Writer: Adrian Hodges
Director: Andrew GunnCast: 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), Juliet Aubrey (Helen Cutter), Naomi Bentley (Caroline Steel) & Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis)
A fog containing killer worms pours through an anomaly into an office skycraper, and the team are sent in to rescue survivors…"The next time I say 'take the stairs', you take the stairs."
-- Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall)
Tremors meets Die Hard this week, as man-eating worms from earth's prehistory crawl through an anomaly into a modern skyscraper. As staff evacuate the building, before the worms in the sulphuric mist get hungry, executives in the middle of a conference-call to Japan, decide to stay behind. Big mistake...
While this episode sticks resolutely to the Primeval formula, there are more signs the characters are being considered, too. – something that rarely happened last year. Ultimately, it's still just another romp -- with people grappling with CGI monsters and making bad decisions, before managing to save the day – but Adrian Hodges script is brisk, fun and more logical than usual.
Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) is still having difficulty adjusting to changes in his timeline, particularly now the team's joined by PR guru Jenny Lewis (Lucy Brown), who he knew as love-interest Claudia Brown before he unwittingly changed the past…
Jenny is a very different character to easygoing Claudia, which causes Nick some concern, while his belief she used to be a different person causes more raised eyebrows.
At the moment, as a piece of plausible character shake-up, this is working wonders, but I'm not sure if there's a master-plan behind this timeline change. Nick (and the audience) aren't sure what happened to cause Claudia to become Jenny, so it's unlikely Nick could ever change things back. And should he? Claudia's a different person, but totally oblivious to any change herself, while other alterations are actually improvements – like the high-tech ARC building.. and loss of Connor's pork-pie hat.
This episode actually begins with the return of Nick's rogue wife Helen (Juliet Aubrey), who's seemingly content to spend her life marching around arid landscapes millions of years ago, stealing eggs from pterodactyls. In the teaser, Helen is injured after an attack and later appears in Stephen's apartment -- proving beyond doubt that she has some element of control over these "time-tunnel anomalies". Oh, if only she'd share her findings, eh?
I hated the recurring Helen subplot last year, which was never logical or particularly interesting, so her return didn’t fill me with happiness. Thankfully, her reappearance is kept to a minimum, but it's clear she'll be around to continue the "love triangle" between her, cheated-on husband Nick and one-time lover Stephen (James Murray). The fact Juliet Aubrey's now sporting ripped leather and heaving bosoms helps, too…
Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby (Hannah Spearritt) also get a small subplot away from the worms, after Connor (the least geekiest geek in history) manages to woo a beautiful girl called Caroline (Naomi Bentley) at a video shop. She likes sci-fi, he likes sci-fi: it’s a match made in heaven, apparently…
It may sound like this episode is taking a breather from the monsters and focusing on its cast, but that's not really the case. For the most part, this is another collection of perilous attacks and set-pieces inside foggy offices, corridors and elevator shafts. It's a show where dying people love to squish their faces up against glass, let out the Wilhelm Scream whenever they're attacked, and conveniently forget to phone for help inside locked rooms.
It's good fun, for the most part. Like I said, the basic formula behind Primeval hasn't changed, but this episode benefits from its character-based subplots (even if they're a bit daft), and some judicious plans from the "gang". If there's a fog: get some leaf blowers. If the worms can't breathe in our environment: heat up the air so the oxygen expands and pushes the fog out open windows. Finally, some brains!
Of course, dumb moments remain: Nick and Stephen enter this hostile environment with no protective apparatus whatsoever (despite firemen telling them there's a gas up there), Samurai swords conveniently adorn plinths for easy worm-beheading, Stephen actually photocopies a worm to death, Connor's head is half-swallowed in a stair well, and PR guru Jenny's "cover story" amounts to telling a witness "it's our little secret".
But a level of cheesiness is easy to swallow, and even quite enjoyable, when it doesn’t overwhelm everything else. There set-pieces are okay, particularly a tense moment in an elevator shaft for Stephen, and the worms themselves are neat CGI creations. Unlike the usual dinosaurs and other beasts, it benefits the show when you're not entirely sure what a creature's abilities are. A moment when they expand and explode/spawn babies everywhere was the best example for surprising, icky fun.
Overall, I think Primeval's doing a decent job so far with its second season. It appears to have learned from some mistakes last time, and is on course for a Robin Hood-style turnaround. There will always be problems with its flawed premise, silly moments, and inadequate cast members (irritating Spearritt, boring Murray, frosty Henshall, one-note Ben Miller), but it's light-hearted fun for Saturday nights and is developing some enjoyable distractions.
I particularly liked the moment Connor notices an ARC soldier was the cleaner who went missing after last week's 'raptor attack? What's going on there? More changes to the timeline, or is there a covert operation of some kind going on?
19 January 2008
ITV1, 7.00 pm
