'Primeval's shocking third season

Why was Primeval's third season so shocking? Well, it took some very brave creative steps and actually pulled them off with great success. After two fairly mediocre years, the ITV show looked set for more plodding and repetitive adventures. Yet somewhere along the line an Anomaly must have popped up in the Primeval writers' room and unleashed unimaginable invention, wit, adrenalin and, erm, Lock, Stock's Jason Flemyng. Here's how Primeval turned it around and did a great job filling the Doctor Who void...

Episode One

It was business as usual as the Cutter Crew pursued an oversized crocodile around London in a tedious runaround. Attempts to give Nick some personality through his emoting over dead colleague Stephen only serve to underline what a dour plank of wood the lead character is. Two new female characters are nicely slotted in, with brainy museum worker Sarah and Lester's government nemesis Christine both easy on the eye and developed enough as characters. The season's ongoing story arc is kicked off by that hammy pest Helen Cutter fiddling around with some Toblerone thing known cryptically as 'The Artefact'. Overall, an unpromising start to the season.

Episode Two

An impressive spin on the tried and tested haunted house plot features a very sinister 'Future Gremlin' lurking in a remote building after dispatching a group of teenagers. Nick Cutter looks disinterested as ever, fiddling around with his Jenga style Anomaly model while sending youngsters Abby, Connor and Jenny into some potentially fatal investigative situations. You wouldn't see The Doctor doing that! Fortunately, grumpy PC Danny Quinn is on hand to save the day with Jason Flemyng superbly portraying the complex character, deeply wounded by his brother's disappearance at the house. Cracking stuff, with real menace and emotional depth.

Episode Three

Nick Cutter actually dies! After taunting us with not one but TWO wooden planks via Helen's clone of her ex-hubby, both Nicks were dispatched in surprisingly moving scenes with Connor cradling his dying mentor. Very emotive stuff from Douglas Henshall, whose understated performance is superbly suited to the throes of death. Earlier on, our hearts were made quite gooey by the tale of several cute baby Dinos chewing through power cables in a hospital - much like your pet does with a Nintendo DS.

On a worrying note, Laila Rouass's Sarah is becoming rather peripheral to proceedings already. Nonetheless, a brave episode providing Nick is actually dead and doesn't return (presumably as matches or a cricket bat).

Episode Four

Tormented ex-cop Danny Quinn turns up after undergoing some kind of psychological makeover (perhaps due to closure over his brother's fate). He immediately brings a pulsating sense of adrenalin to the show, which forms a nice juxtaposition to the mourning nature of the characters over Nick and the melancholic tone created by the abundance of icy cool blue colours throughout. The grieving process does wonders for Connor, making him less annoying.

Through some terrific direction and effects work, Danny showcases his action hero credentials by nicking a helicopter and tackling a G-Rex on an airport runway while it attacks a plane. "You think the creatures are frightening? You should try the civil service," quips Lester. An ambitious, multi-dimensional episode that's a roaring success.

Episode Five

A horrifying toxic fungus does the rounds, turning ordinary citizens into Future Gremlins. Given the demise of Nick Cutter, you feel that no one is safe from the axe. There are also some extremely tense and atmospheric scenes with Jenny Lewis trapped in a freezing room alongside one of the infected beasts. Again, Danny saves the day with a bold rescue bid and Jenny leaves the show - but not in a body bag. Is the credit crunch causing a bit of downsizing over at the ARC?

Episode Six

Dynamic Danny is installed as the team's leader, but the comfort rug is pulled from under everyone's feet as they are forced to flee the ARC while the shady Christine and her men storm the place in search of The Artefact. After setting up camp in a remote barn, a terrific chase scene ensues - an ostrich-like dinosaur hunts their truck while Danny clings on for dear life. Just when they break free, a tree halts their high-speed progress! Superb direction throughout gives this episode the feel of a movie, with the climactic 'barn under attack' sequence a genuine nailbiter. The darker horror moments are effectively counterbalanced with some nice comedic turns thanks to an Odd Couple style flatshare between Connor and the underused Lester.

Episode Seven

Showcasing Primeval's inventive new direction, a knight in shining armour called Sir William emerges from an Anomaly in the present day - and poses more of a threat than the dragon he's after! Despite the cracking premise and a cool scrapyard battle, the latter half of the episode loses momentum, Sir William's 'fish out of water' situation isn't quite milked for enough humour, and the ending is fairly obvious. Still, it's wonderful to see the team - especially the lovely Hannah Spearritt's Abby - battling to protect the dragon's existence. It's a shame Abby's annoying brother doesn't disappear through an Anomaly with a one-way ticket.

Episode Eight

Arguably the strongest visuals and storyline in Primeval's history take place in this magnificent episode, which eerily recalls Will Smith's blockbuster movie I Am Legend. The journey into the ravaged future, overrun by Predators and oversized Preying Mantis things, is unremittingly bleak, gritty and haunting - very daring for a primetime family show! Abby's brother, who gives away Rex and goes through an Anomaly, is a useful plot catalyst but he ain't half contrived as a character. Conversely, the previously uninteresting Captain Becker finally makes the move into hero territory through his selfless manoeuvres against the Predators.

He does what we'd now expect Danny to do, so one wonders whether the script was originally written with Nick Cutter still around. Spare a thought for poor Sarah though. Who? Exactly. She hardly has anything to do and ought to re-apply for her museum job to see more action. Minor quibbles aside, this pulsating episode also finally features Abby and Connor getting it on! Crack open the champagne folks...

Episode Nine

A clever change in tone accompanies this episode, with romance and creature conservation at the top of the agenda. Abby's compassion for all forms of life is brilliantly brought out by Spearritt, as she pleads with everyone around her to refrain from hurting the giant rhinos that have amusingly halted a poor lad's stag do. Her new amour Connor, who was mostly used as a grating provider of oddball comments in the first two seasons, has now become a more rounded, sympathetic character, and we consequently care about the couple's fortunes.

Similarly, just how cute is the encounter between Rex and Connor's baby Dino pets? On a darker note, Helen is back. Aaaarrrrgggh! She's the floater that won't flush, just when it looked like the show had severed its ties with the Nick Cutter era. It's a shame that government bod Christine meets such a grizzly demise, as the character promised much but never delivered. Fortunately, the same cannot be said of Primeval this year.

Episode Ten

Hammy Helen dominates another season finale, which falls short of the excellence achieved by the previous episodes. Spewing out one-dimensional villain-ess lines like "humanity is a stain on the face of the planet" only serves to elicit groans rather than suspense, while she even brings out crass dialogue in those around her. "You know what Helen, you're in dire need of some serious therapy," quips poor Danny, harshly served by that terrible one liner.

Even in death, Helen has the last laugh at the audience. Her demise is so unfulfilling and badly handled, with a random Raptor emerging from nowhere to pounce on her. We really needed something more epic, the kind of downfall that will have viewers leaping from their sofas and punching the air as the final nail is put into Helen's coffin. As you can tell, despite some cleavage enhancing outfits, she's not a fave here at Cult Spy.

The plot itself is not without merit though, as the basic idea of Helen returning to kill off a family of human descendants is fairly interesting. The jaunt in the Cretaceous Age contains a taut forest chase sequence, with the juvenile Raptors snapping at the heels of Danny, Abby and Connor. Furthermore, Sarah is finally given something dynamic to do as she accompanies Becker in several thrilling sequences in Christine's HQ as the pair are pursued by the usual beasties. As for the cliffhanger, featuring the main trio trapped in the past, its effectiveness is vastly diminished by the fact that Helen's dropping of the Anomaly Opener device in the woods was so foregrounded earlier on in the episode. The cliffhanger really needs to leave us wondering 'How on earth will they get out of this?"

The Overall Verdict

The makers of Heroes could do a lot worse than watch the third season of Primeval, which shows how to reboot a show with minimal fuss and maximum panache. Jason Flemyng, Hannah Spearritt and Andrew Lee-Potts all delivered appealing and energised performances as the central Anomaly-busting trio, with the bold move to kill off Nick Cutter proving to be a masterstroke by changing the group's dynamic for the better. Other characters like Sarah and Becker fared less well, but their marginalisation barely matters when the show is delivering unpredictable and compelling storylines, coupled with astoundingly good visuals, on a pretty much weekly basis.

It's taken three years to properly hatch, but finally a UK genre show has emerged that's fit to lace Doctor Who's Converse trainers...


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