Cast:
- Douglas Henshall ... Professor Nick Cutter
- Andrew Lee Potts ... Connor Temple
- James Murray ... Stephen Hart
- Hannah Spearritt ... Abby Maitland
- Lucy Brown ... Claudia Brown
- Juliet Aubrey ... Helen Cutter
- Ben Miller ... James Lester
- Mark Wakeling ... Capt. Tom Ryan
Created by Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges for ITV. Broadcast date: Feb 10, 2007 on the BBC; August 9, 2008 on BBC America.
Plot Summary - Episode 1
Nick Cutter is an evolutionary zoologist who finds himself confronted with the subject of his studies in a way he could never have imagined. Prompted by the enthusiasm of his geeky-but-brilliant graduate student, Connor Temple, Professor Cutter and his lab technician, Stephen Hart, go to investigate strange sightings of an unknown animal in the forest. Meanwhile, Abby Maitland, a zoo worker, is discovering that the forest is also home to the strangest pet she’s ever seen. Determined to find out more, Abby and the boy head off, but as night falls the forest becomes a frightening place.
Claudia Brown, the government official in charge of investigating rogue animal sightings is hoping Cutter will dismiss the sightings as fake, but when Cutter invites Claudia along to join the search, the animal is all too real. When they go down to the woods, they find a petrified Abby face to face with a Scutosaurus - a giant beast straight from the Permian Era of 250 million years ago. Terrifyingly though, this creature seems to be the least of their worries. Abby is convinced the Scutosaurus is vegetarian, so how can they explain the sickening sight of a dead cow hauled high into a tree?
The young boy’s tales of a flesh-hungry monster at his window may sound like nonsense to his mother, but his story confirms Cutter’s worst fears - a savage Gorgonopsid, one of the most dangerous predators of the Permian Era, is also on the loose and it becomes a race against time to track the beast before it finds its next meal. Where on earth are these creatures coming from?
Plot summary - Episode 2
Cutter starts to suspect that his missing wife Helen knew about the anomaly. While everyone presumes the discovery of her camera, millions of years in the past, confirms her death, Cutter is developing an entirely different theory. But for now, he's keeping his speculations to himself. Claudia’s boss, Lester, is growing increasingly sceptical of Cutter, but Claudia defends him as their only expert and Lester agrees to keep him involved... for now. Emotions run high, and Lester suspects Claudia has ulterior motives for keeping Cutter onboard.
Meanwhile, Abby's hoping that Stephen might start to see her as more than just an 'animal expert'. Similarly, Connor tries to win Abby over with a night's camping, following up a top 'dinosaur-sighting' lead. His hopes for adventure fail dramatically, while creatures of the very real variety start to invade the London Underground.
A Torchwood Clone? Not Really
When Primeval first premiered in February of 2007 on ITV, there were those who said it looked like the network was trying to rip off the "science team contains problems caused by a time-rift" formula developed for a certain spin-off of Doctor Who. If anything the difference in character between the two leads -- the driven Prof. Cutter vs. the glib Captain Jack -- made Cutter seem more like the Doctor, intensifying the opportunity for snarking about Primeval's derivativeness.
The fact is, though, that the nature of this show is very different. Primeval is informed by an interest in connecting the Earth's past with its present, and a genuine interest in creating creatures. This is not surprising given the origins of the show -- Impossible Pictures cuts its teeth on documentaries that tried to make dinosaurs and other natural creatures as real as possible. Primeval was clearly designed to transform that realism into drama, and that motivsation informs the attitude of curiosity and excitement that involves encounters even with the most dangerous monster centipedes and killer Gorgonopsids.
The effects, consequently, while not summer-blockbuster perfect, are quite effective, and considerable effort has been made to make the creatures' motion and behavior look realistic. The bulk of the money having been spent on CGI, the locations are less impressive; but the most important idea -- that these creature have arrived in the gritty here and now -- comes across.
Thin Characterization
In these first two episodes, at least, the main shortfall comes in the area of character setup: the acting is fine, but the characters are not particularly nuanced, at least not yet. Cutter is driven by a need to find his wife, and that covers a lot of his character; he presents himself as a skeptic early in the pilot, but pretty much accepts the anomalies for what they appear to be, as doorways to things to be investigated, rather than a thing to be investigated itself. One of the reason for this is surely his assumption that Helen is on the other side of that door.
Connor is the most interestingly drawn character so far, excitable, prone to make mistakes, with natural unpredictability (some of which works and some doesn't). There are some awkward moments establishing why he's around -- he chases after Cutter to show him a newspaper clipping and then sort of follows him around until a team forms. Stephen and Claudia come across as relatively bland, while Abby dances around her apartment in her underwear to show her free-spiritedness, as well as, well, her underwear. The character I'm really going to be watching is the caustic Home Office boss, James: this character has the potential to offer welcome, droll commentary on the action-adventure goings on.
Primeval has a lot going for it, not the least of which is monsters that aren't just monsters -- something that even Doctor Who can't always say.
