Terra Nova (Sci-Fi TV series)

[Vexx]

Interesting concept... but the plot synopsis reads like some horrible child of Gilligan's Island, Lost, Lost in Space, Land Before Time, and a vat of Bad Hollywood Not-Science.

Notice they never said WHEN they were going to ... just "primeval history" though they did use the word "dinosaurs"..... which makes no sense. Pick a time period with less bitey things... there are millions and millions of years to choose from. Also... it isn't entirely clear humans would do so well in the atmosphere of the period and o gods, the viruses and bacteria back then???

Otherwise, I got a distinct whiff of the MMO Rift and its storyline of "going back to save the future" blah blah.

[Asuras]

I agree with Vexx, but my craving for dinosaurs lately has turned the horrible time-planning in the synopsis away from my eyes.

Though, maybe they chose the dinosaur era because they didn't want to mess with pre-humans?

[DonQuigleone]

Why did they choose the Dinosaur era? Because it would make for cooler television .

I'm willing to tolerate shady premises, I'm more worried about this turning out like Falling skies. I'm quite wary of the "family drama" tag at the moment.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

Why did they choose the Dinosaur era? Because it would make for cooler television .

I'm willing to tolerate shady premises, I'm more worried about this turning out like Falling skies. I'm quite wary of the "family drama" tag at the moment.

These days I translate "family drama" as we don't actually have the budget to do Big Things so we're going to dress a soap opera with some minor bits and hope you won't notice its just a rehash of the zombie series without the zombies.

[Ithekro]

So expensive they made 13 episodes on location without a Pilot episode.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Vexx

These days I translate "family drama" as we don't actually have the budget to do Big Things so we're going to dress a soap opera with some minor bits and hope you won't notice its just a rehash of the zombie series without the zombies.

Indeed, but this series (as noted by Ithekro) has a very large budget, so your logic doesn't quite hold. I don't know why they're suddenly making sci fi family dramas, when previous efforts that were kinda similiar (like Lost) weren't of that type.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, but if I see dialogue about "how our son shouldn't be dating that kind of girl" etc. I'm out of there.

[MrTerrorist]

[HasuMasu]

Found a little something here.

[james0246]

I really don't understand why the future people didn't just build Asimov style megaopolis/dome cities. Environment turns against you? Well, cut the environment out of the equation. That being said, wouldn't interstellar travel be more technologically realistic?

Whatever the case, there have been several interesting moments so far. The central premise may be a little silly, but there is a lot of potential.

[ChainLegacy]

Some family members were watching it and I saw like 20 minutes worth. Kept wondering the same thing, james. From what I saw it would seem transporting technology through the wormhole thing was impossible, but even so enough people could re-engineer a livable "future environment" pretty quickly I'd assume, given they've mastered interdimensional travel.

Why go back in time to any epoch concurrent with dinosaurs when you could easily go back to the Oligocene and reap fresh grasslands, somewhat similar environment to today, etc? Though I suppose I'm the idiot; expecting a scientific basis for these shows.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Also... it isn't entirely clear humans would do so well in the atmosphere of the period and o gods, the viruses and bacteria back then???

You've actually got me quite interested in this hypothetical scenario now. I wonder what effects archaic micro-organisms would have on humanity, if any.

[Ithekro]

You know what would be funny. If they hadn't actually invened time travel, but instead a limited planetary transport network. And instead of going to the past this was an elaborate government scheme at depopulation or a wack-jobs ideas of starting over by settling on the island of Jurrassic Park.

The other alternatives involve maybe there are more than one time travel location and they are trying to split up the population rather than just send everyone back to the same time.
They haven't mastered time travel at all and this is the only place it goes by fate.
This actually is a different planet and they just don't know it yet.

Or they will find an ancient advanced civilization that was wiped out with the dinosaurs...or by us going back in time....or they and us manage to create space travel and left before the asteroid hit, with some coming back after (Noah's Ark?)

There are a lot of things that can be done when you have millions of years to play with.

[Xagzan]

Originally Posted by james0246

I really don't understand why the future people didn't just build Asimov style megaopolis/dome cities. Environment turns against you? Well, cut the environment out of the equation. That being said, wouldn't interstellar travel be more technologically realistic?

Whatever the case, there have been several interesting moments so far. The central premise may be a little silly, but there is a lot of potential.

It was almost a throwaway line, but apparently they did. But it seems only the wealthiest can afford it.

I liked the premiere anyway. Sometimes it even felt like watching a movie.

[Master_Yoma]

Sigh this dose seem to be worth to keep watching its just going to be slow and whinny

[RWBladewing]

I think this would have been a lot better as a more traditional sci-fi without the family drama, which came across to me as really cheesy and at times forced, especially the whole "rebellious teenager" plotline. The rest was interesting enough though and I think it has potential. Here's to hoping it doesn't get canceled after 1-2 weeks.

[Renegade334]

Originally Posted by james0246

I really don't understand why the future people didn't just build Asimov style megaopolis/dome cities.

Originally Posted by Xagzan

It was almost a throwaway line, but apparently they did. But it seems only the wealthiest can afford it.

Yep, they do have domes but only upper-class citizens and extremely successful workers can get a ticket to those areas. It was implied by the Terra Nova governor that the wife could've gone there but she preferred to give her children a more tangible future.

So I guess they do have some but creating an ecosafe environment costs big bucks in the 22nd century.

Originally Posted by james0246

Environment turns against you? Well, cut the environment out of the equation. That being said, wouldn't interstellar travel be more technologically realistic?

That's if they have mastered FTL technology or created generation space vessels capable of shouldering several centuries of interstellar travel (same thing for Avatar - how many years did it take them to reach Pandora - a planet orbiting the star closest to our solar system - with that antimatter-powered spaceship again?). Thing is, their portal thing could probably have been a fluke made by a bunch of scientists who made the experiment just for the sake of finding out what would happen without having any clear expectation, and when they saw the results, they jumped on the unexpected opportunity. You know, essentially, sending people in space with the hope they'll find a habitable planet and can manage populating it (we haven't even considered the terraforming process, which might be required beforehand), is a very long shot with little chance of success. Sending people into the past, in a world that our bodies have little struggle interacting with/adapting to is a FAR more alluring alternative.

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

From what I saw it would seem transporting technology through the wormhole thing was impossible, but even so enough people could re-engineer a livable "future environment" pretty quickly I'd assume, given they've mastered interdimensional travel.

They've had at least seven years and a good idea of what they'd find out there (the ecosystem, I mean) so, yeah, they're doing pretty well for settlers with limited resources and apparently no continuous, logistical connection to the "future".

Furthermore, the Shannon family is part of the eleventh group of settlers being sent to Terra Nova, so they have a good influx of working hands and fresh minds to maintain constant development.

Why go back in time to any epoch concurrent with dinosaurs when you could easily go back to the Oligocene and reap fresh grasslands, somewhat similar environment to today, etc? Though I suppose I'm the idiot; expecting a scientific basis for these shows.

The premise is that they ripped a hole through the time-space continuum and found a shortcut to that period. Perhaps they weren't able to select a more appropriate/safer time period, they couldn't figure out the math or...22nd century tech still isn't sufficiently well-honed to allow high-precision "time travel" and they decided that beggars can't be choosers. Make due with what they already had.

You've actually got me quite interested in this hypothetical scenario now. I wonder what effects archaic micro-organisms would have on humanity, if any.

Something I found interesting is that the dinosaur era is, IIRC, supposed to have a lesser concentration of oxygen in the air (something like 18-19% instead of the full-fledged 21%) and some settlers are actually bothered by the fact that there is so MUCH oxygen in this world.

Originally Posted by Ithekro

You know what would be funny. If they hadn't actually invened time travel, but instead a limited planetary transport network. And instead of going to the past this was an elaborate government scheme at depopulation or a wack-jobs ideas of starting over by settling on the island of Jurrassic Park.

The other alternatives involve maybe there are more than one time travel location and they are trying to split up the population rather than just send everyone back to the same time.

(...)

They haven't mastered time travel at all and this is the only place it goes by fate.
This actually is a different planet and they just don't know it yet.

The family's elder daughter revealed

Spoiler:

that they didn't really achieve genuine time travel, but Humanity actually created a gateway to an alternate universe, still in the late Jurassic period. She proceeded to explain that the scientists launched and left a probe (as a time capsule with a beacon inside, designed to prove that time travel is actually possible) on Terra Nova, but it failed to turn up in the original universe's world. Ergo, same Earth but not the same timeline.

This is, however, a big point of debate, as one could point out that the probe could've been destroyed, knocked offline by some cataclysm, deactivated due to corrosion (I'd want to know how they expect a power source to last more than 85 million years) or got buried too deep for the present researchers to recover.

It could be a game-changing revelation made much later in the story, but for now we are meant to assume we're actually in a different universe/timeline...where Mankind might or might not be present in the "future".

Another thing...the MC mentions they're now 85 Mya (milion years ago) and the producers say "late Jurassic", but, um, the Jurassic starts 200 Mya and ends 165 Mya. 85 Mya corresponds to the middle of the Cretaceous, roughly 20 million years before the supposed giant cataclysm that ended the dinosaurs' reign.

[RWBladewing]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

Spoiler:

This is, however, a big point of debate, as one could point out that the probe could've been destroyed, knocked offline by some cataclysm, deactivated due to corrosion (I'd want to know how they expect a power source to last more than 180 million years) or got buried too deep for the present researchers to recover.

It could be a game-changing revelation made much later in the story, but for now we are meant to assume we're actually in a different universe/timeline...where Mankind might or might not be present in the "future".

Spoiler for spoiler:

The season preview at the very end of the episode had the leader of the Sixers state that the purpose of Terra Nova was something along the lines of "control the past to control the future". Will be interesting to see if this means that the universes aren't entirely separate after all.

[Renegade334]

Spoiler:

Or it could simply mean they wish to build a society where certain values (political, social, economic) are particularly predominant, channeled. Essentially a new history of Humanity, programmed from the very beginning. And this time, no one will make the same mistakes - ergo, no environmental nightmare in the future.

A literal Utopia.

I doubt they're planning to control what will happen in the "future" 22nd century - you'd have to assume the Terra Novians can survive those 85 million years separating them from the so-called "present" (thus dodging the incoming KT event that killed the dinos, PLUS the ice ages and so on)

[RWBladewing]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

Spoiler:

Or it could simply mean they wish to build a society where certain values (political, social, economic) are particularly predominant, channeled. Essentially a new history of Humanity, programmed from the very beginning. And this time, no one will make the same mistakes - ergo, no environmental nightmare in the future.

A literal Utopia.

I doubt they're planning to control what will happen in the "future" 22nd century - you'd have to assume the Terra Novians can survive those 85 million years separating them from the so-called "present" (thus dodging the incoming KT event that killed the dinos, PLUS the ice ages and so on)

Spoiler for spoiler:

Possibly, though the way the preview was presented and the fact that a conflict exists makes it seem pretty likely their goal may be more sinister in nature. The Sixers leader was pretty clearly using the word "control" in a negative fashion and it made it appear that that is the reason for their opposition. I don't think they're just a group planted to screw everyone else over and prevent the correction of past mistakes; they've already been shown to have some sympathetic qualities and TN has already been heavily implied to have many secrets - the stuff at the falls and the fact that everyone is forbidden from going there, etc.

Also this being sci-fi they may have come up with a way to survive the extinction event/ice age or influence the future more directly from that period without worrying about the years in-between, as little sense as that logically makes.

[MrTerrorist]

Finally saw the premiere episode. One word: Amazing. I love scenery of both the future and the past. For a SF TV series, the CGI was great and the story was intriguing and got me hooked and i'm glad to see Stephen Lang again.

I hope to see the next episode.

[Nosauz]

The "sixers" really remind me of the "others" that instant connection to Lost was an immediate put off, not to mention the "equations" remind me of list of candidates and dharma back story. Anyway it's alright in terms of setting, cast and cgi, but for the most part I found it engaging, also plot threads of teenagers doing stupid shit is a big no no in my book because it screams of lazy writing.