Primeval | Close that anomaly, you're letting a few prehistoric creatures in..
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[B]Primeval[/B]
[IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HQgbizTH3rQ/TSMBM5p6yHI/AAAAAAAACao/myLMqWnHEdA/s1600/primeval%2Blogo.bmp[/IMG]
[B]What is it?[/B]
Primeval is a British sci-fi television programme produced for ITV. It is created by the same people who made the "Walking with..." series. The show follows a team of five scientists tasked with investigating the appearance of temporal anomalies across the United Kingdom in which prehistorical and futuristic creatures enter the present. Currently airing it's fourth series.
First broadcast in the UK on 10 February 2007, it has since expanded to an international audience. Overall reception of the programme was positive during the first and second series, maintaining a 25 percent audience share in the United Kingdom during both series to date. Prior to its 9 August 2008 broadcast on BBC America, the programme received generally positive reaction from American critics as well. The third series, which ITV announced on 30 January 2008, began on 28 March 2009 and has now finished. In the US, series 3 premiered on 16 May 2009 on BBC America and has finished airing.
On 29 September 2009, it was announced that a deal had been struck between ITV, Watch, Impossible Pictures, German broadcaster Pro7 and BBC Worldwide to produce two new series of the show for transmission in 2011.
The first of the two new series started airing on New Year's Day on ITV(ITV1/STV/UTV) in the UK and on BBC America in the US.
[B]Synopsis -SPOILERS[/B]
The first series followed the efforts of Professor Nick Cutter and his associates; a friend and colleague Stephen Hart (James Murray), a student and all-around nice jokester Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts), a zoo keeper Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) as they investigate the appearance of space-time continuum anomalies (called "earthquakes in time") that allow the passage of life-forms through that invariably threaten the lives of citizens. The British government, in the form of the Home Office (under the supervision of James Lester (Ben Miller) and Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) becomes involved after a Gorgonopsid travels through one such anomaly and wreaks havoc in the environs of the Forest of Dean. Professor Cutter's wife, presumed missing in the first episodes, is revealed to have been stuck inside one anomaly for years and is now using the anomalies to try to access the future. The final episode of the first series involves the first appearance of a future anomaly, allowing predators from the future access to the present, and ultimately, the past. This further complicates things as Cutter, who transferred through an anomaly after Helen came back to discover that Claudia Brown never existed, and in her place an assertive and quite different PR agent named Jenny Lewis joined the team. Taking place of Claudia's previous position was a man named Leek, who worked with Helen to use the anomalies as ways of changing the future through the past. The final conflict of the first two seasons resulted in the death of Stephen Hart.
The second series builds upon the first, in establishing that the destroyed camp of time travelers discovered in the first episode was actually that of the team and that they had created their own past. Due to Professor Cutter and his estranged wife's visit to the camp, Professor Cutter believes they affected the timeline, although this was the second time at the camp (the first was finding the camp, the second time years or months earlier setting up the camp so it can be found by them later), which had resulted in the change of Claudia Brown. Cutter continued to investigate anomalies and attempted to find ways of predicting them, meanwhile Lester had to deal with an old rival Christine, an unscrupulous government official who hoped to obtain the power of the anomalies and the future predators for military uses. With the assistance of Sarah Page, a professor who is employed at the British Museum, they begin to contemplate the origins of the anomalies having been based in folklore. Cutter takes an artifact from Helen, and is killed by her in the process. Connor obtains the artifact and makes strides to reveal that Cutter's work was not in vain and that it was in fact a map to predict anomalies, however underdeveloped, they are not able to get it to work. Danny Quinn, a former police detective who became involved with the team takes Cutter's place as team lead and Jenny departs after having nearly died. Connor and Abby's love interest grows, despite the fact that her brother Jack takes an anomaly to the future and is nearly killed. Helen returns near the season's end, utilizing the power of a device to open anomalies at will, she reveals that she will go back to eradicate the human race. She kills Christine and travels back to the future, using their sealed anomaly Quinn, Connor and Abby follow and Quinn catches up with Helen in the prehistoric past. Helen is killed by a raptor who had hitchhiked with Quinn, and the anomaly closes, leaving him trapped in the distant past while Abby and an injured Connor remain in the late Cretaceous period of history.
[B]Cast[/B]
Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng) - A former policeman who becomes involved after an incident with two teenagers. His brother was killed by a camouflage creature or Gremlin. He later becomes the new team leader, appointed by Lester, following Jenny's exit.
Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) - Cutter's one-time student, becoming the research, equipment and logistics specialist.
Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) - A herpetologist and assistant zookeeper. She joins Cutter's team at the beginning of Series 1.
Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield) - A Special Forces soldier who is assigned to help protect the team from potential danger.
James Lester (Ben Miller) - A senior Home Office official and administrator of the team.
Matt Anderson (Ciaran McMenamin) - The team's field leader in Series 4, an ex-soldier and a zoologist. He is 32 years old and from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. He also claims that he has climbed Mount Everest.
Jess Parker (Ruth Kearney) - In charge of operations at the ARC control centre, she is 19 years old and has an outstanding collection of brightly coloured shoes
Philip Burton (Alexander Siddig) - A scientist and part owner of the ARC because of the failure of the last missions. His key interests lie in Anomaly research, rather than the creatures.
Gideon (Anton Lesser) - A mysterious man who helped Matt Anderson get his position.
Claudia Brown and Jennifer Lewis (Lucy Brown) - In the first series, Claudia Brown was a Home Office official and the team's government liaison, but disappeared at the end of Episode 6 due to a timeline change. Jenny Lewis, a woman identical only in appearance, was introduced at the end of Episode 2.1, serving as the new Public Relations officer for the ARC. She resigns at the end of Episode 3.5. Jenny will be returning in Series 4.
Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) - A professor of evolutionary biology and team leader. Cutter is killed by his wife, Helen in Episode 3.3, after the ARC (Anomaly Research Centre) is attacked by Helen and her army of Cleaner replicas. Helen believed Nick was the direct cause of the destruction of future earth. He was also romantically involved with Claudia Brown, and later Jenny Lewis.
Stephen Hart (James Murray) - Cutter's lab technician and "bodyguard". Stephen sacrificed himself for Nick, Helen and the team in the last episode of Series 2.
Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) - A palaeontologist, villainess and Cutter's estranged wife. Knocked off a cliff and killed by a raptor at the end of Series 3 while attempting to destroy humanity at its birth place in the Great Rift Valley.
Captain Tom Ryan (Mark Wakeling) - A Special Forces leader and former SAS operative. He is killed at the end of Series 1.
Oliver Leek (Karl Theobald) - Lester's assistant, who appears suddenly at the beginning of Series 2, replacing Claudia Brown. It is later revealed that Leek is in league with Helen Cutter. Dies at the end of Series 2.
Sarah Page (Laila Rouass) - An Egyptologist, Cutter recruits her into the team at the beginning of Series 3. Her job is to investigate ancient myths and legends involving creatures to see whether any of them can be explained by anomalies. The character was killed, offscreen, between Series 3 and 4.
[B]Media[/B]
Old Team:
[IMG]http://www.google.co.uk/url?source=imgres&ct=img&q=http://www.scifiscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/primeval_4.jpg&sa=X&ei=T80lTeKEJ4ii4Qaypp3hDA&ved=0CAQQ8wc4EA&usg=AFQjCNEaLw_MWFo0Cjjh4nu1UEShcJ8uAw[/IMG]
New Team:
[IMG]http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk304/raigraphixs/Album%202/primeval_series_4_cast.jpg[/IMG]
[B]Theme[/B]
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_PqgdQkCus[/MEDIA]
[B]Title Sequence[/B]
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdeBxEuQieY&feature=related[/MEDIA]
Thread to be updated later on!
Ah yes, I saw the first episode of the new series a few nights ago. Connor looks kinda cool with his new facial hair.
[QUOTE=ironman17;27235408]Ah yes, I saw the first episode of the new series a few nights ago. Connor looks kinda cool with his new facial hair.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, cool new team though. Liked the first two episodes.
Pretty cool, although I'm still not used to all the new characters :v:
Absolutely great series, all the homages to speculative zoology works in the future creatures are superb (Specially the "bat predator" referencing a lot of aspects of the [Url=http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Dixon_Night_Stalker.jpg]Night Stalker[/Url] from Dougal Dixon's "After Man" book. Not to mention, the moment when Helen mentions in the 1st season the future where the bat predator come from it's one when "half the mammal species are rodents and bats", it's basically quoting the entire After Man book premise, where half the animals mentioned are bats and rodents, specially rats)
The 3rd season ended in a cliffhanger and I heard there'll be a new season this year, so I can't wait to see it
Love this show. Can't pin my finger on why, but it just feels...good.
Also, Hannah Spearritt is really, really hot.
[QUOTE=Jorori;27255676]Absolutely great series, all the homages to speculative zoology works in the future creatures are superb (Specially the "bat predator" referencing a lot of aspects of the [Url=http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Dixon_Night_Stalker.jpg]Night Stalker[/Url] from Dougal Dixon's "After Man" book. Not to mention, the moment when Helen mentions in the 1st season the future where the bat predator come from it's one when "half the mammal species are rodents and bats", it's basically quoting the entire After Man book premise, where half the animals mentioned are bats and rodents, specially rats)
The 3rd season ended in a cliffhanger and I heard there'll be a new season this year, so I can't wait to see it[/QUOTE]
We're two episodes into the new season already. They aired on Saturday and Sunday last weekend!
[editline]7th January 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Arachnidus;27256017]
Also, Hannah Spearritt is really, really hot.[/QUOTE]
This. Never really been keen for blondes but yeah definitely.
Never liked the first series, is the newer one better?
[QUOTE=Mr. Agree;27256174]We're two episodes into the new season already. They aired on Saturday and Sunday last weekend![/QUOTE]
Wait, they're out already? :q: How many episodes there'll be in these 2 new ones? The last ones were around 7/8 episodes each
Connor and Abby got hot
It's really rather good, dinosaurs 'n shit. What's not to like?
New season? Nice! Then I have something to watch until the new Futurama season begins.
[QUOTE=PyroCF;27256209]Never liked the first series, is the newer one better?[/QUOTE]
I like it so far. The Spinosaurus didn't really have the same effect as the Velociraptor episode a couple of series back, but it's not just about bringing extinct creatures back to life to the present day; the writers can have fun creating new ones from our future which is why I love the concept of it.
[editline]8th January 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Jorori;27256382]Wait, they're out already? :q: How many episodes there'll be in these 2 new ones? The last ones were around 7/8 episodes each[/QUOTE]
7 have been confirmed. It's every Saturday anyway, so 7pm later this evening.
[B]Episode 3 synopsis[/B]
Matt inadvertently brings back a mysterious woman trying to escape through an anomaly ARC is investigating, but its sealing off means she has been left stranded - along with two undetected arboreal dinosaurs. Later, after Abby and Becker have managed to corner one of the deadly creatures in a theatre, Matt and the woman are forced to undergo a terrifying confrontation with the remaining beast.
I'll post the synopsis of the previous two episodes too..
Episode 1 - After a year trapped in the Cretaceous period, Connor and Abby find a lost anomaly device in a raptor's bower and escape back to their own time, only to discover ARC has been privatised and taken over by a new regime led by scientific entrepreneur.
Episode 2 - Reunited with an old friend from university, Connor encounters a deadly creature terrorising the docks and finds evidence of a fresh kill. Abby and Matt arrive to help catch the beast, leading to a tense chase through a container yard. Later, Connor hopes his brave efforts will be rewarded and returns to ARC to fight for his job.
The CGI is fucking awful on this programme.
[QUOTE=Jasun;27278691]The CGI is fucking awful on this programme.[/QUOTE]
It's an ITV show, what did you expect?
I reckon the show got a bit tedious after series 2, and now with Abby losing her hot hairstyle theres not much for me to keep watching for :crying:
[QUOTE=Jasun;27278691]The CGI is fucking awful on this programme.[/QUOTE]
Better than it was before (slightly)
[QUOTE=Jasun;27278691]The CGI is fucking awful on this programme.[/QUOTE]
I find it pretty amusing and good... for a british show. It has some goofs (Animations playing backwars? Really?) but it doesn't look like plastic-looking PS-ONE pre-render crap like in other cheap productions
Oh man I thought they had cancelled this show forever! can't wait to watch the new series.
The first and second series were the best because cutter was a character that actually had a back story and a personality. Now its just boring characters with no personalities, as well as abby and connor who are good supporting characters but there's no lead anymore.
Oh god, did anyone see that hilarious fight scene between that guy with the dagger and the dinosaur thing? He didn't even land one hit but it still made a noise.
[QUOTE=Jasun;27285505]Oh god, did anyone see that hilarious fight scene between that guy with the dagger and the dinosaur thing? He didn't even land one hit but it still made a noise.[/QUOTE]
That was the worst fight scene ever, seriously.
[QUOTE=CheeserCrice;27284931]The first and second series were the best because cutter was a character that actually had a back story and a personality. Now its just boring characters with no personalities, as well as abby and connor who are good supporting characters but there's no lead anymore.[/QUOTE]
This. Was better when cutter was there. No it seems like a big corporation has stepped in and there's no sense of danger now :(
[editline]10th January 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Jasun;27285505]Oh god, did anyone see that hilarious fight scene between that guy with the dagger and the dinosaur thing? He didn't even land one hit but it still made a noise.[/QUOTE]
Haha, graphics were alright. The acting there didn't work though..
[QUOTE=Jasun;27285505]Oh god, did anyone see that hilarious fight scene between that guy with the dagger and the dinosaur thing? He didn't even land one hit but it still made a noise.[/QUOTE]
Just saw it. Oh, man, that was really lame editing. There's much worse fight scenes, but, goddamn! They even used sounds from Mario Kart 64's Bowser
Also, the design of the creature was... strangely outdated. We perfectly know nowadays that almost ALL species of arboreal/coelurosaurian dinosaurs had some kind of feathers, but this creature had bare reptilian/lizard skin, just like an outdated dinosaur representation. Also, it should look more like a bird instead of a monkey.
I used to like this series but I lost interest because the characters always do the dumbest fucking shit ever. The last ep I watched, they had armed guards accompanying them, and the entire guard team ended up going with Cutter or something, while the rest of the team was on their own and obviously they got raped
It's a pretty good show but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. Always keeps me entertained when I catch it on though!
Eh, it's hard adjusting to the new team, but I'll get over it.
Was a great episode I thought!
I'm thinking of checking this show out but since it features extinct creatures I'm assuming it must be CGI heavy, no?
Is the CGI god awful in a barely tolerable way or does it serve its purpose to add suspense/action/whatever?
[QUOTE=The_Marine;27466103]I'm thinking of checking this show out but since it features extinct creatures I'm assuming it must be CGI heavy, no?
Is the CGI god awful in a barely tolerable way or does it serve its purpose to add suspense/action/whatever?[/QUOTE]
It's not Hollywood CGI, but it's tolerable to suit the purpose of the story. You do get a sense for the creatures. Sometimes I find the way they do some animation scenes seems to be a bit weak but it's good for a TV show. It's made by the 'Walking with Dinosaurs/monsters' teams, but an upgrade in the quality of the CGI.
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