Is anyone watching this? Series premier seemed a bit lame.
[ September 29, 2011, 02:53 AM: Message edited by: Fabrux ]
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I saw a small ad for it - and I too though Earth 2! Does it have obnoxious children in it?
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Yes, Obnoxious Brainy Teen Angst. It seemed really RUSHED, there's already bad guy separatists, weird markings in a secluded location FOUND by the teens sneaking out to their hidden still, and "Mysterious Leader". I really hoped this might be something good, but it seems to be Land of the Lost meets Jurrasic Park meets Earth 2. Already too many cliches from a little of everything sci-fi.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
It's on FOX, what do you expect? Downloaded, but haven't had a chance to watch yet. Probably won't til next week...
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
My expectations were set low, so upon seeing the premiere, I wasn't as disappointed as you guys were. I found it loads more entertaining than Falling Skies. Though I did find polluted Future Earth more insteresting than Prehistoric Earth.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Is it too much to want old skool Sleestacks to show up and slaughter everyone?
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Is it too much to want old skool Sleestacks to show up and slaughter everyone?
Funny. That was my first thought when the chick showed Mr. First Day Here Whiney Teen the rocks with all the symbols on them. I even half expected there to be one named Enoch.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
My expectations were set low, so upon seeing the premiere, I wasn't as disappointed as you guys were. I found it loads more entertaining than Falling Skies. Though I did find polluted Future Earth more insteresting than Prehistoric Earth.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
It's not just Fox, it's Brannon Braga too! That man needs to get into a twelve step program for overcoming addiction to time travel stories. I'm not watching it.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Seems to me there is a race in Trek fanon that colonized its past in 100 000 year blocks but can't for the life of me remember their name...
Anyways. I was interested enough by the pilot to keep watching for now. Although I wish they'd left the rock markings a mystery instead of Taylor's son doing it. Would be so much more interesting if it was another civilization somewhere on the planet.
Also, Mira's line while examining the markings suggests that this isn't an alternate timeline at all. Either the probe malfunctioned or it was purposely ignored...
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I haven't seen it yet but look forward to the tropical setting.
Here's what Dennis Farrell at SomethingAwful had to say:
quote:When it comes to science fiction, I'm an eternal optimist. While the first episode had some super cheesy family drama and its pacing seemed as though a ten year old was breathlessly telling a story bridged by a hundred "AND THEN"s, I'm going to foolishly hope for the best. After all, this show has time travel, dinosaurs, visible lasers, and cool open-air architecture.
We should all hope for a combination of Jurassic Park and Lost while preparing for the unholy union of Jurassic Park III and BBC's Outcasts.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Geological fail: Unless they built Terra Nova on a delta, playa or in the path of an landslide, 10 feet of deposits is a lot longer than 9 years. [/soils engineer]
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Maybe they're accounting for vastly greater rainfall (which wont show up in the sries- but should, depending on the era and locale).
Also, if anyone spots a single flowering plant, I give it a giant Fail and will spit on even children purchasing the eventual DVD set.
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
See, thing is, all those geomophological features are something you would look into when siting a colony such as this. Given that they don't need access to a waterway I'm sure they want to pick an area that will never flood.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
So far, I'm still wavering on this show. "Attack of the mini Deathwings" was just downright cheesy in my opinion. Then there's the new science guy/Rush wannabe that has the hots for the Cop-dude's wife? Starting to sound like General Hospital 30,000 B.C.
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
I'm too childish not to be wooed by time travel and dinosaurs, so I'll keep watching if it stays at this current level of quality, but it seems a bit of a missed opportunity over all. Thankfully it's no where near as cutesy as Falling Skies (where the characters had far less reason to be eternally cheerful as the ones in Terra Nova do), but it's never really going to break away from the family values "moral of the week" style and become the hard hitting story of drama and frontier peril it could be. For every opening scene that has a red shirt discovered with his eyes pecked out, there'll be a little girl saying "I wuv yoo daddy!" as the rest of the characters crowd around, beaming, with tears of joy and pride in their eyes.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
OK, did everyone else BUT my wife call it the moment Jim sneezed that THAT was going to be the "Cure" for the memory disease? OR that the girlfriend would be hooked up with the Sixers somehow? About the only thing that really seemed to MEAN anything in this episode was revealing facts about Taylor's wife and history. Otherwise 'scan two more anomalies and beam back to sector space'.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
quote:OK, did everyone else BUT my wife call it the moment Jim sneezed that THAT was going to be the "Cure" for the memory disease?
I am glad to have gotten some small doublethink ability, allowing me to not-predict plot turns, and be surprised. In swedish cinema studies, if during the movies you go "I'll bet Blank will turn out to be Blank...see, what did I tell you?" they chop your dick off on general principle. After Hitchcock month, plenty of dicks rolling down the isles. During second semester, the theater was wonderfully quiet. Not even a peep about Keyser Soze.
I like the feel of this show. I hope there'll be some Liopleurodon-action at some point, minisubs and all that. Bonefish.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
With new shows I tend to have a "three strikes and you're out" policy. That's three episodes in a row that I don't enjoy on any level (Jeremiah was the only one I let get up to four strikes.) As of that last episodes, Terra Nova is on it's second strike. One more and I'm out.
[ October 13, 2011, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Reverend ]
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
S01E05 ohfor- Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
...but on the positive side, there was a nice cameo from Newt. Strange though, she hasn't grown much in the past few decades...
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: ...but on the positive side, there was a nice cameo from Newt. Strange though, she hasn't grown much in the past few decades...
Rev, that's hilarious because I thought the EXACT same thing. I looked at my wife and said "They mostly come at night....MOSTLY..." and of course she didn't get the reference.
These first few episodes seem so derivative to me. I keep thinking that it has a feel like "Eureka, 30,0000 B.C.". You have the cop that's out of his league that seems to be the key to solving everything, teen angst (though that went away in E), Super smart Sci-Chick who is in a relationship with Cop AND has a past with Brainy Nerd Sci-dude from the past causing three way drama. Then couple that with the stories seemingly ripped from whatever novel they bought at the used book store this week and it is really irritating that they are doing so little with what COULD be a good premise.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
What's really bothering me though is the sixers. I mean OK, they're living rough so I get them having tatty clothes and not always looking very clean, but what's with the all the tribal markings? More to the point, why do they only dress up like that when they turn up to threaten the colony despite being drastically out numbered, out gunned...seriously, why didn't they just sonic the lot of them right then and there? But I digress. When we see Miss sixer boss lady back at the Ewok village all the war paint is gone, so it's clearly something done for the...uh...Novans(?) benefit. Which is especially silly considering what's wandering around in the bushes out there. I mean seriously, next to a bunch of bloody huge theropods, some painted on claw marks aren't exactly intimidating are they?
It almost feels like the show runners are just blindly copying The Others from Lost without a clear idea of their own what these people are about.
Still...I'm hanging in there for the time being.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
quote:Still...I'm hanging in there for the time being.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
^Rest assured, you won't have to pry this show from my cold, bored fingers. Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
well there are some perks with using those guns... they're lighter than a real gun (no idea what real world equivalent they would be) i'd imagine... easy to aim... and clearly sized for Terra Nova's Tween & lower teens Armed Forces...
wow. TV has really gone south in 3 decades that i can really recall what ive ever watched...
oh well, back to DDO and Counter-Strike (and Law & Order on the 2nd monitor)
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
Leia's gun in "A new hope" was a BB-gun, what's his point? The guns in question are sonic weapons, there's no good reason at all a real sonic weapon wouldn't have a polymer frame instead of metal. They probably chose those guns for their M41-ish design, which is just smart.
"A dumb show with a dumb premise", that's rich coming from someone who writes action figure reviews and was editor for Anime insider. Yes, green-haired corset-wearing succubi with batwings coming out of their head, that's not dumb, yeah that's "visionary". It's weird that Bricken takes potshots on a show whose demographic is pretty much his entire livelihood. I don't blame him jumping on the hater-bandwagon, but I have no patience for critics criticizing a work they haven't watched, that's a journalistic capital offense.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Yeah, for all the things one could criticise this series for (and they're mounting up rather fast) the use of cheep props isn't one of them. With all the expense involved in location shooting, I'm not surprised they're not blowing the budget on some custom made props that'll spend most of they screen time in the background being held by random extras.
Indeed, I applaud them for their ingenuity and financial responsibility...I just wish I could do the same for the writing...
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
I re-watched "Solar Crisis" (1990) with Tim Matheson, Charlton Heston and Corin Nemec this weekend, just for the hell of it, and I have to say, the dialogue and directing of TN is stellar in comparison. Mind you, "Solar Crisis" was headed by the venerable Alan Smithee, but I want to think that TN has a set story arc playing out, and we're just seeing the first of it.
I don't have a habit of putting money down on a lame horse, I feel the lead actor pulls his weight (being more nasty and frothing against his wife's suitors than Noah Wyle could ever muster), and Lang provides that heavy, unstable Gowron-quality to it. And the jungle feels more jungly than the LOST-island.
I'm still confused, do Queensland forests actually look like that, or is the foliage CGI? The scenes at the river crossings don't look CGI'd, and they're very jurassic-looking.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Downloaded, but haven't had a chance to watch yet. Probably won't til next week...
