History Series / TerraNova

A television show produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg and [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Brannon Braga]] which, after a TroubledProduction, premiered on {{Fox}} in late September 2011. On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Fox would not pick up the series for a second season.

[[IThoughtItMeant Completely unrelated to]] [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the video game]] ''Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri'', and the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode of the same name, which Braga co-wrote and produced.

** The Sixers sure sound a whole awful lot like [[{{Lost}} The Others]].

* AdultFear: When they just get to Terra Nova one of the soldiers is about to open the backpack they just smuggled their youngest daughter in with a giant knife.

* AdvertisedExtra: Dinosaurs actually don't matter that much in the central plot. The only episodes in which they've had a real role were filler episodes; even then they barely appear because the {{CGI}} budget to show them off is ridiculously high for a television show.

* AbortedArc: The baby Ankylosaur taken in by the family looked like the setup for a TeamPet, but then there's nothing until they release it back into the wild a few episodes later.

** Possibly a coincidence, but do you happen to know of another [[Series/{{Firefly}} short-lived sci-fi show]] with characters named Malcom, Reynolds, and Wash?

** The [[TheSwarm little pterosaurs]] at first appear to be this, attacking people in the streets for no reason. It's later discovered that [[spoiler:Terra Nova was constructed where it was because eggshells found in the soil made it fertile growing ground. Turns out that it's actually a nesting ground, and every few years the creatures that laid those eggs return to breed. What may have laid all those eggs, you ask? [[OhCrap Those very same pterosaurs that are now attacking Terra Nova.]]

* SeldomSeenSpecies: ''Carnotaurus'' isn't very common, and (apart from the feathers) was depicted very accurately. There are also ''Xiphactinus'', a type of marine fish, which [[MisplacedWildlife lives in the lakes]] near Terra Nova. The 20-foot-long adults are never seen or mentioned, but 3-foot juveniles are caught and eaten by Terra Novans. A less obvious example are the large pterosaurs seen in a few short scenes--rather than the typical ''Pteranodon'' seen in pop culture, it's an unnamed (and probably undiscovered) type of tapejarid.

* StockDinosaurs: The show plays this straight while also averting it. Most of the dinosaurs appearing are fictional, but the few real species that appear are pretty famous: Carnotaurus, brachiosaurs, Ankylosaurus, etc. Even most of the fictional species resemble well-known dinosaurs. Completely averted with the Slashers, which look almost nothing like anything known from the fossil record (although they are obvious Expies of raptors).

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Lucas Taylor's backers are almost cartoonishly evil. They bring an evil army through the gate, they shoot a harmless brontosaurus for no reason, they want to commit mass deforestation and genocide in order to facilitate their mining operation, and they even ''talk about all the selfish things they're going to do when they get their money.''

* BigCreepyCrawlies: More plausible than most instances of this trope, [[NightmareFuel three-foot long centipedes]]. Which really existed. And leeches that get ''very'' big when sucking blood. You have to figure the latter are adapted to feeding on very large animals, so...

*** Slasher: Velociraptor again, as mentioned above

* FemalesAreMoreInnocent: It turns out that the female sixer leader Mira is working for [[spoiler: associates of Lucas Taylor, and has more or less been coerced into the role]] in much the same way as another female "villain", [[spoiler: sixer spy Skye Tate]]. [[spoiler: Lucas Taylor]], on the other hand, causes trouble for the colony largely out of a sense of DisproportionateRetribution for [[spoiler: his father's decision years earlier that led to his mother's death]], and the associates are doing it out of [[spoiler: pure greed.]]

** In the next episode, the pterasaurs are really determined to get to their hatching ground aka [[spoiler: the Terra Nova base]].

** Although in fairness, the virus regressed people mentally to various ages. Given his scientific notes turned into nursery rhymes and drawings, it's entirely possible that he regressed to a young child, which ''would'' explain his reaction of childlike wonder instead of fear.

The premise is an ExcusePlot to have dinosaurs and humans interacting on a television show. The showrunners promised that the show would take pains to prevent [[SomeWhereAPaleontologistIsCrying upsetting dinosaur fans]]. [[TheyJustDidntCare They were lying]].

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: The Nykoraptor from ''The Runaway'' was seen ''wagging its tail'' while trying to attack Jim, who was suspended from a rope trap (this is particularly unusual as [[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying raptors have very stiff tails]]).

* FeatheredFiend: The Slashers and Nykoraptors, and to a lesser extent the ''[[SomewhereAPaleontologistIsCrying Carnotaurus]]''.

* SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying: AnachronismStew and MisplacedWildlife can be applied to basically every dinosaur present and several other animals (i.e. swordfish had not evolved yet, rhamphorynchoid pterosaurs were extinct by then).
** In an unusual inversion of portraying dinosaurs with insufficient plumage, the ''Carnotaurus'' is seen with highly developed feathers even though it is well known ''Carnotaurus'' had no feathers.
** It is, however, played painfully straight with the ''Nykoraptor'', which are dromaeosaurs that don't have quite enough feathers (it is averted with the slashers though, as they are not dromaeosaurs).
** Most of the theropods also have pronated hands.
** Some of the inaccuracies are possibly justified, since the show may or may not take place in a separate time stream, where resemblances to our own time stream would be purely superficial.

* AdultFear: When they just get to Tera Nova one of the soldiers is about to open the backpack they just smuggled their youngest daughter in with a giant knife.

* ExactWords: They stated to Josh that if he helped the Sixers they would get his girlfriend to Tera Nova, [[spoiler: they did, along with a bomb that kills her as she enters]].

GoodAnimalsEvilAnimals: The Brachiosaurus and Ankylosaurus are both depicted as harmless (sometimes even playful) vegetarians. The Carnotaurus, Slashers, and Nykoraptors on the other hand, are vicious and feral predators.

** Averted with the ancestral Komodo, which has apparently gained a reputation among the colonists for being a coward.

* BigBadDuumvirate: On one side there's the Sixers antagonizing the Tenth Voyagers for survival, [[spoiler: and hinted at control over time at the end of the pilot]]. On the other hand we have the Slashers and Caurnotaurs (although technically, they're just hungry). There's a third side, too: [[spoiler: The people of the future want access to the past in order to exploit Terra Nova for resources, and they're perfectly willing to use violence to achieve their ends.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: [[spoiler: The Sixer camp]] has avoided detection and stayed hidden for years, despite the fact that the spy in Terra Nova can leave and get to it on foot without well-worn paths, then return to Terra Nova all within a workday. In reality that would place it ''really close'', but TropesAreTools.

* ArtisticLicence:

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: When a crow-sized animal with hollow bones flies into people and clothing racks at full speed, more likely this will kill the animal, not fling things 40 times their weight into the air.

[[IThoughtItMeant Completely unrelated to]] [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the video game]] ''Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri'', and the Series/StarTrekEnterprise episode of the same name, which Braga co-wrote and produced.

[[IThoughtItMeant Completely unrelated to]] [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the video game]] ''Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri'', or the Series/StarTrekEnterprise episode of the same name, which Braga co-wrote and produced.

[[IThoughtItMeant Completely unrelated to]] [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the video game]] ''Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri''.