Review

The crew are called in after a lifeguard is eaten whole by a prehistoric crocodile-like creature down the local aquatic centre. Try explaining that one to the insurance company! Connor voices the opinion that swimming in pool water would be like swimming in acid for the reptile, hence why it exited stage left. Since there is no anomaly in evidence there isn’t much to be done.

Another anomaly, well okay maybe the same one, opens at a local reservoir and the crocodile-like creature regurgitates the parts of the lifeguard it couldn’t digest into the local waters. Okay that’s the condensed version. Hehehe, get it readers? – "digest"... oh forget about it, I don’t know why I try sometimes. Since there’s no chlorine involved, the creature is content to swim about looking for a meal. Professor Cutter and team discover the anomaly is in the middle of the reservoir and Connor is called upon to defend Abby from attack. Once again the anomaly closes before further investigation can take place, though a diver crosses the threshold before the closure.

A third occurrence happens in the basement of a suburban house, where a plumber is yanked into the water by something unseen. The body of the diver shows up with a sign from Helen Cutter. Prof Cutter decides to go through the anomaly to see if Helen can assist authorities while the Home Office has its own plans for Mrs Cutter.

Episode three of Primeval - I wish they had of thought of episode names – starts pretty impressively for those of us into the whole concept of giant aquatic creatures eating people. Hey, blame it on Lake Placid and Rogue, I can’t get enough of this stuff. We get a dude diving off the high board only to be eaten whole by a pretty realistic looking CGI Murasaur that leaps out of the water like Magic Johnson on a good night. I’m calling Air Jurassic here and am already contacting Laker talent scouts. So right from the get go we know two things about the episode. The team from Walking With Dinosaurs is going to be hitting another one out of the ballpark, and this episode might not be the one to plant the little ones in front of while ripping the cork out of a bottle of sav blanc.

Once again writer Adrian Hodges is out to show he is simply not throwing on an action flick to delight Sci-Fi geeks. We not only get a reiteration of the triangle thing between Steven, Abby, and Connor, but we also get an indication of how ruthless Sir James Lester can be in enforcing Government policy. Police have charged the lifeguard’s girlfriend (Diana Thompson for those interested, she plays no further part in the show kids) with murder due to the disappearance of the Speedo wearing one. Isn’t there this whole notion of habeas corpus in common law? Anyway, Lester isn’t about to use his weight to get Ms Thompson released till the public interest dies down and the whole disappearing lifeguard thing is no longer newsworthy. Given Amy Winehouse’s ability to get pissed and make a complete prat of herself, Ms Thompson probably doesn’t have that long to wait anyway.

There’s a couple of other plot developments in episode three that deserve mention, since by now we are pretty much happy with Cilla Ware’s ability in the director’s chair and as such don’t need to spend most of the review talking her up. Having said that, I did think her handling and lensing of the reservoir underwater scenes were excellent. Just thought I should point that out.

Helen Cutter re-appears in this episode and clearly has a heck of a lot more information about the whole anomaly thing than the Home Office currently has. She can tell us there are more anomalies than we previously supposed, and she isn’t interested in helping out back home but would rather explore the new universe paradigm. Prof Cutter declines to join her and doesn’t try to force her back to the present, not that the decision there made any difference given Lester’s behind the scenes machinations.

The other major plot device is Connor’s college chums, who are starting to take an interest in his extra curricula activities. Seems Connor isn’t interested in a Battlefield Earth night with Director commentary, hey who would be, and he has already missed a Gerry Anderson marathon. The boys decide Connor probably doesn’t have a new girlfriend and vow to keep an eye on him. This simply has to come to fruition somewhere later in the season. Maybe a plot arc to keep our eye on?

With the third episode some depth is being added via plot arcs and the relationships between the characters, things are heating up nicely

Once again the special effects team shine in creating a prehistoric world. This one is populated by the murasaur aquatic crocodile things, and some pretty nasty meat-eating birds. Missing is anything remotely resembling a herbivore, but guess you can’t have everything in your cretaceous salad. Outstanding stuff nonetheless and one of the highlights of Primeval is when a team member goes through an anomaly to a past world. Besides which a bit of skinny dipping in the prehistoric was a nice touch and something you don’t see everyday.

Gosh I wasn’t going to mention director Cilla Ware was I? Just one more point and we’ll move along; trust me, I write episode guides. In a couple of scenes Ms Ware manages to ramp up the tension with the flesh-eating aquatic dinos. Expect the unexpected there, superb touch, and well handled by a Director hitting her stride with Primeval.

Guess since we have half of season one and the whole of season two to get through we can focus on a single actor in each episode rather than trying to cover everyone. So tonight’s special mention goes to Douglas “Dougie” Henshall who plays Professor Nick Cutter. Besides having the best ever accent, slightly biased over here, Dougie pretty much hits all the right notes throughout. He can play the tough dude, the intelligent theorist, and when called upon can touch bases with his emotional side. Well past good casting choice and I’m looking forward to plenty more of Dougie in coming episodes.

I had a hoot and a half with episode three of Primeval, here called Crocodile Tears due to the pun effects, but did note it’s becoming slightly more concerned with a body count. Thin line for the Producers there, the hard core audience aren’t going to mind but there’s that whole younger market with parents who may find the odd victim is too much for the wee folk. Director Ware handles the body count expertly in this episode but hopefully this isn’t an indication that the claret is about to be uncorked; Primeval end of day is about the monsters, we don’t need a Crystal Lake thing going down. Can’t believe I just said that!

Last review, jeez been a while since I visited this show, I mentioned that Primeval was being pinged on two fronts. We already covered Hannah Spearritt prancing about in her knickers, and what sort of weirdo sees anything wrong with that? Ms Spearritt can make a career out of running about in her undies as far as I’m concerned, yo turn up the heat, Rex is looking slightly chilly. The other area the moral guardians are on the attack over is the lack of a lead black character. All I can say is I’m left in WTF land, that’s something I didn’t even think about to be honest. What sort of out of control PC land of the fairies are they currently enjoying in the U.K? For mine it’s a non-issue; I’ll leave it to the Brits to entertain us with reasons why it should be an issue. Hmmm, anyone know if there’s a koori on Ramsey Street? We don’t want to upset the PC brigade.

For anyone into the whole Primeval thing then this is a must-watch episode. A couple of plot arcs have been cast, the show is hitting its pace, and the inter-character banter is settling down nicely. All in all a pretty decent episode. If you haven’t been following the show then my suggestion is to grab the DVD box set and start with episode one. Each episode is kind of stand alone though you will get more out of the character interactions if familiar with happenings in previous episodes. I would tend to give episode three, four leaping mausaurs out of five.

Note for U.S. readers, yes we know you are being hard done by. I’ll try and find out what the Sci-Fi network is doing with the show and throw the skinny at you next review. Last I heard the television cartel were holding off till they had enough episodes to run a season.