{"id":2215,"date":"2011-10-12T05:39:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T10:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=2215"},"modified":"2018-10-29T23:00:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T03:00:01","slug":"five-ways-to-fix-terra-nova-though-it%e2%80%99s-probably-doomed-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=2215","title":{"rendered":"Five Ways to Fix Terra Nova (Though It\u2019s Probably Doomed Anyway)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lonnie Martin (AKA Rotting Corpse)<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Fox Television,<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m not going to Monday morning quarterback how you screwed up Terra Nova<\/em>. I won\u2019t mention how you thought you had a sure thing (which, by the way, you should have had), spent way too much money on it, then got scared and let too many cooks into the kitchen to try to fix what may or may not have been broken. Nor am I going to berate you for trying to hit every existing demographic in the world because you desperately want to try and make back the ga-jillion dollars you\u2019ve dropped into it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What\u2019s done is done. The audience betrayed by Scy Fy\u2019s mismanagement of Battlestar Galactica<\/em> and Stargate <\/em>was yours for the taking and you\u2019ve all but lost them. You took a pretty good idea and spewed out mediocrity; not even brave enough to cheese Terra Nova<\/em> up enough to make it \u201cso bad its good.\u201d But we\u2019re not going to look back. All we can do at this point is see if there\u2019s any good lumber to be cut out of this felled redwood.<\/p>\n

I will say this, and you\u2019d do well to heed it: Though there\u2019s still time to fix Terra Nova<\/em>, it may already be too late to save it. If that\u2019s the case, decide now and have the balls to finish the story in an engaging well-rounded way that\u2019s unafraid to take creative risks. If you\u2019re going to cancel it anyway, what do you have to lose?<\/p>\n

I also mention that, despite my beefs with the show, I like it. It has potential; which is probably why you gave it the green light in the first place. Now you have to fulfill that potential. Here are five places to start:<\/p>\n

1.) Air it on a different night.<\/p>\n

Really? You think you\u2019re going to get good numbers going up against Monday Night Football? I understand you have to air something on Mondays, but your bla-zillion dollar runaway train? Let me clue you in here. As a guy who enjoys watching grown men beat the crap out of each other over a funny shaped ball AND likes to see people from the future run from dinosaurs, I can tell you that a large portion of your potential audience is otherwise engaged on Monday nights. Don\u2019t give me the DVR argument either. You haven\u2019t given football fans any reason to DVR it yet. Take The X-Factor<\/em> (your other multi-million dollar, precariously balanced supersonic train) and pull it back to just one night. Then replace it with Terra Nova<\/em>. I guarantee you\u2019ll get more people watching by the sheer fact that there\u2019s less going on midweek.<\/p>\n

2.) Slooooooowwwww Dooooooown<\/p>\n

Have you ever dated a really attractive person who\u2019s so insecure and desperate to be loved that they make themselves ugly? The writing in Terra Nova<\/em> is kind of like that. I get it. Lost <\/em>was a big hit. It was mysterious, sometimes surreal, and crossed genres. However, not only did it fully hook people in with a solid concept before throwing everything it had at them, Lost <\/em>allowed its mysteries to play out a bit before revealing clues that all was not what it seemed.<\/p>\n

An example from Terra Nova<\/em> is the geometric carvings Josh and Skye find out by the waterfall in the pilot episode. When I first saw them my geek brain said, \u201cAliens!\u201d Then two scenes later the leader of the Sixers tells me that they\u2019re made by Taylor\u2019s estranged, Colonel Kurtz-ish son who hasn\u2019t been heretofore mentioned. Did you have to reveal that then? Couldn\u2019t you have played out the red herring of aliens, Sixers, or previously undiscovered sentient life forms that were unknowingly wiped out during some extinction period? No you just said the symbols were made by a character that I haven\u2019t even heard of, much less seen, yet you expect me to care about this information. Honestly, I was still trying to figure out who was who at that point.<\/p>\n

Listen, you can get a lot of mileage off nothing more than regular people having to deal with dinosaurs in their everyday life. Do something as simple as \u201cHey, we need to go out and harvest some whatever-anium to power our sonic gun thing-a-ma hoogies and HOLY SHIT! VELOCIRAPTORS!! The guns are down! Allosaur on the perimeter! What\u2019s that, Lassie? Zoe\u2019s stuck in the mineshaft?!\u201d There\u2019s an episode right there. Hell, I could milk that into a three-parter.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying you should drag things out to the point where it\u2019s boring. But you\u2019ve got this super awesome 85 million year old sci-fi world to play in. Play in it! Explore it! Immerse us in it! The Krofft Brothers did basically just that in Land of the Lost<\/em> for three seasons with a half dozen characters and no budget.<\/p>\n

The idea of The Sixers, a rebel colony at philosophical odds with Terra Nova, is a good one. But have they been brought out too soon? We\u2019re still trying to understand the social and political order of Terra Nova itself. Now, we\u2019ve got to try and understand the \u201cother side\u201d as well? Plus, by episode three, you\u2019re telling me that the Sixers are unknowingly communicating with the 22nd century\u2026 which leads me to my next point:<\/p>\n

3.) Beware the Time Travel Paradox<\/p>\n

That whole communicating with the future thing you have going on? Stop it. Immediately.<\/p>\n

How? Easy. The future dies. You\u2019ve already established the 22nd century world is dying. So the Terra Novans go to meet the next pilgrimage, only it doesn\u2019t show up. The Sixers\u2019 magic telephone to the future stops working. Seriously, you can have a whole new storyline just having the Terra Novans trying to figure out how to keep all their fancy future technology working without supplies from 214X. (Or did you leave yourself that future communication thing so you wouldn\u2019t have to explain how all that technology was working? I bet you did.) I\u2019ll even give you the out that the Sixers brought an exact replica of the portal device back in time with them and use it to engage in time travel shenanigans, just in case the whole current storyline revolves around the Sixers\u2019 ability to \u201cControl the past so you can control the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why drop the time travel nonsense? Maybe you\u2019re familiar with your other failed sci-fi\/time travel show from a few years back, The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/em>. It was the one where the timeline(s) got so convoluted and ridiculous that more characters were from the future than not. Remember? Audiences tuned out even though the whole thing was based on a once successful and recognizable property? Yeah. That\u2019s the one.<\/p>\n

Time travel is tricky. Star Trek<\/em> is one of the few shows to handle it successfully and they did so mostly by using it sparingly. I\u2019ll tell you a secret too; it\u2019s one of the quickest ways to tire out your non-sci-fi audience. Is there valid theoretical science behind time travel? Absolutely, but it involves complex quantum mathematics and most non-sci-fi geeks get too caught up in the minutia of the theories to lose themselves in the story you\u2019re trying to tell around it. (And let\u2019s be honest, Terra Nova\u2019s time travel science is suspect at best.) The Terra Novans have travelled back in time to an alternate universe. Just leave it at that, eh?<\/p>\n

4.) Kill off some characters. (And use the ones left alive in a way that progresses the story.)<\/p>\n

You have way too many characters in this show. I know, I know. You need all those characters to hit every demographic so people tune in to your tra-quillion dollar sci-fi dinosaur romantic teenage cop bromance yet female relevant and multiethnic military medical drama.<\/p>\n

Forget it. You\u2019re three episodes in. Everybody\u2019s watching who\u2019s going to be unless you start generating some good word of mouth, specifically the kind that goes, \u201cMan, Terra Nova<\/em> kind of stumbled out of the gate, but it\u2019s really found it legs in these last few episodes. You should check it out, especially since they\u2019re not competing with Monday Night Football anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get rid of some characters. Start with the wooden space marine gentleman caller. He\u2019s filler. I\u2019m sure the actor is a nice guy and deserves the paycheck, but his character doesn\u2019t belong in the story, at least not at this point in the game. (See suggestion #2.) Kill him. Those fan-headed dinosaurs that spit poison will work fine.<\/p>\n

While you\u2019re at it, why don\u2019t you kill off Maddie, the super-genius daughter that has Johnny Space Marine all hot and bothered? Sure, she\u2019s a super genius and you\u2019re setting her up to play a big part later with all her super genius knowledge. The problem is there are at least three other characters who can serve the same purpose. She\u2019s taking up space where you could be showing me dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

Besides, by killing Maddie you get the extra added bonus of raising the dramatic stakes through the roof! You just killed off a member of our main family unit! The story possibilities from that one move are endless! Jim Shannon could go native trying to deal with his grief. (And maybe run into Commander Taylor\u2019s long lost crazy son.) Dr. Mom could flip out and try to find the Sixers to use their portal replica or magic telephone to change time and bring her back. Depending on how she died you have a big trial and banishment of somebody. I just came up with all three of those ideas off the top of my head without any forethought or a WGA paycheck.<\/p>\n

Malcolm, the ex-boyfriend of Dr. Mom, is also extraneous; unless he turns out to be totally evil in which case all is forgiven. The romantic tension between he, Dr. Mom, and Jim Shannon sort of worked in episode 1.3 when everybody lost their memory, but what are you going to do for the remaining ten episodes? Unless you\u2019re going to pull a Sookie Stackhouse actually trading Bill Compton for Eric Northman, I\u2019m not buying any kind of false romantic tension you\u2019re trying to brew up here. You\u2019re just filling time that could be used to show me more dinosaurs. Axe Malcolm the ex-boyfriend. A pterodactyl tearing out his eyes should do the trick.<\/p>\n

I was going to suggest you kill off Josh, the annoying asshole son, but he actually might serve some useful story purposes in the long run. His whole, \u201cI have to bring my future girlfriend back to Terra Nova\u201d motivation made me roll my eyes at first, but here you have the chance to set him up to be one of the villains, if not THE villain of the show. I get it. You\u2019re Fox and you want to encourage family values, but sometimes a bad seed is just a bad seed. And you\u2019re certainly setting up young Josh Anakin to go totally Darth Vader if things don\u2019t go to his liking. Plus, his rift with Jim Shannon could mirror the one between Commander Taylor and his son, the one we haven\u2019t seen yet. OMG! Themes and motifs! Suddenly it\u2019s art!<\/p>\n

In all seriousness, you need to kill off characters for one reason more than any other; you\u2019ve left yourself little room to introduce new characters down the line. And you\u2019re going to need to in order to move the story forward. Trust me.<\/p>\n

5.) Cut to the Chase OR \u201cShow me the @#$%ing Dinosaurs!!\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve jokingly referred to this show as \u201cFox\u2019s Dinosaur of the Week.\u201d However, there\u2019s some truth there. People are watching Terra Nova<\/em> to see the dinosaurs. You know this as well as anybody else. I get that CGI is expensive so you can\u2019t have wall to wall dinos for forty-three minutes. I\u2019ll even give you some props here. So far, you\u2019ve been pretty good at getting us at least some dino action in every episode. Keep that up. However, do not underestimate that the dinosaurs are a huge part of why people will watch this show.<\/p>\n

What you need to do is show more of the action rather than tell us about it. Much of the action in Terra Nova<\/em> is implied rather than shown. I\u2019ll give you an example.<\/p>\n

In episode 1.3, Red Shirt #544 goes with Taylor and Dr. Mom to Outpost 3 to find out what happened to its crew. Red shirt is told to go \u201ccheck the perimeter. \u201c The next time we see him he\u2019s unconscious on the floor after Taylor has gone PTSD on him. You\u2019ll probably tell me you wanted to save the Taylor as John Rambo reveal for his encounter with Jim Shannon, and I totally agree that\u2019s the place for the reveal. However you could have shown me Red Shirt #544 getting taken down without ever revealing who or what did it. You had already established the fearsome nickel eating dinosaurs at this point. A few quick cuts, some good sound effects and screaming, then Boom! Red shirt down! Was it a Nickelback-a-saurus? Was it Taylor gone Rambo? Was it the Sixers come to cause trouble? Not only would there have been a wee bit of low budget action, I would have gotten mystery to boot!<\/p>\n

You have a lot of people talking about dinosaur attacks happening off screen. Again, I understand that CGI is expensive, but trust me that people are watching this show to see those dino attacks. \u201cWhat about practices and standards?\u201d you ask. That\u2019s a valid concern. Just do what you did at the beginning of 1.3 when Dr. Such-and-Such got eaten by a something-or-other-saurus. We saw the dino. We saw him. And we pretty much could figure out the rest on our own. No blood, only a couple of CG shots; yet your point was made.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t rely solely on dinosaurs of course. Good storytelling needs to be the backbone of your plan moving forward. Ultimately, you just need to relax and stop being so needy. The premise is sound. The characters, all 350 of them, are likeable. We\u2019ll even mourn a few when you kill them off. You\u2019ve created a cool universe with a lot of possibilities. Now just tell me a story, preferably one that doesn\u2019t hinge on the time travel paradox.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t forget to show me the dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

# # #
\nRottingCorpse is Lonnie Martin, an independent filmmaker and writer. More on his work can be found at www.LonnieMartin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Lonnie Martin (AKA Rotting Corpse) Dear Fox Television, Look, I\u2019m not going to Monday morning quarterback how you screwed up Terra Nova. I won\u2019t mention how you thought you had a sure thing (which, by the way, you should …<\/p>\n

Five Ways to Fix Terra Nova (Though It\u2019s Probably Doomed Anyway)<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[403,189,406,104,336],"class_list":["post-2215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-culture","tag-cult-culture","tag-lonnie-martin","tag-rottingcorpse","tag-sci-fi","tag-terra-nova"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2215"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2219,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions\/2219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}