It's a fun show and I will definitely continue to watch it (the first 20 minutes were the best). I couldn't help but pick apart the show as I watched it though, it had a high cheese factor, many cliches and annoying bits, and they borrowed a little too many things from the Jurassic Park films unfortunately.
- They have the "brainy daughter" who needs to explain everything. When a narrative isn't available, writers do this to explain things to the audience. Unfortunately, they're treating the audience like stupid children, and they're assuming that no one has watched scifi before. But, that's who the targeted demographic for this show already is.. so it makes no sense.
- They explained way too soon about the "separate time stream". Most people would have figured that out already, and it was completely unnecessary.
- They had too many mixed signals. In the future, it's shown as an extremely dangerous dystopia where overpopulation means death. So, ultra-violent overpopulation control stormtroopers break into homes armed with guns, completely destroy and rip apart the place hunting for children. They're about to take a child for presumably disposal purposes when the father intervenes to protect his child. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, you find out later that he could have just paid a fine. That's it.. a small fine, and he could have avoided prison. Where the hell did that come from? At first, it was a very cruel future, with everyone selfishly escaping the the past and destroying the timeline. After they leave the future, they suddenly start making it sound like a nice place and everyone was kind.
- The father (Jim) was only in prison for about 2 years.. that's it. And yet, somehow the family had to fend for themselves and survive while he was away. That made no sense at all. The mother (Elizabeth) was the breadwinner in the family.. her husband hardly made anything on a cops salary. She was a doctor, the family had MILLIONS, they had wealthy and influential connections, she was the best and brightest in her field, and she was personally selected by the government to travel back in time (out of 0.000001% of the population.) How in the hell did they need to "survive" after dad went to prison?
- I didn't have a problem with any of the characters except for the annoying teenage son (Josh). This character is all over the place, and his existence makes no sense.
First, he couldn't wait to leave the terrible future, then he does nothing but complain about paradise and talk about how great the future was.
Next, he's on a brand new world with sights he's never seen before in his entire lifetime, amazing new plants and animals, non-poisonous fresh air, real food.. and he's apathetic towards all of it. (Although, all of the pilgrims were guilty of this too.. they freak out over seeing a real orange in the future, but when they're surrounded by paradise and unlimited food it doesn't affect them in any way.)
In the future, he tells his girlfriend he'll "find a way to come back and get her." Is this how teenagers really talk? Shortly after he complains about leaving his one true love behind, it only takes him ONE DAY to start dating a new girl. Guess this proves that he never cared about "future girl" at all.
Then, he blows off his mandatory duties, orientation, and survival training. Apparently, the future was so easy going that he was expecting the same on Terra Nova. The new girlfriend (who is supposed to be bright and have leadership qualities) doesn't seem to be concerned about this at all.. she also doesn't seem to care when he flips out and acts crazy around his father.
He also constantly risks his own life to impress the new girl. And, he reveals himself to be a totally incompetent and useless coward with no common sense.
My opinion? They seriously need to remove all of this soap opera drama from the show, it's a tragedy, and I hope "Josh" dies painfully.
- There were also no stars in the sky during nighttime. Terra Nova has a Hollywood sky. If you ever lived in the country, you'd know what the sky really looks like when you're away from city lights. And this entire planet has no artificial lighting emanating from Earth.
- The muzzle-flash-strobe-light-effect-on-dinosaur-scales-and-eyes was borrowed way too much from Jurassic Park. Most of the scenes were recreated from the films.
- Dinosaurs are apparently completely immune to thousands of bullets, sonic blasters, and laser cannons.
- I'm happy that they introduced some mystery into the show. The mathematical equations and geometry by the waterfalls (that looked like they had been there for a while) was a very nice touch. But then they ruined it at the end of the episode, when they revealed who wrote them and pretty much why. They were "the real reason for Terra Nova's existence."
- I hope they show more scenes from the future, or have new characters but shown from the future. They should have flash forward sequences that show different activities taking place in the future. But, they probably won't.
- It would be very cool, and redeeming for the show, if they introduce more mystery and scifi elements. More time travel, but possibly ancient civilizations from even before them. I doubt they'll ever bring aliens into the show..
Speculation Time
- The mathematical equations by the waterfalls were either a timeline chart showing divergence or the creation of a paradox (e.g. it wasn't actually a separate timestream they were in, but rather the same one and they have destroyed the future or it's simply part of the timeline) or he was analyzing star charts and orbital drift, and determined that they weren't in the past but in fact transported to the far future (e.g. long after their old advanced civilization was destroyed and nature recovered without human intervention.)
- They had to explain the different time stream, so I wonder if they'll revisit that sometime later. If selfish bastards from a cruel society in the future traveled back in time to destroy their old future, they would be viewed as evil human beings. But the audience would be left sympathizing for them if they had no idea of the damage they caused.
- They also dropped a lot of hints about the locations of celestial bodies, and how everything in the sky looked wrong (even though they had never seen the sky before amazingly). If "brainy daughter" does the math, like she said, then she might come to the same conclusions as Nathaniel's crazy son.
More Speculation: Future Episodes
- Much of the production budget was spent building the compound set and buildings. So, get used to it. It will be in every episode in S1, and it will never change. If you were expecting a Swiss Family Robinson thing to happen, it definitely won't happen in the first season.
- There will be "raptors chasing the kids" scenes. "Raptors" meaning any kind of vicious small creature.
- There won't be any more future scenes, unless it's an old flashback showing the family's life while Dad was in prison or while he was a cop on the beat. Actually.. I'm going to upgrade this to "not sure". They had some really decent sets and props, and it would be complete shame to waste them.
- There will be family conflict episodes. Teenage son does even more jackass things, he will betray the family and seriously screw them over, he'll put others in danger, or he'll run away.
- Before watching Terra Nova, I pretty much knew there would be different factions outside the compound. But this was already revealed in the first episode. The "Sixers" are just one group.. there will be more.
- The "Sixers" will at first be the evil enemies, but eventually they will all become friends and work together against a "new enemy" once the "Sixers" get boring. They will commit very evil acts, and then just one day, they will totally be forgiven.
- There will be internal conflict and strife within the family, and within the Terra Nova main group.
- A secret hidden faction will be discovered.. possibly time travelers from the future that came even longer before Nathaniel. There might even be a time traveling group from the very far future (when things get even worse) made up of criminals who killed for the technology.
- She acts very distant from her husband, so the wife (Elizabeth) probably had an affair while Dad was away in prison for (only) 2 years. She had to do it to "survive", because her millions weren't enough I guess. An early S1 episode will reveal one of her ex-boyfriends on Terra Nova too. He won't be around long though. (Probably gets killed by dinosaurs.)
- There will be viral outbreak episode. Some strange new disease, bodies aren't used to new parasites, different immunities, etc. etc.
- There will be a bottle episode where main characters will be trapped in a sunken vehicle or a cave. They can't leave the cave due to predators.
- The compound will run low on a desperately needed resource, so a strike team is created (with a couple scientists) to sneak out and get the resource.
- Many extras (adult soldiers & scientists - but no children) will be eaten by dinosaurs. Adults will get eaten whole, teenagers will be scratched and cut but survive.
- There will be super smart dinosaurs.
