Terra Nova

[Ritterin Sophia]

Anyone else watching this? I haven't even seen any dinos yet and I love it. The protagonist has very sympathetic and believable reasons for his actions and seems like a pretty cool guy.

[Aniron]

Spoiler

The son is poorly written. So, he won't leave without his father, but when they're together on Terra Nova, he is upset that he was in prison? How does that work?

[Lord Insanity]

Spoiler

The son is poorly written. So, he won't leave without his father, but when they're together on Terra Nova, he is upset that he was in prison? How does that work?

Spoiler

Idiot teenager syndrome? Really that didn't strike me as all that odd. Not wanting the possibility of never seeing his father again doesn't mean he wouldn't be angry with the situation he caused in the first place.

Overall I thought it was everything Fox advertising hyped it up to be. How often does that happen? I would say this has just earned the best new show of the season (if not year) award. I would be mighty impressed if another new show managed to top it. Hopefully the rest of the show lives up to the pilot.

[Tasoth]

I was half watching this while doing other things, and the sheer ecological destruction that would be wrought got me all fired up. Assuming...
Spoiler

They've got back in Earth's past to the point where dinosaurs are around. A point before the first recorded mammals and angiosperms. And they are maintaining a high level living quality and driving. How do they feed all these people when future Earth is ecologically strapped?

[Lord Insanity]

Spoiler

They've got back in Earth's past to the point where dinosaurs are around. A point before the first recorded mammals and angiosperms. And they are maintaining a high level living quality and driving. How do they feed all these people when future Earth is ecologically strapped?

Spoiler

A couple times they showed a wide shot of the entire compound. Most of it is farmland/growing fields. There were also wind turbines and solar panels clearly visible all around. The rovers were electric with "magic" batteries. They even made brief mention of a quarry and ore (metal refining). It seemed fairly obvious they're mostly self sufficient and presumably that their goal is eventually to be totally self sufficient.

[Aniron]

Spoiler

They've got back in Earth's past to the point where dinosaurs are around. A point before the first recorded mammals and angiosperms. And they are maintaining a high level living quality and driving. How do they feed all these people when future Earth is ecologically strapped?

Spoiler

It was mentioned that there was a fracture or something that allowed them to go back in time without affecting the future. The whole "butterfly" scene. They aren't in the same "time stream."

"They sent this back with the beacon inside, so they could find it however many millions of years later. Only they never did. That's how they knew they were dealing with a new time stream. Whatever? Ok, Josh, you do realize that if we were in the same time stream then something like, I don't know, just stepping on a butterfly could change everything. Like, for example, us never being born."

[Tasoth]

Ah, okay. Also, what are those beamy guns supposed to be?

[Ritterin Sophia]

Maybe they're a more portable version of the sonic cannons they mount around the perimeter of Terra Nova?

[Guardsman Bass]

I just finished watching it.
Spoiler

I really enjoyed it. The first half, in particular, was very engrossing, and I thought the shots and hints about the ecologically devastated Earth were done well. We got a look at one of the "domes" that was mentioned as being a place where the rich and well-connected could live good lives. The "secret third child" seemed a little iffy (if they're as heavy-handed on population control as the show hints at them being, couldn't they require implants to prevent third pregnancies?), but it's a fairly minor quibble. Particularly cool-looking were the gigantic particle accelerator(?)-looking rings that surrounded the transit site.

The setting is quite beautiful, and the CGI was as solid as you would hope it would be for a high-budget sci-fi television show. Their security perimeter seems a little sparse with just the single line of wooden fences, and I suspect that "Slashers get inside the base" will be in one of the season's episodes. The rest of it looks good.

The characters are alright, albeit formulaic. We've got the doesn't-play-by-the-rules former cop who would go through anything to keep his family together, the nurturing caretaker mother, the rebellious teenage son with dad issues, the brainiac daughter with boy troubles, and the cute little daughter. They might become annoying in a couple of episodes, but they were alright in the pilot.

They didn't hold back in terms of plot. We've got

• Dangerous dinosaurs, including the intelligent, pack-hunting "Slashers". I initially thought the cave-etchings were theirs, but they're not.
• A rebel colony, the "Sixers" consisting of hard-asses with armored vehicles and machine guns. They mine meteoric iron, and there may be something strange going on at their colony.
• Possible "Sixer" sympathizers inside Terra Nova. I'll bet that Skye is the person who has been helping out the Sixers from the inside, and that Josh will be the one who discovers that she's doing it first.
• A Dark Secret in the history of Terra Nova, something that the Sixers were trying to change when they ran off. Mira hinted at the "true purpose of Terra Nova" being related to "you control the past, you control the future" (which seems strange when you consider that they're in a parallel "time-stream", but I digress). There's also the strange mathematical etchings drawn by Taylor's rebellious son, which might be related to the time travel process (and that Colonel Quarritch Taylor is determined to hide).
• Disease, which took the lives of Skye's parents (she mentioned some type of fever, along with a remark about everyone's parents dying eventually).

I'm curious as to how those will all pan out. That's a lot of potential storylines.

I hope the show survives for at least a full season. It's risky as hell doing a brand-new, high-budget sci-fi series on network television, even if it does feature dinosaurs and time travel. The show has also got some serious competition on Monday nights ("Dancing with the Stars" is on in a similar time slot).

[Wing Commander MAD]

I pretty sure Taylor called it a tranq gun, as in tranquilizers. If not its sounds damn similar.

Also, gotta love our little raptor wannabes, something tells me your not going to find relatively small therapods with barbed/razor tails that use them as whips to slash prey in real life. I'm pretty sure the tails of such critters were fairly rigid to act partly as counter balance, and possibly aid in turning while running. (Removes dinosour geek hat )


I'm certainly intrigued by the show, but one thing bothers me. A certain infamous individual by the name of Brannon Braga appears to be an executive producer for the show. Needless to say this raises some concerns.

Edit: How the hell did I remember Taylor's name as Anderson?

[Guardsman Bass]

Correction: Fox ordered an entire season of the show (13 episodes), so we'll get that at least (even if they end up playing Time-Slot Shuffle if it gets poor ratings).

[CaptainChewbacca]

It was a pretty awesome episode. I thought Taylor was going to turn out to be evil, but he seems like he's trying to get himself elected King by popular awesomeness. He's certainly the most badass human who ever existed, if he survived 183 days in the Cretaceous by himself.

I'll definitely be watching more in this season. I'm curious if its all 'one way' how they can be communicating with earth at all.

Also, conspiracy or no if I was Taylor and I could ask, I'd request a helicopter gunship or something to take care of the Sixers. I wonder how many more pilgrimages there'll be before TN loses contact with earth.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Also, conspiracy or no if I was Taylor and I could ask, I'd request a helicopter gunship or something to take care of the Sixers. I wonder how many more pilgrimages there'll be before TN loses contact with earth.

I don't think they could do that. Going by the fact that they didn't just drop the settlers off just outside or inside a processing center inside Terra Nova indicates that either they haven't figured out how or can't move the destination of the tear. The reason why this is a problem is if you remember the drop-off site was pretty heavily wooded.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Given how they bring stuff in, I'd guess that you could at least drive a couple of ATV's full of helicopter parts through a wormhole and assemble them on the other side.

[Skgoa]

But why would you want to? They don't need that kind of mobility. Additional heavy infantry weaponry would help much more. And lets not forget, future Earth's ability to send supplies seems to be rather limited, making it somewhat hard for Taylor to justify bringing a war-machine.

edit: I found it rather stupid that they don't seem to defend/observe anything past their perimeter fence, though. And not even that in some places. I guess they got a "the fence keeps everything out and we produce anything we don't get via time portal right here"-mentality going. But with the sixers out there and dinosaurs walking right up to the fence being a not that uncommon occurence, one would think they would at least establish a perimeter line to get advance warning.

[Skgoa]

ghetto edit: [...] But with the sixers out there and dinosaurs walking right up to the fence being a not that uncommon occurence, one would think they would at least establish a perimeter line to get advance warning. Instead we see trees right up to the fence and absolutely no utilization of the very defensible terrain right outside. They had to have the area under control at some point to build the fence in the first place, so that is just stupid. (The round shape makes for a nice visual, though.) I wouldn't mind as much, if the martial aspects of the colony weren't that emphasized.

[lordofchange13]

I'll definitely be watching more in this season. I'm curious if its all 'one way' how they can be communicating with earth at all.

It's lightly implied that they can communicate back to the future. when Taylor takes the father under his wing and tells him about the sixers, the dad asked why he hasn't radioed back about them, Taylor replies something along the lines of i don't know who to trust in the future.

[jegs2]

Anyone else watching this? I haven't even seen any dinos yet and I love it. The protagonist has very sympathetic and believable reasons for his actions and seems like a pretty cool guy.

Was it me, or did some of the characters seem overly stupid?

[Aniron]

Anyone else watching this? I haven't even seen any dinos yet and I love it. The protagonist has very sympathetic and believable reasons for his actions and seems like a pretty cool guy.

Was it me, or did some of the characters seem overly stupid?

Yes. "It just felt right" to have another kid when there's a restriction? Great job screwing up your familial relationship, protagonist.

It's a very predictable show at the moment and the "Lost" vibes are very, very unwelcome. The shoddy CGI doesn't help much either.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

I hear it's good, but Brannon Braga as the showrunner makes me very, very wary. I'll wait until I hear good reviews of the second season before I check it out.

[bilateralrope]

Anyone else watching this? I haven't even seen any dinos yet and I love it. The protagonist has very sympathetic and believable reasons for his actions and seems like a pretty cool guy.

Was it me, or did some of the characters seem overly stupid?

Yes. "It just felt right" to have another kid when there's a restriction? Great job screwing up your familial relationship, protagonist.

How did they even hide the pregnancy ?

[Guardsman Bass]

You can hide a pregnancy with the right type of clothing, although I question whether or not the mother could avoid any type of investigation or medical check-up during the 9 months.

Yes. "It just felt right" to have another kid when there's a restriction? Great job screwing up your familial relationship, protagonist.

To be fair, I think it was presented as an impulsive, reckless decision by him and his wife - and he knows it. Jim got really defensive when Taylor questioned him on it.

Minor nitpick: Elisabeth seems to be your standard Movie Doctor, who can treat just about anything. She had a huge list of specialties, and her role in the colony seems to mostly be general medicine. It's kind of like how movie soldiers sometimes appear to have a degree in "Military", and can use any type of weapon or vehicle.

[bilateralrope]

You can hide a pregnancy with the right type of clothing, although I question whether or not the mother could avoid any type of investigation or medical check-up during the 9 months.

Would she be able to get away with that kind of clothing while working as a doctor ?

[weemadando]

Other doctors would have almost certainly noticed the symptoms within the first trimester

[CaptainChewbacca]

Thing is, the woman was a famous/powerful/popular doctor, so I'm guessing she had other doctor-friends help her cover it up.

Given they had enough money as a family to break a husband out of supermaxx, hiding a pregnancy wouldn't be as hard.