Time-travel, Dinosaurs and Stephen Lang: this Sci-Fi Dream Team Should be Great Fun
On first showing, Terra
Nova is the Harlem Globetrotters of sci-fi. Take a dash of Blade Runner for starters followed by a
smidgeon of Stargate and a whole load
of Avatar (there’s even Stephen
Lang), mixed with Jurassic Park plus
a little bit of Lost, and you have Terra Nova.
The set-up is that by the 22nd Century, Earth has
been utterly choked, but a rip in time has appeared providing a portal to a
different time stream, 85 million years in the past. In short, mankind is going
to the time of the dinosaurs to build a perfect new society, and we follow a
family who are joining this brave new world.
It’s a nice idea, and it’s been assembled with a lot of
beauty and no attempt whatsoever to hold back. In the opening double-bill, we
had an assassination attempt, two dinosaur attacks and a little Lost-esque sense of mystery (and even a
hint that the writers know where they’re going with it). It was great fun, and
every five minutes we had Stephen Lang doing his grizzled, untrustworthy action
man shtick, which made things even better.
There were also many nice touches in the 2149 section. An
authoritarian system which limits family numbers to no more than four was
depicted with ruthless efficiency, and I could have sworn that we saw Barack
Obama’s face on the money. In fact, the opening was so effectively done that I
am a little disappointed that we won’t be heading back there (the time portal
is one-way only).
Terra Nova itself is James Cameron’s imagination on a TV
show’s budget, and whilst it has many a Jurassic perk (Steven Spielberg is an Exec Producer on this), you begin to wonder how
far the writers can take this, given that everyone lives in a gated community
and the threat of dinosaur mauling for those who dash outside will become very
repetitive. Thankfully, there are the curious breakaways, the “Sixers”, who
stand in opposition to Terra Nova and who will become the dramatic driving
force of the plot, and probably a bit if the action.
On a week-to-week basis, we shall deal with the family. We’ve
already had two bouts of teenage yearning, and a nice moment where some teens
sneak off into the jungle in order to brew some moonshine “Cretaceous style”.
The youngsters so far have been uniformly good, whilst the parents were a bit
mixed. Shelley Conn was excellent as the medical mother, but Jason O’Mara, as
the father, did seem to do a lot of angsty staring before running and shouting
in action mode.
Subtle this is not and the clichés come thick and fast, but this was an encouraging start for a series which could provide a lot of unadulterated Monday night fun over the winter months.
Terra Nova continues on Sky 1, Mondays @ 8pm
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