I guess he’s looking to get typcast as the militaristic caretaker of a human colony in an alien environment?
Can’t wait for the Riff Trax guys to tackle this turkey.
I’ll probably watch a few more eps, since I’m usually home on Mondays. But, this really sucked. Not even up to the level of those cheapo “ScyFy” series. It’s like the “future” shipped back all its cliches and tropes to found Tera Nova.
And, methinks this was a big part of the problem.
You have to shoot them in the belly.
It’s too bad, because the production values were much better than SyFy channel. Unfortunately, they have no imagination, and keep making the same stuff they made fifteen years ago.
Joel used to encourage the Bots to say one bad thing and one good thing about the the movie. So, in that spirit, here’s one good thing about Terra Nova. At the five minutes 'til the end mark we didn’t hear a piano or guitar on the soundtrack while an indie singer vocalized a melancholy tune about the “promise of the future”, or some such. And, at the fade to black, “Download music from tonight’s Terra Nova…”
So yeah, it could have been worse.
My wife continued to watch on and off. I happened to come up to see the doctor working on a wounded person.
“Stay with me,” I said. “Stay with me.”
“Stay with me,” the doctor said.
:rolleyes:
Well, that was shite.
I’ll probably DVR it, and then watch it Friday nights while getting drunk and laughing my ass off at how bad it is. :-p
I mean, seriously, what the fuck? Why promise us a grand sci-fi epic and then give us basically teen angst with a couple token dinosaurs? And what little mysteries they laid the seeds for they went ahead and told flat out in clunky exposition.
Yeah, I kind of figured it had to be a separate timeline from the future, what with paradoxes being what they are, but honestly, it could have been handled better. The son not knowing about that probe would be like a teenager in the 60’s not knowing what Sputnik was. But thanks, Little Miss Talking to the Audience!
And then we get some cool mystery carvings on the rocks…ooh, a legit mystery. A previous, possibly failed, settlement/explorers from the future that was covered up? An unknown intelligent species that lived alongside the dinosaurs? Aliens?
Oh, no wait, you tell us in more clunky exposition that it’s the Commander’s crazy son. But what the Hell do you mean “control the past, control the future?” The one girl said it was separate…but maybe it’s not and they all said it was? But do you really want to control a future 85 million years from now?
And why bring guns/bullets that do fuck all to dinosaurs? Here’s a helpful way to determine if the gun you brought is good against dinos:
Shoot an elephant.
Is the elephant dead? If no, get a bigger gun. Repeat until an elephant dies from one bullet. Then, since dinosaurs are even bigger than that, get an even bigger gun.
Edit: Oh, and would the moon really be that big? The girl said 0.5 cm a year. So in 85 million years that’s 42.5 million centimeters…that’s only 425 km. I can’t imagine the moon looking that much bigger.
Somebody over at TWOP points out that the family is basically The Simpsons. They’ve got a bratty Bart, a mathematically inclined Lisa and an adorable Maggie.
Is that seriously how they lampshaded it? I was also wondering why, if one had all of Earth’s past to choose from, why not after the Cretaceous?
I caught about 30 seconds of it, where the little girl is hand-feeding the sauropods, and that was enough for me.
You’re all crazy. Terra Nova was awesome.
It may go down in flames by the end of the season, but for now, I’m in.
The spacetime crack of convenience leads directly to 85 million B.C. Doc Brown wasn’t around to whip up a flux capacitor to dial up new destination times. Besides, the year 2149 was fresh out of Deloreans and you know how error-prone the target times were even with a working flux cap.
ETA: Dr. Elizabeth Shannon looks like Shannon Elizabeth.
Thoughts while watching the pilot:
-Prospect of seeing soldiers gun down an allosaur: My inner 8-year-old smiles.
-See Brannon Braga in the opening credits: Dammit!
-See David Fury in the opening credits: Maybe he’ll counteract Brannon Braga.
-Dinosaurs versus automatic weapons is a good idea in theory, but needs better CGI than what I saw. Hopefully it’s better after the pilot. The pilot really looks like it was made on the cheap.
The pilot episode of any new show is usually pretty rough, but this show is going to have to get a lot better if it’s going to last.
Obviously, the official story the authorities told the general public of 2149 is a lie. Send beacon, find beacon, deny finding beacon.
I gathered that they don’t have all of Earth’s past to choose from. 85 million years ago is the only destination available (well, at least according to the official story).
Come to think of it, I’m a bit more interested in seeing what happens in that 2149 than in the Cretaceous.
I think I will keep watching…
Already we have politics, and a mystery (actually a few) right upfront, perfectly good hooks to keep us watching.
Now all they have to do is keep us intrigued enough to keep watching ( and not have the network switch the night around 12 times) unlike the same story told 17 years ago…called “Earth 2”
I mean STephan Lang(Col. Taylor) almost looks and sounds like Clancy Brown (Danziger)
Okay, I am going to have to get TiVo or a DVR. Missed the whole first hour. There sure were a buttload of ads.
What are Sixers?
The sixth human expedition to the past, that since broke off from the rest of the group and stole some goods to take with them.
No, sorry. I made that part up.
Saw it. LIked it! Guns vs. Dinosaurs, oh, yah! Great production values. Cliche characters and plotting, but maybe the writers will do a better job once they get the basic setup of the show done. Or maybe not. Still, great dinosaurs! LUUURVES me some good CGI!
I liked it.
Pros:
Giant bugs!
Dinosaurs!
Some politics and mystery
Cons:
Some truly awful acting
Stupid teen angst subplot (I was really hoping that kid would get eaten)
I’m skeptical that the writers did their scientific research
To address the question of ‘‘Why the Cretaceous?’’ I was under the impression they just found a random tear in the space-time continuum and have no control over where they go. Also, they state they are in a different time stream, but then how can that leader guy communicate with the alternate future?
It might crash and burn, or it might get good. I’m willing to keep watching and find out. What with the giant bugs, and the dinosaurs.
ETA: Did anyone catch the part in the beginning where the security guys see Dad on the monitor and bark, ‘‘Get me security!’’ Really? AREN’T YOU SECURITY?
According to wikipedia, David Fury left the show a year ago over creative differences. He’s going to work on *Fringe *instead.
You know, this show already has the greasy fingerprints of executive meddling all over it.
Could we have dinosaurs like from Jurassic Park? (same place they stole the compound’s walls from)
Could we have a mystery about a nefarious organization like Lost?
Could we have that crazy military guy from Avatar?
Could we add in some teen angst like Smallville?
Could we add an Adorable Moppet? Everyone loves Adorable Moppets!
Could we set it up so we can have episodes that will be contained entirely within the soundstage set without needing to spend money on CGI for entire episodes altogether?
Hey, look: it’s exactly like all the other shows that everyone likes! What could possibly go wrong!