Terra Nova: Episode 5- ‘The Runaway’
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 rather impressive episode 3, things sink back in to almost dull territory with episode 4 ‘The Runaway’ There is still the promise of a good story building, especially between Terra Nova and The Sixers, and there are even suggestions in this episode that maybe Taylor is not as good as we initially thought. There is also a hint that just maybe the Sixers are not the bad guys after all? In all honesty, if the makers of the show dare to insult us with actually turning these rather unimpressive plot twists into a reality, then I will be rather annoyed. So far pretty much everything Terra Nova has either hinted at or suggested in some form has come true and that is where the bulk of the issues continue to come from. There are little, if any surprises and so-called plot twists appear so easily it does become a little insulting to the viewers intelligence, so please don’t do the obvious and make the Sixers good and Taylor bad!
This episode focuses on a little girl called Leah, orphaned by the Sixers she looks at Mira as her Mother. She runs away, or so they think, and Taylor takes her in. Naturally the Sixers arrive to get her back, a negotiation follows and Leah gets to chose where she wants to be. Once again Taylor commands the moment as he states to Mira “this is not a negotiation” over the releasing of his captured soldiers, and Taylor stands tall as a man you would not want to fall out with. Mira, on the other hand, comes across as far too easy to control which immediately gives the game away. Is the little girl there with a Sixers agenda? And just what is this box she is trying to find? I don’t know, I found it incredibly difficult watching the little girl as she is a terrible actress. I don’t really want to be mean as she is only young, but I have seen a thousand better actresses of her age, and for a show struggling with its viewing figures, you’ expect something a lot better than merely acceptable acting.
Jim, much to Taylor’s annoyance, is not convinced about anything, he is a cop you see and he must question everything, and so heads off into the jungle to find clues only to be caught by the Sixers. Mira tries to seduce him with talk of Taylor not being all that he seems, and even tells of dangerous, powerful people from the future wanting him dead. This just might lead somewhere, and suddenly Jim’s face is full of confusion, more so than usual. To the best of my memory I don’t recall any Dinosaurs in this episode apart from a very brief moment where Jim is hung upside down, so where are they? The main selling point to this show was the fact it was based in the Dinosaur age, but we hardly get to see any! I was really, truly hoping this would start to pick up after the impressive episode 3, but episode 4 has fallen flat again. There are some stories in there desperate to come into play, but it seems every episode has to wrap everything up nicely so that the following episode will pretty much start again from scratch. The show is far too easy, it needs some surprises, a few more Taylor-like characters, or at the very least characters to actually care about, it needs Dinosaurs and it desperately needs to find its heart.
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