I think the Pilot was good. Nothing special, but good.
I liked most of the characters, I only hated the teenage boy, but hopefully he is now past his angst about his father. Taylor has the potential to be an awesome character, so does the father and the leader of the Sixth Pilgrimage.
The CGI dinosaurs were not exactly well done, they were only a bit better than the Walking with Dinosaurs dinosaurs.:)
Locations were excellent though, lush jungles, blue lagoons.
I also liked the mystery aspects of the story, the writers have set up a lot of stuff.
So all in all, Terra Nova is not my new Battlestar Galactica, but it could be my new Stargate Atlantis: dumb entertainment.:)
I've heard something like that before. There was a dino documentary on Discovery channel this past year (Clash of the Dinosaurs, I think it was) that made the claim that baby sauropods, small and defenseless, needed the proteins from eating meat in order to quickly grow to a size large enough to defend themselves from predators.
I don't know how much truth there is in that claim, or how seriously that theory is taken among paleontologists, but it is interesting, and possibly where the writers/producers of Terra Nova got the idea.
well i dunno even then the concept is loose. the animals in clash of the dinosaurs were Sauroposiden not brachiosaurus, brachis are jurassic era, sauroposiden were cretaceous.
well i dunno even then the concept is loose. the animals in clash of the dinosaurs were Sauroposiden not brachiosaurus, brachis are jurassic era, sauroposiden were cretaceous.
That brings up another point then. Shouldn't those things be EXTINCT by Terra Nova???
That brings up another point then. Shouldn't those things be EXTINCT by Terra Nova???
The Brachiosauridae existed until early-80s MYA. That's almost when Terra Nova takes place(85MYA). Could be a future cliffhanger :P The Brachiosaur extinction.
The Brachiosauridae existed until early-80s MYA. That's almost when Terra Nova takes place(85MYA). Could be a future cliffhanger :P The Brachiosaur extinction.
That would be so cool!! Oh that's an awesome idea. It could be that they're trying to preserve the Brachs in terra nova.
Watched the pilot, very meh. The premise was all right characters were uninteresting, the conflict was too forced and the dialogue was atrocious. These are all things that can be fixed but I'm not sure I can be bothered sticking around to find out.
A pilot episode isn't always a good indicator of a shows overall quality, though. Are the following episodes any better or is it just more of the same?
I watched the second episode today. I loved the migrating pterosaurs plot for this episode. And they are starting to establish a love triangle that I'm sure will bring up some interesting things. Best of all, that father and son rival was almost non-existant. Which is good because it was annoying. Not sure if they will bring it back but it seems it might have just been something for the pilot.
Anywho, great episode. i hope they keep this up and continue improving as the show goes on.
Im trying to really enjoy and get into this show, but there is just too much human stuff going on and not nearly enough dinosaur stuff going on. I mean.. thats this shows main hook right? the dinosaurs but there is very little dino stuff going on at all.
For the first episode sure i can understand the dinos not being there much, they need time to establish the story, the characters and explain how everyone gets to the past. So not seeing them for a while made sense, but then they get there and its still all about the humans with a few dino attacks here and there. The second episode had even less and it looks like the thirds main plot is going to be about some mind erasing gas? come on, get to the dinosaurs.
If i wanted to watch humans have drama and interact there many many other shows out there that offer just that and i could watch them, but i wanted to watch this because i thought it was going to be about them trying to survive in the past with dinosaurs. But it seems to be just a story about humans with dinosaurs thrown in here and there to remind us where they are.
"tralala we are humans in the past doing human stuff. having relations and drama. hey look a dinosaur! oh well back to human stuff. oh noes mind erasing gas! lol dinosaur trapped in a room, oh well, back to solving this gas problem" ugh ><
You teased me with a full course meal of dinosaurs terra nova, and all i got was a human dinner with dinosaurs as a side >:
So the people in Terra Nova go back in time BEFORE an extinction causing meteor strikes to ensure the salvation of humanity in the future?
Actually they said in the first episode that they are in a different timeline so there will be no KT event,at least noting like in our timeline (but of course a lot of million other things can go wrong).
What I don't understand is what being a different timeline really means? Why would the meteor not strike?
Also how is Terra Nova communicating with the people in the future? Can they go to any other time period? Or only 80 million years ago?
Im trying to really enjoy and get into this show, but there is just too much human stuff going on and not nearly enough dinosaur stuff going on. I mean.. thats this shows main hook right? the dinosaurs but there is very little dino stuff going on at all.
For the first episode sure i can understand the dinos not being there much, they need time to establish the story, the characters and explain how everyone gets to the past. So not seeing them for a while made sense, but then they get there and its still all about the humans with a few dino attacks here and there. The second episode had even less and it looks like the thirds main plot is going to be about some mind erasing gas? come on, get to the dinosaurs.
If i wanted to watch humans have drama and interact there many many other shows out there that offer just that and i could watch them, but i wanted to watch this because i thought it was going to be about them trying to survive in the past with dinosaurs. But it seems to be just a story about humans with dinosaurs thrown in here and there to remind us where they are.
"tralala we are humans in the past doing human stuff. having relations and drama. hey look a dinosaur! oh well back to human stuff. oh noes mind erasing gas! lol dinosaur trapped in a room, oh well, back to solving this gas problem" ugh ><
You teased me with a full course meal of dinosaurs terra nova, and all i got was a human dinner with dinosaurs as a side >:
What are you talking about? The whole episode was dealing with stopping the migrating pterosaurs. There was plenty of dino action. And then in the pilot there were the carnosaurs and the slashers they had to deal with. So I really don't see any lack of dinosaur action at all. Also, let's not forget that we need some character interaction and some drama in there to really get hooked into the show. If it was just people running from dinosaurs all the time with no other story what so ever then the show would be boring. There would be no reason to care about the characters and it would just be like all those crappy dinosaur movies we see on Sci-Fi.
Try to think Back to "The Lost World" tv show. There was very little dinosaur action in there but it was still a great show because it had great characters. Also, they mostly dealt with other people like tribes, ape men, people from the past and the future. The dinosaurs were just a bonus.
Another thing is that this is a show. Which me we gradually learn about the characters and their setting over time. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be satisfied with a pilot that set's up the characters which is then followed by a whole season of episodes that does nothing to advance the plot or develop the characters.
What I don't understand is what being a different timeline really means? Why would the meteor not strike?
Also how is Terra Nova communicating with the people in the future? Can they go to any other time period? Or only 80 million years ago?
Different timeline means parallel dimension which means that the meteor from our timeline does not exist ,plus they talked about the butterfly effect too so according to this theory anything they do in the past will change the future,therefore the possibilities for a better (or worse) future are endless ;so from my point of view these are acceptable explanations for the show's plot....they can communicate with the people in the future (our future) through the portal,and probably 85 million years ago is the only time period they can travel too,although none of these 2 things have been explained just yet in the show.
Btw, this different timeline. That mean, that there are new dinosaurs, like slashers or this new species of pterosaur? As I don't remeber for any such animal existing in our timeline
Btw, this different timeline. That mean, that there are new dinosaurs, like slashers or this new species of pterosaur? As I don't remeber for any such animal existing in our timeline
Btw, this different timeline. That mean, that there are new dinosaurs, like slashers or this new species of pterosaur? As I don't remeber for any such animal existing in our timeline
Well i guess that could also be considered an explanation for the new dinosaur species, but there is estimated that only about 40 % dinosaur species are discovered and it's very likely that some species will remain undiscovered because their fossils have been completely destroyed over time, so the existence of species similar to those created for the show isn't that implausible.
What are you talking about? The whole episode was dealing with stopping the migrating pterosaurs. There was plenty of dino action. And then in the pilot there were the carnosaurs and the slashers they had to deal with. So I really don't see any lack of dinosaur action at all. Also, let's not forget that we need some character interaction and some drama in there to really get hooked into the show. If it was just people running from dinosaurs all the time with no other story what so ever then the show would be boring. There would be no reason to care about the characters and it would just be like all those crappy dinosaur movies we see on Sci-Fi.
Try to think Back to "The Lost World" tv show. There was very little dinosaur action in there but it was still a great show because it had great characters. Also, they mostly dealt with other people like tribes, ape men, people from the past and the future. The dinosaurs were just a bonus.
Another thing is that this is a show. Which me we gradually learn about the characters and their setting over time. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be satisfied with a pilot that set's up the characters which is then followed by a whole season of episodes that does nothing to advance the plot or develop the characters.
Yea, dealing with the pterosaurs, but their total screen time in an hour long show was about 10 minutes. brachiosaurs pretty short too. the carnotaurus had what.. 5 minutes? if even. The slashers had a much longer time on screen but it was still short considering it was a 2 hour long premier.
I know the humans need to have some kind of story for us to be invested in them, but that doesn't mean they need 90% of the show to themselves. The dinosaurs should be considered characters themselves and given lots of screentime too, like 35-40% of the show for them to be seen.
I dont think ive ever seen the lost world tv show, the only dinosaur tv show i can remember seeing was land of the lost, the newer one not the really old one. Ive been comparing terra nova to the jurassic park movies, those had a very good combination of human and dinosaur screen time.
again, i dont want them to make the show 100% dinosaurs all the time with no plot or story i also am not interested in seeing nothing but humans having human problems like love triangles, boy/girl relationships, and getting along, there are tons of other dramas out there that offer that to people and its what 100% of the show is about. Having some of that is fine but when the dinosaurs get barely any screen time because of it then its just too much.
I don't think this is really about dinosaurs at all. I mean sure the dino element is awesome but i think the show will focus more on the fact that humans are trying to adapt to a climate/environment that they have never faced before and the dinosaurs are just there to fuck shit up. All in all I really hope this gets more than one season because I am loving every minute of it.
What I don't understand is what being a different timeline really means? Why would the meteor not strike?
Well, if you follow multiverse theory, I'd says there's about a 50-50 chance of any particular event like that happening. Many of you may say, "oh, well, chaos theory predicts that the tiny changes of sending people there in the first place would change that timeline making it skew of into its own tangent", but I'd like to point out that their presence would have NO impact on the trajectory of a massive space-borne object such as the asteroid that most likely caused the KT extinction. Even if they're in a different version of our timeline you'll notice in the opening they show Pangaea (suggesting that that timeline's geology is the same as ours, at least to that time period) so if that much is similar, the odds are that that asteroid is probably doing the same thing too. Of course, that won't be the case in the show or else it would be pointless. Not to mention, that the event would take place 20 million years after they settled Terra Nova, so even if the show went on FAR longer than I suspect it will, they would never get that far.
Well, if you follow multiverse theory, I'd says there's about a 50-50 chance of any particular event like that happening. Many of you may say, "oh, well, chaos theory predicts that the tiny changes of sending people there in the first place would change that timeline making it skew of into its own tangent", but I'd like to point out that their presence would have NO impact on the trajectory of a massive space-borne object such as the asteroid that most likely caused the KT extinction. Even if they're in a different version of our timeline you'll notice in the opening they show Pangaea (suggesting that that timeline's geology is the same as ours, at least to that time period) so if that much is similar, the odds are that that asteroid is probably doing the same thing too. Of course, that won't be the case in the show or else it would be pointless. Not to mention, that the event would take place 20 million years after they settled Terra Nova, so even if the show went on FAR longer than I suspect it will, they would never get that far.
Agreed. And the way the show was set up; humanity was about 50-100 years away from running out of resources completely so at least this bought them another 20 million years.
It's a decent concept for a show but poorly executed. There's a lot of characters but not many interesting. The acting is not memorable either.
So the people in Terra Nova go back in time BEFORE an extinction causing meteor strikes to ensure the salvation of humanity in the future?
They are 20 million years before the extinction event, even assuming it does happen in this timeline. That's a big boatload of time. After 20 million years, they won't even be humans anymore: the human species will have evolved -- probably several times over -- into something else entirely. That's plenty of time for them to find a way off the planet, or another gateway to another world or time, or even just prepare and anticipate the extinction event and find a way to survive it.
Maybe they have a mad scientist who's building an army of robots that have extremely powerful exhausts, and when the time is right, he'll have them all vent upwards to push the Earth into a different orbit.
Maybe they have a mad scientist who's building an army of robots that have extremely powerful exhausts, and when the time is right, he'll have them all vent upwards to push the Earth into a different orbit.
Lol, even if that were possible, that would be a bigger disaster than the meteor strike! It would destroy the climate on our planet permanently.
Maybe they have a mad scientist who's building an army of robots that have extremely powerful exhausts, and when the time is right, he'll have them all vent upwards to push the Earth into a different orbit.
When will writers GET that angsty teenagers are annoying as hell? Seriously if this kid dies next episode I will a lifelong fan of this show. Reminded me of the one from war of the worlds. Wanted him to die too.
When will writers GET that angsty teenagers are annoying as hell? Seriously if this kid dies next episode I will a lifelong fan of this show. Reminded me of the one from war of the worlds. Wanted him to die too.
You know what the worst part is? I think almost everybody WAS an angsty teenager at one point or another. I feel sorry for parents...
Watched the next episode today. I liked it. The dino fans may be dissapointed. There were only two major scenes with em' but they looked good CGI wise in this episode compaired to the last two.
The whole virus thing was cool with them slowly losing their memory. overall, I'm still enjoying the show and can't wait for the next episode.
I just watched it, and it was incredibly dissapointing. Normally I'm not someone who bitches about stuff, but this pilot pissed the hell out of me. I'll try to explain why I didn't like it in the best possible terms. Possible spoilers ahead!
First, the characters. The leads were extremly dull and I only found Stephen Lang's character remotely entertaining, but even he felt undeveloped.
Most of the stuff the characters did was extremly stupid. I mean, you are in a world inhabited but some of the most dangerous creatures that ever lived, and you go out in a jeep? Great! Why don't we just serve ourselves to the "slashers" on a plate? Geez.
Second, the dinosaurs. The element that most people were looking forward to, including me. The main problem is that we only saw THREE (3) species. And none of them added anything to the plot, really. It would have been about the same it they wouldn't have been there.
The first spieces we saw a group of Brachiosaurus, and this was supposed to be a scene of awe, but the main problem with this scene is we have already seen this exact same scene before. I'm not only talking about the famous first Brachiosaurus scene from Jurassic Park, but also the second one, where the kids and Grant feed the big cows. It felt like a mix between those two, without never reaching the levels of feeling those two scenes had. And the Brachiosaurus design and animation was quite poor. Sure, I understand this is a TV show, but the budget was huge! The main problem I see is that they didn't study other animals (and the JP films) correctly, to try to "get" how much life there was in those 1993 CGI/animatronics hybrids.
Then we got to see a group of Carnotaurus that roared like a digital chicken or something, a scene that stole a lot of shots directly from Disney's Dinosaur. Were they even trying to be original?
And after that, the worst of them all: The "Slashers". Sounds like something Littlefoot and company would call don't it? Anyways, the idea of bringing original made-up dinosaurs seems brilliant but here it was terribly executed. The predator design seemed quite akward and was never consistent, changing radically from scene to scene. And how it attacked its preys seemed wrongly done, because it seemed impossible how it would make those movements. It looked more like it was a having an epilectic attack or something.
Anyways, as I don't want to keep going and going I'm gonna sum up: The direction was quite poor, the script was overly cheesy, the acting seemed mediocre and the music was just awful.
If it gets better I'll catch on but so far I'm not holding my breath. Still, if they can at least rework the dinosaurs a bit and make them more life-like, I'll keep watching.
Let's hope this doesn't affect how JPIV is gonna turn out.
I'm giving it a go but yes, you've made some valid points.
I'm still enjoying the show. They seem to be getting even further away from the dinosaurs though. However, the delt with the sixers more in this ep and I like the direction everything seems to be going. Overall, I'm not having any real complaints with this show.
This is exactly how the last Star Trek series was... Same sort of writing except this time everything is happening in a Dinosaur world and not in space. I somewhat like the show but the writing and characters can't seem to bring me back. I hope for the best but believe it will go the way the last Star Trek did.
Comments
I liked most of the characters, I only hated the teenage boy, but hopefully he is now past his angst about his father. Taylor has the potential to be an awesome character, so does the father and the leader of the Sixth Pilgrimage.
The CGI dinosaurs were not exactly well done, they were only a bit better than the Walking with Dinosaurs dinosaurs.:)
Locations were excellent though, lush jungles, blue lagoons.
I also liked the mystery aspects of the story, the writers have set up a lot of stuff.
So all in all, Terra Nova is not my new Battlestar Galactica, but it could be my new Stargate Atlantis: dumb entertainment.:)
well i dunno even then the concept is loose. the animals in clash of the dinosaurs were Sauroposiden not brachiosaurus, brachis are jurassic era, sauroposiden were cretaceous.
That brings up another point then. Shouldn't those things be EXTINCT by Terra Nova???
The Brachiosauridae existed until early-80s MYA. That's almost when Terra Nova takes place(85MYA). Could be a future cliffhanger :P The Brachiosaur extinction.
A pilot episode isn't always a good indicator of a shows overall quality, though. Are the following episodes any better or is it just more of the same?
Anywho, great episode. i hope they keep this up and continue improving as the show goes on.
For the first episode sure i can understand the dinos not being there much, they need time to establish the story, the characters and explain how everyone gets to the past. So not seeing them for a while made sense, but then they get there and its still all about the humans with a few dino attacks here and there. The second episode had even less and it looks like the thirds main plot is going to be about some mind erasing gas? come on, get to the dinosaurs.
If i wanted to watch humans have drama and interact there many many other shows out there that offer just that and i could watch them, but i wanted to watch this because i thought it was going to be about them trying to survive in the past with dinosaurs. But it seems to be just a story about humans with dinosaurs thrown in here and there to remind us where they are.
"tralala we are humans in the past doing human stuff. having relations and drama. hey look a dinosaur! oh well back to human stuff. oh noes mind erasing gas! lol dinosaur trapped in a room, oh well, back to solving this gas problem" ugh ><
You teased me with a full course meal of dinosaurs terra nova, and all i got was a human dinner with dinosaurs as a side >:
So the people in Terra Nova go back in time BEFORE an extinction causing meteor strikes to ensure the salvation of humanity in the future?
Also how is Terra Nova communicating with the people in the future? Can they go to any other time period? Or only 80 million years ago?
What are you talking about? The whole episode was dealing with stopping the migrating pterosaurs. There was plenty of dino action. And then in the pilot there were the carnosaurs and the slashers they had to deal with. So I really don't see any lack of dinosaur action at all. Also, let's not forget that we need some character interaction and some drama in there to really get hooked into the show. If it was just people running from dinosaurs all the time with no other story what so ever then the show would be boring. There would be no reason to care about the characters and it would just be like all those crappy dinosaur movies we see on Sci-Fi.
Try to think Back to "The Lost World" tv show. There was very little dinosaur action in there but it was still a great show because it had great characters. Also, they mostly dealt with other people like tribes, ape men, people from the past and the future. The dinosaurs were just a bonus.
Another thing is that this is a show. Which me we gradually learn about the characters and their setting over time. I find it hard to believe that anyone would be satisfied with a pilot that set's up the characters which is then followed by a whole season of episodes that does nothing to advance the plot or develop the characters.
You were there?
Yea, dealing with the pterosaurs, but their total screen time in an hour long show was about 10 minutes. brachiosaurs pretty short too. the carnotaurus had what.. 5 minutes? if even. The slashers had a much longer time on screen but it was still short considering it was a 2 hour long premier.
I know the humans need to have some kind of story for us to be invested in them, but that doesn't mean they need 90% of the show to themselves. The dinosaurs should be considered characters themselves and given lots of screentime too, like 35-40% of the show for them to be seen.
I dont think ive ever seen the lost world tv show, the only dinosaur tv show i can remember seeing was land of the lost, the newer one not the really old one. Ive been comparing terra nova to the jurassic park movies, those had a very good combination of human and dinosaur screen time.
again, i dont want them to make the show 100% dinosaurs all the time with no plot or story i also am not interested in seeing nothing but humans having human problems like love triangles, boy/girl relationships, and getting along, there are tons of other dramas out there that offer that to people and its what 100% of the show is about. Having some of that is fine but when the dinosaurs get barely any screen time because of it then its just too much.
Well, if you follow multiverse theory, I'd says there's about a 50-50 chance of any particular event like that happening. Many of you may say, "oh, well, chaos theory predicts that the tiny changes of sending people there in the first place would change that timeline making it skew of into its own tangent", but I'd like to point out that their presence would have NO impact on the trajectory of a massive space-borne object such as the asteroid that most likely caused the KT extinction. Even if they're in a different version of our timeline you'll notice in the opening they show Pangaea (suggesting that that timeline's geology is the same as ours, at least to that time period) so if that much is similar, the odds are that that asteroid is probably doing the same thing too. Of course, that won't be the case in the show or else it would be pointless. Not to mention, that the event would take place 20 million years after they settled Terra Nova, so even if the show went on FAR longer than I suspect it will, they would never get that far.
Agreed. And the way the show was set up; humanity was about 50-100 years away from running out of resources completely so at least this bought them another 20 million years.
It's a decent concept for a show but poorly executed. There's a lot of characters but not many interesting. The acting is not memorable either.
They are 20 million years before the extinction event, even assuming it does happen in this timeline. That's a big boatload of time. After 20 million years, they won't even be humans anymore: the human species will have evolved -- probably several times over -- into something else entirely. That's plenty of time for them to find a way off the planet, or another gateway to another world or time, or even just prepare and anticipate the extinction event and find a way to survive it.
Lol, even if that were possible, that would be a bigger disaster than the meteor strike! It would destroy the climate on our planet permanently.
I can't believe I didn't catch that immediately. Reference recognition fail.
You know what the worst part is? I think almost everybody WAS an angsty teenager at one point or another. I feel sorry for parents...
Yes, that's the joke I was making. :P
The whole virus thing was cool with them slowly losing their memory. overall, I'm still enjoying the show and can't wait for the next episode.
I'm giving it a go but yes, you've made some valid points.