Terra Nova: season 1 thread

Being a Fox show, I'm sure it will be an incredible, a smash hit among the geek set, and canceled six episodes in. Can't wait

Just a heads-up, Terra Nova's 2-hour premiere airs tonight (9/26/2011) on Fox at 8 p.m EDT.

I'll check this out on demand. One question...



Why would you send people back millions of years to give the human race a second chance knowing that there is going to be a cataclysmic event that will wipe out virtually every living thing on the planet?

The Dino's where living on earth way way longer than humans have, so going back to the beginning of the dinosaur age gives them millions and millions of years before the killer asteroid arrives. Plus with a dying earth and this being the only portal in time, they did not have much of a choice.

I noticed a little homage to a couple of movies here, namely Jurassic Park and the dinosaur chasing the Jeep, the other was to James Cameron's Aliens with the line "They mostly come out at night, mostly".

Someone please explain how the father escaped from prison.

The concept was strong, the casting was strong. And those are the only two places where you can't come back from deficiencies. Hopefully the writing will improve in time. In the mean time, I'm definitely in.
He used the lazer beam his wife smuggled into his rebreather mask.

I was expecting much worse from this. I enjoyed it enough to give it a while and see if it develops.

I wasn't paying too much attention at the beginning, but was there actually any mention of it having been years that the dad was in jail until after the son mentioned it when they got to their new house?

I had assumed it was only a night or something until he threw his fit.

I think the cast is pretty good also, but the writing needs a bit of improvement, it 's looking a bit predictable.
The stone writings by the waterfall is from Nathaniel Taylor's character trying to send a message into the future.
It's probably going to be figured out by the older daughter that seems to have the gift of math.

Overall I will keep watching it to see if it keeps my attention, however if they can't improve on the writing and lower
the cost of making this series I think it will go by the way that Firefly did... One Season.

Your theory definitely makes the most sense, but a slight correction: the cave drawings on the stones are from Taylor's missing son, left to torment him. They're how Taylor knows his son is still alive, and very much hint that Terra Nova is a large scale experiment for the benefit of old earth 2149, not the start of a new future for mankind. That's the thing. This show can get ratings that would be a clear reason for renewal on any other show and still result in cancellation if they don't justify the budget. At the same time, it's exciting to watch a show that feels like a blockbuster.

The impression I got is that the drawings / calculations are to figure out how to open a portal to go in the other direction, but that's just a guess.

Did they ever explain how they knew where the portal went? The beacon only showed that it was a parallel timeline. So how do they know? Also, it seems Taylor is able to contact the future? So how?

They never did explain, but it's my understanding that data can be passed back and forth; the probe they sent through had to transmit back, for instance. It seems to only be physical objects that go one way.

I assumed that they didn't know where the portal went until Taylor went in first.

As for the latter part... this is just a guess on my part, but I'm thinking that he can't actually contact the future, and is pretending that he can in order to keep people calm. I mean, really the only mention of potentially contacting the future was to give a flimsy excuse for not contacting the future about the Sixers.

Terrific pilot, really.

 

I especially appreciated a few things:

 

1) How quickly the show moved from the "future" to the past.  It was actually *very* light on exposition, which was welcome.  Many other shows would have belaboured the point of showing that Jim is a cop, and that Elisabeth is doctor, indeed other shows would have had entire scenes of Jim at work with people reminding us he is a cop (example: Fallen Skies).  The show quickly established who everyone was, and did it in an efficient and effective manner.

 

2) Similarly, there was very little exposition.  No boring scenes explaining the tech, or how exactly (and I mean specifically) the Earth got how it was.  Again, other shows would have wasted twenty minutes on this.

 

3) The willingness to quickly move past the stereotypical tropes seen in other family-centric/action shows (Earth 2, Swiss Family Robinson, Jurassic Park, et cetera).  Yes, there were stereotypes, such as the teenager mad at his dad, the brainy girl awkward around boys, the rough-and-tumble military leader, the outcasts, the tom-boy rebel, the young daughter being standoffish with the fatherand so on.  However, most of these were either dealt with almost immediately (Jim and Zoe) or had subtle twists.  I fully expected Taylor to be an exact clone of Col. Quaritch from Avatar, and was pleasantly suprised he was not (at least not so far).

 

All-in-all, it was a tight, effective plot, that clearly benefited from some cutting here-and-there.  I think there's a lot of room to grow, and the over-arching plot regarding the secrets of Terra Nova are compelling enough without feeling forced (though you just *knew* there was going to be a LOST-esque mystery going on).  I except the writing to be crisped up as the writers develop the characters; likewise, I expect the acting to tighten up, too.  Echoing the above comments, I expected much worse, but I was pleasantly suprised by what I found.

 

I also found the score to be quite effective, so kudos to the music department.

 

If the show only gets better, it could be a legitimate hit.

I enjoyed it (well, the 2/3rds of it that I've seen so far). It's my favorite new show of the season so far.

Lots of cliched characters and tropes, but hopefully that will be improved on.

The markings were older than Terra Nova, didn't look like they'd survive 85 million years, and they've established that it's a different timeline anyway. So I don't think so. I think there's another portal from somewhere (or somewhen) else.

I do agree that the daughter will probably decipher them, 'cause you know she's into science and math and stuff.

If anyone missed it, iTunes is offering the first ep in HD FOR FREE this week!

The episode is also re-airing on Saturday night if you want all the commercials. :D

Did not know it was a free download, thanks!!
Now I can watch it commercial free.

Eric thanks for the heads up on the free download. I forgot to set the dvr so it was nice to be able to simply download it and watch it commercial free.

I was expecting the worse and came away pleasantly optimistic about the future episodes.

I’m glad they explained that they really did not have any control over where the portal would dump you back in time since this era is arguably the worst possible one imaginable to send your last hope for continuing the human race. After all you wouldn’t really need to or want to send them to this era since man in not the top of the food chain.

Just some random observations I have about the series.

They must be capable of communicating back with the future or the future would not continue to send people through.

They can send ground transports through or they built them there but no one has thought about flying machines? Seems like a helicopter or some sort of flying machine would make life a hell of a lot better.

The future earth is dying yet there certainly seemed to be a heck of a lot of building going on. Did you see all the building cranes in the establishing shots?

Also there seemed to be a lot of smoke stacks going in the future. There aren’t that many in large cities now so why would there be so many in the future?

One last thing, I certainly hope that the 6ers do not end up being the noble ones in is series. That would be just a tired over used cliché.

Quote:

They went back only 85 million years (Cretaceous period), which was late in the age of dinosaurs. The mass extinction event 65 million years ago means they will have 20 million years to prepare. Of course, being human, they'll wait until the last moment.

I found it pretty cheesy...but mildly entertaining.  I'll stick with it for now.

 

Didn't like the opening sequence at all...glad it was over quick.  Seems like they must have thrown that together last minute.  Maybe initially they weren't gonna show in detail how they got there.

 

So is it realistic to think they got together all the resources and infrastructure to make all that advanced technology work in just 7 years?

 

 

I don't know the exact details, but the original cut apparently threw the audience right into it and unfurled the exposition as the two hours went on. Most of the critics that have seen both cuts of the pilot vastly preferred the earlier, less dumbed down cut of the pilot. Test audiences strongly preferred the version that aired. My understanding is that that supplies and technology were sent through the portal just like the settlers, on a somewhat regular basis. There was at least one windmill within the perimeter, so they have a source of electricity. The vehicles were probably sent through in pieces and reassembled in Terra Nova. If they're ever cut off from the time fracture, things will like regress in a big old hurry.

You can tell the show has had a lot of cooks in the kitchen. A lot of different shifts and tone and neatly places things, like Dinosaurs to appeal to a particular demographic.
What is this story trying to tell the audience? Why are we there?
There wasn't anything of interest to hold me past the pilot.
I smell Brannon Braga all over this show.

I would like to know how they have changed it over the last year since it was delayed twice.

From http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/review-foxs-terra-nova-has-impressive-spectacle-but-family-drama-lacking

Weren't they also having a ton of trouble with the special effects too?