TERRA NOVA {PILOT} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this fantasy/science-fiction drama series about a 22nd Century family taking part in an expedition back in time to establish a human colony in the Cretaceous Period. In the year 2149 AD, Earth has become an over-polluted urban wasteland. Jim Shannon, a police officer, is arrested for violating population control policies and having a third child. After two years in prison, his wife Elisabeth comes to visit him to tell him she’s been chosen for the Terra Nova project and will be going back in time, but cannot take Zoe, their third child, along, nor can Jim accompany her. She leaves him a rebreather with a secret compartment containing a laser cutter inside, allowing him to break out. Jim manages to sneak into the loading party for the “Tenth Pilgrimage” of Terra Nova, managing to reunite with his family and rush through the time portal along with Zoe as a stowaway. They emerge into the past and are taken to the Terra Nova colony, a gated community in the midst of a sprawling jungle valley. The new colonists are greeted by Commander Nathanial Taylor, leader of the Terra Nova settlement. Terra Nova, he explains, is an attempt to start a new civilization in 85 million BC, free of the ills that plague the year 2149. He speaks to Jim and Elisabeth alone about Jim’s arrival and agrees to keep Jim on as a worker for Terra Nova’s agricultural department. The Shannon family moves into their new quarters and Jim tries to reconnect with his family after his two-year prison stay; his son Josh is still bitter at him for leaving them. They also get used to their new surroundings, including the local dinosaurs which inhabit the area. The family’s first day in Terra Nova proves eventful; Jim tries to cope with his new agricultural duties, Elisabeth, a doctor, learns about the odd medical practices of Terra Nova, and Josh skips orientation and meets a teenage colonist named Skye who seems to take an immediate liking to him. Jim notices Josh with Skye and tries to get him to go to orientation but Josh snaps at him and leaves. He meets Skye’s friends: Tasha, Hunter, and Max, who all share living quarters with each other. They convince Josh to go along with them “OTG” (“Outside the Gates”) and leave the safety of Terra Nova to go into the jungle. Skye takes Josh to a waterfall where the rocks are adorned with strange hieroglyphs and symbols; she makes Josh promise not to mention this place to anyone, as Taylor has declared it off-limits. Elisabeth tends to a man referred to as a “Sixer” who was stealing from Terra Nova’s power grid. Before she can find out more the Sixer leaps from the operating table and holds a laser tool to her throat, escaping with a loaded gun. Jim spots the man and tackles him to the ground, saving Commander Taylor from being shot. Commander Taylor explains that the Sixers were the pilgrims who came through on the Sixth Pilgrimage. It turned out that they had ulterior motives and brought a cache of smuggled weapons through the portal with them. By the time the rest of Terra Nova found out about them, they splintered off and formed another colony, and are a constant threat to Terra Nova. In gratitude for saving his life, Commander Taylor makes Jim a part of his security team. They spot Sixer attack vehicles racing towards Terra Nova and everyone leaps into action. To make matters worse, the Sixers are tailed by angry carnotaurs; the people of Terra Nova are forced to fend off both the Sixers and the dinosaurs. The carnotaurs are driven away but the Sixers get inside the gates and a tense standoff ensues. The Sixer leader, Mira, demands the release of the Sixer who attempted to assassinate Taylor as well as medical supplies and ammunition in exchange for a case of meteoric iron (the Sixers control the quarry). Taylor agrees to all but the last demand and the trade is conducted without further incident. Skye and her friends take Josh to sample some moonshine from a machine they rigged up to a fruit tree in the jungle. Taylor apologizes to Elisabeth for the incident with the Sixer, and she elaborates on the reasons she took her family with her to Terra Nova. Taylor reveals that his son came on the Second Pilgrimage but has been missing for several years. Taylor still holds out hope that he is still alive. Meanwhile, Sixers strip Skye’s rover of its power cell before they are attacked by “slashers,” vicious dinosaurs with barbed tails. Taylor shows Jim security footage of Josh and Skye sneaking out; he and Elisabeth accompany Taylor’s search parties. Skye and company return to find their vehicle without its power strip; they take refuge with the sole surviving Sixer in his vehicle as slashers assault them from all sides; the lack of power makes them unable to communicate with Terra Nova. Josh and Skye attempt to use machine gun fire to drive the slashers away. The kids manage to get through to Taylor and the search parties head towards the origin of the signal. Tasha panics and runs out into the jungle, getting herself seriously injured by a slasher. The search team finds her and Elisabeth tends to her wounds while Taylor, Jim, and his men go after the kids. Skye reveals to Josh that her father was a colonel under Taylor’s command, but both of her parents died from fever. Jim and Taylor arrive just as Josh and the others are about to be overwhelmed by slashers and drive them away, saving them. The Sixer is gone, presumably taken by Mira. Josh returns home and reunites with his family. Skye apologizes to Taylor for escaping the gates. Taylor has cared for her since her parents died. Mira inspects the strange hieroglyphs and indicates that they were made by Taylor’s missing son as part of some conspiracy to alter the past in order to control the future. The episode ends as the Shannon family gazes up at the night sky together. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: September 26, 2011 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:25:19
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 106367
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: FOX - TV series, 2011
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kelly Marcel … Executive Producer, Writer
- Craig Silverstein … Executive Producer, Writer
- Brannon Braga … Executive Producer
- John Cassar … Executive Producer
- René Echevarria … Executive Producer
- Darryl Frank … Executive Producer
- Aaron Kaplan … Executive Producer
- Steven Spielberg … Executive Producer
- Peter Chernin … Producer
- Ellen Marie Blum … Co-Producer
- Livia Hanich … Co-Producer
- Alex Graves … Director
- Allan Loeb … Writer
- Brian Tyler … Music by
- Jason O'Mara … Cast, Jim Shannon
- Stephen Lang … Cast, Commander Nathaniel Taylor
- Shelley Conn … Cast, Dr. Elisabeth Shannon
- Landon Liboiron … Cast, Josh Shannon
- Naomi Scott … Cast, Maddy Shannon
- Allison Miller … Cast, Skye
- Mido Hamada … Cast, Guzman
- Alana Mansour … Cast, Zoe Shannon
- Christine Adams … Cast, Mira
- Simone Kessell … Cast, Alicia Washington
- Eka Darville … Cast, Max
- Aisha Dee … Cast, Tasha
- Damian Walshe-Howling … Cast, Carter
- Sam Paronson … Cast, Hunter
- Joel Amos Byrnes … Cast, Traveler Nic
- Ceallach … Cast, Well Wisher Mimi
- Jason Chong … Cast, Arthur Chang
- Dean Geyer … Cast, Reynolds
- Dan Mor … Cast, Teo
- Romy Poulier … Cast, Kara
- Valentino del Toro … Cast, Peter
- Laura Whitnall … Cast, Newscaster
- Byron J. Brochmann … Cast
- Tonia Renee … Cast