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Time Portal Drama In London Rips Open A Whole Batch Of Zoological Adventures

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 7, 2008

In "Primeval," a rip in the time-space continuum allows prehistoric dinosaurs - as well as weird creatures from the future - to pop up in current-day London.

Don't you hate it when that happens? Well, not really, if you are a science-fiction fan.

This time portal thing also allows a team of adventurous zoologists to travel back and forth in time.
Slipping through the cracks in the timeline, so common now in science-fiction drama, is a lot easier than traveling in Doc Brown's plutonium-powered DeLorean with its mysterious flux capacitor.

Debuting at 9 p.m. Saturday on BBC America, "Primeval" is a good, sci-fi action-adventure romp on a night when you really don't want to think too much about the improbability of time travel.

This entertaining import is a hit in Britain, where it is beginning its third season and the lead characters have become top-selling action figures.

From the same team that created the CGI critters for the "Walking With Dinosaurs" educational series, "Primeval" features some nifty special effects that include weird-looking creatures in every episode.

The ones from the past are based on real dinosaurs, and seeing them might send some viewers to the Internet for a paleontology lesson.

"Primeval" follows the adventures of evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall), an arrogant genius with a secret.

His wife, Helen (Juliet Aubrey), is a scientist who earlier disappeared through the portal and appears to be a devious villain. Helen's comings, goings and manipulations are part of an ongoing story ine.

In the premiere episode, Cutter rounds up a team to stop a rampaging Gorgonopsia, a really ugly meat-eater beast that roamed the Earth about 250 million years ago.

On his crew are his brooding research assistant Stephen Hart (James Murray), sexy zoologist Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) and slacker student paleontologist Connor Temple (Andrew Lee Potts), who provides comic relief.

In the opening episode, Nick rejects Connor's thesis about dinosaurs being the work of aliens. There are all sorts of romantic tensions between the members of the team. Connor is hot for Abby, who may have feelings for Stephen, who once had an affair with Nick's wife.

Also, there's a government agency, the Home Office, trying to control Nick's team and trying to keep the dinosaur invasion a secret. And there are creatures to deal with on every episode.

Co-producer Tim Haines, who also produced the Emmy-winning BBC documentary series "Walking With Dinosaurs," has come up with menacing, predatory dinos and some gentler beasts such as the harmless Scutosaurus, which looks like an elephant but is actually related to a turtle.

And there's Rex, the team's "pet" flying lizard. There are also giant spiders, millipedes, scorpions, worms, deadly dodo birds, the alligatorlike mosasaur and a flying pteranodon, which invades a golf course.

Creatures from the future are pure flights of the imagination including the future predator, an apelike and skull-headed thing that sort of represents the ultimate dumbing down of the human race.

BUCS OPENER: Don't go looking for the Tampa Bay Bucs home opener on WFLA, Channel 8, on Saturday night.

Because of NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics, the preseason battle with the Miami Dolphins will be bumped over to WTTA, Channel 38.

WFLA is still providing the crew to cover the game. You can also find the game at 7:30 p.m. on WFLA's high-def weather channel, Weather Plus.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Last Comic Standing, 8 p.m., NBC

A winner is crowned on the season finale that features guests Jon Lovitz and last year's winner, John Reep. Also appearing in gags: Sen. John McCain, Sen. Barack Obama, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Richard Belzer.

Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone, 9 p.m., IFC

This new film covers the strange life and career of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.

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