TV Review: TERRA NOVA 1.4, "The Runaway"

Terra Nova, I am sad to report, is continuing its previously-established slide into mediocrity and eventual cancellation.

By Chris Swanson / October 18, 2011

rating: 2

Terra Nova, I am sad to report, is continuing its previously-established slide into mediocrity and eventual cancellation. Despite the misgivings I had about the series before it launched and with the pilot, I had hopes that it would improve dramatically. Those hopes have, at least as of this point, not amounted to anything. In todays episode, a little girl named Leah, who I have to try very, very hard not to call Newt, turns up at the colony. Shes in fairly good shape, and it turns out her and her brother have been living with the Sixers for the last little while. Now shes on the run from them for some unspecified reason. Elisabeth (Shelly Conn), and Jim (Jason OMara), take her in, giving her Joshs (Landon Liboiron), room to sleep in, and when Josh asks why its his room and not his sister Maddys (Naomi Scott), room, Maddy says Because Im a girl, a statement which I seriously hope would not be considered a valid excuse for anything other than perhaps pregnancy come 2149. All seems well at first, and many of the colonists who remember Leah and her brother are pleased to see them again. But then the Sixers turn up, led by Mira (Christine Adams), theres a bit of a stand-off. Why the colony doesnt just fire off their sonic weapons, which appear to be non-lethal, and thus end the Sixer problem then and there is beyond me, but thats ok, because I also dont understand how they didnt notice the Sixers were coming over clear and open ground until they were about 100 yards from the gate. Anyhow, after the confrontation, all appears well, and Leah is accepted by everyone. We all know what this means next, dont we? It means that shes been sent there by the Sixers to steal something of great importance from Miras former home. She does this, she gets caught and says she did it because Mira was threatening to hurt her brother if she didnt. Jim doesnt like the sound of that, especially after finding an Im sorry note written on the bizarre transparent plastic they use as paper. On his own and against orders he decides to head out and find out whats really going on with Leahs brother. This episode was a snooze-fest from start to finish. That the girl was a mole was absolutely no surprise whatsoever. It didnt help matters that the girl was played by an actress who I am willing to bet is Australian, and who sported an accent that seemed to be on a tour across the Commonwealth, never quite staying in one place long enough to make an impression. The story was lackluster and predictable, and aside from one memorable conversation between Jim and another character toward the start of the last commercial break, there really was nothing that engaged my interest. It doesnt help that the Sixers plan wasnt very good and wasnt very well-executed. Much better for them to have sent an adult on the run from them, then have said adult wait a month or so for everyone to relax before he stole the McGuffin and an off with it. As for the main characters, none of them made any sort of real progress as people in this episode. Taylor (Stephen Lang), continues to be the only interesting one; all the rest are as dry as dust. And then theres the painfully unfunny business with Maddys would-be boyfriend, Reynolds, talking like someone who got dating advice from 1949. Given the two-hundred year difference there, this is like someone from our time using dating advice from 1811. Yes, he says he was told to do it that way, but still. Come on. It wasnt funny and it wasnt clever. That all said, I will say that Taylor continues to hold my interest whenever he is on the screen. Stephen Langs performance of the character really is quite good. And the limited use of dinosaur CGI worked well in this story, too. It looked pretty convincing, though, like all the other convincing CGI work, happened at night. I continue to hold out hope for this series. I really do think there is quite a bit of potential. But the writers and producers keep burying the potential under a pile of dross that really detracts from what could be amazing. Next time, we have a murder investigation. However due to baseball, next time will be two weeks from now. See ya then!