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Steven Spielberg's 13-episode sci-fi series has elements of The Walking Dead and Lost, which should interest fans of those two shows. As well as being one of the most important figures in film history, Spielberg has earned a reputation as a successful TV producer, though his time in the TV director's chair ended back in 1987 with Amazing Stories.
His work with Tom Hanks on World War II epics is well regarded, but less well-known are his other TV ventures like Falling Skies, Under the Dome, Halo, The Dinosaurs, and much more. His interests in television seem to lie in science fiction stories and dinosaur stories, which are usually one and the same.
Terra Nova is maybe his most obvious amalgamation of the genres. The series, a famously expensive failure that only lasted a season, was originally written by Kelly Marcel, though Spielberg's suggestion that the script, at first devoid of prehistoric animals, introduce dinosaurs, encouraged Marcel to sell it (via TheGuardian).
Terra Nova ended up with Craig Silverstein as showrunner and Spielberg on as an executive producer. Airing on the Fox Network in 2011, Terra Nova begins in the year 2149, when overpopulation and environmental factors are threatening to extinguish life on Earth. Relief comes in the form of a temporal rift, discovered by a group of scientists.
In a bid to save the Earth, a group of humans goes through the rift, which transports them to a parallel world that resembles Earth in the Cretaceous Period. There, the expedition colony encounters dangerous dinosaurs, all the issues that come with establishing a new home, and other interested parties with designs on this world's resources.
Terra Nova, like The Walking Dead, is about how the human communities that result from a world disaster can often be more dangerous than the disaster itself. Like Lost, the series is filled with intriguing mysteries and surprises, all set within a primitive, Earth-lite environment. Fans of either series will find something worthwhile here.
Terra Nova Deserved To Go For More Than One Season
Terra Nova's disappointing ending was the result of the huge expense of the series combined with lukewarm reviews and viewership levels, which, while strong, were not enough to justify the cost. It's a shame because we have plenty of examples of shows, sci-fi shows in particular, that struggled in their first seasons only to take off in the next.
It was an exciting show from the very first episode, one with a unique story to tell that immediately hooked viewers. Spielberg's participation must have helped the CGI because the dinosaurs are some of the most realistic VFX creations you'll find on television from that era.
Terra Nova is more than the sum of its visuals and creative setting. The 13-episode show blends many different kinds of storytelling angles, including an Alone-like sensibility about creating a primitive life from the resources in nature and a subtly philosophical take on the high-minded problems that spin out from a settler mindset.
There's a lot to explain in Terra Nova, and we end season 1 with more questions than we started and even fewer answers. With all the place setting out of the way, Terra Nova season 2 could have dived into those questions and expanded the story and characters in compelling ways.
