TERRA NOVA
This is one of my all-time favorite shows. This, of course, means that it was cancelled prematurely. Okay, that was a little bit of an exaggeration, Stargate SG-1 did run for 10 seasons...
Ahem.
Terra Nova. A brilliant dystopian/utopian/sci-fi/time-travel/adventure blend that only lasted for thirteen episodes (and had over 10 million viewers... so seriously... why they dropped it is beyond me... oh, wait... it’s Fox.... that’s what they DO).
Ranting over. I promise. I’ll concede that the show was expensive. But I loved it. Which should have been good enough to keep it running for another couple of seasons at least!
Terra Nova: or as I like to call it: NCIS meets Stargate meets Jurassic Park. (No wonder I love this show!)
Welcome to the year 2149, where the world has degenerated so far that the air is practically unbreathable, food is scarce, population control laws are in effect, and mostly life is just hopeless.
Meet the Shannon family. Jim and Elisabeth with their three children Josh, Amanda, and Zoe. At the beginning of the show, their home is raided by “police” to check and see if they have broken the population control laws (each family is only allowed to have 2 children).
When Jim tries to protect his family, he is thrown into prison. While he is there, his wife (a doctor) is “tapped” to go to Terra Nova. Jim is not allowed because the authorities want to make an example of him (he was a member of the police force). Don’t want to give anything critical away, but let me explain... a journey to Terra Nova is ONE-WAY ONLY!
What is Terra Nova? It is a rift in the time-space continuum. When you step through, you enter Earth in the year 85-billion BC (so, yeah, you have to swallow a little evolutionism, but since I feel that it belongs most clearly in the realm of sci-fi... I didn’t have a problem with it). It is an ALTERNATE timeline, so stepping on an ant there doesn’t mean you’ll never be born, and thus the time-travel-paradox is by-passed.
Enter a jungle filled with dinosaurs and ancient plants and weird birds that will attack and eat your face... but enter it completely outfitted with futuristic technology and weapons. That is Terra Nova.
What do I love about this show? First, I love that it focuses around a family. Mom, Dad, three kids. I can’t even name another sci-fi show that does that. Second, I love how quickly it moves. People in this show actually seem capable of learning from their mistakes, so you don’t have to watch them make the same ones over and over and over again. They mix up some of the stand-by cliches. Third, DINOSAURS! Really. I love dinosaurs. And finally, I love that they ended the show with enough closure that it’s okay if they never make another episode. The end was satisfying, and answered a lot of questions. A few new ones were opened up, but not widely enough that... okay, I can’t lie. I am totally bummed this show is over. But I did feel it ended well enough that it’s not driving me crazy.