TERRA NOVA, 1.3 – "Instinct"

We're wading deeper into new TV season waters, and there are even more shows appearing on the horizon (The Walking Dead, Chuck, Spy, Misfits, Boss), so I've got to be ruthless about the extent of my coverage this year. Terra Nova isn't a series I'm going to be passionate about, that much was clear from last week, and it certainly isn't interesting enough to warrant episodic reviews. It's clear from "Instinct" that it's just a family-friendly romp with sporadic dinosaurs—and, while that's fun on a basic level for young 'uns, I'm going to struggle writing 800-words about it every week. For what it's worth, "Instinct" was less visually impressive than the pilot (although the swarms of pesky pterosaur were rather cool), but had a slightly more nuanced story by Star Trek veterans René Echevarria and Brannon Braga.

Jason O'Mara, Shelley Conn and Stephen Lang are good and work well together, I like how the writers find clever ways to highlight we're 85 million years in the past (the family paint their house a yellow hue that doesn't exist in the future), and there's an agreeable vibe to the show's crisp interior sets and gorgeous scenery. But am I keen on seeing more of the cutesy Shannon family? Not really, but they're pleasant folk. Do I care about the Terra Nova settlement and the splinter group of "Sixers"? Not especially. Is the promise of rampaging dinosaurs enough to keep me glued to my seat, despite all this? No, I outgrew that years ago.

I may keep watching the show at UK-pace on Sky1 (most likely recording it to fill a gap later in the week), but I see no reason to sit down and review this show every single week. It is what it is, that's unlikely to change anytime soon, and I doubt Fox will be renewing it considering the huge expense and so-so ratings. You either find pleasure in its high-concept premise, costly CGI animals, and the Shannon family's awfully clichéd dynamic, or you don't. It's probably far more appealing if you're under-12 or a parent who wants something the kids can watch for an hour, of course, but count me out.

written by René Echevarria & Brannon Braga · directed by Jon Cassar · 10 October 2011 · Sky1

TV Ratings: TERRA NOVA (Sky/Fox)

The two-hour UK premiere of Terra Nova drew an impressive average of 962,000 (part 1) and 722,000 (part 2). Sky will be pleased with those figures (it probably helped that the show only aired 7 days after the States), but how many of the remaining 722,000 will be back next week? Will the premiere's lost 240,000 be catching-up online this week?

Over in the US, Fox's premiere attracted 9.22m last week, which was seen as a disappointment given the show's months of hype, huge expense ($20m for the pilot, $70m for the series overall).

Interestingly, this week's episode "Instinct" only dropped to 8.3m, so it seems the show still has a chance of finding and growing an audience that hasn't abandoned it in droves. Can the writers get a grasp of the characters and prove they have a compelling story to tell before all the inquisitive or patient people bail for good?

Review: TERRA NOVA, 1.1 & 1.2 - "Genesis"

written by Craig Silverstein, Kelly Marcel, Brannon Braga & David Fury
(story by Kelly Marcel & Craig Silverstein) / directed by Alex Graves
starring Jason O'Mara, Shelley Conn, Stephen Lang, Landon Liboiron & Naomi Scott

Notorious for a troubled production that delayed its premiere by over a year (the Australian sets were flooded, writer-producer David Fury left over "creative differences", post-production time doubled, costs soared), Terra Nova finally arrives with a $20 million feature-length pilot that provides plenty of sustenance for the eyes, but starves the mind. The premise is a magpie's nest of shiny SF ideas. In the future of 2149, Earth's on the precipice of environmental collapse because of overpopulation and pollution, so people are sent back through a crack in time to prehistory, to give mankind a fresh start. One evacuated family, the Shannon's—ex-cop and fugitive Jim (Jason O'Mara), surgeon wife Elisabeth (Shelley Conn), teenaged children Josh (Landon Liboiron) and Maddy (Naomi Scott), and five-year-old daughter Zoe (Alan Mansour)—are part of the mass exodus to the late-Cretaceous period, where they form part of the "Terra Nova" colony led by formidable Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Avatar's Stephen Lang).

It's Swiss Family Robinson with dinosaurs. Or Lost In Space crossed with Jurassic Park? Maybe Outcasts meets Primeval? Um, let's stick with the former. There's no denying Terra Nova's ambitious, expensive, and could only have been achieved with a US network budget and the backing of Steven Spielberg (fresh from his other SF hit Falling Skies), but it's another of those shows with a high-concept idea best-suited to a movie. Clearly the scale, expense and logistical issues of making a TV show like Terra Nova has been causing big production problems, so it's hard to imagine Fox risking a second season unless the first is a Brachiosaurus-sized hit (which US ratings below 9m suggest it won't be). Of course, the one thing that kills a show is a lack of confidence from its creators, so expect lots of positivity from the writers, actors and network until the first season approaches its end and, almost certainly, Fox pull the plug on a logistical nightmare that's cost them $70m for a mere 13 hours of programming.

The show itself isn't totally disagreeable, it's just crushingly rote and predictable. The first hour's the best because there's a sense of discovery as we're introduced to the smoggy Blade Runner-esque future (where everyone has to respire through "re-breathers", fresh fruit's a rarity, and you can be arrested for having more than two children), and I even found myself warming to the Shannon family thanks to O'Mara and Conn's appealing performances. Even the kids struck me as cute and not hugely annoying. Then, having arrived in the Cretaceous period (via a time-portal "journey" that embarrasses Stargate), most of the budget is up there on-screen in the form of luscious location filming in a rainforest, a very convincing human settlement (far outstripping a similar idea in the BBC's recent Outcasts), and eventually some very decent dinosaurs (if slightly too cartoonish for my tastes). Unfortunately, once you quickly get accustomed to the gorgeous vistas and general feeling of the expense, the show has to start relying on its characters and story to keep its viewers hooked. It doesn't quite manage to.

There are definitely attractive elements about Terra Nova, beyond just the fun of having dinosaurs on a weekly TV series. The idea of escaping your life and starting afresh in a sumptuous antediluvian world (where the Moon sits massive in the sky, as it's approximately 530-miles closer to Earth at this time) is enticing, and I understand many of the show's creative decisions. The show's built as a Lost In Space-style family adventure, only with a colonial spirit and large community to interact with. Dangers come from the dinosaurs that roam the jungles around the compound, but also a dangerous band of pilgrims known as "Sixers" who separated from Terra Nova to start their own alternative society. Ongoing mysteries are introduced in the form of an area that's off-limits, and a waterfall where bizarre geometric shapes have been etched into surrounding stone by someone. (Although the vague explanation for these markings flies in the face of a previous scene, where it's made clear the colonists are occupying a different "timestream", so nothing they do can alter the future they came from.)

In its second hour, Terra Nova became surprisingly boring very quickly, and Landon Liboiron slipped into being just another annoying teenage character who, no surprise, has a tense relationship with his father, gets himself into serious trouble, then has to be rescued so his daddy's issues can be addressed. There's barely a single moment in Terra Nova that doesn't come from the Big Book Of Sci-Fi Clichés, or unashamedly cherry-picks ideas from better shows/films. There was a chance that some clever writing, unexpected surprises, and a charismatic group of actors could have pulled this through the mire, but that doesn't really come to pass. I still like O'Mara, Conn and Lang, but they're working with material that's too thin and uninvolving.

Overall, Terra Nova offers plenty of spectacle (although the average episode of Primeval provides twice as much dino-carnage with a fraction of the budget), but there's nothing that feels fresh or interesting enough to latch onto on a deeper level. I won't write it off just yet, knowing the problems the production faced, but this was a very expensive pilot that desperately needed more attention on the story and characterizations, but instead looks to have made the age-old mistake of thinking visuals and CGI are all anyone cares about.

Aside

• What is it with Spielberg-produced sci-fi and giant parasites attached to people's spines?

3 October 2011 / Sky1

Fox Previews: 'Alcatraz', 'Terra Nova' & 'Touch'

Fox had their Upfronts yesterday, revealing their new shows for 2011/12 to the press and marketing people. Of particular interest to me are their three sci-fi dramas: JJ Abrams' latest mystery Alcatraz, Steven Spielberg-produced dinosaur adventure Terra Nova, and Heroes creator Tim Kring's supernatural drama Touch with Kiefer Sutherland. The official synopses and a few previews can be seen below:

ALCATRAZ

From executive producer J.J. Abrams (FRINGE, "Lost," "Star Trek" and the upcoming "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" and "Super 8") and writer and executive producer Elizabeth Sarnoff ("Lost," "Deadwood") comes ALCATRAZ, the chilling new thriller centered on America's most infamous prison and one-time home to the nation's most notorious murderers, rapists, kidnappers, thieves and arsonists. When San Francisco Police Department DET. REBECCA MADSEN (Sarah Jones, "Sons of Anarchy") is assigned to a grisly homicide case, a fingerprint leads her to a shocking suspect: JACK SYLVANE (guest star Jeffrey Pierce, "The Nine"), a former Alcatraz inmate who died decades ago. Given her family history – both her grandfather and surrogate uncle, RAY ARCHER (Robert Forster, "Jackie Brown"), were guards at the prison – Madsen's interest is immediately piqued, and once the enigmatic, knows-everything-but-tells-nothing government agent EMERSON HAUSER (Sam Neill, "Jurassic Park") tries to impede her investigation, she's doggedly committed. Madsen turns to Alcatraz expert and comic book enthusiast, DR. DIEGO "DOC" SOTO (Jorge Garcia, "Lost"), to piece together the inexplicable sequence of events. The twosome discovers that Sylvane is not only alive, but he's loose on the streets of San Francisco, leaving bodies in his wake. And strangely, he hasn't aged a day since he was in Alcatraz, when the prison was ruled by the iron-fisted WARDEN EDWIN JAMES (Jonny Coyne, "Undercovers") and the merciless ASSOCIATE WARDEN E.B. TILLER (Jason Butler Harner, "The Changeling"). Madsen and Soto reluctantly team with Agent Hauser and his technician, LUCY BANERJEE (Parminder Nagra, "ER"), to stop Sylvane's vengeful killing spree. By delving into Alcatraz history, government cover-ups and Rebecca's own heritage, the team will ultimately discover that Sylvane is only a small part of a much larger, more sinister present-day threat. For while he may be the first, it quickly becomes clear that Sylvane won't be the last prisoner to reappear from Alcatraz. Through the course of the investigation, Madsen and Soto will learn that Agent Hauser has known about the prison's secret history and has been awaiting the prisoners' return. Soto will witness his life's work – the history of Alcatraz – come alive. Madsen will be forced to keep her supportive San Francisco cop fiancé, JIMMY DICKENS (Santiago Cabrera, "Heroes"), at arm's length from the highly classified assignment as she sees everything she thought she knew about her family's past shattered, all while fighting to keep the country safe from history's most dangerous criminals.

TERRA NOVA

From executive producers Steven Spielberg ("Saving Private Ryan," "Jurassic Park"), Peter Chernin, René Echevarria ("Castle," "The 4400") and Brannon Braga ("24") comes an epic family adventure 85 million years in the making. TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past. When scientists at the FERMI Particle Accelerator unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that made it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion was born to resettle humanity in the past – a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time. The series centers on the Shannon family as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to Terra Nova, the first colony established in this beautiful yet foreboding land. JIM SHANNON (Jason O'Mara, "Life on Mars"), a devoted father with a checkered past, guides his family through this new world of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. Jim's wife, ELISABETH (Shelley Conn, "Mistresses"), is a trauma surgeon and the newest addition to Terra Nova's medical team. JOSH (Landon Liboiron, "Degrassi: The Next Generation") is their 17-year-old son who is angry to leave life as he knows it behind; upon arriving at the settlement, he finds himself instantly drawn to the beautiful and rule-breaking SKYE (Allison Miller, "Kings"). MADDY (Naomi Scott, "Life Bites"), Josh's endearingly awkward 15-year-old sister, hopes Terra Nova will give her a chance to reinvent herself. Although Elisabeth's medical training secured the family a spot on the pilgrimage, a secret involving their five-year-old daughter, ZOE (newcomer Alana Mansour), soon endangers their place in this utopia. Upon the Shannons' arrival, they are introduced to COMMANDER NATHANIEL TAYLOR (Stephen Lang, "Avatar"), the charismatic and heroic first pioneer and leader of the settlement. Taylor warns the travelers that while Terra Nova is a place of new opportunities and fresh beginnings, all is not as idyllic as it initially appears. Along with blue skies, towering waterfalls and lush vegetation, the surrounding terrain is teeming with danger – and not just of the man-eating dinosaur variety. There is also a splinter colony of renegades led by the battle-hardened MIRA (Christine Adams, "TRON: Legacy"), who is vehemently opposed to Taylor and his leadership. Even more threatening than what lies outside the protective walls of the colony is the chilling possibility that something sinister is happening inside Terra Nova. The Shannons will come to suspect that not everyone on this mission has the same idea of how to best save mankind; in fact, there may be forces intent on destroying this new world before it even begins.

TOUCH

From writer/creator Tim Kring ("Heroes," "Crossing Jordan") and executive producers Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope comes TOUCH, a preternatural drama in which science and spirituality intersect with the hopeful premise that we are all interconnected, tied in invisible ways to those whose lives we are destined to alter and impact. Through masterful storytelling, the series follows a group of seemingly unrelated characters – beginning with a former firefighter tormented by his inability to save a dying woman, an Iraqi teenager who will go to great risks to help his family, a gifted singer whose actions at a karaoke bar save lives thousands of miles away and a British businessman desperately trying to retrieve a key piece of information from his lost mobile phone – who affect each other in ways seen and unseen. At the center is MARTIN BOHM (Kiefer Sutherland, "24"), a widower and single father, haunted by an inability to connect to his mute, severely autistic 10-year-old son, JAKE. Caring, intelligent and thoughtful, Martin has tried everything to reach his son who shows little emotion and never allows himself to be touched by anyone, including Martin. Jake busies himself with cast-off cell phones, disassembling them and manipulating the parts, allowing him to see the world in his own special way. After multiple failed attempts at keeping Jake in school, Martin is visited by social worker CLEA HOPKINS, who insists on doing an evaluation of the Bohms' living situation. Although new at her job, Clea sees a man whose life has become dominated by a child he can no longer control. She believes his attempts to communicate with Jake are just wish fulfillment, and determines that it's time for the state to intervene. But everything changes when Martin discovers that Jake possesses a gift of staggering genius – the ability to see things that no one else can, the patterns that connect everything. Jake is indeed communicating after all. But it's not with words, it's with numbers. And now he needs Martin to decipher their meaning and connect these numbers to the cast of seemingly unrelated characters whose lives they affect. Along the way, Martin will be guided by BORIS PODOLSKY, a discredited aging professor who offers Martin a compelling but unorthodox theory about Jake and his rare ability. Whether it be chance, coincidence, timing, synergy or fate, there are events that touch us all, as part of an interconnected, dazzlingly precise universe.

TRAILER: 'Terra Nova' - Super Bowl TV Spot

Sunday's Super Bowl gave America the chance to watch meatheads run around a playing field wearing protective armour under their clothes. The softies. It also gave the world several high-profile movie and TV trailers, such as the one above for time-travel dinosaur epic Terra Nova. The series, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg (like that means anything), concerns a group of people from the year 2149 A.D, who escape the environmentally ruined Earth by travelling back in time 85 million years to setup a colony in the past. Cue a collosal temporal headache for geeks everywhere (don't they risk altering their own timeline and even erasing mankind's very existence?), and a few burning questions (why not go back in time by 50 million years to, um, avoid the CARNIVOROUS DINOSAURS!?) Maybe the show will answer all that.

What do you make of the TV Spot, and what's your expectation for Terra Nova? The promo looks visually impressive, but what do you expect from a pilot rumoured to have cost $20 million? I quite like the high-concept idea, which feels like Swiss Family Robinson meets Jurassic Park, but you have to wonder if it's going to offer anything beyond luscious visuals.

Terra Nova's two-night premiere is scheduled for May, before the series commences in the autumn. It stars Jason O'Mara, Stephen Lang, Shelley Conn, Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, Allison Miller, Mido Hamada, Alana Mansour and Christine Adams.