Terra Nova

It premieres this Wednesday. I was getting ready to jump all over its main premise, namely why would they go so far back in time when it would be much safer to just go back 100 k years or so, as well as being potentially more interesting as they interact with the primitive pre-humans or Neanderthals or even Cro-Magnons if they moved it up ~ 50k years. That would be more interesting than the stereotypical "running from the Tyrannosaurus" cliches. But then I see in this article that they had no choice in the temporal destination...hmmm...

But I'm still going to be riding herd on this thing very closely. It looks ripe for critique.

From executive producers Steven Spielberg, Peter Chernin, René Echevarria and Brannon Braga comes an epic family adventure 85 million years in the making.

"An epic family adventure 85 million years in the making."

TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past. Wait a minute ! Do you mean that all of Obama's "green jobs" didn't work out ? Oh no ! I'm devastated...

When scientists unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that made it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion was born to resettle humanity in the past – a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time. I guess the "fracture" only goes to that one place in time ? Leaving aside the likely "butterfly effect", common in S-F time travel, It seems more likely that starting so far back to remake human history would result in smog, over crowding , extinctions, etc. occurring even long before Obama was born. So what's the use ?

The series centers on the Shannon family as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first colony established in this beautiful yet foreboding land. JIM SHANNON (Jason O’Mara), a devoted father with a checkered past, guides his family through this new world of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. Jim’s wife, ELISABETH (Shelley Conn), is a trauma surgeon and the newest addition to Terra Nova’s medical team. JOSH (Landon Liboiron) is their 17-year-old son who is torn to leave life as he knows it behind; upon arriving at the settlement, he finds himself instantly drawn to the beautiful and rule-breaking SKYE (Allison Miller). MADDY (Naomi Scott), Josh’s endearingly awkward 15-year-old sister, hopes Terra Nova will give her a chance to reinvent herself. Although Elisabeth’s medical training secured the family a spot on the pilgrimage, a secret involving their five-year-old daughter, ZOE (Alana Mansour), soon endangers their place in this utopia.

"The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past."

Upon the Shannons’ arrival, they are introduced to COMMANDER NATHANIEL TAYLOR (Stephen Lang), the charismatic and heroic first pioneer and leader of the settlement. Taylor warns the travelers that while Terra Nova is a place of new opportunities and fresh beginnings, all is not as idyllic as it initially appears. Along with blue skies, towering waterfalls and lush vegetation, the surrounding terrain is teeming with danger – and not just of the man-eating dinosaur variety. There is also a splinter colony of renegades led by the battle-hardened MIRA (Christine Adams), who is vehemently opposed to Taylor and his leadership.

Even more threatening than what lies outside the protective walls of the colony is the chilling possibility that something sinister is happening inside Terra Nova. The Shannons will come to suspect that not everyone on this mission has the same idea of how to best save mankind; in fact, there may be forces intent on destroying this new world before it even begins.

The basic premise may be wild, but I'm willing to give it a chance.

You mean Monday night...

Tivo is set, I've read mixed reviews but we've been waiting for...oh, a year for this to come out so...

Going to DVR it and give it a try! 2 hour premier!

You mean Monday night... Cutie , Oh, thanks for the correction. Mondays are very crowded. I have to DVR HIMYM and 2 1/2 Men. But I can watch Terra Nova without having to DVR DWTS because I can see all the main things on the Tuesday recap show. So all I have to do on Mondays pertinent to DWTS is go online and vote within the 1/2 hr. voting window after the show. With Peta gone this takes on less urgency but I will put all votes for Kristen. It's rather unusual for me to vote for the celebrity directly rather than the hot female pro. Castle is then late enough to not have conflicts.

Ok, here we go.. The basic motivations seem to be bogus. 138 years in the future and they don't have the technology to clean/protect the environment ? Heck, we can do better than that right now. Of course they are living under a totalitarian dictatorship so maybe that has something to do with it. A contemporary example might be the Soviet Union. After it fell and people from the west got in to look around they found horrendous pollution and neglect all over the place.

Anyway, sometime between now and then they discover a "rift in time" and they have the technology to exploit it which hints that the discovery occurred closer to 2149 than now. So they build a "probe" and send it into the rift to see how far back in time it goes. The probe has a "beacon" that will signal them "when" it is. This indicates that energy, if not material objects, can communicate from the past to the present. But "it's a one way trip, you can't come back" for people and objects, we are told.

But then they never get a beacon from the probe and deduce it's because it's in an alternate time line. This becomes a handy fact as we shall soon see.....but that raises the question...if they never heard from the probe how do they know that it's in an alternate time line 85 million years ago ? Why not 50 mill or 100 mill, or last week ?

But they then send 19 colonizations back, sight unseen as it were, except the commander of Terra Nova was bravely the first one through the Stargate which is what I prefer to call it. 19 colonization groups hints that humans have been back there for 15-20 years at least. The one "teenage" girl that latches onto the son, tells us that "I was just a kid when my parents died".

By "now" the colony is quite advanced with SUVs , solar power, presumably agriculture ( the large clearing in the middle) but inexplicably the commander's headquarters is made from large bamboo stalks lashed together with ropes... The colonists living quarters seem to be more modern structures if rather non-utilitarian. We see "hams" hanging in the market place but no evidence of animal husbandry. Hmmm... I call this the "Game of Thrones" anomaly. You will recall that they ate meat too without evidence of food animals.

Always important when dinosaurs are lurking is what sort of weapons they have. The smaller hand-held weapons and the larger ones mounted on the "stockade" seem to fire projectiles propelled with some sort of electric "charge" rather than gunpowder. This is acceptable in S-F (also see "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle", by Victor Appleton, ca. 1910.)

However some of the larger rifle-size weapons seem to be using a more "traditional" chemical propellant...note the flames from the barrel when the kids are firing from inside the SUV. Also, on top of the SUVs are twin barrels of guns which judging by the bore diameter appears to be about 40 mm. If true, then one round from one of those would blow the head off of any land animal they are likely to encounter. However all this is academic because they don't seem to be able to hit the broad side of a barn, or dinosaur, and if they do it just runs away....

Back to the fact that they are in an alternate time line..... this neatly sidesteps the "butterfly effect" problem. No matter what they do nothing can "snowball" to cause disaster in their own time line in their far future. This begs the question as to what happens to the alternate time line in the far future ? They'll never know so why care ?

But now we come to the most important fact ....what exactly are the inscriptions in the rocks down by the waterfall and stream (I'm still struggling with why the girl was wearing a 20th Century bikini when they went swimming, but that's my problem. :lol: ) The commander hints that he knows about them in spite of the kids thinking they are keeping them secret. Of course the Sixers know about them too. So what are the inscriptions ? Judging by their appearance my best guesses are:

A. Aliens have visited Earth at least 85 million years ago and made them.

B. Residents of the alternate time line in the future came back and made them. This doesn't bode well for their future what with the colonists trampling all over the "butterflies". I consider 'B' to be the most likely scenario, if we ever learn anything at all.....but maybe the far future alternate time liners came back to "correct" the future problems that occurred in their time line because of the colonizers.

C. Other...

At any rate this mystery will percolate down the episodes for multiple seasons (optimistically assuming the show survives that long ) a la Lost, until fans despair of ever learning what they are...


There you have it....first installment . :lol:

I loved it. Thought it was a great first episode...explained a lot, great action, characters you can care about.

And I thought they said that the Commander knows about the rock writing and he leaves it there because it's the only thing he has of his son. The writings are the son who everytime he discovers something about why they are really there, he writes it down there. Sort of sticking it to his Dad.

Yes, I heard that but I don't think all the inscriptions are by the son. But even if they are, what he discovered could still be A, B, or C. If he is still alive why is he remaining hidden ? Regardless, they are going to string out this aspect for a looong time. Partly because it arouses the greatest interest and speculations among the viewers and partly because they are heartless..... :lol:

I thought it was ok. Not totally sold on it yet....I'll keep watching to see where it goes.

The "kid" (don't know his real age) that plays Josh, Jim Shannon's son, is very annoying so far. Hopefully his attitude will change. His potential girl friend 'Skye' who is about the only one with a lick of sense, I like her, is played by a 26 year old actress. Why she has a 20th Century bikini is still a mystery....

Good points everyone and good run down Banjo. I hate how so many shows are about how mankind destroyed the environment but I'll get past that. There is always a 6er element in this kinds of shows. Another group or persons out to stir things up. Anyone remember Earth 2?

Rus wrote:Good points everyone and good run down Banjo. I hate how so many shows are about how mankind destroyed the environment but I'll get past that. There is always a 6er element in this kinds of shows. Another group or persons out to stir things up. Anyone remember Earth 2?

Yes, I do and it kinda reminded me of that show...just couldn't remember the name. I think that's my problem with the show...same ole...same ole....But I do like the guy that plays the Commander.

Speilberg liked him from Avatar and he was the first one cast in this.

I liked it okay. Interesting possibilities, but the cost of the show is so steep I can't imagine it being around long. :indecision:

I dvr'd it and will watch it this weekend.

I wonder if it is more expensive to produce than Lost, for example. Once they have the sets built the major fixed expense is done, aside from salaries of course but those are known in advance. Of course they do have a lot more CGI than Lost which is expensive, but most of it involves dinosaurs which can be 'recycled'. I didn't catch where it's filmed, I'll check, but that also affects production costs.

Production

The series is based on an idea by British writer Kelly Marcel.[5] Alex Graves signed on to direct the pilot.[6] Brannon Braga serves as showrunner.[7] Australia was chosen after producer Steven Spielberg vetoed Hawaii because he wanted a different filming location from his 1993 film Jurassic Park.[8] The two-hour pilot was filmed over 26 days in late November to December 2010.[5] It was shot in south-east Queensland, Australia, with locations in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Gold Coast Hinterland.[9][10] The shoot was plagued by torrential rain and additional material had to be shot in 2011, with a total estimated cost between $10 to $20 million to be amortized over the season.[8][11] More than 250 sets were constructed.[12] An episode takes eight to nine days to shoot, like most television dramas, but six weeks in post-production, twice the television average.[5] The average episode budget is about $4 million.[11] Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly stated, "This thing is going to be huge. It's going to take an enormous production commitment."[13]

In an unusual decision, Fox skipped ordering just a pilot, and instead immediately ordered thirteen episodes. This was partly due to financial reasons, as the large Australian sets are expensive to dismantle and rebuild. Despite this decision, the producers denied the production was over-budget, with Peter Rice explaining instead the show is "a very expensive... very ambitious television show". Kevin Reilly continued, "We're not in completely uncharted territory here. The start-up cost for the series is definitely on the high end. But it's not some bank-breaking series".[14] With only 10% of Cretaceous-era dinosaurs recorded in the fossil record, the producers decided to supplement the series with ones which might have existed; paleontologist Jack Horner was brought in to help create realistic creatures for the period and different from those of the Jurassic Park film franchise.[8]

In June 2010, the first cast member was announced – Jason O'Mara as Jim Shannon.[15] In late August, Allison Miller joined the cast.[16] In September, Deadline Hollywood reported that Stephen Lang signed on to play the role of Commander Taylor.[17] An executive producer, David Fury, left the series as a result of creative differences.[18] In September, Shelley Conn landed the female lead role.[19] In October, Mido Hamada was cast as a security head,[20] while Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, and Alana Mansour were cast as the three children.[21] In November, Christine Adams was cast as Mira.[22] In May 2011, Rod Hallett was added as a series regular.[23]

The cast and crew returned to Queensland, Australia on May 20, 2011 to continue production on the first season. Filming commenced on May 25, 2011.[24] With a long production process on the series,[12] it was announced that the first season would consist of thirteen episodes to finish airing in December 2011.[25]



'Terra Nova' Premiere Recap: Best of 'Genesis'
Monday, September 26, 2011

This week on Terra Nova we travel back 85 million years with the Shannon family to do the simple task of restarting human civilization. It was a special two hour premiere packed with action, but let's focus on the important stuff. Hold on to your butts as the party with dinosaurs begins.

The Future Kinda Sucks

We open up in Chicago in the year 2149. Apparently, no one remembers the movie Wall-E and didn't heed it's warnings because the two earths look strikingly similar. This is where the Shannon family lives. Jim, who is a cop, lives with his doctor wife Elizabeth with their three kids Josh, Maddy, and Zoe. The problem with the future is that you are only allowed two children. The population control police come to check out the house and when they find Zoe hiding in an air vent, Jim goes nuts and beats up a couple cops before being tazed and taken to jail.

Two years later, Elizabeth visits Jim and tells him she was accepted into Terra Nova with Josh and Maddy. He then uses a laser cutter she snuck in to escape. He smuggles Zoe, who is in a back pack and himself, to the time portal. Security there suspects something is up, so he has Elizabeth walk through the portal with Zoe on her back. I was expecting a weird melding of the two like in The Fly, but sadly that doesn't happen. Jim then makes a run for it and gets through the portal with his family.

Welcome to the Jungle

The time portal spits everyone out in the middle of the jungle, where the Shannon's already run into trouble. Jim is caught with a gun and there are two more people in the family than expected. They are taken to Terra Nova, where Commander Nathaniel Taylor greets them. It's that grizzled military guy from Avatar! But instead of being hellbent on destroying a planet full of blue people for its resources, he wants to build a perfect world for tomorrow. He asks to speak with Elizabeth and Jim about smuggling people into Terra Nova. If there is one thing to take away from this conversation it's that I want a desk that is made out of a T-Rex skull. Jim asks for a gun and a badge to work security but instead is put on agricultural duty.

They are shown their living quarters and Jim tries to fit back into family life. Elizabeth is still cold towards him (and eventually makes him sleep on the couch), Zoe doesn't remember him, and Josh is mad that he had to go to prison. Jim says that they shouldn't argue the about the past, which is actually the future, but it may not be the future, because they're changing the past for a better tomorrow. Man, time travel is confusing. After the argument they find Zoe outside chillin' with some Brachiosaurus, which seems to be Spielberg's favorite way at introducing the audience to dinosaurs.

Back to Work

The next day the kids are supposed to go to orientation while the adults begin their new day jobs. On the way to orientation Maddy and Josh come across a tribute to Sputnik, instead it is actually the probe that was originally sent back in time. Maddy, as we find out, is the nerdy kid who always talks about things no one cares about. She explains to Josh that the probe was sent back in time, but when it was never found people realized that it went to a separate past time line, which negates the butterfly effect.

This makes sense because the whole time I was watching this I was thinking about the Simpson's episode where Homer goes back in time with a toaster and kills a mosquito causing the future to be ruled by Flanders. It looks like we don't have to worry about that. On the way to orientation Josh runs into Skye, who is a fellow teenager, (age 26). She lives in a hippie commune with other teenagers Max, Hunter, and Tasha. They decide to go OTG. No, that's not the Jurassic version of GTL, it means outside the gates.

Elizabeth is in the hospital where she gets a lesson about blood harvesting using leeches the size of pugs. She then works on a man who was shot for being a thief. This man soon holds Elizabeth at gun point and escapes the hospital. Jim, who is learning about root care and hyper-oxidation sees the thief and follows him. He soon finds him trying to shoot Taylor and tackles him. Taylor, pleased at not being shot, allows Jim to join his security force.

The Others

Taylor takes Jim for a ride and explains that the man was a Sixer. Like The Others from Lost, this is a group of renegades who split off from Terra Nova. They are called Sixers because they came with the sixth pilgrimage to Terra Nova. While he's explaining this they spot a group of Sixers driving towards Terra Nova with guns ready. They drive down and try to intercept them only to get an added bonus of fighting a Carnitaurs, which sounds like a made up dinosaur to me. They soon neutralize the baddie dino and find out that the Sixers (headed by a woman named Mira) want to trade meteorite iron, used for power, for the thief (named Carter) and medicine.

While this is all happening Josh and the hippies are at a waterfall swimming. Skye points out strange mathematic carvings in the rocks. Apparently Taylor doesn't want anyone to know about these, which sounds a tad be fishy. They soon move on to their prehistoric moonshine rig and make some hooch, and we now know where the origins of NASCAR came from.

Trouble in Paradise

As the Sixers leave Terra Nova to their home camp they come across the rover that the kids stole in the woods. They decide to strip the car of its power supply, and after they take out the batteries they are attacked by a vicious dinosaur called a Slashertail. These are like a stingray mixed with a raptor, and they don't like humans. The kids come back and find that their car was broken into and then realize that they are not alone. A slasher comes after them and they take refuge in the Sixer car with a wounded Carter.

Back at Terra Nova, Taylor is shown video of the kids sneaking OTG. I guess no one watches the video live, and instead watches the tape after it's a few hours old. A search party is made involving the elder Shannon's and they head out to look for the kids. In the car Tasha has had enough of being attacked and decides to run for it. Bad idea. She eventually runs into the search party looking like she's had better days. Back at the car the others decide to try to put the power cells back in and leave. As soon as the try they are ambushed by a couple more slashers only to be saved by the rescue party.

The episode ends with Mira talking about Taylor, whose son fled Terra Nova, trying to hide the carvings at the falls. It is Taylor's son that is carving them to prove to his dad that Terra Nova could be used for control of the future.

This show was a lot better than I expected, but should have been kept at an hour length, but that's because I'm lazy and an extra hour means more work. Next week on Terra Nova, we learn more about the rival factions and what secrets are out there. And hopefully find out where Dr. Malcolm is hiding at in camp.

Chase Gamradt
Contributing Writer

Saw the pilot. It was O.K.

It didn't grab my attention.

I'm beginning to wonder if this has legs. It might survive one season but they are going to have to step it up in terms of the characters having some common sense, otherwise it sinks into a parody of "prehistoric threats" shows. They are constantly being threatened by the native fauna but seem to have no long term plan to counter it. After all, they are tasked with "saving the human race" but seem oblivious to taking steps to ensure this. A professional, planned program of ensuring their safety would have them seeking out and destroying all dinosaur egg nests, including the flying species, for a radius of however many miles it takes to keep them away, and killing anything on sight that approaches the settlement. But no, they blunder around without guns, run into the jungle at night "armed" with a flashlight, etc. etc...I'm getting tired of it.

The Sixers, however little we've seen of them, don't seem to have this problem.

I have DVR'd all of the episodes except the pilot! I want to watch the pilot first and need to find some time to sit and watch 2 hrs. Hope to do it yet this week so I can get caught up!

So after last night I rate this a 7 on the UB index (Unremitting Bleakness, as conceived by Berry ) One death by murder, multiple interpersonal conflicts, suspicions , secret plots, etc.

And I noticed something else. Why does the little daughter need to keep a dinosaur as a pet ? Where are their cats and dogs, or even canaries and goldfish ? Obviously they couldn't let them go roaming in the jungle but it wouldn't be more difficult than having pets in NYC for example. You could postulate that in 2149 such frivolities as pets had gone by the wayside so they didn't have any to bring with them. But that doesn't fly. People will sacrifice a lot before they'd let their pets go extinct.

And one more thing....don't they have flying machines ? I thought there was some sort of a powered hang-glider in one earlier episode . I thought of that when they were chasing the dinosaur in their SUVS.

With an airplane it would have been much simpler to track it and shoot it from the air. Of course after chasing it over open ground without shooting at it, they herd it into the jungle then go blundering around trying to find it and get a clear shot. What sort of lottery system do they use to select these "colonists" ? Whatever it is, it needs an overhaul.

I do not recall flying machines in Terra Nova. I want to know how they fuel and maintain a fleet of vehicles without being able to produce or manufacture things like fuel, tires, spare parts, not to mention ammo and so on. It seems unlikely that they can get an endless supply of these types of things from 2149. And if they are who is funding these purchases? At some point they will need to be completely self sustaining. I don't see them being able to do this for a very long time. Sure you can bring technology with you but they seem to be an ag community at this point. Industrialization of Terra Nova will be decades if not centuries away.

I want to know how they fuel and maintain a fleet of vehicles without being able to produce or manufacture things like fuel, tires, spare parts, not to mention ammo and so on. It seems unlikely that they can get an endless supply of these types of things from 2149......

On the blogs/fan sites some people think that they are supplied from 2149 but we see no evidence of that. But in an earlier ep we see that the vehicles run on some sort of "fuel cell"/cartridge, that plugs in. And there was a reference and brief scene of a silvery metal/mineral that they "mine" as an energy source. Is it refined to become the energy source for the vehicles ? We don't have direct evidence. They still have a lot of 'splanin' to do...

Hey, if anyone notices that they are going to re-air the premiere PLEASE let me know! I haven't seen it (have just DVR'd the season). I missed the premier but want to watch it first!!!

I haven't seen any sched. from Fox where they will replay Ep 1 but you might find a site here that let you watch it online.

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Hulu is a good site for watching TV shows on your computer. I think it's free to sign up..I did it too long ago to remember..

Fox strikes again....Terra Nova cancelled.

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