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PRIMEVAL |
Matt Anderson - Ciarán McMenamin Connor Temple - Andrew Lee Potts Abby Maitland - Hannah Spearritt Becker - Ben Mansfield Jess Parker - Ruth Kearney James Lester - Ben Miller Philip Burton - Alexander Siddig Emily Merchant - Ruth Bradley 
OTHER PRIMEVAL SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 PRIMEVAL CREATOR INTERVIEW Interview OFFICIAL SITE Official Site OTHER TIME TRAVEL SHOWS Doctor Who Journeyman Goodnight Sweetheart Life on Mars Ashes to Ashes Daybreak Doctor Who 
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Episode 1 - First transmitted 23rd May 2011Connor learns Philip Burton's big secret whilst Abby finds out about Matt. Both is sworn to secrecy from the other. In the meantime, a giant burrowing insect creature is terrorising the city and stopping it might cost Connor his life. PRIMEVAL may have jumped channels as part of its financing deal, but everything else remains the same, carrying on right where the last season left off. There's a monster of the week to be dealt with, but the season arc stories start to become a bit clearer as Burton reveals his project to mine the anomalies and Matt reveals he's come back from the future to stop what happens from happening. The action makes as little sense as ever, but it's fun and fast and the CGI bug thing is pretty well realised throughout. The cast fare unevenly with the different size roles, but it's all the same entertaining mash up that we've come to expect. TopEpisode 2 - First transmitted 30th May 2011A nuclear submarine encounters an underwater anomaly and the Primeval team go aboard to close it. Instead, they are drawn through the anomaly into a sea of liopleurodons outside and a single panicked predator inside. The admiralty determines to use a nuclear device to close the anomaly. Switching the action to a nuclear submarine gives this episode a sense of greater scale, despite the fact that it's just another enclosed space to have the dinosaurs in. Some of the submarine shots are impressive, but some of the dinosaur attack exteriors of are repetitive and unimpressive. It's best not to think about the plot and just go along for the ride and enjoy the torchlit hunts through dino infested corridors and Ben Miller's light relief. TopEpisode 3 - First transmitted 7th June 2011When a raptor is delivered back to Victorian London in error by the team, Matt goes through to bring it back and encounters Emily. Abby tries to reach Connor again and then takes the information that he has been keeping secret by more underhanded ways. Exactly why a raptor is wandering around Victorian London is never made quite clear and neither is why it is given a serial killer name and depicted as a man in a cloak. There is more than a little nonsense going on here, but PRIMEVAL never was a show that relied much on coherent story details and believability. The raptor is well rendered by the effects team, though its behaviour seems to leave a little to be desired. It kills humans without a thought, but when there is a horse right there in front of it the thought of another kill enters its head. Emily's story was only ever going to end one way, so there are no surprises there and the manner of her release from the hands of her psychopathic husband is more than convenient and less than believable. The running arc of the secrets that Connor and Abby are keeping destroying their relationship is the show's highlight at present, but most of the other minor characters have now been completely sidelined. PRIMEVAL remains cracking family entertainment, but it doesn't look like it's going to make any sense any time soon. TopEpisode 4 - First transmitted 14th June 2011Connor has created a man-made anomaly, but it's only a small one that can't possibly let a dinosaur through. Instead, it releases an army of bugs that can burrow through concrete and steel. As Philip plans to use the ARC failsafe to burn everything in it to a crisp, Jess lies on the edge of death. The keeping of secrets is over as Connor's big project is revealed and the immediate dangers are made apparent with the release of the bugs. After that, there's the usual amount of running around and finding ingenious ways of keeping from being dead. Everything's self-contained in the Anomaly Research Centre, so there is the usual requisite sense of claustrophobia and Jess' life-endangering situation provides the urgency along with the likelihood that Philip is going to press the button. The situation is ramped up to the point where it seems unlikely that they can all escape, so sense remains at something of a premium and especially when the man who was apparently mortified at the potential for disaster posed by the bugs released quite happily then opens up an anomaly a hundred times the size. TopEpisode 5 - First transmitted 21st June 2011Anomalies open up right across the world, spilling dinosaurs into the streets and causing chaos. Philip believes that New Dawn will close them all and save the world. Matt believes that closing them is what destroys the world in his future. The race is on to shut down New Dawn. It's not the season finale, but it could be considering the scale of the story, the multiple action scenes all racing together at breakneck speed towards the moments when New Dawn either will or will not be started. The outer chaos in the world is merely glimpsed on television screens, but there's a T Rex- Pterosaurs, alligator men in the ARC and prehistoric rhinos in an underground car park and that's all before we get to the tense final stand off at New Dawn. There are, as ever, some issues with the plotting such as the lack of anything useful like a helicopter or satellite scan to help in the search for the T Rex or Matt one minute proclaiming that he has no idea what he is supposed to do and the next giving a complete run down on how New Dawn will destroy the world, but things are running at such a pace that none of these really matter and there's a nice kick-ass cliffhanger to end on. Ben Miller also gets a great James Lester moment when he goes off in defence of his new Jag. It's all utter nonsense, but great fun nonetheless. TopEpisode 6 - First transmitted 28th June 2011Matt and Abby go through the New Dawn anomaly to rescue Connor. Together, they return to find a way of shutting down the machine, but that involves the small anomaly in Connor's lab, which is now infested with future predators. Apparently, not only can anomalies be created now, but they are portable. All you need is a fancy box, which Connor just happens to have in the right size. To be fair, if you were watching PRIMEVAL for its scientific accuracy you would have given up a long time ago, so it's a case of never mind the sense, feel the adventure. And that is as fast and furious as ever with some fun in the future, some action in the present and Lester being a true hero in the comic mould. What more could you ask for from a season finale? Well a cliffhanger, I suppose and the show comes up with a nice one. Now that the show has a viable funding set up, perhaps it won't be long before dinosaurs roam the Earth once more. Top |
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