Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Primeval: Volume 3, Series 4 and 5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Oh, yeah. "Oooh, ahhh." That's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 17, 2012

Dinosaurs are awesome. I knew it when I was five, I knew it every time I curled up on the couch for an episode of Land of the Lost, I knew it the first time I watched Jurassic Park, I knew it when two fiesty V-Rexes attacked Peter Jackson's King Kong, and I still knew it when my son turned five, visited the Natural History Museum and screamed, what else, "dinosaurs are awesome!" Kids know it. Adults know it. We all know it. So how is it that Hollywood and its film and television brood have so much trouble getting it right? Quick: name ten reputable films or series that feature dinosaurs in a prominent role. Jurassic Park, The Land that Time Forgot, Gojira, The Land Before Time... um... King Kong stretches the definition of prominent... and... well... hmm. Drawing a blank after number four or five? Typing "Best Dinosaur Movies" in a Google search bar? Wondering if you'll have to add Jurassic Park III to a Top Ten anything list? That's because there simply aren't that many dino-driven films or series to choose from; at least not enough to round out a unique and respectable Top Ten list. And it's only gotten worse in recent years. Hollywood has all but given up on big-screen dinosaurs, and the only notable broadcast offspring of the otherwise barren genre are Fox's Terra Nova and ITV's Primeval. One is a smartly written, action-packed, dino-dealing treat that boasts solid visual effects and strong sci-fi storylines. The other is Terra Nova.

My name's James Lester. Five years ago, I was put in charge of the ARC, a top-secret government project investigating rips in time known as anomalies. These anomalies allow long-extinct creatures from distant eras to cross into our own time. Our leading research scientist was murdered by his insane wife Helen, who planned to wipe out humanity. "She's gone to kill the first human, stop our evolution in its tracks!" Danny Quinn, Connor Temple and Abby Maitland went through an anomaly to stop her. No one knows what happened to them. But as the human race survived, we must assume they succeeded. "We can't get home!" None of them ever returned; lost forever in a distant past, with no way home. All attempts at rescue failed. A new team was put in place and many changes made to the ARC. The battle continues. There is always a new threat. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it.

The Blu-ray release of Primeval: Volume 3 may prove to be a bit confusing for the uninformed, and not just because newcomers will be facing a three-season handicap. Volume 3 collects Series 4 and 5 (seven and six episodes, respectively), and Series 1, 2 and 3 aren't available on Blu-ray, meaning completists will have to turn to DVD if they want to plow through the show's initial hurrah before tackling its 2011 revival. (Primeval was canceled in 2009 due to ITV's financial woes, despite the series general acclaim and popularity.) Thankfully, showrunners Adrian Hodges and Tim Haines take the show in so many new directions -- complete with a new ARC, new characters and new conflicts -- that Primeval 101, 201 and 301 aren't necessarily required viewing. Of course, if you've been with the show from the start, Volume 3 will most likely be a richer, more satisfying experience. However, if you, like me, are a wide-eyed series rookie, you won't be lost. Much... or for very long during the inevitable (but infrequent) moments you find yourself scratching your head, desperate for an explanation or Series 1-3 backstory that may or may not be provided within a time frame to your liking. The first episode is a bit daunting, sure. But if you're brave enough to jump on board this late in the game, you're savvy enough to expect an adjustment period.

So what awaits fans and newcomers in Series 4 and 5? It isn't long before Connor Temple (Andrew Lee Potts) and Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) make their way back to the 21st century, sans Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng, who returns soon thereafter) and the trust and full access they took for granted before being stranded in time. (Helen's plot to stamp mankind out of existence didn't go over too well with the powers that be, leaving them with a burning desire to clamp down and be more protective of their temporal devices and portals.) After securing their old jobs, Connor and Abby set out to secure their standing within the restructured ARC team: among its members former military man and guarded team leader Matt Anderson (Ciarán McMenamin), brainy 19-year-old field coordinator Jess Parker (Ruth Kearney, the best new addition to the show), cautious, terminally ill man of action Gideon (Anton Lesser), and wealthy financier Philip Burton (Alexander Siddig, runner-up for best new addition). Anomalies are more of a threat than ever, dinosaurs and other displaced creatures continue to wreak havoc wherever they appear, government official James Lester (Ben Miller, taking on a slightly different role) still commands the ARC project, time topsying and turvying remains central to every episode (albeit to a lesser extent when a lengthy citywide hunt takes place), and the ARC is, as always, present-day Earth's last line of defense.

Whovians will feel right at home in the Primeval universe. It takes itself more seriously than Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat's sharp-as-a-sonic-screwdriver Doctor Who rebirth, and doesn't dabble in Who's brand of silliness, penchant for light-heartedness or cardboard nouveau production design. But the influence is clearly there, even if Hodges and Haines take more of their cues from the dark dervishes of Torchwood than the devilish whimsical-meets-cerebral delights of the Doctor proper. Quick wit and down-to-the-wire life-savers are forever in play, and injections of brisk action and gripping intensity aren't in short supply; the ARC team members are a flawed but endearingly eclectic band of pseudo-eccentrics, and character-centric drama forces their relationships to evolve in intriguing ways. It only helps that the series' visual effects are a step above Who's, with a fierce selection of razor-clawed beasties and huffing dinos that go bump in the night. Prehistoric trappings aside, Primeval walks a more Earthbound line than Who or Torchwood, aiming for realism wherever possible. The effects follow suit, low budget or no, and time and time again look better than anything on Terra Nova. And, considering a single episode of Terra Nova probably costs more than an entire six-episode run of Primeval, that's quite an accomplishment.

But Primeval lacks a compelling hook; something Nova has worked to build upon, especially in the last few episodes of its first season. The episodic nature of the series wears thin at times, as does its heroes teetering-on-the-edge reaction to almost every crisis that arises, and plot twists can be seen coming a ways off. None of it pokes many holes in Hodges and Haines story or mythos, but none of it really plugs the holes that do exist either. Primeval is best served one episode every so often rather than all at once in a marathon session. Repetition sets in when watching back to back (to back) entries, even though Potts, Spearritt, Flemyng, Miller, Kearney and Siddig rarely allow their characters to idle or stagnate. Come to think of it, their performances are the most consistent and rewarding element the series has to offer. Their individual arcs not only keep even the slipperiest episodes on track, their battles with the anomalies' creatures and monsters never rely on easy fixes or paint-by-numbers problem solving. Well, no more than other episodic sci-fi series that have bucked genre convention rather than lean on it. Primeval hasn't roped me in completely. Not yet anyway. But it wasn't too long ago I was skeptical of Doctor Who. Now... now I chow down on an episode of Who the moment it hits my DVR queue. Who's to say another few hours of Primeval can't result in the same phenomenon. Don't get me wrong, Doctor Who is, by far, the superior show. But Primeval has a lot going for it, starting with its cast, extending to its voracious dinos, and ending with its writers' slick scripts. If nothing else, it's worth a rent and, more importantly, a fighting chance. So give it a try; you might be surprised.

Primeval: Volume 3, Series 4 and 5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Don't let the first minute of Primeval's 1080i/AVC-encoded video presentation scare you. While the brief series-thus-far summation that introduces the first episode looks as if it's been ripped straight off a poorly produced DVD, the series itself looks much, much better. Like Doctor Who and Torchwood's Blu-ray releases, some viewers will take issue with Primeval's interlaced presentation, the noise that occasionally creeps into the image, and the shoddier visual effects, which become an even greater eyesore in high definition. In motion, though, the "i" in 1080i is an absolute non-issue, any noise that appears is inherent to the source, and hit-or-miss visual effects shouldn't count as a strike against the quality of the encode. For my part, I didn't run into much of anything worth complaining about, even though some exceedingly minor aliasing and banding does pop up from time to time. Color, contrast, delineation and skintone saturation are spot on; each one perfectly in step with its showrunners' intentions. Primaries are quite strong on the whole, black levels are nice and deep, and there really aren't any distractions to contend with. Detail ranges from excellent to downright surprising as well, with a seemingly endless array of well-resolved fine textures, wonderfully refined closeups, and crisp, clean edges (free of ringing and EE halos). In fact, the encode is about as proficient as BBC TV presentations come. Significant crush, smearing, artifacting and compression mishaps aren't in play, the aforementioned noise is kept to the barest of minimums, and little else of note rears its head. Simply put, Primeval has never looked better, and couldn't really, even if its fans wanted it to.

Primeval: Volume 3, Series 4 and 5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

On the opposite end of the spectrum is BBC's 448kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. To be clear, there isn't anything particularly amiss. Voices are clear and intelligible, the soundscape has plenty of room to breathe (even with just two channels), and the mix boasts an unexpected sense of weight, LFE support or no. But little else impresses. From episode to episode, Primeval is a series that deserves... that needs a full-fledged 5.1 lossless audio track. I can only imagine how much more menacing the series' thunder lizards would sound, how much more involving its action would seem, and how much more immersive the entire experience could be. Alas, with no rear speaker activity or low-end oomph to speak of, we're left with a completely serviceable but ultimately unremarkable Dolby Digital shoulder-shrug. As lossy stereo mixes go, it's quite good. As Primeval is concerned, though, it's underwhelming.

Primeval: Volume 3, Series 4 and 5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• New Dawn: Making the New Primeval, Part 1 (Disc 2, HD, 21 minutes): The first of Volume Three's "New Dawn" documentaries picks up at the end of Series Three and crawls along for three minutes as the cast and crew fill in new viewers on where the characters and story were when the show ended its initial run. Thankfully, it picks up at the three-minute mark, digging into the development of the Primeval revival, the changes made to the formula, and the new ARC, sets, weapons, heroes, antagonists, creatures, plotlines, anomalies, twists and turns the showrunners dreamed up along the way. "Part 1" is a tad dry, at least early on, but fans will no doubt enjoy going behind-the-scenes to see how Primeval's resurrection was handled.
• New Dawn: Making the New Primeval, Part 1 (Disc 4, HD, 16 minutes): "Part 2" focuses on Series Five, the surprises it has in store, the further changes it brings, and the various set pieces, attacks and prehistoric monstrosities it introduces. It's more clip-heavy and exposition-driven than "Part 1," but there's still a lot of good information to be had, from constructing caves to designing believable technology to creating sets and visual effects for the show's fifth outing.
• Webisodes: Series Four Prequel (Disc 2, SD, 17 minutes): Before Series Four made its broadcast debut, ITV released five webisodes aimed at viewers itching to know where (and when) the Primeval showrunners were about to take them.

Primeval: Volume 3, Series 4 and 5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Terra Nova struggled early and often. Primeval, though, hits the ground running, pausing only to look over its shoulder at the hungry beasties closing in on its position. It has its quirks and flaws, sure, but it accomplishes more than Terra Nova did, and with less support, on a much smaller network, with a comparatively minuscule budget, and without the name Steven Spielberg attached to its production. No small feat, mind you. Unfortunately, BBC Video's Blu-ray release isn't as impressive. Its video presentation is outstanding, but its Dolby Digital stereo track disappoints and its short selection of extras doesn't help matters. Fans won't hesitate for a second, especially considering how good the series looks in high definition. But newcomers? Newcomers may wince at the price tag, get hung up on words like "stereo" and "interlaced," and hold off on sampling the show until its Blu-ray edition earns a price cut.