Primeval is a British science fiction drama television program produced by Impossible Pictures for ITV. The first episode was broadcast on 10th February 2007, and was renewed for a second series by ITV, which started on 12th January 2008.
The series follows a team of scientists who investigate anomalies in time and deal with the creatures that travel through. The team of five is led by Professor Nick Cutter, a palaeontologist determined to find his wife, who disappeared while investigating an anomaly in the Forest of Dean eight years previously.
From the Wikipedia entry on Primeval.
As much as the premise sounds ridiculous, the series is actually quite good. Things really get interesting when the predator from the future arrives in our timeline and wreaks havoc. There is also the enigmatic Helen, Dr. Nick Cutter’s ex-wife, who travels between times. She’s trying to get to the future era, but spends most of her time in the Permian Era.
I actually like the second series a lot more than the new season of Torchwood, and that’s saying a lot. The actors are good in Primeval and they have good chemistry, something that is completely absent from Torchwood. To confound matters even further, Dr. Cutter changed something by traveling into the past. Claudia Brown is missing and no one knows of her. He might have just stepped into an alternate worldline. However, clues are shown that there might be other time traveling agents involved. This show is really getting good.
Most definitely, Primeval is way better that the current season of Torchwood. Primeval is better than the first season of Torchwood. There are better action scenes, the script is better and it’s just plain more entertaining. The team is interesting and although Connor, Cutter and Stephen’s lovelife is a part of the show, it’s part of the fun. Connor is just the über geek. Stephen is still sleeping with Helen, behind Cutter’s back. Cutter doesn’t know what to do about the Claudia Brown mystery.
This is the season finale for the second season. We learn more about Helen, but not enough details. She has been to the future and has come back. She plans on changing the worldline to suit her needs. In fact she has already done so. What will be the consequences of her plans?
The episode ends with a bang. One member of the team will be gone, but for how long?
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
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It the end of the last episode, Cutter and his team were kidnapped by Leek and brought to his holding facility. Jen tells Cutter that she isn’t betrothed anymore. Helen is listening in to their conversation.
Leek imprisons Caroline as well. Connor is told about how she was paid to pick him up. Abby wants to find Rex. They have a cat fight. Connor stops them.
Lester is alone and surprised that nothing is happening at the ARC. Leek plans on releasing some of the creatures onto an unsuspecting public. He starts with the giant Silurian scorpions on the beach in Brighton. It starts eating a few people.
Cutter and Jen are talking. It’s not apparent if he knows that they are being spied on. Helen wants to talk with Cutter. Helen wants to change the present. She went into the future and came back with the neural clamp technology. Abby sees Rex. Helen is quite mad. She wants to do a controlled experiment. She wants to experimentally change the present to change the future.
Lester calls Stephen to help out. Stephen wants to do it alone. He will only help Lester if he does it by himself. Leek calls Lester. He threatens to let the creatures go one by one if Lester continues searching for them.
Stephen is hunting the scorpion. It looks like he’s enjoying himself. He’s trying to provoke it. He is able to detain it.
Cutter learns that it’s all about money. Leek is about to give the rest of the team up for dinner for the Smilodons. Helen thinks he is mad as well. Leek won’t budge. Abby realizes that one of the cats is the one that killed Valerie.
Cutter remembers something and throws some water on a keyboard. That’s enough to disable the mainframe. It’s enough to get the others out. Cutter gets out of his restraints. The Smilodon’s attack cuts down the power. Cutter tells Helen that he made a little performance for her. She doesn’t believe him. He plans on handing her off to Lester. Leek has already run away. Cutter was about to shoot Helen, but a guard distracts him. The creatures are let loose.
Leek’s mainframe is sending information to the ARC, thanks to Connor’s virus. Leek lets the neurally clamped future predator loose. Cutter is being tracked by it.
Helen tells Stephen that Lester had the others killed. She tells him whatever Lester will say, it’s a lie.
Rex finds a ventilation shaft to the surface. He leads the others out. Rex has been shot. Caroline rescues him. They make their way outside the facility.
Cutter is cornered by the creature. It examines him. While it does this, Cutter rips the neural clamp off. Leek comes in. There are about 20 other future predators crawling around on the ceiling.
Stephen finds Helen. She tells him that Cutter is dead once again. Lester tells Leek that all of the creatures have been rounded up. Leek threatens to have the creatures dismember Cutter. Cutter plugs his salvaged neural clamp into the electrical grid. It shorts out the network of neural clamps. Cutter gets away. Leek is dismembered by the creatures instead.
Stephen sees Cutter. He finds out that Helen was lying to him. They need to stop the creatures, otherwise they will kill everyone. Helen says that sounding the siren will make them come back. They will expect food. The creatures will tear each other apart. They try to leave but find out that one of them will have to stay behind to lock the doors of the containment facility behind the others. Cutter is about to go, but Stephen knocks him out. Creatures are circling him. Stephen is going to die. Helen uses this cue to get away.
The episode closes with Stephen’s funeral. Helen deposits a fossil on Stephen’s grave. She says that things can change. All of her soldiers are the same man. This means that she plans on bringing him back somehow.
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