Primeval - New Series

You're touched on many if not all of the points that bothered me about this episode, Patrick. I'll only add that I found Jenny's husband-to-be to be a highly unlikely choice that ran against her already established character. Plus he was also a prat - which didn't help.

One other thing: since when has a high-ranking civil servant had the power to marry anybody?

Sid Seadevil wrote:You're touched on many if not all of the points that bothered me about this episode, Patrick. I'll only add that I found Jenny's husband-to-be to be a highly unlikely choice that ran against her already established character. Plus he was also a prat - which didn't help.

That's an excellent point. For three series, we see Jenny as motivated to move in jetset circles- high fashion, fine dining, expensive parties, etc. And suddenly she's marrying a musician?

Sid Seadevil wrote:One other thing: since when has a high-ranking civil servant had the power to marry anybody?

And even if he could, which is doubtful, would a wedding ceremony performed on a laptop via webcam actually be legal?

Patrick wrote:That's an excellent point. For three series, we see Jenny as motivated to move in jetset circles- high fashion, fine dining, expensive parties, etc. And suddenly she's marrying a musician?

Exactly. It was a total unexplained reversal of her established character which made no sense whatsoever - even within the the series internal logic. They made no effort whatsoever to give us any reason to believe that this person had any particular qualities that would lead to her to marry him. At least with Sarah Jane, she was given Nigel Havers - a man you absolutely believed she would want to marry.

Patrick wrote:And even if he could, which is doubtful, would a wedding ceremony performed on a laptop via webcam actually be legal?

I very much doubt it. No, that was just an entirely ludicrous, tacked-on happy ending. Even Elliott didn't believe it for a moment. Which leads to another question: exactly how did they silence the wedding guests and hotel staff about the creature attacks?

Yep- plot holes you could drive a semi through.

Patrick wrote:Yep- plot holes you could drive a semi through.

Or a whole heard of very large dinosaurs.

Sid Seadevil wrote:

Patrick wrote:Yep- plot holes you could drive a semi through.

Or a whole heard of very large dinosaurs.

How appropriate.

I thought so.

So I've seen the series finale of Primeval. I was underwhelmed, which I'm sure will shock absolutely no one.

Okay, so for the second episode in a row, we get a resurrected character from the show's past, this time in the form of Danny Quinn. I have no problem with this. What I do have a problem with is the manipulation of what was supposed to building up of the big reveal about who Ethan was. I cannot underscore how cheated I feel with the bait-and-switch we were handed in the storyline: Ethan is actually named Patrick, and is the brother of Danny Quinn. This means that the episode which opened series 3, in which we see a group of teenagers breaking into an abandoned house and witness one of them falling into an anomaly was Danny's little brother. Ethan/Patrick now appears to be in his mid-thirties, and rather than the twisted psychopath we've been led to believe he is, all he wants to do is leave modern day Earth. I'm sorry, but the deaths he's already caused, the way he stuffed Emily into a sarcophogus, all this evidence we've been given to show what a reprobate Ethan/Patrick is, and his sole motivation is to leave? Really?

Now, I have no problem with the idea of Danny Quinn finding his long lost brother as a premise for a story. But when you build the little brother up on the one hand to be a version of Jack of Ripper, and then rip that build-up away, it's a blatant cheat.

Which brings me to the next issue I have: Philip Burton is revealed to have connections with Helen Carter. Why- why did it take them seven long episodes to get to this reveal? It's been obvious Dr. Bashir has an agenda of his own- Prospero- for several episodes now. And he's been recruiting Connor onto his team by only carefully revealing parts of the project he thought Connor needed to know. But, all of the sudden, the villain of the story we're supposed to be focusing on (Ethan/Patrick) is revealed as a red-herring, and Philip Burton, whom we've known for a while is not someone to be trusted, is found to have ties to Helen Cutter, and this is the stuff of which cliff-hanger moments are made?

A final item to bring up: no one seems to have a whole lot of concern of the visitor to the prison/museum who vanished prior to the opening credits. Who is this character going to be revealed as being related to in the future, and how will that bait-and-switch be handled?

Fortunately, a very entertaining episode of Being Human followed all this mess.

Well, it's taken you a week or two to finally experience it - but know that you are not alone. In a series redolent with illogicalities and ill-conceived hackery the finale really is the icing on the cake.

I was never a great fan of the series - but it was once head-and-shoulders above its current debased state. They need to do either one of two things to have a chance of rescuing it: A) bring back it's original creative team or failing that B) fire the current creative team and give the job to somebody who at least has a fighting chance of reversing its sorry course.

Which is probably just about anybody - including you or me.

Patrick wrote:And even if he could, which is doubtful, would a wedding ceremony performed on a laptop via webcam actually be legal?

As a minister licensed to perform marriages, I can tell you that it certainly wouldn't be legal, at least not in the UK..

[quote="John the Vic"]Thanks John, for confirming that suspicion. And for the record, as dubious as some of the plotting and writing of this current series of Primeval was - it was still superior to the expensive and hugely disappointing Outcasts.

[quote="Sid Seadevil"]

John the Vic wrote:Thanks John, for confirming that suspicion. And for the record, as dubious as some of the plotting and writing of this current series of Primeval was - it was still superior to the expensive and hugely disappointing Outcasts.

No worries.. I must admit, I haven't seen Outcasts, so I can't really compare, but despite its faults, I have loved watching every episode of Primeval, and am now the proud owner of the DVD of all four series, having received my pre-ordered series 4 DVD through the post two days ago..

Even though this series of Primeval didn't work for me, I'm delighted to know you got such great enjoyment out of it, John. As for Outcasts - you've had a lucky escape.