When I first heard of Primeval, I figured it would be one of another one of these one trick pony shows from the BBC. The concept deals with prehistoric creatures roaming around modern day England, thanks to a series of rips in the fabric of time and space known as anomalies. An anomaly is basically a gateway back and forth between two eras of time, in this case, between the present and the distant past. While I figured the idea of seeing dinosaurs roaming around British shopping malls--or on their highways--would be fun to see for an episode or two, the entire concept just sounded too limited to me. I thought Primeval would quickly run out of steam, and dinosaurs, in no time. And, boy, was I really wrong!
For starters, Primeval isn’t produced by the BBC, but by ITV, a rival TV network in England. And instead of running out of gas after the first few episodes, Primeval is a smart, gripping, and fun ride all the way through its 13 episodes. Douglas Henshall stars as Professor Nick Cutter, the leader of the crack team that responds to every new incursion of the past in present day England. It’s their job to track down and capture--or kill--whatever beastie that makes it through to this era. And series creators Tim Haines &
Adrian Hodges realize that the novelty of seeing a dinosaur wandering around the modern suburban sprawl of England would get tiresome after a while, so they also made the anomalies themselves the focus of the show.
Primeval is just as much about time travel as it is about dinosaurs, as Cutter’s
team also seek to find out more about how the anomalies work, and why they keep
showing up--and this remains a central tantalizing mystery throughout the series. Cutter also has a
personal stake in the situation, when he discovers that his wife Helen (Juliet
Aubrey), who has been missing for eight years and presumed dead, may somehow be
alive--thanks to the very same anomalies that he’s investigating. James Murray
also stars as Cutter’s assistant Stephen Hart, a seasoned wildlife tracker;
Andrew Lee Potts is Connor Temple, the geeky tech wizard and comic relief; Lucy
Brown portrays sympathetic government liaison Claudia Brown, and Hannah Spearritt
rounds out Cutter’s team as the zoology specialist Abby Maitland.
Ben Miller
rounds out the entire regular cast as the cold-blooded (but darkly funny) administrator Sir James Lester. The entire cast is very good, with the superb Henshall firmly in charge as the
no-nonsense Cutter. The writing is also excellent, as each episode introduces a
new critter from the past for the team to deal with, as well as advancing the
overall series’ mythology. One interesting curve ball the writers throw their
characters is the discovery that the anomalies work both ways--creatures from
the future also appear to stalk us here in the present. The one quibble I have
is that sometimes the storyline gets so melodramatic that Primeval is in danger
of becoming a soap opera--but I suppose that’s to be expected for a series that
tries to please everybody as solid family entertainment.
The DVD box set
actually collects the first two seasons of Primeval--which, all told, runs 13
episodes--and while it ends on sort of a cliffhanger, it's still very satisfying
(the series has since shot a third season). There are
commentaries on selected episodes, and a couple of very well made behind the
scenes documentaries on both the first and second seasons. Produced by some of
the same people who gave us the great Walking With Dinosaurs documentary/drama
series on the Discovery Channel a few years back, Primeval is simply rampaging
fun, with great special effects, that's a blast for fans of both science fiction and dinosaurs.
--SF
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