That's Terra Nova's Lea on the left, Aliens' Newt on the right.
This was it! The episode that would convince us to stick with Terra Nova in hopes that the show will better, or the episode that would bury the series forever, to be fossilized alongside The Cape and The Event. After silly episodes about lizard-birds and nutty viruses, "The Runaway" returned to one of the most exciting storylines from the two-part pilot: the rogue humans known as Sixers. Sure, they're a total rip-off of Lost's Others and wear war paint on their faces for no reason, but at least they're a palpable threat that does more than just "RAWR!!!" or peck people's faces off.
Things began with a few really bad actors and the ass-kicking Alicia (makeup by Chyna) finding a little Sixer girl named Lea in the jungle. In the great tradition of Terra Nova ripping off everything else, Lea was a carbon copy of hide-and-seek champion Newt from Aliens. James Cameron must be wondering how Terra Nova's writers are going to sample from Titanic, now that they've "borrowed" from Aliens and Avatar. Maybe Josh will stand with Skye, arms outstretched, on the head of Diplodocus? Anyway, the girl was seeking refuge from the Sixers, and everyone at Camp Terra Nova welcomed her with open arms because, well, she's a little girl, and little girls bring out the parental instincts in everyone.
Apparently parental instincts also make people stupid? Here was a little girl from the enemy camp who openly hated Commander Taylor, yet she was basically given the freedom to do whatever she wanted. Even if Lea hadn't been planning some covert ops against Terra Nova, everybody knew she'd be a valuable asset and a fountain of Sixers intelligence. So keep some eyeballs on that girl, yo! Instead, they shacked her up with the Shannons (who already have enough kids; in fact, some governments might say they have one too many), and Jim and Elisabeth immediately put Josh in charge of her and took off. Right then, everyone in the audience collectively placed their palms over their faces. Then Maddie and Elisabeth left Lea unsupervised to take a school test. Being a kid in Terra Nova must be pretty awesome since adults don't really give a crap. Candy for breakfast!
And of course everyone was shocked—SHOCKED I tell you!—when Lea broke into a house to steal a mystery box for Sixer leader Mira. "It was theater, more or less," someone said about the Lea's grift, and thus another classic line of Terra Nova dialogue was born. But it turned out Lea really was sorry about lying, which she indicated by drawing a picture of a prehistoric crying-face emoticon and leaving it for the Shannons to find. So Jim went into the jungle to find her, got captured (like duh, obviously), and finally some good things happened.
We learned lot more about the Sixers thanks to Mira telling Jim a lot about the Sixers, which she did because that's what people do when they capture their enemy's chief of security. The trans-timeline gossip: People back (or forward?) in 2149 are really pissed off at Taylor and want him ousted! Cool, right? Bet you hadn't guessed that one! Mira also hinted at a greater conspiracy concerning Terra Nova and its real purpose, but we didn't really get any clues to what that might be. Also, why is Mira doing all of this Sixers stuff? Because someone has taken her daughter and she won't ever see the kid again unless she gets her job done. Everyone, all together: *groan*. In the end, Mira released Jim and Lea's brother back to Terra Nova, and Lea hugged Jim, and then we all said "awwww!"
"The Runaway" was a great improvement over the Terra Nova's last two episodes, but even that means it was only of "somewhat watchable" quality. The series is still too predictable and too fluffy to be anything more than your grandmother's favorite sci-fi show, and there are no signs that it wants to be anything more than that.
Notes I just etched on some rocks:
– I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Taylor's desk. ME WANT.
– When did Maddy change her mind about Mark? She went from being all over him to ho-hum during that scene in the market where he declared his intentions for her. Also, is this the lamest love story ever, or what?
– What's in the box? WHAT'S IN THE BOXXXXXXXX!?!? Does anyone think it's anything but some sort of portal-reversing device?
– Who do you the so-called traitor is? Is it someone other than the bartender? If it's Malcolm, I'm done with this show for reals this time.
– "Take a look around. People are happy here!" Cut to: People being way too happy here.
Follow TV.com writer Tim Surette on Twitter: @TimAtTVDotCom
Can't get interested in any of the characters. The prehistoric cast members are badly done, motion-wise. I looked forward to this show but now...I'm gone.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of the show. It just need proper thinking and good writing.
Besides, a show of this magnitude should have a continuous story. I feel like I'm being fed fillers right from the start.
I'm gonna compare this to Eureka (with better visual effects) for obvious reasons: A law enforcement guy gets trapped in a city/village that he doesn't understand quite well. Instantly gets a high respectable position in the security of said city/village. Obviously, he has some kind of close family that he feels he needs to protect. His offspring (if old enough to be socialy acceptable) soon create relationships with the local villagers that the father will have some trouble accepting. Obviously, the village has a BAMF boss that rules over the main character making him ignore the rules to save the day.
Eureka is still funny in a way that a guy that by comparison knows nothing about science can still solve problems that the high IQ people can't.
This show needs proper writing. Maybe a huge change like the one Torchwood suffered would do.moreless
The main idea of this show seems fine, but there are huge holes right from the start that show that although someone had a nice idea, the writing just didn't follow.
So, a cops are raiding houses to check if families have too many members. Ok. Then a character says that they might have got away with a fine. Seriously? Raiding for a fine?
Then there's this huge operation sending people to the past to revive and improve the human civilization. Yeah, but just look at the characters and you'll notice their selection process isn't that great. Every episode someone dies (which means they just suck at surviving). How can they keep their demographics on the green zone?
And their security? A criminal arrives and gets to be the head of it.
Taylor: "Yeah, the entire last pilgrimage just went to hell because of a horse sized carnivore that crossed our high-tech wooden fence with huge gaps, please send some more so that someone can die for the sake of our main characters. Thank you."
Taylor's contact in the future: "Ok, we'll just gather a bunch of sick dudes and send them right away with the purpose of creating a new world. Don't bother, the Slash-asaurus and all the other dangerous animals we didn't account for won't have trouble chewing them."moreless
While TN has yet to "knock my sox off" I am rather pleased with the progression of the series thus far. I think it is very realistic as to how life would actually be under the same circumstances. I might like a few more mysteries about the world, i.e. ancient lost civializations, artifacts and pre-human lifeforms hiding in the jungle or underground, or maybe alien contact/observers. I like to be surprised, especially with such a big budget that Fox has afforded the series. But the constraints of writing a well thought out series requires a lot of background info to process. We're just departing that early introductory, learn-as-you-go phase now. The next two episodes should rev the series into gear or take us further in a fantastical direction. The ratings have been pretty good so far with a small percentage increase last week. Fox seems content although the budget is bigger than their average show. The show still has a curiosity factor going for it. Now's the time to hook 'em or lose 'em, Fox. Something BIG must happen.
I had expected it to be a Jurassic Park rip-off adventure so I'm not unhappy that it only slightly resembles it. Also, it's NOT Lost despite the Sixer's/Others similarities. Neither is it most of the shows that many have compared it to. So what if some of the plot and other elements are reminiscent of other, better films. They're ALL derivitive too! There is nothing new under the sun and if there was viewers would be turned off anyway. People are hard to impress with the unknown. Even more so with the sci-fi/adventure/fantasy audience. You cannot be too hardcore one week and too fluffy the next or you'll risk losing all the fans. I disagree that TN is too fluffy -- it's got just the correct amount of fluff to make it interesting without being sickeningly sweet.
I'm used to suspending belief for the sake of being entertained. While many may have to suspend belief more so than I, their arrogance and displeasure with TN seems to be over exaggerated and disproportionate to reality. The acting is okay for Prime Time. Who did you expect? Johnny Depp? Brad Pitt? Get over yourselves. The stories are not overly sentimental and have just enough charm to be family viewing worthy. I do see some plot inconsistencies but they are not so irksome as to rile me to the point of foaming at the mouth like some of the naysayers. The characters act like real people in real situations, meaning, they don't always behave rationally or make the right choices. I don't care if the son hated his dad one episode and then worships him the next. That's human nature. I don't care if the fights look fake -- they are fake and few rarely are compelling. I don't care if the CGI isn't state-of-the-art, it's still better than most on TV (i.e. the Sci-fi channel/Syfy...). I don't care if the show rips-off your favorite scene from your favorite movie, big deal! It too ripped-off from another earlier film that you didn't know about. There's no such thing as originality. We're lucky to get a fresh perspective now and then. TN is fresh in so far as it isn't just another medical or crime scene investigation series. But even feces can be fresh -- point in fact, look at all the realtiy shows....
There are only two kinds of stories. Comedy and Drama and that's all, folks! The best stories have elements of both. You can make a sci-fi movie out of either just by adding a rocket ship or ray gun or technical concept. TN is basically a drama with sci-fi elements. Don't laugh. It wouldn't work as a comedy. The tone would have to be completely different.
Why are you watching if you don't like it? Why did you read a review about it if you think the show sucks? Do you really need your opinions justified? Are you that bored? Go outside, take a walk. Read a book. Write a novel. Visit a friend. Don't attempt critical thinking just to repeat what your favorite critic said. That's sad. You need a better hobby. If you're young and if you think you know it all, well, get ready for reality to rear its ugly head real soon....
If I've annoyed your sensibilities, well, get over yourself? Terra Nova is a pleasant diversion despite your contempt. If it wasn't so important to you would you even be voicing your opinion about it? Isn't there a train wreck or car crash for you to admire instead?moreless
now that I have lowered expectations and know where the show is going I thought it wasn't too bad. Still i believe it will be the 2nd show after Glee that I am going to erase from my Schedule
The Spy is totally malcolm, they gotta get rid of the Jim competition somehow.
Oh yeah, and I get that the little girl is supposed to look unkempt, but come on!! It's like (season 6 Claire from Lost, anyone?) she stuck a fork in an electrical socket, seriously....
This show sucks. Fire the entire writing staff.
The internal story-lines are moving at a snail's pace, and are -SO- f'n cliche.
The actors..... can't act. Not well at least...
There are no redeeming factors here. How long can I watch this how because Taylor's desk is cool?? (...I saw it first, Tim!)
IJust wanted to put out a theory about the box. The contets of the box might be something so simple as Mira's memorabilia from home, pictures of her daughter and so on.
This was certainly better than last weeks episode but still very groan worthy. Someone has to take over the reigns of this beast and steer it in the right direction before it takes a swan dive, but then perhaps its too late
Lets start firing the writers and move on from there...
It will probably turn out that Mark is the spy for the Sixers. He is the most predictable choice and that seems to be Terra Nova's strong suit.
The box can't really be the device, because Mira can already contact the other side as we heard last episode, and the box has been there ever since she left Terra Nova, which seems like it has been more than a couple months. But I don't know, it would be the only plausible thing. Or a polar bear.
Terra Nova really needs to get on with its prehistoric utopia turning dystopia-storyline in a more timely fashion, because although this episode was better than the rest, it still isn't good enough.
"The box can't really be the device, because Mira can already contact the other side as we heard last episode... "
There is a difference between contacting the other side when the portal is open and reversing the portal as was stated in the article's notes. The two are mutually exclusive. That's to say, communication is bidirectional but travel is not. It remains to be seen if that is entirely true, however. It could show up as a plot point in future episodes...providing the series isn't canceled first.
I dont care what they say i and my son pretty much enjoy watching the series so stop complaining if you dont like it dont watch noone is forcing you to watch
And with that I mean to say: this article may annoy you, but you annoy everyone else here. Guess who has a wider range of annoyance.
Also, no one is forcing you to read this
They're TV Critics. They do their job just fine, don't like it don't read it.
i can imagine there are alot watching it , it is just like what happened with THE EVENT but i don't imagine how there is people still defend this show . it sucks , the writing , acting and everything .
And what about the fight scene , God it was cheesy , i thought for a moment that Xena is back ...lalalalalalallala !
Terra nova is SUCK ... I thought it will become a great series like prison break or Lost .... But this is SUCK .. Who are the script writers of this series. I am begging from them "Dude please dont write any more scripts ... pls pls ..."
Can agree that it's not a great series, but it's not bad either, it's just watchable. But concerning Prison Break and Lost I got to say they where not perfect either. Lost was extremely good at the beginning and at the end, but the middle seasons not so much. And I need to point out that I liked Lost very much. Prison Break on the other hand was very good in the beginning, but when a show starts repeating a pattern as much as PB did you've got problems. Prison break out, get cought locked up break out, and on and on it continued. But it was still a good show. Biggest problem for sci-fi series is that they need to survive the first season. But if they don't make the characters interesting ppl tend to complain and stop watching, and if they have to much character development/interaction and to little action/sci-fi the same happen. It getting the balance right that is the problem, just look at Stargate Universe it got cancelled when it really started to get good. Well that was my five cents :)moreless
I love this show. It's great for non-critics like myself. It's a great homage of previous films and television shows. I don't think the storylines could be any better. The stories are brought to us in a cool action scenes, and have slowly been feeding us valuable information about all the characters. I'm glad that this is more family oriented too. There is already too much smut on TV.
If you don't like show, please just shut-up, and go back to watching repeats of Battlestar Galactica or Firefly.
I liked it that you stood up for your opinion and I would applaud you for it, if you hadn't ruined the good intentions with the spiteful last comment.
You don't think the storylines could be any better? Are you serious? Did you even read this article? . . . . Oooooooooh! I understand now. Your a fan a fluffiness and predictability. So, how many Grandkids do you have?
Oh c'mon i am 24 and Terra Nova is just terribly bad not worst of course but acting is bad, some kind family drama, i am not interested into it . And besides it i have seen before - Birds, Aliens, Virus/Memory lose that all i have seen 10x or even more times , even no eye candy in Terra Nova CGI is bad even Jurassic Park 1993 had better CGi .
And as you say i don't like most shows cause its easy to predict for me what will be next.
And that spiteful comment about battlestar galactica grrrr... I have seen both 1978 and 2004 battle star galactica - sure my friends always complane how i can watch all those old shows and movies, black and white stuff but i just like it :)
PS sorry for my bad English.moreless
If you are willing to settle, that's your right. I'm not, nor are a lot of people here on the forum. The main storyline here was lost in poor writing, bad sub-plots, worse acting, and little to show for $$$$$$$$$$$(unless you count the new houses, cars, and other salaried $$$). Does not fit! Add in 2 young adults sitting on a couch trying to figure out where 1st base is, or staring at each other and asking to "court???" just does nothing for the overall growth, audience acceptance, or value. When a big budget production gets ABUSED by writers, production, and distribution, WE PAY THE PRICE. In short-term other shows are restricted, cheaper shows are forced on us as viewers, and advertisers see the genre as unsustainable long-term. Companies that market these shows ARE reading what written and respond to it. Those of us that continue to comment, complain or praise, and follow thru with input to both the network and advertisers eventually will see the result in better quality shows, refined marketing, supportive advertisers and once in a great while a QUALITY show able to entertain a large enough audience for longevity.
It's not hard to see that this show is being abused by individuals demanding huge chunks of the budget and NOT putting out quality that the show and budget deserve. I'm sorry you can't see that and hope you will take a second look at what is said here as valid criticism.moreless
it is a big waste with this big budget , it could have been better if it was a comedy show and the dinosaurs are banging each others!
doesn't anyone know how to make television series anymore or is it network programmers are just trying to save their jobs?
My only question is why many people here seem to not like this show, the only point is that it's an "all family one" ?
Please do not compare it to V, The Cape ou The Event, cause all of them were not or bad exploited ideas or even not completed ones, or even special effects were "Nah !" (well really bad at 1 or some/many levels).
Here actors are quite good (even if some seem to not please everyone) and special effects/photo/realisation are excellent - for a TV show - and far beyond the 3 others.
Just keep in mind that this one is a good show focusing on "family public"; you will never have a Fringe/Homeland/Game of thrones here... It's not even the goal (even if you want it/would have been nice !).
Il's a travel to another unique place and "enjoyment" for all family after a bad work day and the matter you have to appreciate it ! And if you have not enough imagination to figure that, I can only advise you to not looking at it...
But saying it's a bad show/comparing it to teh last V or The Cape prevent me to read your comments.moreless
I can't speak for other but for me, the family side of the thing could be pleasant. I have no problem with family storylines. What I despise here is the treatment of those storylines : clich, cheesy and irrelevant.
I was the one defending the show when the pilot aired because everybody was saying "why all that background story about the shannons ? we don't care" And I was saying "to make us care about the characters and because people with scars are more interesting than plain happy people". Well guess what ? That family just turned into the plain happy people. Everything that we saw about Zoe, Jim in Prison, Jim forcing is travel just became irrelevant. So now, I can say that the first critic "why all the background" is fair.
I get that this is a family show. It could be a good one but it's not.moreless
Some might say this episode wasn't that good, however, i differ. Although it was just another normal episode, it revealed to us a story line that we might enjoy. Mira convincing Jim that he is going to be on the wrong side of history if he stays with Taylor because he's a bad guy that pissed off some really dangerous people from the future, she then went on to mentioned that her daughter was taken from her and was promised to be reunited if she takes Taylor down.
I think the guy in the wheelchair and the bartender are the people on the inside, who would suspect a guy in a wheelchair? He has no legs so he would be no use to the sixers if he stayed with them and they move around from place to place and he would do nothing but hinder them because hes in a wheelchair so they left him at Terra Nova to be a spy.
Imo it would be better if they would stay in the future and they would use timemachine to go back in the past and fix it.
In the first episode we could learn for example that cuban crisis ended in nuclear war and we need to go back to 1962 and try to stop this confrontation before it happens.
In second episode we could learn that Hitler actually stopped the D-Day and he occupied Europe for almost 40 years killing most of the civilians from countries other than Germany. A we nee dto go back to 1939 and kill a guy who planned the German defence before the D-Day happens.
We could also see all changes in the future. For example after the first episode the air in the future could be a lot cleaner etc...
And sixers could be also a group from the future that is representing all the major powers that like the future and whant to stop all the changes.moreless
"Fixing the Time-Stream" has been done to death. Everyone from Irwin Allen's Time Tunnel, to Quantum Leap, to every iteration of Star Trek, and so many more has done it.
Let's try something different. Maybe even creative? But, this is TV after all. The Networks don't really understand creative, only derivative.
That would mean one shared timeline which would mean no crazy mystery, and also that we'd have to deal with the butterfly effect over and over and over, the show would be a neverending streaming of, "oh shit we did this just slightly wrong" "oh shit we stepped on a bug here..."
the two seperate "timestreams" do sort of save us from that a bit. And allow there to be an interesting and unknown future.
If the Box was in Mira's house and the sixer's left of their own accord, why didn't she just take the box with her then ??
This is just lazy plotting , like the rest of the series
Here is what taylor said about the sixers in the pilot : "Long story short, they caught on that we caught on to them, then they high-tailed it like thieves in the night."
Looks like the sixers left in a hurry. Maybe Mira wasn't able to recover the box in time.
The episode wasn't that good. Sheesh.
Haha. You should stop reviewing TV shows at night, Tim. Your sentences are becoming more and more... porous? Anyway, stop skipping words! ;)
Add a comment...I'm still kinda in the middle with this show. "The Runaway" was, in my opinion, the best episode of the series so far. But, the show is still way too light for my tastes, and most of the kids are extremely annoying.
Isn't it interesting to see the difference in the writing styles between average Terra Nova fans and average Terra Nova non-fans? Yeah...
It's also interesting to see the writing style of smugly ambivalent fence-sitters.
Now we know why Buffy and LOST writer David Fury left after the pilot - he refuses to write this level of suck. Nice to see him writing for Fringe now.
Those Sixers would be better if they were owned by Will Smith.
Just as I suspected this show is just as bad as falling skies. the only way I would enjoy this show is if I was 10 years old
Did they explain how they communicate with the future? How do they even know when the next pilgrimage is coming?
Yeah and I would add that the time seems to be stretched between the future and TN. Taylor explained that when he went through the portal, his buddy who had jumped right behind him arrived on the other side 118 days later. Hard to make a precise schedule in those conditions