TV Review: TERRA NOVA 1.6, “Nightfall”
If you liked the romantic dialogue in Attack of the Clones, you’re in for a treat!
rating: 2
If you liked the romantic dialogue in Attack of the Clones, youre in for a treat! This weeks episode of Terra Nova continues the series trend of doing not very much with a premise that has a lot of potential. In this case they do it through no less than four plots. The overall plot centers around a meteor that explodes over Terra Nova putting out an EMP that fuses all the microchips. If youre thinking to yourself that it seems unlikely wed still be using what appear to be silicon microchips 130+ years into the future, youre not alone. This pulse not only knocks out power, but also knocks out all the weapons, which I would have thought would be shielded against EMP, especially since one of the characters mentions that EMP had been used as a weapon before. \Anyhow, our first plot concerns Maddy (Naomi Scott), who lies to her parents in order to spend an afternoon hanging out with her new boyfriend. Why she lies to them isnt clear, since they know shes involved with him and seem to approve, but there you are. Theyre out in the middle of nowhere when the pulse hits and have to try and hoof it back to the colony. On a side note, am I alone in thinking that Maddy is destined to join the military? I can easily see that happening, and it would make for a great turn for the character. The next plot is Jim (Jason OMara), and his youngest daughter, Zoe (Alana Mansour), who visit something called The Eye. This appears to be a large hologram type thing that shows history. I guess. Its not completely clear what it is, but they end up stuck inside there when the power goes out. Theres a manual override but its on the outside of the door. Why they wouldnt also have one on the inside is anyones guess. Perhaps Terra Novas building codes need some revising. Upstairs, Elisabeth (Shannon Conn), is working on removing a parasite from Hunter, one of Skyes friends from earlier in the series. He wasnt a major character, and from the way the he was interacting with one of the other guys, it seemed like he might be gay. No, apparently not, as this episode goes to great lengths to show. Anyhow, he needs to have the parasite removed, and rather than wait a day or so for the power to come back on, they decide to go in with surgery, which leads to some lovely scenes. Next on the plot parade, we have the Sixers getting wind of the fact that Terra Nova has no power, which means no weapons, since apparently the colonists dont have bows like the ones they use toward the end of the episode. Anyhow, they pick that time to try and get back the wonder box that they were trying to retrieve before. None of these plots were especially interesting. The one with Jim and Zoe was clearly designed to establish a father/daughter bond, and it worked until the two of them were left together and Alana Masour was forced to act for a decent length of time. I dont wanna pick on a child actor, but lets say that I think her character might work best in small doses. Im also unclear why Josh (Landon Liboiron), was basically sidelined the entire episode. He pops up a time or two, but otherwise the minor characters of Skye and Hunter get a lot more attention than he does. And, once again, I was really, really underwhelmed by the special effects. The fire, the meteor and its impact all looked exceptionally fake. The nighttime dinosaur effects remain good, but I think thats largely because darkness hides a lot. As I keep saying, theres still potential with this series, but they need to fix the flaws and fix them fast. Right now every character, aside from Taylor, is just boring the heck out of me, and Im way too often left unable to suspend disbelief at some of what I see on screen. Good storytelling can overcome that, but it hasnt happened yet. Maybe next week. Maybe.