I may change my mind on a rewatch, but... This one just didn't work for me. After two very strong episodes that felt a lot like classic Primeval, this one felt like a different show entirely--and not a very good one, at that.
Part of this is because so much airtime went to Matt and Emily and endless chase sequences. Matt chasing Emily. Emily chasing Tree Creeper. Matt chasing Tree Creeper. Matt and Emily trying to find Ethan. Around and around in circles.
Abby and Becker got some action scenes but maybe three lines of dialogue, and the entirety of Connor's storyline involved him gutting a single computer while inexplicably clueless Jess hovered over him and looked stupid. The stock airlock scene lacked tension--even with Rex nearly dying--and there was no explanation whatsoever for why the rest of the backup team were missing throughout virtually the entire chase.
All that, and no Lester. WTF?
I can tell the gang did their best with this. Cilla Ware's directing was as good as could be expected, and our heroes tried their best with the wooden dialogue, but honestly... This script sucked. I hate saying that, because I love this show so much and I loved the first two eps, but it was just really, really poorly written. It felt like someone in a different fandom writing fic for a show they'd only watched here and there. The structure of the plot was good--I'm sure Tim and Adrian sketched it out beforehand--but the execution was just terrible. Connor's dialogue, for instance, was woefully out of character for who he's supposed to be, now (and honestly? Andrew seemed uncomfortable with it.)
Oh.... I just looked up the writer. Her entire CV thusfar? Writing a crapload of eps of Coronation Street. No wonder. Her only genre credits are two eps of Robin Hood (and they were bad ones, at that) and two eps of Crusoe. I suspect I'm probably right. She DID only watch a couple of previous eps to try to get some character down, and that's about it.
I don't know what the writing credits are on the rest of the series (though I know Bailie has the finales of both 4 & 5) but I dearly hope this gal doesn't get more than this one. I've been endlessly rewatching the first two eps. This one? I'll probably screencap a few bits and otherwise ignore it.
Part of this is because so much airtime went to Matt and Emily and endless chase sequences. Matt chasing Emily. Emily chasing Tree Creeper. Matt chasing Tree Creeper. Matt and Emily trying to find Ethan. Around and around in circles.
Abby and Becker got some action scenes but maybe three lines of dialogue, and the entirety of Connor's storyline involved him gutting a single computer while inexplicably clueless Jess hovered over him and looked stupid. The stock airlock scene lacked tension--even with Rex nearly dying--and there was no explanation whatsoever for why the rest of the backup team were missing throughout virtually the entire chase.
All that, and no Lester. WTF?
I can tell the gang did their best with this. Cilla Ware's directing was as good as could be expected, and our heroes tried their best with the wooden dialogue, but honestly... This script sucked. I hate saying that, because I love this show so much and I loved the first two eps, but it was just really, really poorly written. It felt like someone in a different fandom writing fic for a show they'd only watched here and there. The structure of the plot was good--I'm sure Tim and Adrian sketched it out beforehand--but the execution was just terrible. Connor's dialogue, for instance, was woefully out of character for who he's supposed to be, now (and honestly? Andrew seemed uncomfortable with it.)
Oh.... I just looked up the writer. Her entire CV thusfar? Writing a crapload of eps of Coronation Street. No wonder. Her only genre credits are two eps of Robin Hood (and they were bad ones, at that) and two eps of Crusoe. I suspect I'm probably right. She DID only watch a couple of previous eps to try to get some character down, and that's about it.
I don't know what the writing credits are on the rest of the series (though I know Bailie has the finales of both 4 & 5) but I dearly hope this gal doesn't get more than this one. I've been endlessly rewatching the first two eps. This one? I'll probably screencap a few bits and otherwise ignore it.