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‘Primeval’ series five to air on ITV1 a year after Watch broadcast

31 May

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The fifth series of Primeval is to finally air on ITV1.

The sci-fi drama’s most recent run will premiere on June 16, producers Impossible Pictures have confirmed.

The show was renewed for two more series by ITV and digital channel Watch in 2009.

Under the joint agreement, ITV had first broadcast rights on Primeval’s fourth series, with Watch then being able to air the episodes at a later date.

Watch would then air the fifth series first – which it did between May and June 2011 – with ITV having second run rights.

The six latest episodes – starring Andrew-Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt and Ciarán McMenamin – will now air on ITV1 over a year after their first digital broadcast.

The future of the original Primeval is currently unclear with no further episodes being commissioned since the 2009 revival. However, in May 2011, Potts (Connor) told Digital Spy that he and co-star Spearritt (Abby) were unsure of their future with the programme.

“Primeval deserves to carry on, and I hope it does,” he said. “As for mine and Hannah’s involvement in that, we’re not entirely sure.”

A new Primeval spinoff – subtitled New World – was officially announced in February 2012. The “older, darker and scarier” series has filmed in Vancouver and will be broadcast on Watch in late 2012.

It is currently unclear if ITV will transmit Primeval: New World.

‘Primeval’ Spin-Off commisioned by Canada’s Sci-fi Channel !

17 Sep

When the fifth series of Primeval finished airing on Watch earlier this year, the future of the show was left unclear. And while there’s still no news on the original show, suddenly we have a North American spin-off.

Canada’s sci-fi channel Space has secured a deal with Impossible Pictures for Primeval: New World. This new series will be “darker and scarier” than the original and it will have a younger, sexier cast and lots of gory special effects to go with it; as a result of this the new show will air at the later time of 9pm.

Primeval: New World will follow North American animal experts and scientists as they discover the appearances of pre-historic and futuristic creatures. Plans are that the episodes will give a deeper look into their characters and the relationships they have.

Production is set to start in the winter of 2012 and the show will be filmed mostly in Vancouver. The special effects of the show will be dealt by Impossible’s London group. Jonathan Drake, managing director of Impossible says that this is not a continuation of Primeval but rather “a bigger, better, badder re-imaging of the show”.

It’s difficult to know what to expect from an American remake but at estimates of a $1.6 million budget per episode, it should be a good-looking show.

TV REVIEW : Primeval Season 5 episode 6 (Series Finale?)

2 Jul


5.06
Writers: Steve Bailie, Adrian Hodges
Director: Cilla Ware

THE ONE WHERE Philip’s New Dawn goes out of control.

VERDICT About 20 minutes into the final episode (ever?) of Primeval the plot suddenly stops. Oh, sure, more stuff happens. Some of it spectacular. Some of it emotional. Some of it tense. Some of it funny. But from the moment that Philip’s mega-anomaly starts grow, the story is nothing more than series of delaying tactics to prevent the resolution happening before the last ad break. Which makes for a passable action/adventure knockabout, but disappoints as a satisfyingly dramatic conclusion to the season. Where are the twists? Where are the surprises? Where are the revelations? Oh yeah, there is the one at the very, very end, when another future Matt turns up and implies that maybe things haven’t all been as neatly tied up as we thought. But as you can’t help feeling it’s unlikely we’ll ever see where that plot thread might be heading, it’s hard to care.

It’s a shame, because the previous two episodes seemed to be building to something jawdropping. Instead, this finale is woefully predictable. The visit to the future proves pointless. It doesn’t reveal anything we couldn’t have pieced together from what we already knew and the fact that it’s such a drab location doesn’t help. Back in the present, events unfold pretty much as Matt has been predicting all series, so no surprises there. Philip’s change of heart is understandable (no matter what a bastard he was, he never intended to destroy the world) but stiflingly undramatic – he sits on a step and looks like he’s been scolded by his mum. Once his sacrifice has failed, the episode pads out much of its final third with lots of creeping around darkened corridors, as a contrived threat tries to prevent the heroes from getting their hands on the technobabble solution too early.

This is a harsh assessment, sure. The episode’s rarely dull, and has some flashes of greatness. Connor and Abby’s proposal is really sweet. Lester is as entertaining as ever. The apocalyptic FX are magnificent.

But the problems all stem from missed opportunities. Why introduce such a promising character as Emily if all she’s going to do is whimper after Matt? Why travel to a future that has no secrets to reveal? Why introduce the idea that the world now knows about the dinosaurs and anomalies then do nothing with it? Why introduce the potential time anomalies inherent in Matt’s plans and then just ignore them? It’s like the show keep promising intriguing plot lines it has no intention of following up. Instead it seems happy to settle for dull competency, or scared to push itself too far.

Is this the last we’ll see of Primeval? Hopefully not, because there is still potential in this show; potential it began tapping in these last two season more than ever before with some impressive results. And also because the show deserves a better send off than this. However, you can’t help feeling that it’s time has come.

Rating : 6/10

Source:sfx.co.uk
by:dgolder

TV REVIEW : Primeval – Season 5 episode 4

22 Jun


5.04
Writers: Helen Raynor
Director: Robert Quinn

THE ONE WHERE A mini anomaly leads to a cataclysmic insect infestation in the ARC.

VERDICT A very effective base-under-siege thriller which delivers a whammy of a twist at the end, the latest episode of Primeval almost, but not quite, manages to distract you from some really clunky plotting in places. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, but the bad does occasionally leave you wincing. And we’re not just talking about April’s ongoing evil librarian shtick.

The central concept of the ARC overrun by prehistoric beetles is generally well-handled, alternating some expertly directed moments of tension with some excellent action scenes. The two stand-out Die Hard-wannabe moments – when the ARC team is spraying insecticide at the insects as they fall from the ceiling, and when Connor and Matt use high-pressure hoses to clear a corridor of the creepy crawlies – show that director Robert Quinn is a force to be reckoned with. They should sign him for Doctor Who quickly. And wasn’t it great that for once, the air ducts were used for something other than the heroes’ escape route?

The effects were also top notch for the most part. The beetles were an impressive and unusual kind of Primeval beastie; the scene with them devouring the guard was downright creepy. On a couple of brief shots, though, the beetles did seem suspiciously orderly in their swarming.

The epilogue, where Connor discovers that Philip lied about not instigating the self destruct, is another great, great moment, and a clever way of getting Connor 100% on the Abby/Matt team. Shame the episode had to continue on for a few more minutes of, frankly, pointless hammering home of the point, as Connor’s discovering would have been a very effective cliffhanger.

The episode was also less than successful when it came to manufacturing drama to stretch out the story. Jess’s allergic reaction was both a distressingly obvious ploy and rather tedious in the way it played out, while the whole Rex subplot was just downright tedious. You could almost hear the gears of the plot mechanics crunching and grinding away in the background. Or at least you could when they weren’t being drowned out by Philip going, “Mwahhhh-haaaa-haaaaaaaa!” They guy is becoming more and more of a caricature week by week.

Overall, though, a thoroughly enjoyable romp that sets things up promisingly for the final showdown

Rating 7/10

source:sfx.co.uk
by:dgolder

TV REVIEW : Primeval – Season 5 episode 5

22 Jun


5.05
Writer: Michael A Walker
Director: Cilla Ware

THE ONE WHERE Multiple anomalies open up around the world unleashing stock footage onto the news networks.

VERDICT Primeval appears to be building up to one hell of a season (series?) climax with an episode that doesn’t skimp on the dinos or the big game changing plot bombs. It’s a great, action-packed, swaggering, roaring beast of an installment. You can’t help wishing the show had been this much fun when it was premiering on ITV1 earlier this year. We may not be pondering the end of the show if that were the case.

Once again, some excellent FX sequences provide the highlights. Finally, a T-Rex! And he’s dead impressive. It does seem a slight shame that he’s only a bit-parter in an episode packed with so many other off-the-peg CG creatures, when surely the king of the terrible lizards deserves his own showcasing story. But hey, at least he heralds in the fact that now the whole world knows there are dinosaurs popping into our time stream (the ARC spin doctors have clearly been very successful in creating cover stories so far, but even Lester seems to realise a T-Rex is a PR exercise too far). The pterosaurs also deserve a special mention for killing off April. About blimmin’ time.

Lester’s back with a vengeance and more acerbic than ever and hurrah for that. Abby and Connor have stopped arguing. Hurrah again. And Emily raises the question of whether Matt’s action will stop or actually cause the dark future that awaits… though the idea promptly gets swept under the carpet again. Pity, really, because Emily hasn’t really had much else to contribute since coming back to the future.

While the episode fires on so many levels, it does sputter here and there. The last quarter relies too heavily on lots of running around, captures and escapes. The global threat of the mass of anomalies opening never quite feels apocalyptic enough. The ARC troops seem amazingly thin on the ground. Again. Jenna suddenly leaving the safety of Matt’s car and running back for her dead mate smacks of the kind of stupidity that only ever afflicts people in dramas that need to manufacture some tension. And it’s a bit lazy for Philip to pull the same “I had a contingency plan in case Connor turned against me” twice inside 20 minutes.

If this is the final series of Primeval, at least it’s going out on a high.

Rating 8/10

source:sfx.co.uk
by:dgolder

Tv Review : Primeval – Season 5 episode 3

12 Jun


5.03
Writers: Paul Mousley, Gabbie Asher
Director: Robert Quinn

THE ONE WHERE Matt travels through an anomaly to Victorian London where he meets a Raptor and Emily, both being mistaken for a murderer called Spring-Heeled Jack.

VERDICT For a couple of scenes, this looks like it’s going to be a cracking episode. I mean, what could go wrong when you’ve got a Raptor running around Victorian London? The wonderfully evocative pre-teaser sequence boasts some magnificent period production design while the creepy puppet version of Spring-Heeled Jack is a startlingly unusual image for this show that seems to promise something edgier to follow.

It never happens. Despite the well-realised setting, this rapidly becomes a fairly humdrum runaround that doesn’t capitalise on any of its potential. The mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack is blown pretty much straight away, and thereafter merely becomes an excuse to generate some contrived threat from the locals. Neither Matt nor Emily seems at all concerned with finding the anomaly the Raptor originally came through. Emily’s husband is so despicable you can’t believe she’d ever be with him. The Raptor doesn’t really get up to much, and his one potential stand-out moment – when he jumps onto the roof of a horse-drawn carriage – is so badly directed, you don’t actually ever get any shots of him on top of the carriage while it’s moving. The scenes with the dinosaur mauling Emily’s husband at the end are similarly bungled; sure, Primeval can’t be too gory because it may get shown before the watershed on ITV1 some day, but that scene has all the sense cut out of it.

The Victorian setting is great, there’s no denying, and there are a couple of passable action sequences, but the episode is a very skimpy and unimaginative way to get back Emily back in the mix. There’s also a dearth of decent dialogue; the early scenes with Abby and Matt conspiring are so artificial, they’re reminiscent of those dreadful scenes from Peter Davison era Who when Tegan and Nyssa would briefly allude to scenes from the previous story in the first TARDIS scene of the next story, as if that counted for continuity.

Abby and Connor’s parallel plot helps save the episode slightly, as their new allegiances leave their relationship at its nadir; the writing may not spark but Spearritt and Lee-Potts acts their little hearts out, and make it believable. But what a shame they get co-opted into arc plot duties, when what we’d all really have liked to have seen from a Victorian episode was Abby and Connor in full period costume running down 1860s street chasing a dino.

Having said all that, the episode does come up with a blinder of a cliffhanger. The miniature anomaly Connor creates is a genuinely jawdropping moment, and bumps the score up by half a star all by itself. Honestly, I’d love to be more generous, because production-wise it’s a fine episode. The script, though, is shamefully thin and unadventurous.

Ratin 5/10

source:sfx.co.uk
by:dgolder

Tv Review : Primeval – season 5 episode 2

31 May


5.02
Writer: Steve Bailie
Director: Robert Quinn

THE ONE WHERE Abby, Connor and Matt take a submarine ride to prehistoric times.

VERDICT “For a moment there,” says Abby towards the end of the episode, “it was like it used to be.” And you can’t help agree. The arc plot elements take a back seat this episode as we get a good, old-fashioned dino-romp that could have fitted easily into the first two seasons if Matt had been swapped for Cutter. The result is an enjoyably tense, and impeccable shot piece of action drama with a decent edge-of-seat factor.

The effects are stunningly good, and there are an impressive amount of them. The direction is spot on, the thrills are constant and the claustrophobic environment effectively utilised. It may not be Das Boot but it’s a million times better than the BBC’s The Deep.

Okay, it’s disappointing that the prehistoric sea is indistinguishable from the present day sea; presumably the budget wouldn’t stretch to the submarine surfacing so we could have a gander at a dinosaur vista. But the underwater anomaly is a clever conceit, and the military reaction to the disappearing sub leads to some exquisite Lester moments back at base. As well as earlier seasons of Primeval, there was also a bit of a ’70s Doctor Who vibe going on what with dunderheaded warmongers whose solution to anything is to blow it up.

Letting the episode down are some occasional clunky dialogue (usually whenever it comes to exposition and especially whenever Matt and Abby are discussing the arc plot), a bunch of “red shirt” mariners with barely a character trait to share between them, and the cringe-inducing moment when Abby and Connor manage to pilot a submarine because they’ve been playing video games. There’s also the sneaking feeling that the theropod has been nothing but a handy plot device all along. Worse still, if it’s supposed to be bait to distract the whole shoal of plesiosaurs, it seems a bit daft to show one of the plesiosaurs practically gulp it down in one.

Overall, though, a thoroughly entertaining, unpretentious slice of telefantasy. You don’t even mind that the arc plot has barely taken a step forward.

Rating : 8/10

source:sfx.co.uk
by :D Golder

Tv Review : Primeval – Season 5 episode 1

31 May


5.01
Writer: Chris Lang
Director: Mark Everest

THE ONE WHERE Matt’s suspiciously spot-on knowledge about how to defeat some giant lice from the future leads to Abby guess his secret.

VERDICT What better way to kick off a new series of Primeval (and the producers have decided that this is series five, not series 4.2 or whatever) than with a few sarky remarks from Lester and a workman getting carted off in the beast-of-the-week’s pincers?

This isn’t Primeval-by-numbers, though, despite the heart-warmingly trad opening. Blimey, for the first time in ages even the monsters of the week have more of a plot purpose than just giving Becker something to do. Nope, this time round they’re an intrinsic part of the plot, helping to propel Abby and Matt into a partnership to fight the future. It’s not like last season when the monsters and the arc plots seemed to exist in parallel universes; this feels more satisfyingly like a show that’s making the most of its format.

And that arc plot is definitely stepping up a gear. It’s great that the writers are driving a wedge between Abby and Connor based on their own beliefs and personal outlooks on life, rather than generating some artificial outside force to create friction; the growing rift is believable and it’s logical. At the same time Hannah Spearritt and Andrew Lee Potts are playing the roles perfectly (possibly helped by the fact that they’re a couple in real life) making it clear in subtle little ways that whatever their differences, they’re still in love. Much as it pains me to admit it (Who fanatic that I am) I’m far more convinced by them as a couple than Amy and Rory.

Matt’s also becoming more interesting the more he opens up. Again, his new found partnership with Abby feels completely natural.

Sadly, the Philip/Connor pairing isn’t quite so convincing. This is mainly because Philip is being portrayed as such an old-fashioned moustache-twirler. It’s a shame, because his actual plan – to harness energy from the anomalies – does have a certain logic to it, and some of his arguments and ideas are worthy of a fair hearing at least. But he’s so clearly cast in the “ruthless, scheming, ambitious monomaniac” role, it makes Connor look a little stupid to be siding with him so readily. A bit more balance between the two parties’ respective viewpoints would have made the series more intriguing. (Of course, if there’s a big twist in which it’s Matt’s actions that cause “bad” future, and Philip’s energy scheme that prevents it, I’m more than happy to eat my words.)

The reveal of the New Dawn machine is severely lacking in wow factor, more because of the rather flat way it’s shot, rather then the designs or FX. In fact, the FX throughout are almost flawless even if aren’t always exploited to the best effect. The climactic scenes inside the shopping centre rapidly morph from exciting and tense to dull and irritating, as the creatures shamble very, very slowly into action, waving the odd mandible in Connor’s direction with about as much enthusiasm as a kid forking peas around a plate.

All the while, Ben Miller’s doing what Ben Miller does best, and milking a comedy subplot for all its worth. To be fair, the “knighthood” storyline isn’t particularly well written, but Miller is the prefect comedy actor to crank the humour up a notch, eking the most of the merest grimace.

The best thing about the episode is what it promises for the future. It may be clunky in places, but the cogs of the arc plot are clearly meshing now, and the show looks like it’s ready to ratchet up the action and ambition.

Rating : 7/10

Source:sfx.co.uk
by:Robpower

Tv Review : Primeval – Series 4, Episode 7

5 Feb


Source:totalscifi
By:Paul Simpson

TV episode review
UK airdate 5 February 2011 (ITV1)

Multiple anomalies appearing in a local museum lead to multiple problems for the team, as an old friend returns…

Despite the production team’s best efforts (not mentioning his name in the credits etc), the publicity has made it clear that Jason Flemyng is back as Danny Quinn for this final episode of the ITV run of Primeval (it returns with episode 8 on Watch in April).

He’s linked in more ways than you’d expect to the various ongoing storylines, and actually provides closure for more than one of them.

We get to find out far more about Matt and Ethan, although, in at least one case, the clues have been there from the character’s first appearance on screen, and there are some tense stand-offs between various parties throughout the episode.

Unfortunately the Terrorbirds, with their resemblance to Rod Hull’s Emu, are also back, and while director Mark Everest does his best to make them live up to their name, they really aren’t quite as far up the fear-inspiring scale as the Future Predators or the raptors.

The far more frightening elements come from a discovery Connor makes, and a conversation between Danny and Philip, both of which promise a darker second half to the year’s adventures.

VERDICT: 7/10

Tv Review : Primeval : Series 4, Episode 6

29 Jan


source:totalscifi
by:Paul Simpson

TV episode review
UK airdate 29 January 2011 (ITV1)

Former ARC PR girl Jenny Lewis is not at all impressed when the team arrive to deal with an anomaly – at her wedding…

One of the best-balanced episodes of the fourth season, this week’s story moves the various ongoing strands forward, with key revelations about both Matt and Gideon’s identities, and clues about Ethan and Emily.

The story of the week brings Jenny Lewis back to the show, without feeling forced (if you excuse the story-required coincidence of the anomaly opening on the eve of her wedding at that particular stately home), and there are some laugh aloud scenes featuring Connor, with Lucy Brown, Hannah Spearritt and Andrew-Lee Potts clearly enjoying the reunion.

A very tense sequence featuring a homemade bomb, Jess and Becker is well-directed, as is what could have been a clichéd race through the cellars. The creatures make for cute cubs and distinctly more threatening adults, which works well in one of the later scenes when Connor warns people of incipient danger. If you have dogs, be prepared for them to react to the cubs’ crying for help!

A highly enjoyable hour that highlights how far the show has moved on since the middle of the third year when Jenny left.
VERDICT: 8/10

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