COMMENTARY | The pilot episode of “Terra Nova,” titled “Genesis,” begins in the year 2149, which seems to be an Earth where Al Gore turned out to be right. The air is unbreathable and there is no open water, nor green of any kind.
Think of it as the world of “Blade Runner” without the acid rain, the replicants, or the ethnic diversity. Spoilers follow.
The Shannon family consists of police officer Jim, trauma surgeon Elizabeth, moody teenage boy Josh, cute teenage girl Maddy, and toddler whose name should be trouble because in the future world one is only supposed to have two children. In any event, Jim gets thrown into jail for violating population control laws.
Two years later Elizabeth, Josh, and Maddy are chosen to go to Terra Nova, which is on the other side of a time rift 85 million years in the past and the last refuge for the human race to start over. Jim breaks out of jail and smuggles his youngest through the time rift with the rest of his family
Now we get to the real purpose of the series, which is to get people in a milieu where they can play with dinosaurs. The colony of Terra Nova is ruled over by a benevolent dictator named Nathaniel Taylor. Everything is bright and clean and fresh, which is strange for the 22nd century people, who are used to red and dirty and stinky.
Josh is a rebellious, moody teenage boy who decides to run off with his new friend, a cute teenage girl named Skye, outside the gate, which seems to be a crazy thing to do and ends badly with an encounter with predatory dinosaurs called “slashers.” One wonders why the firearms they carry do not have more penetrating power.
The “humans playing with dinosaurs” seems to have been insufficient to carry a series. There are secrets surrounding Terra Nova. Who are these breakaway colonists called “Sixers” and what is their real agenda? For instance, they seem very keen on putting a bullet in Taylor. Why is that?
What are those mysterious markings by the waterfall and what do they have to do with the “true purpose” of Terra Nova? “Controlling the future by controlling the past?” Do tell? Looks like “Lost” has ruined every genre show that follows, since now it seems necessary to have mysteries that only get unwrapped gradually as the series progresses.
Source: Terra Nova, Genesis, TV.Rage