Terra Nova 1x01&02 - Genesis Parts 1&2 (Grade/Discuss) SPOILERS

Thought I would make an episode grading thread for this double episode, while overall discussion of the series can also be talked about in timothy's thread.

 

I'll be watching the Cowboys take on the Redskins, but I'll DVR the show.

RAMA

 

I don't expect to be blown away by the premier, but I do kind of like the premise, so hopefully the show does well.

 

I think the premise is horrible. Survival series like Walking Dead with dinosaurs instead. Dinosaurs are unresponsive and boring. You can create many storylines which such things as dinosaurs. It's like Zombies but bigger. But, maybe the writing will be very good and the series will be great nevertheless.

 

I am not sure what to expect...based on the promos it seems like it could go either way.

 

I hope its good, looking for some good scifi'ish type shows to watch this fall. Got Fringe on now and the Walking Dead starting soon.

 

I have a feeling that since it's 85 million years ago they will discover type of intelegent life or force (Alien or Earth based) that was never known about in the present day. hey..it Braga after all, we kinda know how he thinks by now. lol

 

Kind of like this show?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dino-Riders

http://www.dinoridersworld.com/mainpage.html


That would be cool if this show becomes a live action reboot of this classic, yet very obscure 80's cartoon series/toy line.

 

I was also thinking that it there could be some intellegent force also, kinda along the lines of the recent, yet cancelled, UK series 'Outcasts'.

As a writer it would be an interesting notion that us humans thought we knew almost everything about Earth's past, but we discover some incredible things we never knew when we go back 85 million years. Not sure how you would maintain a series week by week just having them worry about if the Dino's will get them each week, or this person or that person is lost somewhere, that gets boring really fast. So i'm expecting another element of some type.

 

yeah I agree, here's hoping.

 

I have no doubt there will be something else as a threat other than the dinosaurs.

 

If done right it could have the potential to be a little like 'Lost', Survivors in a stange land etc.. that sort of thing.

 

I'm looking forward to the premiere tonight!

It also has a perfectly balanced showrunning team of Brannon Braga and Rene Echevarria (who I think haven't worked together since TNG). Braga's strength is of course the crazy scifi concepts, whereas Echevrria's strength is the smaller character studies. Both have experience developing and producing shows: Braga (TNG, VOY, ENT, Threshold, 24, FlashForward), Echevarria (TNG, DS9, Dark Angel, The 4400, Medium, Castle). So it'll be interesting what they can come up with running a show together.

(The pilot is not written by Braga/Echevarria but instead written by the 2 creators of Terra Nova, so the pilot probably won't give a good indication of the writing).

 

The best option is to make the people the threat. Character-based drama is the most durable and can keep the audience watching after the dino's get boring.

Mmmmm, I think an out-there twist could really upend the show. Time travel and dinosaurs are sci fi enough. But if they can't pull off the character drama and the ratings crash, they might start in with the desperation moves. That'll be a sign that the show is circling the drain.

 

I've seen the first hour, so I can only speak to that. I'll grade it once I've seen Part II as well, but I wasn't terribly impressed with Part I. It was rather predictable, and the characters just didn't really grab me. Thus far, I'm leaning toward a grade of "below average".

Spoiler: conflict in "Terra Nova"

That is indeed the case. The humans of the future are sent through the time-rift in groups, or "pilgrimages" (the group being sent through in the pilot is the Ninth Pilgrimage). Most of the people in the Sixth Pilgrimage have some sort of agenda of their own, so they have broken away from the main colony and formed a renegade faction. These "Sixers" appear to be the primary antagonists in Terra Nova, although their motives remain a mystery (at least in the first hour).

 

It could be like Earth 2, in that show the main group thought they were the first ones there only to find out others had been there before them and there was some weird stuff going on. In this show since time travel is our vehicle to this strange land others could have gotten there before or after our main group, thereby setting up some interesting story ideas.

Edit, oops, i read Daneel's spoilers so that kinda answers my above theory.

 

That spoiler doesn't surprise me; just watching the previews strongly implies it. I also think...

Spoiler: mostly speculation

Steven Lang's character is supposed to be in conflict with the group led by Christine Adams, but in reality, they are in cahoots and probably sleeping together too. If that's the case, they could become fun enough to induce me to continue to watch even if the other characters are as boring as I fear they'll be. Lord and Lady Macbeth of the Dinosaurs.

 

Spoiler: Terra Nova

IIRC, there is some suggestion that something of that sort may have happened. It isn't really touched on much in the first hour, but I think one of the colony members shows one of the newbies some sort of drawing etched in rock outside of the compound. I believe the implication was that it was made sometime before the Terra Nova colony officially started up. I could be misremembering, though.

 

This is boring imo. Even Lost had a lot of plot, plot twists, and mysteries. It was not all about the boring character drama even it was an important part of it. It's more what the character were representing that was interesting. For example, there was a lot of mysteries surrounding "The Others" and their leader. Even John had a lot of mystery surrounding his strange "link" (and love) with the Island. For example, who are The Others, where do they come from, what do they want, what are they up to, why are they doing this, etc.

I think Terra Nova need to inject other storylines and mysteries not boring character drama. Some people mention about other people being already there or the presence of Aliens. That would be more interesting if well written. Obviously, it can be lame too but that's true for any shows or ideas. Sure everything must be centered around good characters but this doesn't mean character drama (personal drama, family life, inter-relationship, personal quest, personal redemption, betrayal, father son relationship, grieving the lost of someone we love, etc). Sometimes we learn more about the characters in the way they react to interesting and/or mysterious events (plots).

 

Wow, you've already got no faith in these writers and they show hasn't even debuted!

If they're good, they shouldn't need to drag in a bunch of gimmicky crap. Plenty of shows manage to sustain drama with no sf/f gimmicks at all: Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Dexter. Just good old fashioned human drama is all talented writers need to hold an audience for several seasons.

But if they're incompetent hacks, I'm sure we'll start seeing all sorts of dino dung being thrown around to keep us from getting bored. I'll give them a couple eps at least to prove that they're better than that.