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The Terror on AMC HD

11K views 159 replies 37 participants last post by  WilliamR 
#1 ·
Produced by Alien director Ridley Scott, the show is based on Dan Simmons’ 2007 novel of the same name...in 1845 two British ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, get trapped in the ice as they search for the Northern Passage, and their crews face bitter cold temperatures, illness, and dwindling supplies...it’s not long before they realize that there might be something else killing them: an unseen, massive monster that seems to be stalking and picking them off one by one...I like the cast headlined by Jared Harris, Ciaran Hinds and Tobias Menzies...

10 episode first season premieres March 26th on AMC...

 
#4 ·
Supposedly, the prevailing theory is the crews in the real incident died of lead poisoning from the tinned food they consumed.

However, others dispute the findings because the high lead levels found in the bones of of the sailors actually was about normal for the period due to all the avenues of exposure most people had back then. Heck, lead was even used to sweeten wine back then.
 
#7 ·
Sounds like your typical closed room scenario. I hope they just do a 10 ep series and stop. I can't imagine this being a good candidate for extension beyond that. Frankly, even 10 episodes will probably be full of filler eps. American Horror Story concept rip-off? I'll set it up to record and give it a try, as I also like period pieces. It'll be a good test of the white balance on my TV!
 
#25 · (Edited)
The wreck of the actual HMS Terror was discovered just a bit into the Arctic circle. So if it was late summer, say first of September, yes it would've been dark for several hours. The minimum each year for Arctic ice is actually not around midsummer, but about mid Sept, almost the start of fall.

"The date of the minimum ice extent for 2017 was two days earlier than the average minimum date of September 15. The earliest annual sea ice minimum in the satellite record occurred on September 5 in the years 1980 and 1987, and the latest on September 23, 1997."

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2017/09/arctic-sea-ice-at-minimum-extent-2/
 
#23 ·
Intrigued to read about jury rigging Victorian-era wooden ships with locomotive engines for ice breaking in the NYT review (2 posts earlier). A guy donned underwater gear to examine a ship's damaged propeller, they had shots of ice breaking and a large shipboard oil tank, too. -- John
 
#24 ·
Wow, that was quite an engaging 2 hour premiere. A pretty good sense of dread started to develop, and I found the day to day life and workings of this type of ship in this time very interesting. I can't even imagine surviving that long in that cold, in the Artic. I like the actors as well. I'll be watching ...
 
#26 ·
My daughter said she and my son in law plan to watch The Terror, so I have decided to give the show a shot too. I think the tale told in Season 1 is likely to be finished by season's end. The series is apparently supposed to be an anthology, so I suspect that Season 2 (if there is a Season 2) will be a separate story with a lot of new actors, if not a whole new cast.
 
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#27 ·
Watched the first two episodes last night.... wanted more!

Very well done, feels authentic (not that I was around back then :p ).

I wouldn't even mind if there wasn't something threatening them... just a period drama of an Arctic expedition doomed to fail.
Like one of the characters said "this place wants us dead!".... no need for a menacing fictional creature/whatever... just man vs. mother nature would be sufficient.
 
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#28 ·
I wouldn't even mind if there wasn't something threatening them... just a period drama of an Arctic expedition doomed to fail.
Like one of the characters said "this place wants us dead!".... no need for a menacing fictional creature/whatever... just man vs. mother nature would be sufficient.
Try the harrowing Shackleton expedition of 1914-16. :eek: It's amazing what nominally sane men would do in the great Age of Exploration.
 
#29 ·
^ yeah, read the book about the Shackleton expedition a few years back... that's why this series interests me.

It was absolutely amazing what Shackleton and his men endured... and live through!
 
#33 ·
Yeah, that surprised us too! Sort of...
gave him the Ned Stark treatment. :D

Really enjoying this so far. The attention to period detail is remarkable. But I can't help thinking it must have been a real bear , pun intended, to shoot in those cold winter conditions. Don't know how much of it was actually on location though.
 
#40 ·
It's some kind of bear-like "spirit animal", the Eskimo girl's dead father or some kind of spirit entity that watches over their people, I'm guessing. I've already erased the episode where the exploration party looking for leads shot her father. Can't remember if the crew member was killed before or after the shot was fired. If after, then it's all about vengeance. If before, then maybe it has to do with the expedition trespassing on sacred ground or something like that. Perhaps Francis did something up there he shouldn't have done on one of his previous expeditions?
 
#41 ·
Yah the crew member was killed almost immediately after the father was shot. The creature also left the daughter a seal to eat, but didn't attack her even though it was at the entrance of the igloo and could have easily gotten her. Yup sounds like it's protecting her and her people, their land or both.
 
#42 ·
Interesting show. It moves very slowly with a lot of talking and not much happening but then they have spurts of great moments and the dialogue between the captains was awesome. Since we really don't know what happened and just have a few pieces of evidence, I hope they don't go to far down the supernatural element while still keeping up the suspense. That was one hell of a job those men took on/signed up for. Wow, takes a special kind of person to know they would be stuck in the ice for a year or more with nothing really to do.
 
#44 ·
Is it realistic to have so much provisions on two ships for ~160 men, that could last for years?
Ok, they don't need water, but all the food...
And then the stuff they need for heating/burning, all the candles, the oil, the instruments...
And when I saw in episode 6 how much unnecessary stuff they had to build the scenery for that carnival?
All and everything incl. the men and their bunks on just two ships?
 
#45 ·
Well since it is what they did, I guess then yes it is realistic. They supplemented it with fish and such I believe but yeah, they talked about like 2 years and 3 if they rationed heavily so they came prepared, everything was geared towards knowing they would have to stay there that long so they came prepared, even though their food storage was one of their downfalls.
 
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