# Terra Nova premiere 9/26 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666 "2011-09-26T16:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/121 "2011-09-28T14:21:46Z")
Did you ever consider that these might be hybrid brachiosaur-wombat mixes? Or do wombats have incisors?? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/122 "2011-09-28T14:29:14Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > The last thing these people want to do is start out by making the same mistakes all over again. Really? Argh, there’s always one out there. It wasn’t that good of a pilot show. PM me and I will buy and send you a paperback of Heinlein’s “Tunnel to the Sky”. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/123 "2011-09-28T14:35:55Z")
“in” even. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/124 "2011-09-28T16:53:55Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Love them Marching Morons. 😉 > > As others pointed out, the entire population control thing made no sense at all. > > I seem to have read that the show went through all sorts of development and production changes. That may be why the script was so self-contradictory. One version may even have killed off the baby, but someone said, “we can’t do that” and changed it so that there was a fine (which makes no sense – why worry about hiding the kid if a few thousand bucks would solve the issue?). That same with the time travel – it first was going into our past, but then they added the “different timeline” thing (the “stepping on a butterfly” paradox was dealt with quite nicely by Fritz Lieber in “Try and Change the Past”), forgetting that any reference to changing the future had to be then scrubbed. > > It was SF by committee, and most of the people on the committee didn’t know shit about SF. - 1 Quadrillion. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/125 "2011-09-28T17:07:07Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Just got around to watching it on the dee vee arr. > > Yeh, that was bad. But I’m in it for the long haul. I’ve been blessed with a brain that can be entertained by the good or amused by the bad on many levels that can switch on the fly. > > I scared my wife at the very beginning when there was a loud knock on the door, and the family started panicking. > > I said “Population control.” > > The very next line said was “Population Control” by the population control guy. > > And like **Shakes** , I thought the same thing when I saw the strange markings… Sleestacks! And immediately started to sing _“in the The Laaaaand of the Looooost!”_ > > Also, every time Avatar guy said anything, I couldn’t help but to mutter “And they’ll eat yer eyes fer Ju Ju Bees.” > > Drove my wife to the point of delirium. Yeh… I’m down with this show.\ Can we set up some kind of remote telepresence kind of thing so my husband and I can watch it with you and your wife? 😃 > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Love them Marching Morons. 😉 > > As others pointed out, the entire population control thing made no sense at all. > > I seem to have read that the show went through all sorts of development and production changes. That may be why the script was so self-contradictory. One version may even have killed off the baby, but someone said, “we can’t do that” and changed it so that there was a fine (which makes no sense – why worry about hiding the kid if a few thousand bucks would solve the issue?). I’m guessing it was Steven Spielberg and his penchant for ruining things with gratuitous moppets. The child being taken off for a good fatal gassing by Pop. Control makes a whole lot more sense than the mess of a story we actually got. > [@](#): > > \ > It was SF by committee, and most of the people on the committee didn’t know shit about SF. Thank you for putting words to a feeling I’ve had for quite a while now. I’ve read a LOT of sci fi in my life, and it has bothered me for a long time that the movies and tv shows that call themselves sci fi so rarely measure up to the books I read, and I don’t understand why. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/126 "2011-09-28T17:15:17Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] Did you ever consider that these might be hybrid brachiosaur-wombat mixes? Or do wombats have incisors?? [/QUOTE] Sheesh, no one is going to point out that wombats are marsupials and not mammals?? This place is really going to the canis lupus familiaris… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/127 "2011-09-28T17:23:50Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Sheesh, no one is going to point out that wombats are marsupials and not mammals?? This place is really going to the canis lupus familiaris… > > -XT Nope, but I will now point out that marsupials _are_ mammals… ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/128 "2011-09-28T17:25:00Z")
Exactly! Gods, I thought I was on the wrong message board for a while. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/129 "2011-09-28T18:06:27Z")
I liked it. I know it has some (a lot) of issues with accuracy and it isn’t Hamlet, but it was fun and what the hell else am I going to do Monday nights, read a book? One thing of course is that the catastrophic event which kills all the dinosaurs should still probably still happen, right? ---
**Author:** ![Troutsqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Troutsqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troutsqueezer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/130 "2011-09-28T18:27:38Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > I liked it. I know it has some (a lot) of issues with accuracy and it isn’t Hamlet, but it was fun and what the hell else am I going to do Monday nights, read a book? > > One thing of course is that the catastrophic event which kills all the dinosaurs should still probably still happen, right? Yes, in about 5 weeks as some here have predicted. ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/131 "2011-09-28T18:48:24Z")
I’m a little vague on how not finding the probe “proves” it’s an alternate timeline. All it proves is that they failed to find the probe. 85 million years is a lot of opportunity for it to be destroyed completely coincidentally. And then sending people afterward means _they_ have the opportunity to destroy it intentionally. And if they’re saving “the best and brightest” why is there a lottery? Are they trying the puppeteer experiment? Assuming the show survives long enough, bets that the sixers turn out to be generically-religious fundamentalists? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/132 "2011-09-28T18:50:51Z")
**Things I liked:** -the production design -most of the premise -the idea that in fact it is NOT a different timeline but people have been lied to (I’m skeptical that that’s actually going anywhere interesting, but it’s at least something new and thought-provoking) **Things I didn’t like:** -cliched family dynamics -fairly bad CGI -the boss of the entire society jumps into vehicles and puts himself in harms way on a moment’s notice for routine but dangerous operations. Sure. **Things that seem stupid so far but just possibly might not be:** -ambiguity about exactly how the portal works, is it open all the time, when do they send building material through, is communication 2-way, etc -ambiguity about why they are interested in meteoric iron **Things that really bugged me, perhaps more than deserved:** -guns that do nothing to dinosaurs. C’mon, these aren’t magical godzillas or dragons, they’re just big reptiles. A machine gun will kill them dead dead dead very quickly, and leave big corpses with huge gouts of blood shooting out. -the stupid scene after the sixers drive into the compound and everyone has guns on everyone. Not quite as ridiculous as the idiotic standoff in Mexico during season 4 of Big Love, but close. Oh, and that guy who just moments ago attempted to shoot our chief in the head with a gun? Sure, you can have him back just because. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/133 "2011-09-28T18:58:49Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > I’m a little vague on how not finding the probe “proves” it’s an alternate timeline. I don’t think it actually does, I think that’s all a lie. That’s certainly strongly implied by the sixers at the end > [@](#): > > And if they’re saving “the best and brightest” why is there a lottery? Are they trying the puppeteer experiment? I’m not sure we really know much about this one way or the other. When is it mentioned either that they’re saving the best and the brightest, OR that there’s a lottery? The only thing we know for sure (I think) is that (a) they have a limited number of slots, and (b) some of those slots are filled by people with skills that TN really needs (ie, doctors) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/134 "2011-09-28T19:19:23Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > …And if they’re saving “the best and brightest” why is there a lottery? Are they trying the puppeteer experiment?.. There might be an element of prescreening involved with the lottery. Or the majority of colonist could be recruited with only a few token lottery winners thrown in to satisfy the masses back in 2149. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/135 "2011-09-28T19:30:21Z")
> [@Death\_of\_Rats](#): > > Nuclear power isn’t “clean”. It leaves behind dangerously toxic waste materials that still need to be handled and stored for generations. These are people who are escaping a world that was devastated by unchecked industrial waste. The last thing these people want to do is start out by making the same mistakes all over again. Apparently, fusion power continues to elude us in 2149. That is depressing. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/136 "2011-09-28T19:34:34Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > And if they’re saving “the best and brightest” why is there a lottery? Are they trying the puppeteer experiment? It’s complicated. Does anyone know how to get a screen shot of the pterosaur? It just looked crazy wrong to me, but I don’t want to watch the whole damn show again, even in FF, just to find it. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/137 "2011-09-28T19:38:24Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’ve read a LOT of sci fi in my life, and it has bothered me for a long time that the movies and tv shows that call themselves sci fi so rarely measure up to the books I read, and I don’t understand why. I think it’s simply a case of too many cooks. To bring a multi million dollar production to the screen (big or small) requires investors and investors tend to want control over how their money is being spent. There’s a reason, I think, why the best stories seem to come from a solitary mind sitting in front of a keyboard. While I would love to see a colonization story ala Tunnel in the Sky, Red Mars or one of Niven’s Known Space stories, the reason these stories have such trouble getting to the screen is that the creators don’t want to give up control over their work and the people holding the purse strings always think they can improve the story. Look at what they did to I Robot for crying out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/138 "2011-09-28T20:23:32Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > Look at what they did to I Robot for crying out loud. Aww, I really enjoyed I Robot ☹ ---
**Author:** ![hazylazydays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e480ec/32.png) [@hazylazydays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazylazydays)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/139 "2011-09-28T22:20:25Z")
yes well i saw the lion king in 3d the night it premiered. I am going to watch it on demand on my cable! ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666/140 "2011-09-29T02:09:02Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Does anyone know how to get a screen shot of the pterosaur? It just looked crazy wrong to me, but I don’t want to watch the whole damn show again, even in FF, just to find it. Unfortunately, [this](http://cdn.terranovatv.net/images/2011/09/terranovaview.jpg) is all I’ve been able to find. The pterosaur is visible just above the tree line at the lower boundary of the compound. And it does have a crazy bend in the left wing that doesn’t quite fit with a single, leading-edge finger support. Next week, the TNers are supposed to get attacked by pterosaurs, so we’ll see if this was just a fluke, I guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terra-nova-premiere-9-26/597666.md?page=8)