walking with dragons

[reverancepavane]

I was very disappointed with the third season of Primeval. It's definitely moved from the realm of science fiction to fantasy, more of a monster of the week. I have major problems with the fact that they have eliminated almost all the main characters. This eradicates the rather interesting backplot of the show, as well as removing the more charismatic characters, but I suppose that they had little choice if Douglass Henshaw wanted to leave, since most of the plot was innately tied to the role of Dr Nick Carter. But they seem to have forgotten that the original lead cast were actually the experts with a large organisation to back them up. In previous series the ARC provided lots of minions (both scientific and mooks). Now all it provides is edible munchies for the nasty. The lead cast have become another Star Trek away team with disposable redshirts. It just breaks the feel of reality that the original two series captured. And furthermore, Sir James Lester didn't have a single sarcastic line in the whole series! How ... unnatural. I admit it's my gamer heritage, but one of the things I like about good fiction is the ability to create an internally consistent background universe that actually works (in non-SF/F this is trivial, of course). Whilst I may enjoy narrative-based stories (such as the scale-breaking Star Trek movie), I find these rather more ephemeral and less filled with possibility. Of course, one of the reasons why I'm saying this is that the original two seasons of Primeval did remind me of a role-playing game, especially in how the lead adventurers met up and joined forces.