Primeval Pimping Post (omg alliteration!)
Mar. 31st, 2007 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI was going to make a wanky post, but have decided instead to write a little bit about Primeval, a six-episode series made this year by ITV; the Canadian channel Space is going to start showing it April 4th at 9 pm. It's an excellent show about time-travel and dinosaurs, and the short version of my pimp is that if you like (a) Dr. Who or Torchwood (b) Alias (c) dinosaurs (d) time-travel (e) angsty slash and/or het (f) UST or (g) running into things with trucks, you should check out this show.
None of the characters are related to each other, by the way.
This is the main ITV site for the show; it has clips and episode summaries and character background. This is the wikipedia page. The basic gist of the premise is that when holes in the space-time continuum start to open in (apparently) random locations around Britain, and prehistoric creatures start coming through to terrorize the locals, Professor Nick Cutter, evolutionary zoologist, is called in to manage the situation. He has a personal interest in the project, as his wife Helen disapeared through a similar anomaly, eight years ago, and he leads an unusually photogenic groups of zoologists.
This is Professor Nick Cutter. He has a lot of secret manpain related to his wife's disappearance, except that it's really not a secret to anyone. He's also very smart, has a lovely accent and a good sense of humor. I rather like him.
This is Helen Cutter. As I said before, she disappeared through a time-portal (they call them anomalies on the show) eight years ago. Now she's back, and it isn't entirely clear what she wants -- well, aside from Nick. At least, maybe. The actress does a really good job depicting someone who has spent the last eight years living with dinosaurs; there's something intensely reptilian about her body language, now. She has a kind of Irina Derevko ambiguously evil thing going on, although Nick is not quite up to Jack Bristow's standards.
Stephen Hart is Nick's completely devoted lab assistant. He is very pretty, and (it turns out) rather promiscuous. Indeed, one might even call him a manwhore. The opportunities for slash and het to do with Stephen are pretty much never-ending, and I think that both he and Helen have high crossover potential. Not only is he suitable for all kinds of pairings, he also is something of a survivalist type -- he's an extremely good shot and always seems happiest when offered the chance to play with guns and other weapons. He once ran over a dinosaur with a truck, which endeared him to me.
Also, he's extremely pretty. See?
I love that first picture -- it's from the official site, and doesn't it just scream "sex"?
Abby Maitland
and Connor Temple 
are the cute young people: Abby spends a lot of time running around in her underwear, and Connor is a complete geek. Connor is the character they've done the best with, this season: he starts out as this annoyingly enthusiastic dinosaur nerd, but by the end of the series turns out to be quite a likable young man. Abby was likable from the beginning, although I find the underwear thing off-putting, because I'm such a prude, but she's also become more well-rounded and a lot more emotionally mature as the series has progressed. Abby is a zookeeper, and Connor a grad student. They're both smart, although Connor occasionally does very stupid things.
There are also two representatives of the Home Office, Claudia Brown and James Lester. Claudia is sympathetic and has a big crush on Nick; Lester is sour and extremely funny and is desperate to keep the whole "dinosaurs roaming modern Britain" thing under wraps. I am fond of Lester, because he's surrounded by idealists, all of whom he hates, and he has many of the best lines in the series. For a while I thought Claudia was something of a dull ingenue type, but then she saved the day with her amazing golf skillz (no, really!) and ever since I've decided to like her.
This is Claudia. She looks a bit like a grown-up Hermione Granger to me, but unfortunately is not a supergenius, which is a bit of a shame, because they clearly need one.
This is Lester, looking a little pissed off, as he usually does. But some of us find cranky brooding appealing, what can I say?
The Home Office occasionally brings in a Special Forces unit, headed by Tom Ryan; I don't seem to have a picture of him, but he's another character with a lot of potential.
If I were the shipping type, and granted that I am not much interested in Abby and Connor, I would say that Helen/Nick, Nick/Stephen and Nick/Lester are the obvious ones, but the show is also pushing Nick/Claudia, and frankly I think Helen and Lester have a lot of UST in their scenes together. The show has Stephen, Abby and Connor in a kind of unrequited love triangle thing, but it's fairly low key and has a few interesting twists; I have trouble seeing past Stephen's obvious love for Nick, though. Seriously, I am not making this up.
The first season had six episodes and a really nice arc -- the characters and the plot develop together into something quite satisfying. I think the second episode is the weakest, but after that it's all quite good. The final episode is excellent, and changes the rules of the game in a really interesting way. ITV is apparently planning another series of 7 episodes; I'd like to see more, but suspect from the quality of the CGI that the show is not cheap.
Also, the show has already had its first giant wankfest, this time started not by a fan, but by Russell T. Davies, who claimed that the show was too white. (It is very white, but my bet is that Davies is more concerned that it was a better product than Torchwood, and that he's thinking about how the new season of Who will be received.)
It's really worth watching. There are a few lj communities out there (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
primeval_itv has icons and fic and screencaps along with news and discussion, whereas primeval_fanfic is pretty much what it says on the tin), but you might want to be wary of spoilers until you've seen the whole thing. But do give it a try -- BH tells me that it's meant to be a bit like Buffy in its appeal, and I think the show pulls that one off rather well.
None of the characters are related to each other, by the way.
This is the main ITV site for the show; it has clips and episode summaries and character background. This is the wikipedia page. The basic gist of the premise is that when holes in the space-time continuum start to open in (apparently) random locations around Britain, and prehistoric creatures start coming through to terrorize the locals, Professor Nick Cutter, evolutionary zoologist, is called in to manage the situation. He has a personal interest in the project, as his wife Helen disapeared through a similar anomaly, eight years ago, and he leads an unusually photogenic groups of zoologists.
This is Professor Nick Cutter. He has a lot of secret manpain related to his wife's disappearance, except that it's really not a secret to anyone. He's also very smart, has a lovely accent and a good sense of humor. I rather like him.
This is Helen Cutter. As I said before, she disappeared through a time-portal (they call them anomalies on the show) eight years ago. Now she's back, and it isn't entirely clear what she wants -- well, aside from Nick. At least, maybe. The actress does a really good job depicting someone who has spent the last eight years living with dinosaurs; there's something intensely reptilian about her body language, now. She has a kind of Irina Derevko ambiguously evil thing going on, although Nick is not quite up to Jack Bristow's standards.
Stephen Hart is Nick's completely devoted lab assistant. He is very pretty, and (it turns out) rather promiscuous. Indeed, one might even call him a manwhore. The opportunities for slash and het to do with Stephen are pretty much never-ending, and I think that both he and Helen have high crossover potential. Not only is he suitable for all kinds of pairings, he also is something of a survivalist type -- he's an extremely good shot and always seems happiest when offered the chance to play with guns and other weapons. He once ran over a dinosaur with a truck, which endeared him to me.
Also, he's extremely pretty. See?
I love that first picture -- it's from the official site, and doesn't it just scream "sex"?
Abby Maitland
and Connor Temple are the cute young people: Abby spends a lot of time running around in her underwear, and Connor is a complete geek. Connor is the character they've done the best with, this season: he starts out as this annoyingly enthusiastic dinosaur nerd, but by the end of the series turns out to be quite a likable young man. Abby was likable from the beginning, although I find the underwear thing off-putting, because I'm such a prude, but she's also become more well-rounded and a lot more emotionally mature as the series has progressed. Abby is a zookeeper, and Connor a grad student. They're both smart, although Connor occasionally does very stupid things.There are also two representatives of the Home Office, Claudia Brown and James Lester. Claudia is sympathetic and has a big crush on Nick; Lester is sour and extremely funny and is desperate to keep the whole "dinosaurs roaming modern Britain" thing under wraps. I am fond of Lester, because he's surrounded by idealists, all of whom he hates, and he has many of the best lines in the series. For a while I thought Claudia was something of a dull ingenue type, but then she saved the day with her amazing golf skillz (no, really!) and ever since I've decided to like her.
This is Claudia. She looks a bit like a grown-up Hermione Granger to me, but unfortunately is not a supergenius, which is a bit of a shame, because they clearly need one.
This is Lester, looking a little pissed off, as he usually does. But some of us find cranky brooding appealing, what can I say?
The Home Office occasionally brings in a Special Forces unit, headed by Tom Ryan; I don't seem to have a picture of him, but he's another character with a lot of potential.
If I were the shipping type, and granted that I am not much interested in Abby and Connor, I would say that Helen/Nick, Nick/Stephen and Nick/Lester are the obvious ones, but the show is also pushing Nick/Claudia, and frankly I think Helen and Lester have a lot of UST in their scenes together. The show has Stephen, Abby and Connor in a kind of unrequited love triangle thing, but it's fairly low key and has a few interesting twists; I have trouble seeing past Stephen's obvious love for Nick, though. Seriously, I am not making this up.
The first season had six episodes and a really nice arc -- the characters and the plot develop together into something quite satisfying. I think the second episode is the weakest, but after that it's all quite good. The final episode is excellent, and changes the rules of the game in a really interesting way. ITV is apparently planning another series of 7 episodes; I'd like to see more, but suspect from the quality of the CGI that the show is not cheap.
Also, the show has already had its first giant wankfest, this time started not by a fan, but by Russell T. Davies, who claimed that the show was too white. (It is very white, but my bet is that Davies is more concerned that it was a better product than Torchwood, and that he's thinking about how the new season of Who will be received.)
It's really worth watching. There are a few lj communities out there (
primeval_itv has icons and fic and screencaps along with news and discussion, whereas primeval_fanfic is pretty much what it says on the tin), but you might want to be wary of spoilers until you've seen the whole thing. But do give it a try -- BH tells me that it's meant to be a bit like Buffy in its appeal, and I think the show pulls that one off rather well.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 06:15 pm (UTC)http://vaznetti.livejournal.com/418973.html?thread=3986333#t3986333
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:54 pm (UTC)Giant insects, eww. I'll cover my eyes. lol.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 07:38 pm (UTC)(I went to Google for lunch yesterday because a friend works there, and OMG they have a metal cast of a T Rex in the courtyard. Eating a pink flamingo. ::loves::)
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 05:52 am (UTC)(Also? I guessed that that camp was what it was. Because yeah, I am SMRT. And stuff.)
Now if only Abby would put on some
pantsclothing, already. She's adorable: I might like her best, even if she doesn't have any Sekrit Pain.That was neat, although it is yes, a lot white. And Stephen really doesn't do it for me: he's too constructed.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 12:52 pm (UTC)Yeah, I guessed the camp as well -- it wasn't exactly un-obvious -- but still liked the way they pulled all that off. Although, poor Ryan! I liked him. And don't know why they didn't bring him back to be buried in the present, but, ::handwaves:
I do wish Abby didn't run around in her underwear, yes. But I think I like her because she doesn't have secret pain -- she's a little too well-adjusted for that.
And Stephen really doesn't do it for me: he's too constructed.
Well, he's really just there for the slash factor. And the secret manpain.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-20 01:59 pm (UTC)And there was no reason not to bring the bodies back, really. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 09:50 pm (UTC)Exactly the same thought crossed my mind when I saw the wank in question. It is white but, er, so is Torchwood? Given the backgrounds of most of the main characters (Home Office, university students/professors), I'd say that they're more likely to be white than not, but it would probably have been nice to have one or two variations in skin colour.
The dinosaurs though, are as multiracial as you can get.
The final episode is excellent, and changes the rules of the game in a really interesting way.
I had to watch the Sunday repeat after seeing it on the Saturday; that final episode gave me so much interesting stuff to ponder upon. I'm just hoping that, unlike the Star Trek writers, they know roughly where they're going with the exit from that cliffhanger, rather than just throwing it in because it was a cool thing to do. Though it was.
Helen still knows way more than everybody else about what's going on, and that suits me fine as a starting point for next season.
I now have the show on DVD, so as I have a few days off I'm planning to rewatch it all with the benefit of hindsight to inform me about characters' actions in the earlier episodes. I think that there will be screencaps too. I need icons of more than just Stephen.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 09:52 pm (UTC)... other than Toshiko, of course. But one solitary character doesn't make a show ethnically diverse.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 10:15 am (UTC)But in that case, let's include Nick Cutter, since Dougie Henshall hails from Glasgow. Tenuous, I know, but British television still doesn't employ the same levels of PC-by-numbers in casting that American shows do, and I'm sure they were thinking mostly of how cool the dinosaurs were going to be, and who they could get in front of the camera to react to them.
And while Russell T Davies's accusation does have some truth too it, it mostly smacks of sour grapes.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:56 pm (UTC)I completely forgot my favorite thing in the post above, of course, which is Cutter saying in the "previouslies" each week, "These anomalies are conclusive proof that the past exists!" That never fails to crack me up.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 10:27 am (UTC)Oh, me too! Pecause I never fail to think "Er, didn't we always know that to be the case?" It's probably just as well he's not presenting that line of argument as a thesis, or it'd come back hacked to death.
I suspect what he really means - and as a palaeontologist it's probably a point dear to his heart - is that it proves evolutionary theory, and enables him to stick his tongue out at the Creationists.
Naturally the Home Office bods won't know or care about that. They just want to get the rampaging dinosaurs out of their hair before there's a mass panic, food shortages, petrol rationing and suchlike.
Actually, it occurs to me that if you were Evil and Exploitative, you could pop back through an anomaly to the right period in time, and set up the right conditions (slaughter cute/not-so-cute dinosaurs, bury them deep) to create a whole new undiscovered oil or gas field and then come back to the present and "discover" it.
I will be only too happy to share any screencaps and icons. Are there any moments in particular that you'd like? (I will see what I can do with Stephen and the truck.)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 12:09 pm (UTC)Actually, it occurs to me that if you were Evil and Exploitative, you could pop back through an anomaly to the right period in time, and set up the right conditions (slaughter cute/not-so-cute dinosaurs, bury them deep) to create a whole new undiscovered oil or gas field and then come back to the present and "discover" it.
This is extremely clever! I wonder if Lester has thought of it. Have you considered a career as an evil mandarin in the Home Office? I suspect you would have quite a lot of success, there.
I suspect what he really means - and as a palaeontologist it's probably a point dear to his heart - is that it proves evolutionary theory, and enables him to stick his tongue out at the Creationists.
I'm sure you're right -- although in context it is something about the simultaneous existence of past and present, isn't it? I can't remember precisely. But it never stops being hysterically funny to me.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-31 11:39 pm (UTC)*g* I giggled my way all through this summary - granted, I'm a very full-on giggler, but your recaps are the best.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 12:02 am (UTC)Sad, but true.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 03:48 am (UTC)I think I might be severely scolded, though, if I were to try this show before I tried FNL.
How good are the production values? (Explosions and dinos, I mean.) Because (at least before this dr who) what "they" said about brit tv was that the writing (and generally the acting) was stellar, but the sets guys were making stuff out of plastic bags and haggis.
it's meant to be a bit like Buffy in its appeal
Can you unpack that? Please?
Also - who is Russell T Davies? (And am I ever glad to not be in SGA this week.)
- hg
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 10:35 am (UTC)Russell T Davies = current executive producer/creator of Torchwood and the revamped Doctor Who. Primeval got compared a lot to both series in advance publicity and reviews, so he probably feels his babies are being slighted. Myself, I think that Primeval is very much doing its own thing, and borrows even-handedly from a far broader range of science-fiction and fantasy, and that he should get a grip and see if there's any room for improvement in his own shows.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-01 11:53 am (UTC)Can you unpack that? Please?
I think it was meant in terms of target audience -- that the show is marketed toward young teens, but that it will appeal to adults as well. I actually think it's a bit grown up for the time-slot they've put it in (Saturday evening), but that may just be the impression fo the final episode -- the earlier ones are much more, "Hey, dinosaurs! cool!"
I suspect you will be scolded if you see this before FNL, but then again, there's only 6 hours of it.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-02 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-02 01:40 pm (UTC)