Writer: Adrian Hodges
Director: Jamie PayneCast: Douglas Henshall (Professor Nick Cutter), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), James Murray (Stephen Hart), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Ben Miller (Sir James Lester), Karl Theobald (Oliver Leek), Naomi Bentley (Caroline Steel) & Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis)
A group of raptors arrive in a shopping mall through an anomaly, as Cutter gets to grips with changes to his timeline…"I'm gonna get a slushie."
-- Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts)
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into… um, the shopping centre! Yes, it's the return of action-adventure Primeval; a show that refuses to believe sci-fi has moved on since the 80s and where, last year, the only people having any fun were the Walking With Dinosaurs FX crew animating the creatures.
Primeval has miraculously survived extinction, and returns for another 7 episodes... with slight evolution. Episode 1 of this new season continues on directly from season 1's cliffhanger -- where Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) returned from the past to discover his friend Stephen (James Murray) once had an affair with his wife Helen, and that team member Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) had been erased from history…
It transpires that the team's accidental meddling in time (returning prehistoric beasts back through anomalies to the past) has resulted in a few other changes: the team now operate out of the Anomalies Research Centre (ARC), and the missing Claudia has been replaced by Oliver Leek (Green Wing's Karl Theobald). This is actually a brilliant and plausible way to address some of season 1's failings, although it's disappointing that co-creator/writer Adrian Hodges allows this premiere to becomes overly-familiar very quickly.
A temporal "anomaly" appears in the bowling alley of a shopping centre (echoing Evolution), three Deinonychus ('raptors) are drawn through (sniffing human flesh – or maybe a nearby meat counter?), and our intrepid group of scientists are sent in to clean up the ensuing "carnage". All minus much blood or guts, because this is early-evening ITV family entertainment.
And for some reason, the resources of ARC -- which has plenty of armoured soldiers brandishing rifles standing around looking bored -- are never considered for this task. No, no -- best to send in four expendable "academics", one of whom used to work in a zoo's reptile house, while the other surfed the internet.
But you need to swallow your disbelief when watching Primeval. As long as it's fast, exciting and entertaining, you can just about have your fill. This episode was one of the show's more entertaining outings, although the show's been off-air for awhile now, so I could be pulling my hair out by episode 3 - -when we're basically watching the same story played out with different creatures, in a different setting.
It was interesting to see the ramifications of changes to the timeline, with Cutter being disbelieved by corporate numskull Lester (Ben Miller) and viewed suspiciously by everyone else, and that immediately has Cutter determined to anesthetize the raptors instead of kill them. The "butterfly effect" has to be considered now.
As usual, everything boils down to an extended chase and hair-raising scrapes, most lacking entirely in plausibility, and culminating in a master plan stolen from The Lost World: Jurassic Park. There are raptors being hunted in a laser-gun arena, an Indiana Jones-style escape under a metal shutter, a motorbike chase around a multi-storey car park, and various characters wander off to get slushies alone, or leave unconscious team members behind in the midst of danger!
It's pretty dumb stuff, with logic being badly stretched just so the plot can move on to the next action set-piece. Fortunately, the episode's saving grace is once again the rather excellent effects, which (save for a few bad composites) are very solid and occasionally superb. The dinosaurs continually upstage the actors and make you forget the drab storytelling -- which might not be preferable, but imagine if even the creatures were badly done? It doesn't bear thinking about.
When the mayhem has been sorted out (culminating in a rather nice decapitation), Primeval also manages a few last-minute reveals – with Cutter and Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) discovering a way to track anomalies before they arrive, and the return of a familiar face.
Overall, the success of Primeval depends on your tolerance for its action-over-character writing and repetitive plots. This opener does instigate a few neat changes that could keep things interesting for a time, while it's nice to get rid of Cutter's confusing "missing wife" plot once and for all – although Helen might still return.
If you're after escapist, action-packed, unpretentious drama with great special-effects, but very little else – this show is for you. But if, like me, you want Primeval to provide something more compelling beyond its dinosaur action, you'll just find it very frustrating and often laughable. So, while I enjoyed most of what I saw here, and the tweaks to its formula could have a lasting effect for the better… I suspect not.
12 January 2008
ITV1, 7.00 pm
