'Terra Nova' on FOX HD - Page 7

Yeah, you would've thought that miniature cutting lasers, like shown in the opening minutes of the show, would've been a priority to send along.

All the hoopla was about this? It's a retread of a retread. I did not find anything original in the opener. It's Wagon Train with Dino's instead of Indians( or should I say Native Americans...)

i was truly disappointed in "Falling Skies" and Spielberg seems to be on a run of crappy TV. Might tune in once more, but the previews basically let the entire plotline out, so no real mystery.

I watched the first 45 minutes semi-live before switching to Monday Night Football, but recored the show for later. I was amused by the first shots of Terranova and Commander Taylor, they gave me a Jurassic Park-Avatar vibe, as when Taylor first addressed the crowd, he resembled and sounded like Col. Quaritch that I heard his speech as "Ladies and gentlemen, you're not in Kansas anymore...you're on Pan....oops, er, Terranova."

This was pretty much what I expected. Like Falling Skies except even more mediocre, more cliched and with a more annoying cast. Rival factions, moles, teenage romance, super-cutesy kids, family arguments followed by heartwarming reconciliation etc.

I disliked almost the entire cast instantly apart from O'Mara. Before the 90 minute mark I was FF through the dialog from the annoying son (who has the potential to become the new Kim Bauer) and was hoping every single one of the kids would be eaten by dinosaurs before the show was over.

I liked the way the only qualifications necessary to be raised from agricultural probation to security and full confidante of the chief was to sit on top of a fence and then tackle a potential assassin.

I couldn't see where the money was spent either. I thought the CGI was okay but this seems to suffer lazy B-movie production design. To make things look like they are futuristic what they've done again is to take standard vehicles and weapons and then glue random pieces of plastic and metal to things without any thought or intent. So in 120 years we will have succeeded in not making things lighter, more ergonomic and more practical but bulkier and badly designed - like taking what appeared to be a UK L85 assault rifle, sticking on random parts and then placing a magazine vertically on the stock. I mean who needs to aim?

I really hope they discover two-way time travel because the prospect of them sitting in Dawson's Creek stockade for an entire season doesn't make it sound very interesting. The dinos already bored me after this episode. I'd rather see more time travel stories between the old and new worlds. That has more potential.

Now that the football game is over, time to fire me up some Terra Nova. Looking forward to this show.

Only an hour into the show and I already hate the bait and switch they did with the son character. During the opening scenes before they jump through time, the son was all about not going unless his dad was there and worrying if his dad would make it, you know, like he cared. Then, the second they get to Terra Nova, he hates his dad for leaving them alone for 2 years. If he hated him so much, why did he care if he made the trip back in time or not. Lazy and it doesn't leave me with a lot of hope for the future writing on the show.

Disappointed with the dino CGI, I was expecting them to look better with all the hype surrounding the money they spent. These barely look better the the ones on this show on Nick Jr that my daughter watches called Dino Dan.

I'll finish the pilot and give it a few weeks just because it is scifi and I'm a sucker for scifi.

I liked it. I thought it was going to be an environmentalist preach-fest, especially when I saw Obama's face on their money. But once they got into the past time period, it got right to story of a colony in a new world, and set up a few story lines to follow through. I couldn't quite figure out if they can communicate with the present though, like when Taylor mentioned Hope Plaza, and plans to send 100 people through next time.

Before the first hour was out, it was turning into "90210 BC", just as I figured. And the mystery hieroglyphics, now we're getting Lost. Second hour was too much like Jurassic Park all over again, but I guess that's where they're putting their money.

Just because 2149 never found their time probe doesn't prove it's a new timeline. If true then each pilgrimage might start it's own timeline. Cmdr Taylor said he was alone for several months before the 2nd guy came through, who'd been right behind him. Obviously their early endpoint focusing wasn't an exact science at first.

And the probe might have just eventually ended up in a deep ocean trench and melted into the magma long since, thus explaining it too.

I'm personally betting on a single timeline as per the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle, and over millions of years all traces of the colony could have been erased by the K-T Event and lots of other changes. It makes causality violation manageable; the colony descendants have 20 million years to leave Earth before the K-T asteroid arrives. It could also explain a lot of Fortean-style mysteries, like worked metal artifacts encased in old rock, bootprints on sandstone that were once sand dunes, etc.

Then Cmdr Taylor implies that he's got a way to send messages back through to Hope Plaza, because he doesn't know who he can trust there. I thought their portal was one way.

They have too much high tech electronic stuff, which will only last a while. I don't think they have enough people for an industrial base yet, though they did mention a meteoric iron quarry.

I didn't catch the population count (the voice faded at that point), but Taylor was concerned that over 100 people will come through next time (I guess Hope Plaza had someone bring the mailbag through), and if this was the 10th Pilgrimage that implies under 1000 people there. If they wanted a viable colony they should have been sending through a lot more people and equipment, as well as establishing more colonies and getting spread out a little bit.

I'll give them a free pass on that US flag on the Moon that was over the horizon from Earth, a landing site none of the 20th Century lunar missions went. Maybe we'll go back yet.

Probably Stargate rules.

Physical travel is one way, receiving radio signals work both ways whenever the gate is open.

Right. When it's got elements of Jurassic Park, Lost, Land of the Lost, and 90210, nobody's going to notice one more little steal!

And the constellations are different. True, but not just because of the expansion of the universe like that airhead said. More like due to the Sun's movement among the local stars, and galactic rotation helping things a little bit as well.

Wholeheartedly agree with the above, this was some serious garbage. Apparently serious sc-fi is extinct on TV anymore, wow, this was bad!

Oh, and 13 executive producers? This show has epic fail written all over it. Lang would have been better off angling for a resurrection from the dead in the Avatar sequel than getting involved in this crap.

it was mindless fun--but considering the quality of the writing, it was taking itself too seriously, sort of like "Falling Skies"--but "Falling Skies" wasn't fun at all. And by fun, I mean it was funny watching all the cliches and hoping the Dinos would eat everybody--with Falling Skies, it wasn't funny and I was seriously wanting those characters nuked...man that show sucks LOL.

This wasn't too bad, IMO. I found myself entertained. Plus, it was good to see the guy from Life On Mars back in action. I loved that show. And what teen wouldn't make their own prehistoric 'shine? I raise my glass to them. I'm looking forward to next weeks TN. If anything else, I'm even more stoked now for the BD release of Jurassic Park.

I have it recorded. Almost sorry I checked these posts

Sounds like another mediocre US attempt at SF.

I'll watch it tomorrow evening & post comments (watching Boardwalk Empire tonight) But if it's another soapie only with dinos, I don't know if I have the will to hang with it, especially after Falling Skies and the mess that was Torchwood Miracle Day. As campy as V was, at least it had the obnoxious kid get chomped at the end - that was a nice pay-off

All I want is adult themed, well written SF. Is that too much to ask anymore? Or is everything dumbed down cliches & kiddie fare? I long for another Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica.

Fox torpedoed Virtuality before its pilot even aired the one time; I watched it and it looked like it had lots of potential as hard SF - guess it wasn't dumb enough

These few posts after tonight's pilot confirm what I thought would be the case when we speculated in this thread what the show would be like

I hope I'm pleasantly surprised and I'll give it a shot
Like most shows, it takes a few episodes to settle in. Unfortunately, the novelty of fighting dinosaurs, etc, has been done so many times before & it'll wear off quickly. Then comes what?

The producer credits went on forever and the show had five assistant directors too.

I really could not see where the money or camera talent was going, because for the most part the visuals, lighting and cinematography were unexceptional and wouldn't have looked out of place on Syfy.

Wow, there are some major issues here. To many inconsistencies. The special effects, at times, were absoluitely horrible. Especially the scene when the Col. was standing with the father getting ready to look over their camp. Wow, very 80's like.

Also, they made it very clear that this was a new time line, that they could not find the drone they sent through. Ok, so they send a probe through that they can communicate with regardless of how long it is there. Ok, but they don't hear anything from the probe. So their first thing is, great its in a whole new timeline, start sending people. Really? What if the probe was destroyed because the portal appears inside a volcano, or on the moon, geez, your first response is to send people through when you DON'T hear from a probe??

Also, they make it very clear this is a different timeline. Fine. They state, very clearly, they cannot communicate with the probe they sent that is sitting right there. Fine. But then a few scenes later the Col. says he can communicate with Hope Plaza but isn't ready yet. How? The previous comment that they can possibly communicate with them when the portal is open is not valid because they can't communicate with the probe, they already said that

To inconsistent.

The whole weird writting thing was very intriguing, until you watch the previews then they give it away.

Also, I don't care how powerful a dinosaur is, when you shoot it with an automatic rifle, it is going to die. Not stand back up, not continue to attack. It will die, it is a just a flesh and blood animal that is very vunderable to automatic weapons just like everything else. This whole unloading clip after clip and the dino keeps coming is lame and just show how highly speilberg thinks of his beloved dinosaurs. Those dinos would be shredded to pieces. they don't have kevlar skin.

Yup, that's when I left the show, never to return. It's an example of cookie-cutter writing, and it that's an indication of how the show is going to be written, count me out. The best part of the show was the "future"; I wish they had stayed there for a couple of episodes to explain what the hell happened, and what or who designed Terra Nova, etc. Once they jumped to the new location, I wasn't nearly as engaged. Then when the son started up, I knew it was my cue to abandon ship. Well, at least House is back next week.

Yeah, because obviously the show isn't about how mankind destroyed the world and had to start life over again in the past.

Although it pains me deeply because this was the new show I was most looking forward to, I have to agree with many of the above posters about all the inconsistencies and the typical Speilbergian feel-good fluff. I guess any of us hoping for a grittier BSG kind of feel can pack that in.

This one is squarely aimed at as broad an audience as it can get. Considering all the money they sunk into it, and the sad recent history of any and all attempts at serious sci-fi, I guess you can't really blame them. That doesn't mean they get a pass from me though. I'll keep watching simply because it's sci-fi in prime-time and I believe in supporting any such effort, or else it will disappear entirely.

Hated all the super-shaky cam that reduced what should have been suspenseful and thrilling action scenes into so much nausea-inducing motion blur. Also agree with the above posters about making the dinos invunerable to high-powered automatic weapons. I don't care what kind of evolutionary "armor" they developed, those rifles should have made short work out of any reptile no matter the size. I did hear the Colonal talk about trank darts, but there was plenty of real ammo used too.

The brainy chick is a horrible actress, as is the doc-mother. Bad casting decisions. Agree about the inconsistency with the older son. Who goes out into the forest to make moonshine with giant carnivores around? How dumb is that? Speilbergian Dumb, that's what. *sigh*

Thought on previous posts:

1) The camp gate did not seem to be "wood" to me .. more like metal or some composite material put up to look like a stockade fence.

2) My understanding about the probe is that it was powered by some sort of isotope that should last ('ping') for 100 million years or more, & it was never detected on earth in 2149 ... Not, as some suggest, it can't be heard "in the past" thru the portal ..

3) Seemed obvious to me , before the leader mentioned sending messages back, that there was 2 way comm to 2149 ..
They knew about O'Mara's fugitive status right away, & without 2-way, there'd be no way to know people werent being sent into a volcano or to their death, or if any settlements were actually established , no one would dare want to go thru the 'unknown portal' ... Also seemed that the security on both sides may have been comm-ing each other as the settlers arrived, & obviously knew exactly when they were arriving, no "suprise" there.

4) The leader's son drawing the schematics on rocks seems to possibly have gotten 'trapped' in or ported to a past older than the settlement .. It seems they want us to know these drawings "have been here a long time" , even though they "also" recently appeared there ...

I'll keep watching, but only because I'm so starved for something with potential. Although I agree with most every comment so far, what are our options on TV? a crime show? a hospital show? a reality show? blah.... Even if this is done to an average outcome, it beats those other options for me. I need something to fill the casm that LOST left, and this may be the first shovel of dirt to do it.

Also, some of the big guns on top of the stockade were sonic cannons. They push focused waves at sub-boom speed (up to 750mph). Any creature in its path would be turned to jelly.

The son was using his dad as an excuse not to go. He was lying because "I don want to leave my girlfriend" would not have cut it.

In general I thought the show was fine. There was enough meat on the bones to keep the show intriguing at least for a season. The big thing for me is did they use up all of their budget on just the pilot. I am not a nitpicker, and the show kept me entertained so it is a win win for me.

I guess as it is with most everything, it all comes down to expectations. Based on the previews, I was expecting a modestly intriguing, middle of the road efffects, and somewhat predictable show. I don't know how anyone could have thought this show was going to be a more hardcore SF program along the lines of a BSG. That being said, I found it to be pretty good. I think there is potential for some good storylines that could keep in interesting for the foreseeable future. Despite the "parental guidance" warning at the beginning, IMO, this will be right up the ally of my 11 year old.

I'm with the majority. Mostly a disappointment - and this is after so much delay and supposed tweaking? Imagine what it was like if this is the improved version! The characters are among the most predictable and 2 dimensional you could imagine. If anyone didn't get an almost immediate vibe that Cmdr Taylor has a hidden agenda, even before it was revealed...well, I'd be shocked. I wasn't bothered by the CGI that much, though the quick editing was annoying and probably done to avoid clear CGI shots of the 'battle'. I'll watch a while, but it doesn't bode well.

The numbers are in, and they are low.

The series premiere of Fox's Terra Nova drew a 3.0 adults 18-49 rating, with 8.9 million viewers from 8-10pm on Monday. It placed in third, behind every CBS and ABC show, and has to be disappointing for Fox. The only major network show it beat was NBC's "The Sing Off".

The top show of the night was:
CBS Two and a Half Men 7.2 (18-49) 20.031 million viewers

OMG! I can see people bailing if it doesn't improve but I figured it had to get a bigger initial sampling than this.

The show got beaten by How I Met Your Mother in all measurements and it's rare to see ratings increase in the second episode on such big and expensive projects that were as heavily promoted as this.

I don't see TN being renewed past it's initial order. I wouldn't normally expect it to stay on the air that long but Fox probably want to save face by saying "we tried" instead of pulling it after 4 or 5 weeks as they usually do.