When strange anomalies start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team must track down and capture all sorts of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth's distant past and ... Read allWhen strange anomalies start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team must track down and capture all sorts of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth's distant past and near future.When strange anomalies start to appear all over England, Professor Cutter and his team must track down and capture all sorts of dangerous prehistoric creatures from Earth's distant past and near future.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 5 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe final 13 episodes, combined series 4 and 5, were actually shot at various locations within the Republic of Ireland, mostly around the Dublin-Wicklow area, some with none to major digital set dressing enhancement. The city wall map in the office, in Series 4 and 5, is actually Dublin City, turned upside down.
- GoofsThe tranquilizer darts used in several episodes are at least twice the diameter of the pistol they are supposedly fired from.
- Quotes
Nick Cutter: [Opening, series one] Anomalies are starting to appear; doorways in time to worlds we can barely imagine. The Anomalies are conclusive proof that the past exists, in a fourth dimension as real and solid as those we already know. Our job is to predict and contain them.
- Crazy creditsAt the end of each episode, the logo for Impossible Pictures shows the creature featured in the episode
- ConnectionsFeatured in Screenwipe: Episode #3.4 (2007)
The concept is well imagined and it seems to be aiming at an older audience. Curiously the first two episodes had a zero body count, then they suddenly seemed to change their mind and the bodies started stacking up.
The largely unknown actors put in pretty good performances. Surprisingly ex "S Club 7" member Hannah Spearritt is a capable actress. The DVD extras reveal she is less capable at throwing rocks though - the one she was meant to throw at a creature hits the cameraman! The CGI effects are excellent for a TV series with a strictly limited budget, almost film standard largely thanks to the previous ground breaking Walking With Dinosaurs, with only the occasional wobble.
However while the overall story is engaging the script writer ought to be fired for the details. Our belief in the characters is disrupted at regular intervals when they do something unbelievably stupid just to keep the story running. For example when being told to run for the trees the character can be clearly seen running along side them, and after armed special forces are driven off by creatures they are content to let unarmed scientists face them alone, not intervening even when hearing they are in trouble on the radio. Every episode has such incidents which require forceful suspension of belief.
The characters also need to be developed more and their strengths played to to justify their continued participation in the project, as some of them are tenuous.
Despite these script failings the series shows a huge amount of promise and I am delighted to hear a second series has been commissioned which I will certainly be watching.
I recommend you give it a try. You may be surprised.
- ComedyOfErrors
- Jun 19, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Primaeval
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro