Dystopians: The Leadership of Cis, Straight, White, Able-Bodied Men.

Dystopian worlds have become very popular lately. Whether it is Revolution, Falling Skies, The Walking Dead or Defiance, the one thing they all have in common is straight, cisgender, able bodied White male leadership. This suggests that at the end of the day, no matter the circumstance White masculinity represents authority, logic, safety, and intelligence. People of colour and women are often relegated to side characters who week after week submit to this authority and often times appear to be grateful for it.  It is no accident that the White male is so revered in dystopians. It plays upon the idea that White straight masculinity is a declining power because of resistance by women, people of colour and of course GLBT people. It suggests that there will come a time when nature will correct itself and once again White men will rule the world, as though that is not the current situation and further; the world will be grateful for it.

Sometimes the writers make the effort to explain why these men are in charge - in The Walking Dead Rick is a cop who people look to for stability; rather more dubiously, Nolan is the only person in Defiance able to step into the Lawkeeper’s shoes (apparently). But often leadership just happens - in Terra Nova Jim rises to become second in command in all but name after smuggling himself to the colony and despite there being more experienced people (Alicia Washington, a woman of colour). In Falling Skies Tom is a history professor who has risen to a leadership role in the military before the show even starts and manages to become a major player in all the leadership councils. There’s no real reason for their leadership - leadership just settles upon them.

Even in situations where the great White leader is in a secondary role like for example Joshua Nolan’s position relative to mayor Amanda Rosewater in Defiance, the man still takes a leadership role, rarely coming close to respecting her position. As the mayor she is supposed to run the town, yet Nolan frequently makes decisions on his own, flouts her authority and has all of the delicacy of a bull in a china shop interacting with the various citizens of Defiance. Nolan hadn’t even been in town for a New York minute before Amanda was placing a badge on his chest.  It was Nolan who led and planned the defence of Defiance when it was attacked and though Amanda participated, clearly Nolan was in charge.

This straight, White, male leadership is also typified by dictatorship. On Falling Skies we have military leadership that eventually reaches ‘democracy’ but only in the sense that the supreme dictator is elected - I saw no legislative body or organs of government. Terra Nova is completely under Taylor’s dictatorial control without a pretence of anything else. The Walking Dead is famous for its Rickocracy - and in the comics, Rick’s refusal to even keep Michonne and Andrea informed of his plans is inexcusable considering what they’ve been through together. Even Nolan, subject  to Amanda’s authority, has to be talked into agreeing with her as much as anything and frequently ignores her.

On the rare occasion when leadership passes  on to someone who isn’t a cis, straight, White man then that leadership will be flawed - either the outright enemy on Terra Nova or such incredible ineptness on The Falling Skies that Marina is suspected of being a mole for the aliens.

One of the most glaring elements of this firm placement of cis straight White men as leaders is how impossible it is to actually depose him from his throne! I am actually genuinely curious as to exactly these men have to do for everyone around them to decide that maybe, just maybe, they shouldn’t be the one calling the shots or the one they shelter behind.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 12 & 13: Occupation, Resistance

 Back in the bleak bleak future, an army is mustering, with an ominous looking Weaver talking to  Lucas about his dinosaur scars the mining equipment they have ready.

In Terra Nova, Taylor is preparing his troops ahead of the invading 11^th pilgrimage army. Malcolm reminds us they can’t shut down the portal because they’d still arrive – but at a random point, at least with the terminus they know where they’re coming from. The Shannons are all domestic and ready – and Josh still hopes Kara’s going to make it through. Lots of goodbyes, and dramatic scenes of war preparation, Reynolds kisses Maddy goodbye (without getting permission from her father in triplicate! The cad!) Taylor leaves Washington behind at Terra Nova to keep her safe (and ensure its Jim at his side during the actions scenes) and they move out.

The portal opens and the 11^th pilgrimage arrives. Actual pilgrims, including Kara. Until one comes through with a bomb strapped to him – he has time to ask for help before exploding messily. No-one expected this? Someone’s not been watching their Stargate episodes. Jim is knocked to the floor semi-conscious and we have dramatic images of numerous injured and burned people.

He wakes, deafened and disorientated by the blast in a hospital. He staggers outside to find a devastated and occupied Terra Nova, with Mira and Lucas in the command building. Elizabeth rescues him and brings him back to the infirmary and explains what happened. The bomb blew up the gate, allowing them to open the portal somewhere else, it opened close to Terra Nova and they attacked the colony, Taylor couldn’t move his troops to help in time.

At home Jim sees his kids and finds Josh mourning Kara’s death and finding that all weapons have been confiscated and that there’s a curfew. The survivors in Terra Nova are hostages to prevent Taylor and his forces – still out there – from retaking the colony. Even Boylan is being forced to hand out free drinks rather than taking fake Terra money. Jim goes to see Washington to ask her what’s going on (why doesn’t he know? Elizabeth explained everything). Washington calls the soldiers the “Phoenix Group”, mercenaries hired by whoever Lucas is working for. Washington had to surrender when they started shelling the colony and slaughtering innocent people. They brought a new portal terminus through, but it was broken by dinosaurs. So they now have to fix it – and Malcolm is the one fixing it. Jim fires up Washington and brings her out of her depression to get her ready to fight them – hurting them until they’re gone.

Mira notices Jim is missing and Jim goes to see Malcolm. He’s working as slowly as he can because they killed his assistant, but he’s trying to stall. Lucas’s team finds Jim but with Malcolm’s help he pretends to be disabled by the blast and unable to understand. Lucas has a creepy moment with Skye who he has decided is his sibling now (he doesn’t need a reason) and Mira is been sent off on a mission to the Badlands – no questions asked (or answered anyway).

One of the soldiers brought in after a skirmish with Taylor’s men has some bullets removed in the infirmary – and the bullets have map co-ordinates on them, Taylor’s rendez-vous point. Using a distraction from their friendly wheelchair bound market trader they slow up a convoy of Lucas and Weaver and Jim manages to sneak aboard to leave the compound.

Out there the bad guys talk about an entire valley of super meteoric ore but infested with wildlife. Weaver shows what a bad guy he is by shooting and killing a Brachiosaur, which even Lucas protests is harmless (and I protest for its cannon shredding! Mira, Taylor, Jim, everyone have been shooting dinosaurs at point blank range and causing mild irritation – but Weaver’s gun can one shot a Brachiasaurus?) The plan is to use a bomb to clear the valley and, later to use several big bombs across the continent to destroy all wildlife and foliage, leaving it free to mine the Unobtainium without dangerous wildlife (and giant blue cat people. Oh, wait, wrong story).

Jim meets up with Taylor and tells him what’s happening. They race to where the bomb has been planted to diffuse it. There’s a race as Weaver notices heat sources around the bomb, Riley, one of Taylor’s soldiers, works at diffusing the bomb while Lucas tries to get out of the blast zone so he can blow up the bomb and his father with it. Riley gets it done on time (and most wonderfully tells everyone to shut up and stop heckling her). In a snit, Lucas fires cluster bombs at Taylor and crew which does nothing as they drive off in their armoured vehicle.

Jim and Taylor compare casualty reports and bring everyone back to speed before Jim returns to Terra Nova, with a communicator from Taylor so they can keep in touch.

There follows a wonderful reversal of roles. Taylor’s men out in the woods, Jim and Washington acting as spies, planting tracking beacons on the mercenaries so Taylor can launch raids and Lucas having more and more temper tantrums.

He comes to the conclusion they have a spy and tries for some sibling bonding with Skye in the bar over their father figure Taylor, especially since Taylor hasn’t spoken to Skye since she was revealed as a spy (admittedly he hasn’t exactly had time to). He gets more touchy feely with Skye until Josh attacks him (because Josh has the brains of the drink he is serving). They soldiers drag him off Lucas and then hold him so Lucas can punch Josh (oh I’ve been waiting a whole season to see that). Skye runs for help.

So called, Jim rushes to the bar (blowing his cover as disabled and unable to understand) to attack Lucas and the mercenaries with his crutches. Of course Jim is a big damn hero and can take on a room full of squaddies until they draw guns on him. And they find the transponder he was carrying, revealing him as the spy. Wow, he held that cover for… minutes?

This gives Josh and Jim time to bond in the prison and Lucas comes in for a round of Jim torturing that, alas, we don’t get to see.

Meanwhile, boss man Weaver has a horrible rash from being bitten by one of the insects and is not appreciative of the natural wonders of Terra Nova and all the wonderful creatures that try to eat you. But don’t worry, he’s been treated by Dr. Shannon who tells him she’s injected him with terrible, nasty parasites (her husband is being tortured in in prison, the Hippocratic oath just took a back seat) if he wants the cure, he’ll help her free her husband.

Terra Nova: Season 1, Episode 11: Within

 Taylor and Jim are examining the portal exist – before the 4^th Pilgrimage when the exit arrived, the portals used to open in a fairy wide area – including a pilgrimage opening in the middle of a lake. The portal opening fixes the exit in place. And the 11^th pilgrimage is due very soon, and Taylor wants the spy. Which involves questioning more of the women in the infirmary – including Skye, the spy – and she makes playing chess with Josh her alibi.

Back at the Shannon household sibling annoyances continue and Maddy’s little hand-held tablet thing breaks. Alas, until the 11^th Pilgrimage arrives, it’s going to be ahrd for her to get a replacement part and there’s a colony wide shortage (yes, these little machines that everyone uses needs parts they can’t produce and have a shortage of. This is because Terra Nova is run by people who are as capable of organising this colony as I am of setting up a moon base).  Josh has advice on where she may be able to get a new chip (possibly illicitly) before leaving to his new apprenticeship. On the way he meets up with Skye who wants him to lie for her. While he’s originally reluctant, she manages to talk him into it.

That night, Skye leaves Terra Nova, goes to an outpost where she picks up a gun and goes to see the Sixers with further intel. She goes to see her mother, bringing food – and Lucas Taylor is there waiting for her. He has a job for her (and is being suitably menacing about it), he needs his equations to be finished, he could do it by hand in months or in Terra Nova’s futurewiki in an hour. And if Skye doesn’t co-operate, her mother dies.

Jim is walking around ordering Washington how to secure the perimeter (yes, it’s official, Jim is well and truly above Washington on the ladder) and checks Skye’s alibi with Josh – Josh lies for Skye. And Skye goes and does Lucas’s coding in the Eye and returns with it to him – he’s happy and dismisses her, nice guy.

But, after weeks of Skye going out to visit her mother/illicit still/just for shits and giggles, Washington and Jim have finally decided to check for quiet ways in and out and have footage of Skye sneaking out through a drainage ditch. Jim realises that Josh has been lying and goes to confront him about it and he admits he lied.

Jim takes the new to Taylor – who has been raising Skye as his ward almost since her parents died (as far as he knew, since her mother is still alive and with the Sixers)  with lots of proof of her leaving, her faked alibis, her stories not adding up, the patches in her times. Taylor is shocked and wants Jim to check it with Connor – his man in the Sixer camp (assuming Connor did actually become his mole and not just join the Sixers…) because when it’s someone Taylor likes he needs overwhelming, beyond any doubt at all, reasonable or otherwise proof – not just a vague suspicion  which is normally all it takes for the Supreme Leader to pass sentence.

Taylor plays chess with Skye with lots of totally-not-subtle “I didn’t see that one coming” and “your move” significant references while also discussing a convoy he intends to lead. He goes off on the convoy and Skye leaves Terra Nova quickly. Jim and Taylor set up to ambush them (yes, Jim’s even leading military operations now) but nothing happens. The Sixers don’t attack. Taylor can’t understand why Skye didn’t tell them and Jim realises that none of their really important patrols of military manoeuvres have been attacked (really? Because I seem to recall once or twice when they were) and makes the leap that Skye is working under duress and only giving the Sixers unimportant information

Switch to Skye trying to bring food for her mother and Mira threatening her with the bad intel she’s been giving the Sixers – especially since the Sixers saw the convoy and Skye didn’t report on it. She also gets to see the increasingly creepy and disturbing Lucas who is very excited about his calculations being finished. He warns her that she shouldn’t go back to Terra Nova because his employers are going to come through the portal and flatten the place because “to control the past is to control the future.” He also doubles up his daddy issues and is gleeful that he gets to beat his father, something he’s wanted to do since he was 14.

Skye goes to her mother and confesses and cries because the bad people she gives information to are going to do bad things. Her mother tells her to stop being a spy and if she had known she would have stopped it long ago – she tells her to go see Taylor and tell him everything.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 10: Now You See Me

 Taylor is talking to Skye – hey, remember her? The anniversary of her parent’s death is approaching and Taylor is trying to raise her spirits. Taylor is heading off outside the gate (and, to my brief amusement, one of the soldiers even dares to apply the rules of Terra Nova to the Supreme Leader! Silly boy.) While he’s away, he reminds Jim to find the spy and that he’s the only person Taylor fully trusts (not like Washington who has been his second in command, friend and colleague since before coming to Terra Nova). At least Jim’s only in charge because Washington is out with a survey team (wow, Jim leaped that chain of command, didn’t he?)

Taylor goes rambling through the wilderness, alone, until he finds more of the equations that his son, Lucas has left. As he is scanning them, he’s surprised by Mira pointing a gun at him. She takes him prisoner and they begin the trek back to her camp, snarling and snarking at each other all the way. Taylor manages to secret a sharp object in his bound hands and Mira mentions that the Sixer project was supposed to take 6 months and if it weren’t for Taylor she’d be back in the future with her daughter. She smacks Taylor for judging her – she was living on the street and her daughter had a disease and she couldn’t afford to get her medical treatment. Of course she’s going to take the chance for a better life for her daughter.

Holding Taylor isn’t easy and when Mira is distracted (almost mesmerised) but a pterosaur he manages to turn the tables and she’s the one captured. More snarling follows including some hint of a rift between Taylor and Lucas that began in Somalia and Mira revealing that Lucas is the one in charge of the Sixers, not her. Right before they hear dinosaurs rustling in the bushes.

Something is watching them – and they notice even when they begin to melt a little and Taylor asks after Mira’s daughter and Mira tells him Lucas looks ok. They sweetness and light is interrupted by 2 dinosaurs leaping at them and chasing them (why why why are dinosaurs immune to the guns they have?). They run until they reach a large cliff and waterfall – with nowhere else to go, Taylor cuts the rope tying Mira’s hands and they jump over the falls. At the bottom they’ve avoided the Slashers -adolescents claiming their territory making them more aggressive since they’re not just hunting prey. Which means they’ll be back, and Taylor lost the gun over the falls. They only have knives and it’ll be dark before they can get to Mira’s transport. They plan to stand and fight the Slashers.

Taylor makes a bow and Mira prepares a flammable coating for the arrows. Taylor claims superior experience since he arrived on Terra Nova first and spent a 100 days alone there, but Mira points out she’s spent about a thousand since the Sixers left Terra Nova and were forced to learn how to survive. She also worked security for a group called the “secessionists” in the future- and when they lost that’s how she got a criminal record and was prevented from working again. They drive the dinosaurs back with fire and bows rather dramatically – and then bond over a meal of grubs, both wishing they could be allies.

At the camp Jim quickly starts throwing his weight around, irritating Malcolm with his new security protocols. Reynolds, who is a little creepy with his 1950s-ish behaviour is extra nervous with his girlfriend’s father now being Acting Supreme Leader. He’s called out by flashing lights in the wilderness which look like Sixer signals – turning to Terra Nova they see more flashing lights used to responds (after the insect last episode, the Sixers are looking for a new way to communicate with their spy).

Terra Nova: Season 1, Episode 9: Vs

 We open with an odd twist – it seems Mira, head of the Sixers, is using giant dragon flies to spy on Terra Nova.

Boylan, the naughty barman, is being held by Taylor and questioned about what he did for the Sixers, Boylan insisted that it was just trade – medical supplies, never information. He continues to claim ignorance about everything else – Taylor’s son, how Mira communicates with the future etc. Taylor leaves the prison – and turns on a siren, preventing Boylan from sleeping. He’s torturing him with sleep deprivation.

In a pleasant domestic scene, Elizabeth, Josh (who hasn’t been eaten), Maddie and Zoe are preparing for the harvest festival – the day they use to celebrate Taylor coming through the portal. They even have a Harvest Play in which Zoe has won the leading role as Taylor himself (almost like kids playing a nativity – yeaaa).

Josh, in a move that makes me not want to kill him for once, asks his dad to check on Boylan, since no-one has seen him since Taylor took him for interrogation (loyal lackey Jim disapproves of not using the Supreme Leader’s full title and further objects to the word “interrogate” don’t be silly, he’s just being questioned! Alone, without any oversight. That’s fiiiiine! Someone better start challenging this dictatorship, I’m running out of sarcasm). Jim agrees after making it clear that rule breaking just isn’t allowed (well, except by him. He’s special).

Taylor takes Jim to see Boylan where we find him not only sleep deprived but also zonked by the drugs Taylor gave him (Jim is concerned that Taylor may have given him a little too much – not the drugging, just the EXCESS drugging, you understand). Jim points out that Boylan did actually save Taylor’s life once – but Taylor thinks it’s all good, after all, even if he isn’t the spy he may give the real spy false confidence by holding Boylan. And he doesn’t need any silly grounds to hold people! Drugged and confused, Boylan babbles something about a secret buried under the pilgrim tree, something that will make it “all over for Taylor.”

The Pilgrim’s Tree is apparently the tree that Supreme Leader Taylor lived in when he first arrived (as such gets a special revered name – which is totally not creepy and not trying to form his own cult, honest). Jim, being the only person allowed to question the Supreme Leader, decides to go to this tree (apparently at night and beyond the fence, which are big no-nos) and, laughably start digging. This tree is huge – as in Redwood huge – and Jim just takes a spade and starts digging at some random point around its trunk. He gets lucky (surprise surprise) and unearths… a skull! (Dramatic music time!)

Jim takes the full skeleton back to Elizabeth to examine who says it’s a middle aged man with an arm missing at the elbow (though she doesn’t know if it was done before or after death or whether it was animal activity. It has to be said, she’s not the most insightful of pathologists). She thinks he’s been dead for 4-6 years and he may have been shot – there’s a hole in one rib. He asks Elizabeth to do more investigating – without telling Taylor.

Jim tries to get more out of Boylan but Taylor hovering around makes it difficult and Jim has to make excuses. And at the Worship-the-Supreme-Leader play with the kids, one of the soldiers smacks Mira’s spy-dragonfly and Maddy notices it has a microchip on its leg. Taking the chip to Malcolm and Taylor they realise the Sixers and their spy are using the dragon fly as a kind of carrier pigeon.

 Meanwhile a Terra Nova patrol is ambushed by Mira and the Sixers. They injured soldiers return to upset Taylor, especially as Washington points out that she put together the team after Taylor locked up Boylan – he can’t have leaked the information but Mira clearly knew all the details of the patrol. Taylor agrees to let Boylan go (don’t mind the torture and drugging, bygones!)

Elizabeth continues her investigate the dead man and pulls up a mystery – not only is his DNA not logged in any pilgrimage, but the special molecular imprinting time travel causes shows he arrived between the second and third pilgrimages – when pilgrimages are supposed to be the only way to travel back in time.

Terra Nova: Season 1, Episode 8: Proof

 

Let us begin with a nice “rawr lookit our CGI!”

They should begin more episodes like that.

It leads to Jim – aww, damn, can we go back to the CGI? No? Damn it – anyway, Jim and Taylor playing with bows proving that they are, indeed, accurate enough to hit the sea. I feel a more challenging target may be in order.  Apparently it’s a lazy way to fish. Jim is nearly killed by a giant prehistoric monster fish but, alas, Taylor saves him.

Back at Terra Nova, Maddy is all gleeful because her scientific hero, Ken Horton, is returning from an expedition. The doctor himself (oooh English accent, 60% chance of being evil!) brushes past and dismisses Malcolm before going to a full range of check ups with Elizabeth. Maddy gushes all over her hero, gets his autograph and is taken on as his assistant. Yet he’s not everything what she expects – there are things he doesn’t seem to remember. She also reveals she wrote a fan letter to him which he replied to – he wants to see the reply so he can keep a copy for his archive.

When she goes home she talks to Elizabeth about her misgivings and notices that the signatures between the letter she received and the autograph don’t match – but Elizabeth points out Horton had a stroke that could have changed him and warns her that heroes often disappoint – before going to stop Zoe overflowing the bathroom.

The longer Maddy spends with him – including looking at the blighted apple crop – the more Maddy becomes suspicious of his lapses in memory. She becomes ever more suspicious as Horton doesn’t hand in his report of his trip to an irate Malcolm. Horton goes on to lose her letter which she is convinced is part of his secret – and she sneaks into his house to take it back, but only finds fragments of it, burned in his bin. When she hides under his table to avoid him, Horton enters, leaning heavily on his stick, which he casts aside and walks without a limp as soon as he thinks he’s alone.

She is convinced Horton is an imposter and steals his coffee cup to compare his DNA against the DNA on the envelope of the letter the real Horton sent her. She compares it in the science lab but Malcolm catches her and points out what a serious violation of privacy it is. Learning that she suspects Horton, Malcolm agrees to help – though it seems more to do with professional jealousy or dislike of the man than

However, the DNA is a match – it seems Horton is legit. This doesn’t stop Maddy and she wonders if Horton had a research assistant who mailed Horton’s post and then stole his identity. She researches the research assistant, Andrew Fickett, in the super-future-wiki and finds that he is the same age, height and build. Checking out crimes for the area she also finds an unidentified male murder victim who had his eyes and hands mutilated so he couldn’t be identified. She believes Fickett murdered Horton (told you, evil) – which is when he pops up behind her. He tries to menace her but she easily escapes

But when she goes to pick up Zoe from school, the teacher tells her that Horton has already picked her up. Maddy finds them at the apple fields and sends Zoe back to her dad, staying with Horton. He ties her up and tells her that Horton was far from a great man (and doesn’t believe her when she promises not to tell anyone, of course). He has a clever way of killing her – forcing her hand into a cage with a poisonous spider… until Jim arrives and rescues her, summoned by the secret panic words Jim taught his daughters.

That night Elizabeth admits that she didn’t listen to Maddy but insists that Maddy force them to listen rather than deal with something like this on her own. And Jim praises her for trusting her gut even when all the evidence was against her. WHY!? Why is this even remotely laudable?! Someone who sticks to their guns when everything proves them wrong isn’t praiseworthy – they’re foolish and stubborn and 99% of the time completely and utterly wrong! Ugh, I hate hate hate hate hate hate the media’s worship of “gut” or “instinct”.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 7: Nightfall

 Examining Mira’s mystery box, Malcolm tells Taylor that’s it’s linked to someone’s DNA and only they can open it (c’mon, you don’t have a blow torch? It’s like a skeleton key for the clumsy!)

Everyone is living their happy domestic lives and Hunter (that’s one of Josh’s gang of people who have one brain to share between them) has drunk something he really really shouldn’t have and is suffering in the medical bay.

Maddy and Mark go to look at flowers and try to romantically out geek each other.

Jim takes Zoe under the colony so she can see their futuristic Wikipedia with extra invasive pictures of everything and everywhere – including the house Zoe was born in. Jim tells her about her birth that they had to keep hidden since having a 3^rd child was against the law.

And a meteor plummets to Earth – it smashes down near Terra Nova sending out an EMP blast that knocks out all technology and then a sonic blast to send everyone sprawling. In the aftermath Taylor and Washington gather their troops to tell them the bad news –all things electronic just got fried. First things first they need to watch out for the wildlife since their usual defences are down.

Elizabeth’s medical facility is in chaos without power and all their fancy gizmos and it also means that she has to operate on Hunter the old fashioned way, with an actual scalpel. And then pulling the parasite out and slowly winding it up. Ick. She recruits Skye to continue the rolling up of the parasite so she can treat people injured in a rover accident. Which leaves Skye holding the coil when the parasite cuts in two and begins sending Hunter into a seizure and just when he was confessing his love for her.

Jim and Zoe in the basement find all the doors locked and they can’t get hold of anyone  - but the future Wikipedia thing is still working. To get out they need Zoe to crawl down an access tunnel and come out the other side and open the door with a manual override, something which takes lots of convincing.

And Mark and Maddy are out in the wilderness with a broken rover and even the gun requires electronics to work. Walking back they coat themselves in stinking mud to put off the roving carnivores. Despite that, when night falls they still have to scrabble up a tree to avoid Nykoraptors (hey, you’re fictional dinosaur is already established as a tree climber! Last episode in fact!)  Being stuck up a tree cove red in foul smelling mud and surrounded by predators is apparently romantic.

But worry not, Macolm has a solution! Terra Nova predicted this and has a Chip Fabricator that can make any chip in seconds and with it Malcolm can easily churn out replacement chips. Except the chip that make the Chip Fabricator work has been fried. As far as contingency plans go, this one doesn’t seem very well thought through. Who can fix the chip? That would be Boylan.

What, really? A full colony full of people from the 22^nd century and there’s only one – ONE – person capable of fixing microchips? Boylan’s haggling for hefty rewards is shortcut by Taylor threatening bodily harm if he doesn’t fix it. Ah he knows how to motivate people.

To make matters worse, the Sixers realise Terra Nova is dark and Mira plans an attack. To overcome Terra Nova’s alertness and greater numbers they herd a giant Spinosaur towards Terra Nova

Jim gets out and commandeers a soldier to take Zoe to safety while he, without equipment (unlike the soldier) joins Taylor in looking out the fence where the Spinosaur is coming. Taylor’s plan is a fire arrow – and gives the second bow to Jim (why not Washington or any of the other soldiers? Because Jim is the special protagonist!) they shoot at a moat of flammable liquid Taylor had dug around the fence when he realised the power would be down for a while – clever forward thinking. But wouldn’t it be better giving the bow to someone who knew what the plan was? The fire turns back the Spinosaur, but Taylor sees the spears in its legs and realises that it was been herded as a diversion. Leaving Washington on the fence, he takes Jim to go check on the box.

Time for a fight over the box with Jim and Taylor against several Sixers. Jim chases after the box while Taylor fights the remaining Sixer until Boylan intervenes with an old fashioned 6-shooter – and kills the Sixer. But Jim fails to catch the box thief and it ends up in Mira’s hands. In the good news, Hunter is saved when Elizabeth gets the chip for the bio-bed replaced (the EMP only fried one teeny tiny chip in the whole man-sized machine). Taylor reiterates his determination to find the spy.

Mark and Maddy wake up in their tree, having survived the night and manages to get home before anyone notices she’s gone. And Elizabeth plots to set Josh up with Skye.

Mira goes out into the jungle to pass on the box to a young man with odd scars on the back of his head. He has little time for her and less manners. She tells him her job was to pass the box to him – but doesn’t know what it’s for and he doesn’t tell her. He opens it and the hologram of angles and equations appears. He starts to leave and Mira tells him to be careful – Taylor knows he’s getting close to an answer – and yes, this is Lucas Taylor, Commander Taylor’s son. And he won’t stop unless his dad kills him.

I can't say I didn't see the big surprise coming - but still, it's nice to see some weighty meta-plot, I'd like to see how this develops

Same problems - I'm just not that interested in Jim. Really, this episode didn't need him at all - but we had to fill up with him singing a ridiculous song about spiders. Would the episode have changed even slightly if he and Zoe remained stuck until someone freed them?  And he escapes, doesn't have a clue what's going on and is instantly moved straight up to the front. I'm tired of his super-special-protagonist-ness.

Terra Nova Season 1, Episode 6: Bylaw

 Foster is our extra of the week going to check on an isolated outpost – which he finds empty, except for the dinosaur that leaps on him and eats him. Tasty extras are an essential part of a dinosaur’s diet.

Time for Malcolm, Jim and Taylor to check out the body – a nykoraptor (yes have a Dino Geek Grumble for fictional dinos) which doesn’t usually hunt in the area but since there are Ankylosaur nests nearby it’s not unusual since they go for the eggs.

Jim has Elizabeth autopsy the dead extra anyway (and brings along Zoe because she’s feigning illnesses to see her mother) and they find blood on him that belongs to a gallusaur – the nykoraptor’s favourite food. Jim declares it to be a murder and calls in Taylor. Someone used the gallusaur to lure a nykoraptor into the shed and locked it in (covering the back of the door in scratches) so it would kill Foster the minute he opened the door. Taylor wants the murderer found and assigns Washington to Jim to investigate.

To Boylan’s (the corrupt Sixer agent) bar where Foster’s friends are drinking after his death who reveal he had an unknown girlfriend (and that future dogtags double as Ipads). Checking Foster’s personal effects they find no tags at all (also that future land not only still uses metal currency but the coins are ridiculously huge). Since the tags have a locator on them, they track it and find it’s probably been eaten by the nykoraptor.

It takes Taylor, Washington, Jim, 2 extras, 2 bikes and 2 rovers to track down and hunt the nykoraptor. Despite climbing a tree, Taylor shoots it and Washington, being an awesome combat medic, cuts it’s open, removes the tags then sews it back up. Uh…. Why? Since when is it good procedure to leave vicious predators that have realised man is a tasty and easily killed treat, alive?  Are they endangered or something?

From the tags they see the picture of a woman – Washington recognises her as someone who works at the mess hall. Going to see her, Rebecca Milner, she denies and relationships – she’s married (possibly to get on the pilgrimage). Her husband arrives and he reveals he knows about the affair – and confesses to the murder. We have a scene where he describes the elaborate process of murdering Foster and how much he loved Rebecca but she was using him.

Taylor is not amused – and not amused with Foster, his men getting involved with a married Terra Novan is a big no-no, but not worth a death sentence. He talks about their graveyard and how this would be the very first murder they’ve had (despite the Sixers fighting and running from the compound?)  and the law says the punishment for murder is banishment (which, on Terra Nova is like a delayed death sentence) unless he commutes it to imprisonment.

Terra Nova: Season 1, Episode 5: The Runaway

Outside the fence the guards see warm-blooded movement which they take to be a Sixer. Patrols are dispatched lead by Lt Washington to run out into the night and try and track it down. After a lot of chasing through the woods they catch the figure – it’s a little girl.

(And yes, I had a Dino Geek grumble at the idea of all dinosaurs being cold blooded)

They take the girl to the hospital where she fights, runs and hides. Elizabeth arrives and shoos everyone out – including Commander Taylor – since the girl is terrified. Elizabeth slowly draws her out. She’s Leah Marcos and her parents are dead. She’s trying to get to see her Nana – who still lives in the future. She recognises Taylor as “the bad man” and he remembers her as a very small child and remembers that she had a brother, Sam. Elizabeth explains to Leah that the portal doesn’t go both ways – once you’re through you can’t go back. Leah’s confused - she can’t stay with “the bad man” and she can’t go back to Mira or she’ll be hurt for running away.

Taylor realises she could be a good source of intelligence, but they need her trust first. He gently suggests that Elizabeth takes her in and she instantly falls for it and Jim’s minor objections are quickly quashed. Elizabeth suggests putting Josh on the sofa.

Josh isn’t best thrilled but Maddy explains that she’s a girl and Zoe’s 6. Josh doesn’t follow this logic but Leah arrives cutting debate. They welcome her but she’s silent and very nervous. She crawls on a bed and huddles under a blanket, not even getting into the bed properly.

Lt. Washington and another soldier go looking for Leah’s lost bag – they find it. But they also find a pack of Sixers who attack them. He goes down quickly but Washington puts up a fight until Mira arrives and knocks her unconscious.

At Terra Nova, Leah and Zoe are left with Josh as a babysitter and Maddy goes to start her apprenticeship with Elizabeth and is a little squeamish at the sight of mangled flesh. Taylor and Jim discuss when it’s appropriate to start asking Leah questions when the Sixers arrive. Mira demands Leah’s return in exchange for Washington and the extra. Taylor denies kidnapping her and tells Mira the girl can decide her own fate. Mira lets Washington and the extra go (showing that Mira trusts Taylor’s word – or that she’s stood in the firing lines of Terra Nova)

Leah is brought out and Mira tells the child to say she wants to come home and tries to bully her into speaking. Leah tells her she ran away and she wants to stay in Terra Nova. As she leaves, Taylor tells Mira that since this is the second time she’s come to the gates and threatened the colony, the third time she does it, he’ll go to war. Personally I’d have opened fire on them as they retreated, but that’s just me.

Realising that the mole must have contacted the Sixers since Leah arrived, Taylor has Jim check who was outside the gates since she arrived. The whole  place is very welcoming to Leah, making her feel much more at home and Taylor discusses Leah showing them where she camped with the constantly moving Sixers.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 4: What Remains

 We open with a man in Outpost 5, who seems to have learning difficulties playing with a giant insect. It escapes and he follows it outside. While there he becomes distracted by the flowers and finds himself face to face with a Carnotaurus. Which eats him.

Back at Terra Nova, Taylor and Elizabeth are going to check on the outpost that has gone silent. They don’t anticipate anything dangerous, they think it’s just a tech issue, though Malcolm wants to come as well. Lt Washington is in command while Taylor is gone. Why is Taylor going and not an underling?

Elizabeth, Taylor and the extra, Brady arrive to find that “Ovisaurs” have chewed the wires. Ovisaurs? Really? It’s not like you couldn’t have used an actual small dinosaur for the role – Oviraptor, compsognathus, troodon, coelurus. My dino-geek soul is saddened.

Anyway, the wires have been chewed through and the gate is open and shouldn’t be.  Time to investigate, carefully. They find the place is empty and Elizabeth finds notes saying “This is not a dream” and “do not leave the building!” They investigate further and find a room with 2 people strapped to beds and another woman pressed against the window.

The woman talks about running through snow up to her knees and asks if they’re with the Red Cross. As she settles down Taylor is confused since there’s no snow in Terra Nova, but Elizabeth says the woman believes she’s in 2137 Detroit when the city burned, there were food riots and the coldest October on record. She guesses the two strapped down patients are suffering from the same dissociative disorder, but more advanced. They find a computer with a log from the guy we saw at the beginning being eaten by the Carnotaurus. It records the illness taking over the staff – it starts with short term memory loss, followed by confusion followed by believing you are in one of your memories. Since he’s not around – the only one of the 4 staff members unaccounted for – Taylor orders Brady to search for him.

The log reveals a pathogen and Elizabeth thinks it’s likely they’ve been exposed. She has his notes on his progress curing it – but it devolves into a nursery rhyme. Time for Elizabeth to finish it because they can’t go home with the pathogen until it’s cured.

They find the missing guy’s boots – with his feet still in them. And call back to Terra Nova telling Jim they’re under quarantine. And the memory loss is starting, Elizabeth forgets who Zoe is (uh, forgetting your daughter is not “short term memory loss”).

The next day when Taylor at Outpost 3 doesn’t call in (which, Lt Washington explains, could be communication problems which they have a lot in that area) Jim wants to send a team to check up on them, showing his failure to grasp the term “quarantine”.  He insists on going to check on them, Washington tells him no. So he goes to Malcolm and asks to borrow his rover. Malcolm is furious that, as head of science, he hasn’t been informed about the quarantine (which he has a point) and insists on going with Jim (what part of the word “quarantine” do these people NOT understand?!). Jim refuses to take him and Malcolm asks what exactly Jim is going to do in a medical emergency? Shoot them back to health (second great point from Malcolm. Something should really eat Jim)?  

Jim concedes and also gets a temporary cold cure from Malcolm – a foul tasting root that Malcolm enjoys inflicting on him.

So off they go wearing face masks (not hazmat suits, just face masks. Elizabeth, in the same episode, said the pathogen could be from an insect bite or any number of sources). They arrive to find the Ovisaurs (Dino Geek grumble) chewing on the wires. They go in in time to tell Lt Washington that they’ve blatantly ignored her orders and trell her he’s looking for the group then dismiss her.

Terra Nova Season 1, Episode 3: Instinct

We begin with a rover getting a puncture (what, 22^nd century and we still get punctures? Shoddy Goodyear, very shoddy) in the middle of the jungle. To no-one’s surprise, something leaps on them when they get out.

Back at Terra Nova Lt Washington is teaching folks some basic survival skills – how to make fires, how to find north, how to not leave the compound to drink homemade hooch – basic skills. Josh is still in the dog house but, alas, he hasn’t been eaten.

Time for family time, playing with carnivorous plants and Maddy continues to establish herself as the greatest source of pointless trivia known to mankind. And Jim and Elizabeth have their sex lives ruined by noisy pterosaurs and a needy child.

The next day, Taylor gives Jim a mission to find the missing supply rover (with the puncture) and Elizabeth meets Malcolm – an old colleague of hers who arrived on the 5^th Pilgrimage and the Chief Science Officer. He has an English accent so has about a 60% chance of being evil according to TV rules. When Jim arrives for a medic to come with him on his mission, Malcolm doesn’t seem 100% thrilled with the fact Elizabeth is married (85 million years in the past, surrounded by dinosaurs and we still have a love triangle. Hey, maybe Jim can be eaten by something and then it’ll just be Macolm?)

Out they go on the mission they reach the empty rover and Jim tries to get Taylor not to take point since the Sixers tried to kill him. Yeah, that’s not going to happen, but he does want Jim to use his psychic cop powers to find out who the Sixer mole is. This is when they find the bodies of the missing patrol – badly covered in bloody wounds.

At base, Dr. Elizabeth says they were attacked from above and Jim finds a claw or tooth embedded in one of the wounds (the doctors missed this?). Since Elizabeth is going to be working late, that leaves Jim to sort out the family for the evening showing that a) he can’t cook and b) that his 2 years apart from them has left him with large gaps in his knowledge.  And Maddy asks about boys until Jim panics.

Elizabeth arrives home with the news that the claw is from a hitherto undiscovered species. And we learn that Malcolm and Elizabeth once, a long time ago, dated (this will surprise precisely no-one). To make matters worse, the celibacy pterosaur visits again and brings its friends. Josh throws a rock at them – and they attack! Why would this be an airborn predator they haven’t found before? Looks like. That also means they’re going to end up with a proper name and I can’t call them celibacy pterosaurs any more, booo. They manage to escape to the house and Josh isn’t eaten. Alas.

The next day Jim gets his injury looked at by Malcolm who confirms that they look the same as the wounds on the bodies. They report to Taylor and Malcolm suggests small creatures rarely attack larger ones and they were possibly provoked. Taylor tells Lt. Washington to put the compound in lockdown until they know more about the Celibacy Pterosaurs, but Malcolm wants to study them more and produce a little guide on how to act around them without provoking them. Taylor vetoes it and he leaves – and Taylor tells Jim that Malcolm specifically asked for Elizabeth to be recruited.

Which is when we join Malcolm and Elizabeth looking at plants and rhapsodising at the potential out there – maybe even a cure for cancer (what, the 22^nd century and you haven’t cured cancer? We have the bullets that can’t kill dinosaurs, failing tires and no cancer cure? Future world fails badly! I am not impressed). And Malcolm is totally not flirting, honest.

Terra Nova, Season 1, Episode 1 & 2: Genesis

  At the dawn of the 22^nd century, the world is on the verge of environmental collapse. Mankind’s only hope of survival lies 85 million years in the past.

Big dystopian views: everything is worn down and dirty and the people are walking around with masks over their faces so they don’t have to breathe the air. To underscore this, Jim Shannon brings an orange home to his family – something incredible and rare. His wife, Dr. Elizabeth Shannon talks about people with lung disease from the bad air.

I think we can call this setting well and truly established – awesomely done. I rather think the opening blurb was unnecessary.

In rushes Maddy to tell everyone (mum, dad, son Josh, young daughter Zoe) that “they” are coming they put Zoe into hiding in time to greet the gun wielding officials from population control. Jim protests that he’s a cop but they still have to leave while their home is searched and ransacked.  Zoe’s crying gives her away. Jim runs to protect his daughter, beating up many of the population control men before being tasered

2 years later, Jim’s in prison and Elizabeth is visiting. Elizabeth has been contacted by the recruitment people for Terra Nova and the pilgrimage is scheduled to leave next week. He tells her to take the kids and go – but they won’t let her take Zoe, they won’t reward her for breaking the law. He wants a way round it and she has a plan – that she whispers to him and then says she’s counting on him. She gives him her rebreather before she leaves.

When he’s alone he rips open the mask to find a nifty pen-light sabre (ish). Elizabeth, Josh and Maddy start on the pilgrimage (the 10^th) while nifty TV screens explain about a rift in time and space. Just in case we’re not following, Josh decides to talk about his dad breaking out of prison while they’re in the middle of a crowd (don’t you just love inappropriate exposition?)

While she does that, Jim is on another train and cuts a little button with a flashing light out of his flesh (ouch). He walks out onto the ruined streets where we can see how the less well off live (not very well and with little shiny technology) surrounded by adverts against overpopulation  until he finds a stashed case with a gun, wadge of cash and an ID badge. We get to see how they work as his family checks into the pilgrimage and Josh says goodbye to his girlfriend, Kara.

Jim sneaks in, exchanges his wedge of cash for another big pack and joins the crowd heading towards the portal. He catches up with his family and swaps packs with Elizabeth as security realises something’s up. Security stops Jim, Elizabeth encourages her extremely dramatic children through the portal and then Jim joins them after explaining things to security with an elbow to the head.

They get through to a new, highly vegetative world and have more dramas with guards, guns and small children smuggled in backpacks.

They’re 85 million years in the past, in lush jungle – though Zoe and Jim are reported as stowaways and Jim is worried that Zoe may not remember him since he was gone for 2 years.  And they’re interrupted by a roaring Allosaur before arriving at their home base – a fenced in circle of cleared forest with wind turbines and farms.

They are welcomed by Commander Nathanial Taylor, boss man, who gives them a rousing speech of how much they screwed the world  and they have a second chance in Terra Nova, not to ruin it. He also wants to speak to Jim and Elizabeth, alone. Dr. Liz he knows as being super doctor in just about everything medical. He knows and learns about Jim and Zoe – which he doesn’t care about, the population laws are outdated in terra Nova, he does care whether Jim is useful. Elizabeth leaves and Commander Taylor questions cop Jim about why he broke the law – in a very friendly fashion – Jim responds with snarls. Because that’s sensible. Jim demands a badge and a gun, he can help catch bad guys – Taylor sends him to farm instead.

They get a shiny new house and Elizabeth wonders if they did the right thing coming to Terra Nova. No, course you didn’t, you should have stayed in the world where the air was poisonous, fruit a novelty and your husband was dying in prison. Clearly this is a difficult choice. Jim also works on rebonding with his 5 year old daughter with 3 years absence.  And Josh has an emo fit because his dad went to prison. We’re spared more ridiculous teen angst by Zoe disappearing to go watch the brachiosaurus eating just beyond the fence. It’s a nice interlude before more family dramas when they return home for the night, Josh whines and tantrums some more and Elizabeth and Jim have to deal with being together after 2 years apart.