Episode 6 (Primeval)

Episode Six of the ITV sci-fi drama Primeval was broadcast in the UK on 17 March, 2007.

Synopsis

An anomaly into the future causes a climactic battle with a futuristic predator.

Plot

Nick is practicing putting in his office using a thin animal femur a little over 3 feet long as a club. Claudia visits him, wanting to talk AbOUT Helen and why she might have saved her (in episode 5). She also remembers that Nick kissed her (although she does not Appear to be angry about it), causing Nick to miss his shot. Elsewhere Abby helps Connor practise chat-up lines for prospective NiGHTS out, although he is clearly more interested in her.

Another anomaly has appeared in the Forest of Dean in the same place as the Episode One anomaly, bringing With It a terrible predator that possesses human-like intelligence and amazing agility, and tracks its prey using sonar-like abilities, much like a bat. It breaks through the perimeter surrounding the Forest of Dean, and makes its way to Wellington Zoo. Here, it breaks into the lion den and kills a lion. It leaves no trace of itself or the lion, except a smear of blood on a leaf.

Abby has been called to the zoo because of the lions's disappearance, bringing Connor along. Connor takes a sample of this blood and has it tested, which shows it to be partly lion blood, and partly bat blood but with some weird differences in the DNA. The creature goes on to kill three people including Abby's boss.

Meanwhile, Helen returns, taking Stephen aside in the university grounds. She reveals that there has been another creature incursion, but refuses to say more until she meets Nick and Lester. However, she does indicate she was pleased to see Stephen again, and kisses him on the lips as she departs. Lester agrees to the meeting (reluctantly). He, Claudia, Nick and Stephen meet her, and she tells Nick and the others that it is a highly developed predator from the future, that came through an anomaly into the Permian period and then through another anomaly into our period. Helen insists she just came back to help, and decides to stay at her old house - Nick's house.

At the house, Nick quizzes Helen as to her real motives. She reveals that it didn't come through on its own - she was observing it and it chased her through the anomaly. She admits she does still care enough to want to help stop it. Stephen and Connor puzzle on the creature in Nick's office. Connor mentions the disappearance of Abby's boss and the lion. Stephen realises that the Predator must be hunting in that area and leaves to find Abby, telling Connor to bring backup. Abby is safe at the zoo, but at that moment the creature appears. It is unable to detect them due to the seals in the tank next to them, and flees when Ryan's men arrive. Realising the danger, Nick and Ryan's men hunt the creature in search-and-destroy mission, using dogs to track it. The creature attacks them again, [...] a soldier, then escapes into the trees. Nick notices that the dogs picked it up before they did, and concludes that it hunts by sound.

Nick sends Connor to the pickup for a laptop oscilloscope that picks up and displays the sound waves caused by the creature. While Connor is in the pickup, the creature jumps on the pickup and tries to break into it, but Abby distracts the creature. Stephen then shoots at the creature and wounds it; it escapes into the forest. Connor refuses to give up, reasoning Han Solo would never give up: Nick notes he always saw Connor as R2-D2 himself. Connor thanks Abby for saving him.

Using the oscilloscope, they find the den in an abandoned storage hut, and enter it. Inside they find that the creature has given birth to at least 5 young. Then the oscilloscope starts to react loudly, and the creature attacks, [...] a soldier. Nick, thinking quickly, grabs an infant and runs out of the hut into a greenhouse. The creature follows and Nick shoots the glass above it, causing a shower of broken glass which reflects the creature's sound waves back at it in a confusing pattern, jamming its sonar sense. Taking advantage of the distraction, he shoots it in the head, [...] it.

Realising the creatures are too dangerous to stay in the present, they plan to use the infants to guide them to the anomaly leading from the Permian to the future: once they have found the anomaly into the future and make sure it closes, they will kill the infants, as they are too dangerous to be allowed to live. Just before they enter the anomaly, Claudia kisses Cutter right in front of Helen and much to the disapproval of Lester, as he thinks it wasn't professional. After Cutter and Helen have departed with the infants, Connor learns that an autopsy has shown that the creature was male: thus there is likely a female creature still at large. Almost immediately after, the female leaps through the anomaly, although the team in the present don't realise due to its speed.

The landscape is conifer forest on hilly lava. A herd of Scutosaurus is on a hill opposite beyond a valley. Nick takes a picture of Helen as a souvenir. He then realizes that they were creating their own past and that that picture is the picture that they found in Episode One. Then he remembers the skeleton they found, and works out what is going to happen. Nick then realises Helen has been using him - she didn't care about him, she just wanted to find the future anomaly.

The female creature catches up with them and attacks them. It attacks and kills the soldiers, and mortally wounds Captain Ryan. Before it can attack Nick, a Gorgonopsid appears, charging and briefly stunning the adult creature. Nick attends to Ryan, as the adult creature recovers - to see its young being eaten by the Gorgonopsid. The two predators battle; the Gorgonopsid loses an eye in the process. Despite this, the Gorgonopsid emerges victorious as it rears and falls over backwards, crushing the creature beneath its weight. The Gorgonopsid roars in victory and then retreats with the creature's body.

Nick runs to Tom, who had also worked out that the skeleton in Episode One was his own, before dying.. Helen and Nick bury the dead men in the Permian and return through the anomaly despite Helen's pleas that they could stay in the past and find the future anomaly. However, at least two of the creature's infants survived.

Helen and Nick tell the others that all the men have died. Nick says that no-one else is to go through the anomaly. Helen says that she will return through the anomaly. Trying to avoid going back alone, Helen reveals that before she disappeared she had an affair with Stephen, much to Nick's fury. However, Stephen refuses to go with her. Helen then walks back through the anomaly and is gone.

Nick asks where Claudia is, and to his shock finds that no-one there knows of any Claudia Brown. He realizes that the time-jumping has changed the past and thus some modern end-results. He is interrupted by the anomaly expanding, and disappears into the past.

Cast

• Nick Cutter — Douglas Henshall
• Abby Maitland — Hannah Spearritt
• Stephen Hart — James Murray
• Connor Temple — Andrew-Lee Potts
• Claudia Brown — Lucy Brown
• Helen Cutter — Juliet Aubrey
• Sir James Lester — Ben Miller
• Captain Tom Ryan — Mark Wakeling
• Tim Parker — John Voce

Animals seen

An anomaly linked to the Permian period, 250 million years ago, and five years before the first visit in Episode One:-

• Gorgonopsid, (One was seen through the anomaly but did not come through)
• Scutosaurus, (a herd was seen through the anomaly but none came through)

From elsewhere:-

• Future Predator: a male and a female came through an anomaly, from an unknown point in the future, into the Permian and through another anomaly into the present. The male was shot dead by Nick Cutter in the present and the female was eaten by a Gorgonopsid, which ate some of their offspring. However, at least two survived.
• Lion (Zoo animals from the modern world.)
• Elephant (Zoo animals from the modern world.)
• Sea Lion (Zoo animals from the modern world.)
• Special forces dogs (from the modern world.)

Production

• The battle between the Gorgonopsid and the Predator was completely "created in a digital environment, we were able to go down to the [...] room and decide where we were going to put the cameras and essentially direct it ourselves as if we were on location. It was great to be able to offer that flexibility to the director. The result is some of the best television work we've ever done".
• The predator was designed by Digital Textures Lead Daren Horley
• The directors stated " We thought it would be fun to have it so just as he (Nick) started to like her (Claudia) she would disappear into thin air."

Cultural references

The episode mentions the famous line uttered by Neil Armstrong as he became the first human being to step out onto the surface of the Moon. The episode also parodies the film Jaws, where the previous planning has proven inadequate. Connor also makes reference to Wolverine and Spiderman, Marvel comic superheroes of the 60's and 70's who have made the transition from comic book to movie screen. There are numerous Star Wars references in the episode including the line "I've got a bad feeling about this". This line is used in every other film, including the prequels, said by a range of characters. It is allegedly the only line that appears in all Star Wars films.

Reception

This episode gained a final viewing figures of 6.52 million. TV Times gave this epsiode 4 stars in their review.

This episode was also reviewed by TV critic Charlie Brooker in the final episode of his BBC4 show Screenwipe, and gave it a rave review saying that it was "far better than Torchwood for instance." "Unashamedly saturday night populist viewing for the masses" with "some of the best special effects I've ever seen in a British TV Show".

Some fans complained that their where too many Star Wars references in this episode and the creators have claimed that they where fine with that.