Writer: Paul Cornell
Director: Nick Murphy
Cast: Douglas Henshall (Professor Nick Cutter), James Murray (Stephen Hart), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), Ben Miller (James Lester), Juliet Aubrey (Helen Cutter), Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis), Karl Theobald (Oliver Leek), Ramon Tikaram (Mick), Susan Salmon (Dina), Reuben Lee (Jake), Oliver Coleman (Ed) & Naomi Bentley (Caroline)
Director: Nick Murphy
Cast: Douglas Henshall (Professor Nick Cutter), James Murray (Stephen Hart), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), Ben Miller (James Lester), Juliet Aubrey (Helen Cutter), Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis), Karl Theobald (Oliver Leek), Ramon Tikaram (Mick), Susan Salmon (Dina), Reuben Lee (Jake), Oliver Coleman (Ed) & Naomi Bentley (Caroline)
"You really are a tiresome little man..."-- James Lester (Ben Miller)
The penultimate instalment of season 2 is interesting for being the first episode to focus on something other than formulaic animal attacks. The more interesting subplot, sewn throughout previous episodes, of a conspiracy involving corporate stooge Leek (Karl Theobald) and rogue wife Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey), finally takes centre stage...
After a mammoth attack on the M25, naturally. The series once again wows us with its CGI, as we focus on a mother (Susan Salmon) and son (Reuben Lee) who are trapped in a car after a mammoth stampedes down a motorway, hurling vehicles aside with its enormous tusks.
Cutter (Douglas Henshall), Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby (Hannah Spearritt) lead the rescue, while Jenny (Lucy Brown) cordons off the area and prevents air traffic flying overhead. I presume that all the people who saw the mammoth will have to be convinced it was just an elephant – probably one that escapes from a safari park "one junction down", which is where Abby drives to in a yellow sports car (did you catch the Ferris Bueller nod?) to grab some female elephant urine. As you do.
As usual, it's all a bit silly and tongue-in-cheek, with Cutter eventually managing to lead the marauding mammoth into the back of a lorry using the elephant urine, and the beast is transported back to ARC.
But where was Stephen (James Murray) during all of this? He's been sidetracked once again by the bosomy allure of Helen Cutter, who has once again materialized in his house dressed in leather. This time, she continues to persuade him that the goals of Lester (Ben Miller) and ARC might not be in the best interest of the world – and that the public should be made aware of the fact creatures from other times are arriving through time anomalies.
However, after confronting Cutter about it back at ARC, Stephen realizes the dour Scotsman doesn't agree, and isn't happy about Stephen colluding with his ex-wife. In fact, Cutter doesn't trust many people now, and plants a trap with the help of Connor and the Anomaly Detection Device – by faking a fresh location to an anomaly, in the hope of catching whoever's usually one-step ahead of them.
Cutter, Abby and Connor wait in a church for their enemy to make himself known, with Connor finding the time to admit he split from his girlfriend Caroline (Naomie Bentley) and she's exacted revenge by stealing their dino-pet Rex – which Cutter isn't happy about, acting like a particularly grump dad at times.
At ARC, nobody seems to think it strange that Leek has parked a white van in the premises, containing a "Future Predator" (last seen as the sonar-hunting beast in season 1's finale). Back at the church, Cutter is furious when Jenny arrives, flanked by armed soldiers, threatening her at gunpoint and accusing her of being the mysterious snoop on their missions. However, Jenny pleads her innocence, and insists she was told to get to the church by Leek, Lester's right-hand man.
Rather strangely, the entire personnel of ARC have vanished (is the staff really comprised of Cutter's team and a handful of soldiers?), meaning smug Lester is alone at work. Sensing something's not quite right – and there's an empty white van parked indoors – Leek appears on the Anomaly Detector's bank of screens. After some gloating, Lester realizes there's a Future Predator on the loose in ARC (seemingly controlled by Leek via a head-mounted device).
Lester finally gets a chance to shine, as he fends off the Future Predator (which resembles a smaller Cloverfield monster, don't you think?), by disabling it after making noise inside a company gym and turning on a radio… before grabbing a machine gun and blasting the creature with continuous rounds – which don't have any effect, rather inexplicably...
Finally, Lester is forced to accept his certain death in ARC's main area, standing to accept his fate as the Future Predator makes a final, leaping attack in his direction… before finding itself speared by the tusks of the captured woolly mammoth! How's that for a big, conspicuous plot-device? There really was an elephant in the room.
A little later, Lester recovers and the team are now aware Leek has been the mastermind sending covert teams through anomalies before them. Connor tries to access Leek's personal data files, but after correctly guessing his password, it activates a bomb attached underneath Leek's white van. They really shouldn't have accepted him parking a vehicle indoors, y'know.
As we know, all bad guys like to equip their bombs with a 2-minute countdown (immediate explosions are just too neat and easy), so everyone evacuates while Cutter and Connor try to disable the device. Oh yes, there's a red-wire, blue-wire debate… before Cutter guesses to take out the van's battery (and the bomb's power source) source to immobilize it.
Threat deal with, the team mull over the high-tech gadget Leek used to control the Future Predator (a "neural clamp"), and Connor thinks he can track Leek's position using the signal the clamp was receiving, via the Anomaly Detector. Oh, and likewise his girlfriend's mobile phone, so they can retrieve Rex.
Connor's plan works, and Lester heads a military team across the city to capture Leek. Meanwhile, despite being ordered by Lester to stay behind, Cutter and the rest of the gang head off to find Naomi and Rex. In a neat piece of editing, Leek is waiting in a room with his own armed men, only for Cutter and his unarmed team to find them, as Lester's armed troops find nothing but an abandoned neural clamp remote.
Leek knocks Cutter unconscious… and he awakens to find himself in a darkened room with his team, being kissed by Helen – who he realizes has been working with Leek all this time. The lights go on, revealing to everyone what Leek and Helen have been working towards: a large zoo, made up of all the animals ARC dedicated themselves to returning back to their rightful time…
I had fun with this episode, and found it particularly pleasing that it wasn't the expected formula of running around trying to catch a mammoth for 45-minutes. It was great to see an episode deal with a more human problem, although it obviously conspired to deliver a few animal attacks along the way.
Paul Cornell (writer of some of Doctor Who's best episodes), did well to keep this mythology-heavy episode humming along at a good pace, as Primeval is often quite protracted (not helped by its advert breaks). However, while there were some nicely-staged sequences (the mammoth attack being a particular highlight), episode 6 was stuffed with quite alarming stupidity.
Primeval's never been the most intelligent or original show on the box, but while this episode thankfully didn't lift entire concepts from a movie, it was littered with more clichés than usual (bomb wires), unintentional laughs (a sports car to get elephant piss?), and plenty of totally brainless/daft moments (Leek's white van nobody questions, a life-saving heroic mammoth, the Future Predator being resistant to hails of bullet, etc.)
But, I can forgive many of its sillier moments. It was at least good fun throughout; you just have to stop questioning all the ludicrous plot-points. It mainly worked because it had a five-episode foundation to pay-off with its emphasis on the Leek/Helen mystery, the special effects were once again marvellous achievements, and it was a worthwhile change from Primeval's usual template.
However, I get the sneaking suspicion next week's finale is going to be disappointing – because it looks like the villain's plan has been to create their own "Jurassic Park", which seems quite limp. But I'm hoping they might finally answer why Helen can jump around in time so easily, why she's such a cow, why Lester insists on those pink/purple shirts, and why a meddlesome journalist appeared for one pointless scene with Jenny at the motorway, then vanish from the plot. Did he get sucked through an anomaly?
16 February 2008
ITV1, 7.15 pm
After a mammoth attack on the M25, naturally. The series once again wows us with its CGI, as we focus on a mother (Susan Salmon) and son (Reuben Lee) who are trapped in a car after a mammoth stampedes down a motorway, hurling vehicles aside with its enormous tusks.
Cutter (Douglas Henshall), Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby (Hannah Spearritt) lead the rescue, while Jenny (Lucy Brown) cordons off the area and prevents air traffic flying overhead. I presume that all the people who saw the mammoth will have to be convinced it was just an elephant – probably one that escapes from a safari park "one junction down", which is where Abby drives to in a yellow sports car (did you catch the Ferris Bueller nod?) to grab some female elephant urine. As you do.
As usual, it's all a bit silly and tongue-in-cheek, with Cutter eventually managing to lead the marauding mammoth into the back of a lorry using the elephant urine, and the beast is transported back to ARC.
But where was Stephen (James Murray) during all of this? He's been sidetracked once again by the bosomy allure of Helen Cutter, who has once again materialized in his house dressed in leather. This time, she continues to persuade him that the goals of Lester (Ben Miller) and ARC might not be in the best interest of the world – and that the public should be made aware of the fact creatures from other times are arriving through time anomalies.
However, after confronting Cutter about it back at ARC, Stephen realizes the dour Scotsman doesn't agree, and isn't happy about Stephen colluding with his ex-wife. In fact, Cutter doesn't trust many people now, and plants a trap with the help of Connor and the Anomaly Detection Device – by faking a fresh location to an anomaly, in the hope of catching whoever's usually one-step ahead of them.
Cutter, Abby and Connor wait in a church for their enemy to make himself known, with Connor finding the time to admit he split from his girlfriend Caroline (Naomie Bentley) and she's exacted revenge by stealing their dino-pet Rex – which Cutter isn't happy about, acting like a particularly grump dad at times.
At ARC, nobody seems to think it strange that Leek has parked a white van in the premises, containing a "Future Predator" (last seen as the sonar-hunting beast in season 1's finale). Back at the church, Cutter is furious when Jenny arrives, flanked by armed soldiers, threatening her at gunpoint and accusing her of being the mysterious snoop on their missions. However, Jenny pleads her innocence, and insists she was told to get to the church by Leek, Lester's right-hand man.
Rather strangely, the entire personnel of ARC have vanished (is the staff really comprised of Cutter's team and a handful of soldiers?), meaning smug Lester is alone at work. Sensing something's not quite right – and there's an empty white van parked indoors – Leek appears on the Anomaly Detector's bank of screens. After some gloating, Lester realizes there's a Future Predator on the loose in ARC (seemingly controlled by Leek via a head-mounted device).
Lester finally gets a chance to shine, as he fends off the Future Predator (which resembles a smaller Cloverfield monster, don't you think?), by disabling it after making noise inside a company gym and turning on a radio… before grabbing a machine gun and blasting the creature with continuous rounds – which don't have any effect, rather inexplicably...
Finally, Lester is forced to accept his certain death in ARC's main area, standing to accept his fate as the Future Predator makes a final, leaping attack in his direction… before finding itself speared by the tusks of the captured woolly mammoth! How's that for a big, conspicuous plot-device? There really was an elephant in the room.
A little later, Lester recovers and the team are now aware Leek has been the mastermind sending covert teams through anomalies before them. Connor tries to access Leek's personal data files, but after correctly guessing his password, it activates a bomb attached underneath Leek's white van. They really shouldn't have accepted him parking a vehicle indoors, y'know.
As we know, all bad guys like to equip their bombs with a 2-minute countdown (immediate explosions are just too neat and easy), so everyone evacuates while Cutter and Connor try to disable the device. Oh yes, there's a red-wire, blue-wire debate… before Cutter guesses to take out the van's battery (and the bomb's power source) source to immobilize it.
Threat deal with, the team mull over the high-tech gadget Leek used to control the Future Predator (a "neural clamp"), and Connor thinks he can track Leek's position using the signal the clamp was receiving, via the Anomaly Detector. Oh, and likewise his girlfriend's mobile phone, so they can retrieve Rex.
Connor's plan works, and Lester heads a military team across the city to capture Leek. Meanwhile, despite being ordered by Lester to stay behind, Cutter and the rest of the gang head off to find Naomi and Rex. In a neat piece of editing, Leek is waiting in a room with his own armed men, only for Cutter and his unarmed team to find them, as Lester's armed troops find nothing but an abandoned neural clamp remote.
Leek knocks Cutter unconscious… and he awakens to find himself in a darkened room with his team, being kissed by Helen – who he realizes has been working with Leek all this time. The lights go on, revealing to everyone what Leek and Helen have been working towards: a large zoo, made up of all the animals ARC dedicated themselves to returning back to their rightful time…
I had fun with this episode, and found it particularly pleasing that it wasn't the expected formula of running around trying to catch a mammoth for 45-minutes. It was great to see an episode deal with a more human problem, although it obviously conspired to deliver a few animal attacks along the way.
Paul Cornell (writer of some of Doctor Who's best episodes), did well to keep this mythology-heavy episode humming along at a good pace, as Primeval is often quite protracted (not helped by its advert breaks). However, while there were some nicely-staged sequences (the mammoth attack being a particular highlight), episode 6 was stuffed with quite alarming stupidity.
Primeval's never been the most intelligent or original show on the box, but while this episode thankfully didn't lift entire concepts from a movie, it was littered with more clichés than usual (bomb wires), unintentional laughs (a sports car to get elephant piss?), and plenty of totally brainless/daft moments (Leek's white van nobody questions, a life-saving heroic mammoth, the Future Predator being resistant to hails of bullet, etc.)
But, I can forgive many of its sillier moments. It was at least good fun throughout; you just have to stop questioning all the ludicrous plot-points. It mainly worked because it had a five-episode foundation to pay-off with its emphasis on the Leek/Helen mystery, the special effects were once again marvellous achievements, and it was a worthwhile change from Primeval's usual template.
However, I get the sneaking suspicion next week's finale is going to be disappointing – because it looks like the villain's plan has been to create their own "Jurassic Park", which seems quite limp. But I'm hoping they might finally answer why Helen can jump around in time so easily, why she's such a cow, why Lester insists on those pink/purple shirts, and why a meddlesome journalist appeared for one pointless scene with Jenny at the motorway, then vanish from the plot. Did he get sucked through an anomaly?
16 February 2008
