Primeval 4.03
Jan. 27th, 2011 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatWell that was an oddity of an episode in lots of ways. More interesting, I think, for the possibilities it raised and the ideas it hinted at than for anything that actually occurred.
I've complained several times already about the pacing in this series of Primeval so all I'll note here is that, again, the episode seemed to lack dramatic shape and the final five or ten minutes felt as though the writing team had run out of story and needed to tack some random action on the end.
...and I'm not going to talk about the ARC lockdown because everything to do with it and everything anyone said about it, from the moment Burton first asked Connor to check the system was so mind-numbingly stupid and, basically wrong, that I just pretended it wasn't happening. Actually, I will say one thing, if you are going to put something that amazingly idiotic into your plot, at least have some fun with it! I think Connor and Jess should have had to cross a room booby trapped with swinging blades in order to reach the open switch.
I covet Emily's hair and outfit, but I'm shallow like that.
What was interesting about this episode was the hints at the bigger story, both Emily's band of temporal explorers/exiles and Burton's "New Dawn". The anomaly travellers are an interesting idea and I can see lots of ways you could have fun with them, with people and attitudes from all sorts of eras, and all sorts of personalities, experience, and skills. I even wondered if Danny might be with them, it would be a nice way to bring him back, though Emily's reactions to the ARC team suggest that's unlikely. Meanwhile Burton's New Dawn made me think of "Operation Golden Age" from Doctor Who's Invasion of the Dinosaurs. In a plot worthy, I think, of the writers of Primeval, Operation Golden Age involved a bunch of influential and yet certifiable nutters who decided that Earth had got too polluted and that humanity needed a new start. They planned to achieve this by sending a select group of humans back in time to the age of the dinosaurs (said group having been duped into thinking they were travelling to another planet) - time travel, you know, being easier than space travel obviously. For reasons which are currently eluding me, a vital part of this plan involved getting the government to evacuate London by bringing dinosaurs forward in time to rampage around various tourist attractions. You can see why Burton's chance remark immediately made me think of this. I eagerly anticipate the moment when he explains to Connor why he needs to get on a spaceship to New Earth.
I wish I had the confidence that the writers of Primeval are going to go somewhere interesting with these over-arching plot threads. The Burton plot looks depressingly likely to end up with Burton revealed, shock horror!, as some kind of baddy and Connor as his dupe. While Emily and her band of time travellers seem all set to come from other eras in name only and in all other respects to behave exactly like people from the early 21st century. We shall see.
I've complained several times already about the pacing in this series of Primeval so all I'll note here is that, again, the episode seemed to lack dramatic shape and the final five or ten minutes felt as though the writing team had run out of story and needed to tack some random action on the end.
...and I'm not going to talk about the ARC lockdown because everything to do with it and everything anyone said about it, from the moment Burton first asked Connor to check the system was so mind-numbingly stupid and, basically wrong, that I just pretended it wasn't happening. Actually, I will say one thing, if you are going to put something that amazingly idiotic into your plot, at least have some fun with it! I think Connor and Jess should have had to cross a room booby trapped with swinging blades in order to reach the open switch.
I covet Emily's hair and outfit, but I'm shallow like that.
What was interesting about this episode was the hints at the bigger story, both Emily's band of temporal explorers/exiles and Burton's "New Dawn". The anomaly travellers are an interesting idea and I can see lots of ways you could have fun with them, with people and attitudes from all sorts of eras, and all sorts of personalities, experience, and skills. I even wondered if Danny might be with them, it would be a nice way to bring him back, though Emily's reactions to the ARC team suggest that's unlikely. Meanwhile Burton's New Dawn made me think of "Operation Golden Age" from Doctor Who's Invasion of the Dinosaurs. In a plot worthy, I think, of the writers of Primeval, Operation Golden Age involved a bunch of influential and yet certifiable nutters who decided that Earth had got too polluted and that humanity needed a new start. They planned to achieve this by sending a select group of humans back in time to the age of the dinosaurs (said group having been duped into thinking they were travelling to another planet) - time travel, you know, being easier than space travel obviously. For reasons which are currently eluding me, a vital part of this plan involved getting the government to evacuate London by bringing dinosaurs forward in time to rampage around various tourist attractions. You can see why Burton's chance remark immediately made me think of this. I eagerly anticipate the moment when he explains to Connor why he needs to get on a spaceship to New Earth.
I wish I had the confidence that the writers of Primeval are going to go somewhere interesting with these over-arching plot threads. The Burton plot looks depressingly likely to end up with Burton revealed, shock horror!, as some kind of baddy and Connor as his dupe. While Emily and her band of time travellers seem all set to come from other eras in name only and in all other respects to behave exactly like people from the early 21st century. We shall see.