Terra Nova
Jul. 22nd, 2012 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdienlWhen the seasons of all the regular series I watch ended in April/May, I went looking for some other series to watch during the summer. I had read a positive review about Terra Nova, so I decided to check it out. And I wasn't disappointed!
The series opens in 2149 and we see a dying earth. The air is so heavily polluted people can only walk outside wearing so-called re-breathers and a fresh orange is considered a rare delicacy. In this world, Elizabeth and Jim Shannon, doctor and police agent, but most of all parents to three kids, try to live a life as normal as possible. But their world is about to be changed forever when a 'population officer' knocks at the door. Only two children are allowed for each family, so the Shannon's are violating the law and Jim is put in prison.
The one hope for the world of 2149 is the discovery of a time fracture, leading to the world of 85 million BC. Here, a colony has been started which is called Terra Nova. Each year, a group of people is selected to cross the time fracture and live in Terra Nova. As a doctor, Elizabeth Shannon finds herself and her two eldest children selected to go to the colony. Jim believes this is the opportunity of a lifetime for his family, but when Elizabeth vows she will never leave without him and their youngest daughter Zoe, he will try all he can to go with them. Will this daring plan succeed? And once in Terra Nova, will it prove to be the paradise which is promised or give the family more hardship?
Though the concepts of time travel and starting a new civilization are not new in tv-series, I found Terra Nova to be something truly different. I think one of the main things contributing to this originality was having an established, well-functionaling family play the main parts in the series. I found this refreshing and give rise to very different relationship dynamics than in many other series. Family seems to be a focal point of the series, as many of the storylines outside of the Shannon family also dealed with parents and children. I loved that the moral part of this series was mostly high, with a Jim and Elizabeth as parents being devoted to each other and to their children and with most of the characters wanting to build a new, a different world in Terra Nova, without repeating the mistakes of the old world.
But of course only the surrounding is different for the people of Terra Nova and they have taken their weaknesses and the weaknesses of the human race in general with them through the time fracture. This gives rise to interesting dilemmas for the characters of the series when the first cracks appear in Terra Nova's glittering appearance. What to do when an affair of married people comes to light? What will happen when the first crime is committed? All this is coupled with solid acting performances of for example Jason O'Mara as Jim Shannon, Allison Miller as the young Terra Nova inhabitant Sky and Stephen Lang as Commander Nathaniel Taylor.
I found Commander Taylor to be the most interesting character of the series as a whole. Being the first person to have come through the time fracture and having spend 11 months on his own in 85 million BC, he is the undoubted leader of the colony. Both fiercely loyal to Terra Nova and its inhabitants, but also with some dictatorial characteristics as the sole person in charge. And Taylor has some secrets in his past which continue to haunt him, even in Terra Nova and which come to light as the series progresses.
Also very commendable about Terra Nova is the world building. The colony is both primitive and futuristic, with a market place and hand labour, but also operations in the hospital in which opening of a person's body is not needed. As the series takes place 85 million years BC, there are ofcourse dinosaurs involved and though I'm no expert on this, I thought the CGI bringing these creatures to live was very convincing. One minor letdown is a personal pet peeve of mine: science. Being a scientist myself and knowing how exasperatingly slow the scientific process can move ahead, I'm often annoyed by the ease with which tv scientists solve problems. This also occurred in Terra Nova, with examples as finding a cure for an unknown disease in two days and understanding the behaviour of an unknown dinosaur species in even less. But this didn't happen to often and didn't stop me from enjoying the series tremendously!
I can recommend this series to anyone who either likes family drama, science fiction with a heart or just 'something different'. Unfortunately however, only one series of 13 episodes has been made before the series was cut, which leaves many issues of the characters unresolved and leaves you as a viewer wanting more!
The series opens in 2149 and we see a dying earth. The air is so heavily polluted people can only walk outside wearing so-called re-breathers and a fresh orange is considered a rare delicacy. In this world, Elizabeth and Jim Shannon, doctor and police agent, but most of all parents to three kids, try to live a life as normal as possible. But their world is about to be changed forever when a 'population officer' knocks at the door. Only two children are allowed for each family, so the Shannon's are violating the law and Jim is put in prison.
The one hope for the world of 2149 is the discovery of a time fracture, leading to the world of 85 million BC. Here, a colony has been started which is called Terra Nova. Each year, a group of people is selected to cross the time fracture and live in Terra Nova. As a doctor, Elizabeth Shannon finds herself and her two eldest children selected to go to the colony. Jim believes this is the opportunity of a lifetime for his family, but when Elizabeth vows she will never leave without him and their youngest daughter Zoe, he will try all he can to go with them. Will this daring plan succeed? And once in Terra Nova, will it prove to be the paradise which is promised or give the family more hardship?
Though the concepts of time travel and starting a new civilization are not new in tv-series, I found Terra Nova to be something truly different. I think one of the main things contributing to this originality was having an established, well-functionaling family play the main parts in the series. I found this refreshing and give rise to very different relationship dynamics than in many other series. Family seems to be a focal point of the series, as many of the storylines outside of the Shannon family also dealed with parents and children. I loved that the moral part of this series was mostly high, with a Jim and Elizabeth as parents being devoted to each other and to their children and with most of the characters wanting to build a new, a different world in Terra Nova, without repeating the mistakes of the old world.
But of course only the surrounding is different for the people of Terra Nova and they have taken their weaknesses and the weaknesses of the human race in general with them through the time fracture. This gives rise to interesting dilemmas for the characters of the series when the first cracks appear in Terra Nova's glittering appearance. What to do when an affair of married people comes to light? What will happen when the first crime is committed? All this is coupled with solid acting performances of for example Jason O'Mara as Jim Shannon, Allison Miller as the young Terra Nova inhabitant Sky and Stephen Lang as Commander Nathaniel Taylor.
I found Commander Taylor to be the most interesting character of the series as a whole. Being the first person to have come through the time fracture and having spend 11 months on his own in 85 million BC, he is the undoubted leader of the colony. Both fiercely loyal to Terra Nova and its inhabitants, but also with some dictatorial characteristics as the sole person in charge. And Taylor has some secrets in his past which continue to haunt him, even in Terra Nova and which come to light as the series progresses.
Also very commendable about Terra Nova is the world building. The colony is both primitive and futuristic, with a market place and hand labour, but also operations in the hospital in which opening of a person's body is not needed. As the series takes place 85 million years BC, there are ofcourse dinosaurs involved and though I'm no expert on this, I thought the CGI bringing these creatures to live was very convincing. One minor letdown is a personal pet peeve of mine: science. Being a scientist myself and knowing how exasperatingly slow the scientific process can move ahead, I'm often annoyed by the ease with which tv scientists solve problems. This also occurred in Terra Nova, with examples as finding a cure for an unknown disease in two days and understanding the behaviour of an unknown dinosaur species in even less. But this didn't happen to often and didn't stop me from enjoying the series tremendously!
I can recommend this series to anyone who either likes family drama, science fiction with a heart or just 'something different'. Unfortunately however, only one series of 13 episodes has been made before the series was cut, which leaves many issues of the characters unresolved and leaves you as a viewer wanting more!
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 09:15 pm (UTC)I don't know about a tv movie. Is something like that ever done well?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 08:14 pm (UTC)