Primeval, a new series from ITV offers dinosaurs in modern day England. Who could ask for more?
Synopsis
As the story opens, we see Helen Cutter being attacked in a supermarket parking lot by what appears to be a Gorgonopsid.
The story jumps forward to eight years later, where professor Cutter, her husband, is approached by Connor Temple, conspiracy nut, and asked to investigate a recent sighting of a strange beast near the Forest of Dean. Cutter is initially ready to dismiss the whole thing, but a well placed about about how his wife would have investigated and the fact that the Forest of Dean is apparently where she wet missing convinces him to investigate. He, Conner and Cutter’s lab assistant, Stephen go to the scene and discover evidence that something big and nasty is there.
Meanwhile, Abby, a herpetologist who works at the zoo near the forest, is put on the trail of a strange reptile found by a local boy, Ben. The creature turns out to be a Coelurosauravus and Ben takes her to where he found it in… you guessed it, the Forest of Dean. (Cue ominous music.)
When they hear a loud roar and find a cow in a tree, Ben runs for home, leaving Abby alone in the rapidly darkening woods.
Ben discovers a temporal anomaly, which, when he places his face through it, reveals a Permian world on the other side. Meanwhile Abby encounters both the Cutter team and a Scutosaurus, a large, but harmless herbivore. The beast leads them to the anomaly.
Ben is attacked by the Gorgonopsid in his home and narrowly escapes.
Cutter’s team, now including Abby, is co-opted by the Home Office to investigate the problem, where an uneasy alliance is formed between Cutter, the Home Office representative, Claudia and the troubleshooter from the PM’s office, James Lester.
Cutter is allowed to investigate the anomaly, with the assistance of a military protector.
Stephen and Conner have been tracking the Gorgonopsid. Conner identifies the creature by its tracks and chickens out. Stephen continues and tracks it to Ben’s school, where it is still hunting him. Stephen saves the boy, but barely escapes alive.
In the Permian, Cutter’s team find the remains of a human camp, a dead man and Helen Cutter’s camera. They escape just as the anomaly disappears.
The Gorgonopsid attacks the base setup at the anomaly site and the military are unable to kill it. Just as it looks that some of our heroes will be eaten, Stephen arrives in the SUV and hits the creature, stunning it. He then uses a machine gun to kill it.
The pictures from the camera show Helen Cutter posing for pictures in the Permian (and nothing else.) The government thinks the situation is closed, but Cutter tells them it is only beginning because whatever caused the anomaly hasn’t been identified.
Later that night, someone is in his office and leaves a living ammonite on his desk. He runs outside and sees… his wife? And then she’s gone.
Analysis
For starters, it’s hard to make a story about prehistoric animals that I won’t like, it’s in my genes, so I can say I enjoyed the episode and am looking forward to more. That’s not to say it’s not without its problems.
Cast: The actors playing the parts are good. Professor Cutter appears to be a homage to Dr. Iain Stewart, but I might be projecting more into that casting than there really was. Let’s just say he’s a Scottish professor of a fairly arcane subject.
His assistant Stephen is a typically squared-jawed young man. I’d swear I’ve seen him before in something recently, but a quick check of IMDB didn’t reveal anything that I’d recognize him from.
Conner Temple, likewise, seems awfully familiar, but IMDB reveals nothing I’d know him from. Perhaps all young actors are beginning to look a lot alike. He’s fairly convincing as the conspiracy looney, and I know enough of them to know he’s nailed it pretty well – except for the part about them not bathing often.
Both female characters, Abby and Claudia are not used much in the show, but they’re decorative.
Ben Miller, probably best known in the States as the hapless Howard Steele of The Worst Week of My Life is cast as James Lewis the PMs troubleshooter. Whenever I watch Worst Week, I can’t help thinking that Miller would make a much more convincing bastard. He’s got that look and it’s good to see I was right. He’s perfect as the government hatchet-man.
Much as I enjoyed it, the story has lots of technical problems, some trivial, some painful.
The fact that some knowledgeable people in this story keep referring to the synapsids (Mammal-like reptiles, more closely related to mammals than Dinosaurs) as dinosaurs is inexcusable, especially since this show was done by the same company that did Walking with Monsters, Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts and Walking with Cavemen – where the CGI models were clearly lifted from. They are, at one point, correctly explained as synapsids, but the general conversation makes it clear everyone, even the scientists, think of them as dinosaurs.
Ben is attacked in his second-story room by the Gorgonopsid, which bursts its head through the window. It seems unlikely that the Gorgonopsid could reach the second-floor window, I’ll let that slide. What doesn’t make sense is that, when the team arrive, they convince the mom that the boy must have been imagining a dinosaur. Mom seems satisfied and she blames it all on the Telly. I suppose you could believe that… if there weren’t a great, frickin’ hole in the side of the house where his window once was, burst in from the outside and all the shingles messed up on the portico. Blame it on the Telly, but don’t dismiss the whole incident, that’s stupid.
Later in the episode, Stephen saves the day by running the SUV full on into the Gorgonopsid with enough force to knock it over, then hops out and shoots the beast. Have you ever seen what’s left of a car (and usually the driver) after it hits something as small as a deer? Or what happens when they hits something more substantial like a cow or a moose or a bison? There’s no winner, but the car doesn’t come out intact. Stephen speeds up and collides with an animal at least 4 times the size of bison and the car isn’t totalled, the airbags don’t go off and, most incredibly, Stephen isn’t puréed.
Why couldn’t the well-armed military types kill the Gorgonopsid and it takes Stephen, an SUV and one of the military’s own weapons in the hands of an amateur. (Presumably, Stephen isn’t ex-military and therefore unlikely to know how to operate a machine gun.)
In the Permian era, Cutter discovers the body. He quickly counts the ribs and determines it is a man, and therefore not his wife. Paleontologists, among many other disciplines, must study anatomy, therefore Cutter should know it’s a complete myth that men and women have a different number of ribs. (Score one for science over theology.) If he wanted to sex the skeleton, he probably would have looked at the pelvis.
While in the Permian, he finds his wife’s camera. All the photos on the camera are of his wife. In fact, she appears to be posing for the camera. Personally, I cannot find it credible to believe that Helen, a scientist herself, found herself in the Permian and didn’t take any pictures of the amazing things all around her but instead gives the camera, and their only film, to some guy who snaps a couple photos of his new lady friend. What the hell were they thinking? Oh, I can tell you, the writers weren’t thinking!!
I can forgive real technical issues like atmospheric oxygen levels being different in difference eras of Earth’s history that, which not necessarily making life impossible for modern people, would have impacted their ability to operate effectively on the other side – and would have impacted how well the synapsids functioned over here.
Finally, I’m disappointed at the lack of imagination shown. Let me explain. We know of prehistoric life almost exclusively through the fossil record. The circumstances that lead to fossilization are rare indeed. For every form of fossilized life we find, there are an inestimable number of species that either (a) didn’t live (and die) in a climate conducive to fossilization or (b) haven’t been discovered yet. When making a “factual†documentary on prehistoric species, naturally they confine themselves to “real†specimens, but if you were trying to recreate a primitive world, it would make sense to (I emphasize this is for fictional purposes only) make up some new species.
Certainly, confronted with a real creature transported from the past, the odds that a paleontologist would immediately recognize it are slim to none. Why not use that to the story’s advantage? For dramatic purposes, you’d have to use some known animals to firmly fix the time and place for the audience. Sadly, this episode uses the cast from Walking with Monsters, and I could see from the previews of next week’s episode they will continue that trend using the Carboniferous insects from Walking with Monsters also.
Lastly, there’s Rex, the small, flying Coelurosauravus that becomes their pet. Enough said.
I’m looking forward to next week (as long as the big bugs stay on the other side of the Pond) but I hope the writers are a bit more conscientious.
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