Comments on: Time for Terra Nova to Evolve or Go Extinct

By: James Boyd

James Boyd — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:41:43 +0000

BTW, did anyone else note the near luxurious houses these people lived in. Way too neat, too clean and NO idea where they get their food. Where to they go to poop, LOL

Food just magically appears. Great clothing. LAME, LAME ordinary 150 year old firearms. Stupid open vehicles. Oh and the dirt roads were interesting. Ummm, no bad or big insects, ordinary plants. Show must have been aimed at the 10 year old audience. Please give us a tiny modicum of intelligenct TN. And put at least the slightest sense of some reality.

By: James Boyd

James Boyd — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:34:31 +0000

WHERE DO YOU START! It was a Dinosaur Show. NO, it was Pre-Historic Colony Show. NO, it was a family drama show. NO, it was a teen angst and supidity show. NO, It was a Big Bad Corp Show. NO, it was a land version of Battlestar Galactica. NO it was a drama of humanity turning on itself.

OK, I just don’t “KNOW”. But I do KNOW you HAD to check your brain in at the counter to view the show. Absolutely, no logice allowed. That “little” Perfect Campground (oops Colony), with it’s wooden fence keeping 50 ton dino’s away from lunch. Oh, let’s not forget the garden of Eden like woods with NOOO perils where teens can swim and romp about, etc.

By: Babbletrish

Babbletrish — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:15:50 +0000

I am going to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the writers of “Terra Nova” understood less about life in the Cretaceous Period than the writers of “Dinosaur Train”, which is a children’s cartoon about dinosaurs riding in a *train*.

By: JP

JP — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:34:56 +0000

As Iam Malcolm might say, “You eventually do plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur show, right?” The biggest problem with Terra Nova is that they promised a dinosaur show filled with dinosaur action and man-vs-dinosaur conflict, but delivered a show with very sparse dinosaur action. Several episodes had no dinosaurs at all. And those that did were mostly blink-and-you-miss-it. What’s the point of setting a show in the Cretaceous if you’re not going to take advantage of it?

By: Ethan

Ethan — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:55:09 +0000

I hope they can find another channel to put Terra Nova on, because it would really suck if they don’t and I won’t be happy about it at all.

By: Dan Chure

Dan Chure — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:52:51 +0000

For TN or any other show to be daring or innovative, it cannot be on one of the major over the air channels. They are simply trapped with a “family market” that will not support such fare. If its too challenging, hordes will complain about language, sexual situations, smoking, gore, etc. (“What about the children?”) I gave up on those channels years ago and hardly ever watch them. I hope the SF channel doesn’t pick up TN. They’ve already more than enough committed crimes against humanity with, oh say, Raptor Island, as someone else pointed out.

Whatever fare you like (drama, comedy, scifi, etc.) the other channels are where you will find the best programming (Southland, Shameless, The Borgias, The Wire are just a few examples). Can a great dinosaur show be done — absolutely. That does not necessary require loads of CG. It will require daring and creative plot development and good writing.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:00:30 +0000

It’s easy to be harsh on poor TN.
The show had very diverse expectations to fill, family friendly-action-suspense-plot-driven-monster-show anyone?
A difficult ask when adults tune in and expect mature stories after such shows as Battlestar and Game of Thrones have set the mark.
As for cliches and tropes, what sci-fi(or any) show doesn’t rehash everything that’s come before it? The original Star Trek fed off the ideas of science fiction writings of earlier decades, what chance a new show to *not* draw upon ideas that have come before?
Then there was the completely unobtainable goal of pleasing palaeontologists who tune in… ay Karumba!

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:38:20 +0000

If TERRA NOVA’s failure means an end to big-budget SF TV in general, that indeed would be very bad. However, if it means an end to LOST-style mystery-centric SF shows that over-promise and under-deliver, I’ll be a happy man. Science fiction can be interesting and exciting without being reliant on the “one big enigma” that is drawn out over season after season.

By: Zach Miller

Zach Miller — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:58:33 +0000

Dude, Raptor Island! That pile totally falls into the “so bad it’s good” category.

By: Walter

Walter — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:40:42 +0000

I’m usually a lover of any stories that feature dinosaurs, and I have a high tolerance for cheese. I recently managed to finish a badly written, straight-to-ebook dinosaur “steampunk” novel called Prehistoric Clock; suffered through many SyFy dino disasters (Raptor Island, anyone?); and stayed loyal to ITV’s Primeval even though it became increasingly tepid in later seasons. But after the first episode of Terra Nova, I knew I wasn’t going to waste my time on it. It was disappointing, given the basic premise had promise — where the show failed was in execution. And if it couldn’t win over a dinosaur fan like me, it certainly wasn’t going to win over most general viewers.

It’s sad, because as the Time critic points out, these days there are few shows on American TV that families can watch together. We don’t have the equivalent of, say, a Doctor Who. And as bad as Terra Nova was, I would rather see more failures like it than reality shows that make contestants drink bodily fluids from animals.

By: Greg Leitich Smith

Greg Leitich Smith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:31:09 +0000

Yup.