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TERRA NOVA, Fox-TV's sci-fi dino-enhanced adventure series is a little bit JURASSIC PARK, a little but LOST, a little bit AVATAR, and a little bit LOST IN SPACE. The series begins on a future Earth (the year is 2149) plagued with poisonous air, over-population, greed, and crime - it's a pretty typical scenario. To escape their doomed world, groups of people are time-traveling to "Terra Nova," a settlement in the jungle 85 million years in the past. The focus here is on the Shannon family - dad Jim (Jason O'Mara) is an ex-cop serving time in prison for a "population crime" (he and his wife had one child too many), wife Elisabeth (Shelley Conn) is a surgeon, son Josh (Landon Liboiron) is a typical snarky teen, daughter Maddy (Naomi Scott) is a science nerd, and youngest daughter Zoe (Alana Mansour) is the one that got Dad in all that trouble with the Population Police.

When Elisabeth gets recruited for Terra Nova, it's the family's chance to escape their doomed world and start over. Elisabeth helps Jim escape from prison, he bribes someone to sneak Zoe out of wherever she's being kept, and they all make it through the time portal to their new world. Terra Nova is a settlement in the middle of the Cretaceous jungle, surrounded by high fences to keep out the dinosaurs. The Shannon family gets a cute little bungalow to live in and Elisabeth starts her job in the settlement's hospital. Jim starts working as a glorified gardener, but quickly proves how valuable he will be as a law enforcer. Because Terra Nova is threatened by a group of renegade settlers called "Sixers" who are hell-bent on causing trouble. Everything is run by military big-wig Nathaniel Taylor (AVATAR's Stephen Lang), whose job it is to keep both dinosaurs and Sixers at bay. There are a few LOST-style mysteries that will need watching as the series progresses - what do all those odd markings on the rocks near the waterfall mean, who are the Sixers working for, what happened to Taylor's long-lost son, and why is everyone so interested in a particular "ore"?

Overall, TERRA NOVA looks good. The intro sequences (set in the decaying Earth of 2149) are sufficiently dark and depressing, and the scenes on Terra Nova (shot in Australia) are beautifully lush and green. And the dinosaurs (you get to see three types in the pilot episode - a few cute Brachiosaurus, a scary Carnosaurus, and a bunch of made-up dinosaurs called "Slashers") aren't bad. The CGI effects here are nothing special - JURASSIC PARK did a better job back in the mid-1990's - but it's always fun to watch dinosaurs do their dinosaur thing. I just wish they would stick to real dinosaurs and not start making them up as they go along.

There's a bit too much cuteness for my taste, but this is a family drama after all. Josh's instant antagonism towards his father seems both jarring and unfounded - we see none of it in the 20-minute intro set in 2149, but the second the family goes through the time portal Josh is giving Dad no end of `tude ("You can't just come back after two years and start telling me what to do!). The budding romance between Josh (who appears to be around 16) and Skye (Allison Miller, who seems much older) doesn't quite work either - at least not yet. The same can be said for the relationship between Josh's parents, Jim and Elisabeth. They certainly don't appear to be desperately in love, nor do they behave like lovers who haven't seen each other for two years! If the series wants to focus on its characters (and on their romantic entanglements) the writers will need to do a better job making these relationships believable and identifiable.

I'm a big supporter of scripted television, so I'm pulling for TERRA NOVA. It's certainly different, and we could all use a break from all the reality garbage on TV these days. Watch the pilot and judge for yourself. I'm hoping it can build an audience as the season progresses.

I dont need to go into details but this wraps sci fi, action, adventure, drama and great character and story depth into a package w/ a giant fall tv bow!! They can only go up from this point. give it a chance. beautiful score all with the feeling of a movie by spielberg. He had 100% influence in this and it shows!

This show has it all! Dinosaurs? Science fiction? Guns? Adventure? Cool Jeeps? Dinosaurs? What else do you need to know about this show?!

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2.0 out of 5 stars Lame, predictable pablum
The premiere failed to reach orbit, held back by unimaginative dialogue and predictable scares that we've seen in so many other films. Read more

Published 1 month ago by grantdoug

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Terra Nova premiere was amazingly well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope the rest of the season lives up to the promise of the premiere.

Published 4 months ago by Matt

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