Terra Nova #1.1/#1.2 "Genesis"

[Firesong]

I like this show so far. My question, though, is how the heck the people in the past can communicate with the future...

[kernel_thai]

I too was confused by the 2 child rule. Not why they have it but its consequences. According to Josh's comment, a fine would have resulted if Jim hadnt attacked the police officers. Now whether Jim was defending the safety of his daughter or not, the real question is; that's it? They dont lose custody of the little girl? If it was only a fine why hide her at all? Oops u caught us, they pay the fine and raise the girl? How was this worth him ending up in prison? They seemed to have plenty of money when it came time to bribe people to get the little girl thru security. He lost his career and went to prison to avoid a fine. He's a prince and a cheap one at that.

----- Added 4 Minutes later -----

I like this show so far. My question, though, is how the heck the people in the past can communicate with the future...

u put a message in a bottle and wait for some archeologist to find it

Hopefully they will explain the science of this and the probe. If the probe cant send back information because its in a different time line, how did they know it was safe to send people thru? If the probe sent back nothing would u say, ah, different time line or ah, probe was destroyed?

[ReignoftheSupermen]

Stephen Lang should have played Deathstroke on Smallville. He's so awesome.

Ohhh, good call. He would have been perfect.

----- Added 17 Minutes later -----

Since the show is set in the ancient past, I wonder if we'll see Jor-el arriving on Earth to hide the three stones of knowledge.

[Xanderman]

Actually it's a good idea for marketing. Dont want kids playing Terra Nova using their old Jurassic Park dinos when we can have them asking for new dinos for Christmas.

I for one can't wait for my "Josh" action figure.... lol yeah right.

The son annoys me

I know, why hasn't he been eaten yet Sups...or "slashed" (from the script)? Maybe he's a teen heartthrob?

The episode should have been titled Obvious 1. Who was surprised by who Skye was? Who was surprised that the soldier who showed them their cabin ended up with Maddy. Who was surprised Josh has issues with his father? Who was surprised Maddy was cute but nerdy and always says the wrong thing to guys? Who was surprised Jim caught a bad guy and made security his first day. The show is a mash-up of JP/Lost/Avatar. Yikes it was predictable!

Yes very predictable/formulaic. Besides the JP/Lost similarities, seems to be a remake of the 90's series "Earth 2". Except instead of colonizing an alien world, they're colonizing the past. Everything else is pretty much the same as Earth 2, except with a lot more production value. Also has some Sliders elements and some Stargate. And the idea of rewriting mankind's ancient past on Earth reminds me a bit of what Battlestar Galactica did. And the whole "other colony" stuff reminds me of that Luke Perry post-apocalyptic show Jeremiah. This show is a mash-up of lots of different things it seems, with "Earth 2" being at its core. I'm surprised they didn't go ahead and just call it Earth 3, at least it would've been honest. (The Event was similar too. The aliens came to Earth to colonize it, to start over, after their own planet became doomed. It's funny that Terra Nova came out immediately afterward with a similar premise.)

Would have been great if just after they go there someone pointed up and said whats that big thing in the sky.

Lol I was also hoping for something like this, for the episode to end with a foreboding peek into the heavens at a distant approaching meteor menacing its way to Earth, threatening to put an end to all of Steven Spielberg's hard work. Remember that scene in Starship Troopers, with the parents going "Sure is dark all of a sudden" (or something like that) just before the meteor attack....that would've worked too. heh

I liked it enough to keep watching but boy u can tell this was cobbled together from the work of lots of writers. It's pilot by committee. Hopefully the little mysteries they set up will add some spice to a very bland, generic set of characters.

Yeah it's quite a derivative piece of work to be sure, but they've got themselves a safe formula to work with and it's fun. I hope it sticks around.

Hopefully they will explain the science of this and the probe. If the probe cant send back information because its in a different time line, how did they know it was safe to send people thru? If the probe sent back nothing would u say, ah, different time line or ah, probe was destroyed?

Yeah I also wondered about this. Just because they never found the probe doesn't automatically mean it's another timeline. Could just mean the probe was destroyed or deactivated in some way--if not by natural means, possibly by someone they eventually send back. And yes they seem to be making a point of it being a "one way" trip supposedly, which obviously sets up a plot point of this not really being true or there being a way around that.

Since the show is set in the ancient past, I wonder if we'll see Jor-el arriving on Earth to hide the three stones of knowledge.

[closetclana]

I loved the first hour. The picture of the future was totally epic, the special effects awesome, the soundtrack engaging, the action on the edge of your seat. I wished they had stayed in future world. That seemed fresh and different and interesting to me.

When they made it to past world, that's when it started to go downhill in my mind. The special effects were cool, but the dino attacks and everything felt like Jurassic Park all over again. The moody son, the smart daughter, the level headed doctor wife (Falling skies anyone? But Jason is no Noah Wyle).

I'll keep watching for now, if for nothing else but the special effects.

[Exedore]

It was good. Nothing spectacular but hey, dinosaurs!

The whole "different timeline" vs "control the past, control the future" thing was interesting.

The son was annoying though. This is one area where Falling Skies was better: they didn't go overboard with the teen angst and the son there was more likeable. Here I kept wishing he would be eaten by a dinosaur.


Let's hope the writing improves.

[SnowBird]

^^You know how teens are, cooperative one minute and ready to challenge the world the next. He had been the man of the house for years and I don't think he was quite ready to give that up yet. I think it was a normal reaction for this teen considering the situation. It also got him in trouble and hopefully, he learned his lesson and becomes more cooperative and likeable since I don't really want to watch him be an idiot anymore.

Tomorrrow, Monday we get a new episode and I'm really looking forward to it.

[jpfort1957]

One thing that didn't make a whole lot of sense..............wouldn't be a smart idea to build the city around the gate??? There would be less chance of dino attacks

[supercatmom]

I gave it an 8.
I liked it enough to keep watching at least for awhile.

I never watched Lost but from what I hear it was on past its prime. Can we say jumped the shark.
I did however watch Falling Skies and noticed many simularities beween it and
Terra Nova.

Now to having only 2 children. It's called Zero Population Growth and I first heard the term nearly 40 years ago.
With show like 19 kids and counting and Jon and Kate plus eight no one seems to worry about overpopulation anymore.
Not what it's doing to the earth's resourses or the environment or the fact that if the earth population keeps increasing there will come a time when we will not be able to raise enough food to feed everyone.
China faced this problem years ago when it could not feed its population. So it only allowed couples to have 1 child. Hoping that as years passed and people died the population would go down.
But faced with having only 1 child, couples wanted a boy to carry on the family name and keep property in the family.
So many female babies were abandoned and ended up in orphanges.
A childless couple who are a friend of my sister actually went to China and adopted two female babies from a orphange.

OK enough of all that.
So it's a different time line. Interesting - Maybe in this time line a meteor doesn't hit earth and wipe out the dinos.
But Terra Nova is messing with this
Time Line's future. Is that what the sixters are talking about.
And it was mentioned that the people in the compound did not know what the real mission of Terra Nova was.
Did the head guy's son find out what it is and that's why he is MIA.

Also one last question, if it was so easy to break her husband out of prison why did she wait 2 years to do it?

I Miss
Smallville.

[corfy]

Also one last question, if it was so easy to break her husband out of prison why did she wait 2 years to do it?

Breaking out is only a small portion of the problem. After breaking out, you have to hide from the law, and I'm sure it is much harder for a family of five to hide "in the future" than it was for them to hide by going back into the past. (At least, that is my interpretation.)

I Miss
Smallville.

Ditto

[Atomic girl]

The Pilot exceeded my expectations - they weren't very high. I am definitely tuning in again. I'm a bit late on this, but have almost caught up now.

[nate-dog1701d]

I finally got around to watching the pilot today. My prevailing thought is that the effects are quite good compared to what I've seen on television. Why couldn't Smallville have such good visuals? I know the answer.

Apart from that, I didn't particularly like many of the characters. My favorite was probably the leader of Terra Nova, though I was quite bothered by the fact that he seems to be the military leader from Avatar. *shudders* Man, I don't like that movie, and I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever I saw him. But he was still the most intriguing character to me.

I may watch a few more episodes just because of my interest in the concept.