt rather unlikely (Sky’s group were altogether way too trusting of the new boy with their secret booze and rule-breaking exploits!) but that one moment where she looked over at Josh being hugged by his parents, given she had been orphaned, was a bittersweet moment that did more for her as a person than all of her previous screentime.

Nathaniel Taylor was the real star of the show. It was perhaps hard to shake off Quaritch from Avatar (gruff man in charge in a foreign environment!) at first but, eventually, his founding father role was slowly earned. However, shows like Battlestar Galactica and even the ill-fated Outcasts, which have dealt with similar premises of a small pocket of humanity forging a new civilisation, generally involve more political and social structure emphasis. I don’t see Taylor as being realistically capable of maintaining law, order, social structure, government as well as defending the camp – but whether the show really gets into other authoritative hierarchy is another matter (they do tend to get a bit boring and perhaps Terra Nova would rather avoid the political aspect).

The CG-effects were a major talking point of the hype for the show, mainly because any show that is attempting to have dinosaurs as a fundamental part of its world is going to have to work hard to not make them look dreadful. Whilst the dinosaurs themselves looked decent (not exactly Jurassic Park standard but better than your average television effect) in a pilot episode with a lot of money thrown at it, I would expect either the quality to diminish or there to be less direct dinosaur action on the scale of, say, the brilliant cars versus Carnosaurs sequence during the regular episodes. Hopefully my cynicism will prove unfounded as there’s no question that dinosaurs are cool and some top notch man vs monster action will go a long way to cover plot holes and bad dialogue!

Steven Spielberg’s presence as executive producer kind of worries me, especially because the show seems to be favouring a safer, more wholesome feel than the opening scenes on Earth might have suggested. Hopefully I am wrong, because what Terra Nova really needs is to retain some kind of raw edge to compensate for the cheesy dialogue and lack of genuine peril. (Was anyone under any illusions that any key character wouldn’t survive?)

There’s promising plot threads trickling through to give the series somewhere to go. Nathaniel’s long lost son was one, with the strange markings he was leaving that hint at a truth about Terra Nova clearly being pencilled in early to pave the way for big mysteries and revelations to come. The key question would be to challenge the validity of the claim that Terra Nova is in a different “timestream” to the Earth they left. Just because that’s the official story doesn’t necessarily make it so.

I’d be willing to bet there’s a good chance that they really are part of Earth’s history and the potential effects of that are yet to be revealed (like, for example, why they can’t go back!). Failing that, they may not even be on Earth at all. So far there’s been nothing to substantiate that ‘given’ (admittedly they would therefore have to be on Earth-like planet that also has a moon similar to our own, so the odds of this being an alien world are pretty remote!).

So Terra Nova opened with a fairly predictable ‘kids in danger’ plotline to get our heroes outside of the compound and face-to-face with dinosaurs, and Sixers. It was eventful, served as a good introduction but did nothing particularly daring or groundbreaking. Again, with a show that cost this much money, you have to wonder how ‘risky’ it’s willing to go (in its favour, there were some moments of violence and gore that were stronger than I might have expected).

Terra Nova survived the test of the pilot episode in that it kept my interest throughout and has done enough to keep me willing to come back for more. Fingers crossed it gets better because I am intrigued to see where it’s going.

What was the best part?

As good as Terra Nova looked, and as exciting as a couple of the dinosaur attacks were, the most arresting sequences were back on Earth. The Shannon family hiding their daughter, the advertising boards and smoke-filled air, and then the walk towards the portal – these all had atmosphere and drama that loaned proceedings a sense of edge. Once the family were at Terra Nova that level of jeopardy just wasn’t present; it was entertaining but it felt safe.

What do I think will happen next?

I would anticipate that the next few episodes probably won’t look too deeply at the ‘bigger’ mysteries of the show, and will hopefully instead concentrate on the characters and everyday life in Terra Nova. I would also expect the Sixers would retain their presence, if only to create conflict, but maybe we’ll get to see them in a more sympathetic light and uncover why they split and what they’re all about. Mostly I expect exploration of both family and new world in the immediate few episodes, and I think that is precisely what the show can afford to spend some time on.