Terra Nova - Monday on Fox at 8p EDT

#1. Never trust anyone with the first name Nathaniel... EVER.

#2. One way travel but 2 way communication can be explained a number of ways, but I prefer the explanation that the time rift is travalable from both side, but the technology to open it the past side is limited in some way, like energy production not enough to open the rift to let people through, but the rift is there constantly so communication is possible... also the size being different on either end isn't a big deal for travelling likely due to some weird cosmic thing.

#3. I don't like the fact they never explain exactly how the world got so messed up in 100 years. New situation would result in that environment whether it be the build up of those cities or the black out smog or the population problems... The population problems don't really exist as it'll take a while for any where on earth to get over crowded other than China and China already has population laws... it supports something like 2 billion people in the area of equal size to the USA which now consists of 300 million... That's 7 times more people and is unlikely to even remotely happen in 100 years.

#4. Interesting that no nations were mentioned in the 22nd century...

#5. "Control the past, Control the future" may refer not to changing time, but resources or even a specific resource. You say... well there is no way back so how does that make sense... well if you pay attention to what I said in #2 then it makes sense. Control the past will allow for new resources and fresh land and the ability to open the rift back home which if you are in a conflict of some sort means a huge advantage. The reason they might not have instantly set up a power plant is because they likely want to establish and secure the area before making it more accessible and this is a perfect way to do that... This likewise gives a reason for the sixers and also explains how they could infiltrate since research must have been going on for more than a few years before sending Nathaniel back... I mean if we assume that it's roughly been 15 years since the discovery of the rift (likely longer though) that gives them 10 years to get people in position to be snuck into the program which would require simply a few 10 years olds in a world among 10-20 billion people and likely lots of immigration that would have been extremely easy.

My initial thought when I saw promos for this series was, "Why would anyone be dumb enough to go back in time to create a new society to a point before everything bigger than a house cat would be wiped out by an asteroid?"

But I'm glad they answered that convincingly enough.

The Good:
--Dinosaurs!
--That dude from Avatar was a good bit of casting.
--Since the portal is still open there's no limit to the number of red shirts they can send through to become Dinosaur Chow.
--The Probe (see above).

The Bad:
--Dinosaur chows down on kid's leg, and it seems to be mostly okay after they rescue him.

--"Let's throw 200 subplots and mysteries out there in the first two hours and see what sticks!" Don't writers remember the art of building a mystery slowly? "Lost" actually managed to get this right, even if they didn't answer half the questions the series eventually posed.

--The giant centipede scene was kind of dumb.

--Girl runs through dinosaur-infested woods, gets attacked, but somehow makes it.

The Ugly:
--The giant centipede.
--The old "we ruined the earth" cliche.

I think it would be very interesting if Terra Nova ends up following the Praetorian model from our very own Going Rogue.

Think about it: Nathaniel Taylor could easily be revealed as a more hardline Emperor Cole like figure as time goes on. Sure he seems completely dedicated to his happy-happy-joy-joy "vision" of making Terra Nova succeed. But when push comes to shove he may become more dictatorial and unyielding with his people, thus showing a darker side. The Sixers already exist as a de-facto Resistance, and while they seem like the "bad guys" at this point they may well turn out to be the actual "good guys" in the overall story. And do I have to mention the obvious that the Terra Nova setting represents Praetoria while the old 2149 Earth represents "primal" Earth?

But regardless of that speculation I did find it rather weird that we still don't really know anything about the state of the Earth in 2149 other than they have population control laws and that it's hard to breath without a mask. It seems like the "mystery" behind Terra Nova involves what's going on back in 2149 as much as what's going on between the main settlers and the Sixers.

I liked it for the most part. It had some of the usual problems, but it was entertaining enough that I'll watch the next episode.

You know, something just occured to me about the probe and alternate timeline.
The scientists sent a probe back and looked around where they thought it should be. But did they perchance take into account all the continental drift of 85 million years and the possibility of the probe being subducted with a continental plate? If such a thing happened, the heat and pressures involved would have obliterated any trace of the probe. Nowadays we think we know how the continents looked 85, 100, 200 million years ago, but it's really just a lot of educated guessing.

So, while the scientists of 2149 think they are sending people back to an alternate timeline, but they really have no guarentee. And with the amount of time involved here, there's plenty of time for the humans to either get their act together and leave the planet (UFOs are really our long lost kin checking on the motherplanet), or for things to all go south and any evidence of their existence back then to be obliterated.

I watched it last night and enjoyed it. I will continue to watch it to see where it goes. Not on the same level as Lost but still entertaining.

I watched my DVR of this last night.

Nice potential. Main plot hooks identified. Characters more than cardboard. TV special effects above average. I remain optimistic.

The extra child question bugged me, too.
the scale and support of the Tera Nova project seemed... off to me. Where was the heavy construction equipment, the armies of engineers and construction workers, just the sense of scale that would be pouring through a real gate/escape in that scenario. And you know the gov't would have had a nice healthy presence rather than a single man running things. I set these questions aside for now, but they all occurred to me while watching.

It was described to me as " 'Lost' with Dinosaurs!" which translates as a 'pass' for me.

Oh I enjoyed the show immensely while it was on (or in my case watching it on my TiVo). And I probably will continue to do so for as long as Fox airs it. Please don't let my comments and ruminations above make you think I did't.

It’s just that discussions like this and my own Vulcan-esque mind bring up questions after the fact. As I keep telling the wife, I know too much science type stuff. Sometimes stuff pops out at me while I watch things, but usually not enough so that I cannot suspend my disbelief. I blame Discovery, Science Channel and Mythbusters. And History Channel, and NatGeo channel, and all those other fact-based channels. This time.