Terra Nova: Episode 3- ‘Instinct’

Terra Nova: Episode 3- ‘Instinct’

Creators: Greg Silverstein, Kelly Marcel

Starring: Shelly Conn, Jason O’Mara, Landon Liboiron, Noomi Scott, Stephen Lang

Reviewed by: Matt Wavish, official HCF critic

After the disappointing first double episode of the ne big TV series, Terra Nova, I had complete trust in the show that this was a minor slip up and that things could only get better. You can probably guess from my tone that my wishes were not granted, and the shows improvements were not to be. If anything, the latest episode went dramatically downhill after the complete mess of the opening two episodes.

In ‘Instinct’ a new plot is brought into play, that of a jealous husband and a former lover of his wife arriving on the scene and creating a possible love triangle. The whole scenario is played out painfully obviously, with facial expressions, raised eyebrows and the like being so blatantly obvious it almost feels like the show will be painted out for us before we even get the chance to get involved. I found this love triangle situation incredibly desperate and actually rather dull. Dr Malcolm Wallace is the guy who has turned up to ‘spice’ things up, he is an animal expert and close friend to Taylor and it would appear that it was he who requested Elisabeth to come to Terra Nova. Obviously when requesting she come, he didn’t bet on her husband Jim turning up as well since he was in jail. Jim can see this, we can see this and it just feels false and very very poorly written.

Other problems arise in this episode in yet another moment of what can only be described as bad writing and even worse timing. Jim and Elisabeth attempt to ‘get it on’ twice, on two separate nights, and both nights they are interrupted by some new species of Pterosaur, a kind of Pterodactyl that sits on the fences around Terra Nova like vultures. They have only just arrived, and the opening scenes of a number of men from the area with their faces and eyes chewed off suddenly become clear. These dinosaurs are not happy, and want to attack the humans, but why I hear you ask? Oh, I see, they built Terra Nova on their breeding ground, my my what a twist! With Terra Nova being around all these year, are you telling Me that these birds, sorry, ‘reptiles’, only breed every seven or so years? How come they have never seen them before? A plan is put into place on how to stop these creatures causing havoc, even a curfew is put into place until they can figure out what to do.

And here comes my worry; is this how the show will play out each week? A new dinosaur threat will come along that they have never experienced before and they will have to fight it? After the onslaught of stories and characters in the opening episodes, I at least thought this would continue and maybe become interesting, especially with the ‘Sixers’, but they barely get a mention here. In fact, the only plot nonsense going on right now is the love triangle, poor old Josh gets down in the dumps (in fact, the miserable sod hasn’t smiled once yet, has he?) because he cannot afford a guitar and this brings back memories of his band back in 2149 (I wonder where this plot device will go) and even worse, Maddy is worried that Reynolds fancies here. Oh my, the trauma, the tension, the anguish, the pain and the suffering I am having to go through watching this.

I feel I am being a little harsh, but I really expected more from this as I was so looking forward to it, but I am now thinking that two, maybe three more episodes, if there is no improvement, I may have to leave Terra Nova where it belongs, in the past!