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

[Star Wolf]

One other thing that kinda bugs me-- what's up with the bullets only seeming to sting the dinosaurs? I get that they're huge and have thick skin, but they're not bulletproof.

They shouldn't be any harder to bring down than one of today's rhinos or elephants. Especially with the more powerful weapons they probably have.

I'm under the impression they are using some kind of stun bullets. (is there such a thing?)

I don't know about the rifles, the Sixers seem to have bullets but then the security force had some kind of lasers if that wasn't just an aiming device. But when the dino was heading towards the fence the Colonel said to use the sonics when the heavy machinegun looking things in the guard towers opened fire.

It does seem as the weapons brought from the future were meant to deal with men not large animals.

 

[Trekker4747]

Hell, wouldn't a good well-fired crossbow bolt to the dinosaur's chest take it out? I mean it's not like dinosaur skin is everything-proof.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Hell, wouldn't a good well-fired crossbow bolt to the dinosaur's chest take it out? I mean it's not like dinosaur skin is everything-proof.

If I had a choice of shooting a dinosaur with a weapon that can shoot MANY rounds in a second or one that fires 1 every 15 or 20, I'm going with the machine gun.

 

[Flavius]

I can see the stupid teenage son surviving everything. Damn you Spielberg!

Yeah, typically I would agree with you, but not on this one.

They have already said that at the end of the season one major character would die - and it could be done nicely! (but it's probably not going to be him).

 

[backstept]

The the amor and weapons that the Terra Nova military forces use - look like they came straight from Aliens: Colonial marines.

more like NERF

 

[Trekker4747]

Hell, wouldn't a good well-fired crossbow bolt to the dinosaur's chest take it out? I mean it's not like dinosaur skin is everything-proof.

If I had a choice of shooting a dinosaur with a weapon that can shoot MANY rounds in a second or one that fires 1 every 15 or 20, I'm going with the machine gun.

I don't disagree, but on the show it seems like they weren't shooting anything at the dinosaurs.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Hell, wouldn't a good well-fired crossbow bolt to the dinosaur's chest take it out? I mean it's not like dinosaur skin is everything-proof.

If I had a choice of shooting a dinosaur with a weapon that can shoot MANY rounds in a second or one that fires 1 every 15 or 20, I'm going with the machine gun.

I don't disagree, but on the show it seems like they weren't shooting anything at the dinosaurs.

Come on! They were shooting BEAMS OF LIGHT! Surely you can see the point of annoying a dinosaur!

 

[Psion]

"No fake dinosaurs were harmed in the production of this series."

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Well, I'm relieved they at least didn't use all the extra armor and helmets from Starship Troopers. Damn stuff showed up in plenty of second-rate sci-fi stuff over the years.

Re: Bullets not killing dinosaurs, I'm sure there's only a certain amount of violence they can get away with for the show's time slot and budget, and gory dino explosions are not likely part of the equation here. Still, there SHOULD be an amount of explosive concussion. These aren't hunting rifles here, they're military weapons.

Mark

 

[Trekker4747]

Come on! They were shooting BEAMS OF LIGHT! Surely you can see the point of annoying a dinosaur!

No, I can't really. Not when that dinosaur is threatening the security of your colony/colonists.

Shoot to kill it.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Come on! They were shooting BEAMS OF LIGHT! Surely you can see the point of annoying a dinosaur!

No, I can't really. Not when that dinosaur is threatening the security of your colony/colonists.

Shoot to kill it.

Should I have put a ...? Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

 

[throwback]

I think they are tranquilizer guns. One of the characters refers to a tranq gun.

I am struck by how many similarities there are between this show and Avatar. Both feature an Earth heavily destroyed by anthropogenic climate change in the mid-22nd century. Both feature humans using rebreathers. Both feature humans finding a world where they can set up a colony, and that is not screwed up by humans. Both feature an environment that is dangerous. Both feature a military leader who is played by the same actor. The only difference I see is that in Terra Nova that there is no non-human sentient intelligence and that humans haven't discovered the ability to travel to distant star systems. This may change.

For myself, I think the premise is unbelievable and the story is a cure for insomnia. The argument for an alternate reality is that no one could find the probe in the 22nd century. This is an absurd argument. Very little of what existed 85 million years ago can be discovered today. Much of what we find was preserved due to unique environmental factors, eg. bodies being preserved by sedimentary activity. And unless humans have found an electrical component that can continue to function for 85 million years, any signal that the probe would have transmitted would have gone silent within a very short time. Furthermore, the landscape changes and builds upon itself. These processes created tremendous pressures that could have potentially destroyed a probe. Glaciers are known to dissemble wrecked planes, and this is a far benign process than what is known to have happened in the time of the dinosaurs, eg. rampant volcanism.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I think they are tranquilizer guns. One of the characters refers to a tranq gun.

I am struck by how many similarities there are between this show and Avatar. Both feature an Earth heavily destroyed by anthropogenic climate change in the mid-22nd century. Both feature humans using rebreathers. Both feature humans finding a world where they can set up a colony, and that is not screwed up by humans. Both feature an environment that is dangerous. Both feature a military leader who is played by the same actor. The only difference I see is that in Terra Nova that there is no non-human sentient intelligence and that humans haven't discovered the ability to travel to distant star systems. This may change.

Avatar's depiction of the future isn't all that unique. Especially when it comes to Future Dystopian Earths.

For myself, I think the premise is unbelievable and the story is a cure for insomnia. The argument for an alternate reality is that no one could find the probe in the 22nd century. This is an absurd argument. Very little of what existed 85 million years ago can be discovered today. Much of what we find was preserved due to unique environmental factors, eg. bodies being preserved by sedimentary activity. And unless humans have found an electrical component that can continue to function for 85 million years, any signal that the probe would have transmitted would have gone silent within a very short time. Furthermore, the landscape changes and builds upon itself. These processes created tremendous pressures that could have potentially destroyed a probe. Glaciers are known to dissemble wrecked planes, and this is a far benign process than what is known to have happened in the time of the dinosaurs, eg. rampant volcanism.

MOST sci-fi shows fall apart when examined to closely for scientific accuracy. There's an element of suspension required. I personally believe most sci-fi shows live and die not on their science, but on their characters and whether an audience cares about them.

But YMMV.

 

[Trekker4747]

Come on! They were shooting BEAMS OF LIGHT! Surely you can see the point of annoying a dinosaur!

No, I can't really. Not when that dinosaur is threatening the security of your colony/colonists.

Shoot to kill it.

Should I have put a ...? Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Probably would have helped.

I think they are tranquilizer guns. One of the characters refers to a tranq gun.

Again, it's a towering, prehistoric, carnivorous, milti-ton creature. It's threatening your colony and with it's mass and size it's going to pretty tenacious and not very easy to stop. You kill it. Not tranq it.

For myself, I think the premise is unbelievable and the story is a cure for insomnia. The argument for an alternate reality is that no one could find the probe in the 22nd century. This is an absurd argument. Very little of what existed 85 million years ago can be discovered today.

Yet stuff from that time, and earlier, is found fairly often. Granted it's often fossilized, but...

We know little about the specifics of the probe sent through the machine and what they planned with it as far as finding it in the present. It could've been made out of some alloy or other material that'd survive the passage of time for all we know, or it could've contained something unique that'd survive the passage of time or show some evidence of itself back in the present, a uniquely shaped diamond could've done that and had survived the passage of time.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I have some issues with the entire idea behind the show on a fundamental level. Some of what was raised already.

- they are saying their in an alternate reality because they couldn't detect the signal from the drone.

- The sixers want to control the future, but any future on Terra Nova would be different than the previous future.

- There is an ELE in 20 million years. I'm sure humanities second chance wont last that long anyway but there wont be much future for them unless they can stop it from happening..

Frankly it would have been better to assume their on the same planet in the same timeline and the things done here were always done here. The problem being then the future can't be different.

The show was ok, hope the teenage angst is over though.

 

[Professor Zoom]

No, I can't really. Not when that dinosaur is threatening the security of your colony/colonists.

Shoot to kill it.

Should I have put a ...? Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

Probably would have helped.

I was thinking the whole "annoying the dinosaur" would be the give away.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

You would also think leaving the vehicle would have been the worst idea possible. Their exchanging the safety of a solid vehicle for one with no doors and no windows. Safety is coming and the truth is there is no way to know where the slashers were.

As we found out they were on top of the vehicle waiting for them to do something stupid.

 

[Trekker4747]

- There is an ELE in 20 million years. I'm sure humanities second chance wont last that long anyway but there wont be much future for them unless they can stop it from happening..

The ELE event coming in 20 million years isn't likely to be of much consequence to these humans, no more so than an event that's going to happen in 20 million years is to us. By then evolution alone would likely produce a species that can handle it. Not to mention the technological advances the human race is going to make over an epoch or two.

 

[Professor Zoom]

- There is an ELE in 20 million years. I'm sure humanities second chance wont last that long anyway but there wont be much future for them unless they can stop it from happening..

The ELE event coming in 20 million years isn't likely to be of much consequence to these humans, no more so than an even that's going to happen in 20 million years is to us. By then evolution alone would likely produce a species that can handle it. Not to mention the technological advances the human race is going to make over an epoch or two.

This.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I have some issues with the entire idea behind the show on a fundamental level. Some of what was raised already.

- they are saying their in an alternate reality because they couldn't detect the signal from the drone.

It's malarky but it's clearly malarky that the writers want us to buy and then forget about. I see no reason to try to fight this. Maybe there was some technobabble isotope on the drone that wouldn't be destroyed by anything in 85M years, and could still be detected in the future if it survived.

- The sixers want to control the future, but any future on Terra Nova would be different than the previous future.

Yes, because this is a different timeline. I see no problem with this. It's just the ground rules. All stories need to set the rules at the beginning.

- There is an ELE in 20 million years. I'm sure humanities second chance wont last that long anyway but there wont be much future for them unless they can stop it from happening..

We don't even know if that ELE is still going to happen, since this is a different timeline. I said something upthread about an advanced interstellar society corralling the asteroid to use as raw materials in a war that never happened in our timeline. Or it could be any number of things. A butterfly sneezes on Alpha Centauri and everything changes. Don't stress about it.

Frankly it would have been better to assume their on the same planet in the same timeline and the things done here were always done here. The problem being then the future can't be different.

Too distracting to the audience (well, the segment who would be inclined to worry about time travel logic). They would be wondering, "so are there going to be changes to the future? Will we see them? Why aren't we seeing them!!!"

If the writers don't have any inclination to deal with the 22nd C scenario, then the best way to handle it is just like they did: two lines of dialogue that communicate "forget the 22nd C, that's not what this show is going to be about. Look at the pretty dinosaurs."

The show was ok, hope the teenage angst is over though.

Hope away, but if they didn't want it to be a major plotline, they never would have started it.