Primeval Series 2 :Episode 1 (Also see article Physical Models).
Night at a local shopping mall. Something on a CCTV monitor grabs the attention of the security guards. They investigate, only to be attacked by a ferocious Jurassic era Utahraptor. The anomalies are back…
At the original anomaly site as Cutter grapples with Claudia Brown’s disappearance, a new second in command has taken her place in the team – the oily Oliver Leek. Not only that but the team now have a headquarters. A hi-tech, highly sophisticated operations base called the Anomaly Research Centre centre, or ARC. No one believes Cutter when he tries to explain that the present has altered, resulting in Claudia’s disappearance. In fact they think he has gone mad. But there is not time for idle chat as the team get a call reporting the creature incursion at the shopping mall.
Once on site the team arm themselves with tranquilizer guns. Stephen tries to discuss his youthful affair with Helen, but Cutter is unwilling to confront the issue. A sense of unfinished business lingers between the two old friends. While the others investigate the anomaly behind the bowling alley, Connor heads for the confectionary, only to find a very hungry raptor lurking amongst the sweets and soft drinks. Despite a narrow escape, Cutter remains adamant that they should capture the raptors and put them back where they belong - alive. The team face another scare when they hear what they think is the creature coming back for them - only to find it is a cleaner who has been left behind when the mall was evacuated.
Cutter and Stephen find the raptor in a laser games arcade. Stephen is at the creature's mercy, and urges Cutter to shoot it with his dart gun - but the gun jams. Confused by the lights and noise the creature escapes, and Stephen demands to know why Cutter didn't shoot it when he had the chance. He refuses to believe Cutter's protestations that the gun failed to work. The deepening rift suspicion between them is worse than ever.
As Abby and Connor escort the cleaner to safety he is attacked by a baby raptor and but as Connor races to the rescue he accidentally shoots Abby with a tranquilizer gun. Connor finally manages to neutralise the baby raptor and then goes in search of Cutter, leaving the cleaner apparently dead. When they return the cleaner has mysteriously vanished and Abby is out cold.
Cutter thinks the raptors might be a family unit and he is right. They lure a third, and much bigger raptor to the bowling alley, but it escapes to the car park before they can capture it. Using trail bikes, Cutter and Stephen manage to coral it back inside and they eventually bring it down with tranquilisers. Now all they have to do is put it back in the Jurassic era….something Cutter insists he has to do alone.
During their battle in the mall Cutter notices that all the radios seemed to be suffering from some kind of mysterious electronic interference and he suspects it is connected to the anomalies. He realises they can now build a detector tuned to the same wave length to locate new anomalies. Charging Connor with the task there is a possibility that the team can now gain the upper ground.
Back at the ARC, Lester is told by Leek that a new media relations manager - basically a super spin doctor - is to join the team. Lester is beginning to feel the pressure for results from above. While the rest of the team welcome the new addition, her arrival at the ARC sends Cutter into a tail spin. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a girl he once knew, Nick Cutter’s new reality is about to get even weirder.
Read about the filming of this episode here.
THE FICTION
The first programme in the new series of Primeval sees our team called in to clear a Raptor-ridden shopping mall. Two adult raptors and a juvenile come through an anomaly drawn by the warmth of the mall’s air conditioning and the smell of live mammals (humans). Cutter and his team are brought in to restore order and return the ferocious dinosaurs through the anomaly.
THE FACTS
‘Raptors’ as a word was popularised by Jurassic Park and is slightly frowned upon by palaeontologists. It is a generic term to describe a group of agile dinosaur predators called the dromaeosaurids. This group were distinguished by their lightweight skeletons, long arms and the lethal sickle-shaped claw on their second toe. Although as a group they evolved in the Jurassic they thrived throughout the Cretaceous period and the particular animal that appears in the shopping mall is based on Deinonychus (which means ‘terrible claw’) from the Cretaceous. It is one the most famous of all the raptors. As a group these dinosaurs as very closely related to the early birds and many now believe they would have been covered in feathers. The animals in the mall have a pelt of protofeathers that rise like heckles when they attack.
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