History Trivia / TerraNova

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Cause there are few better ways to set up a show for failure than to put it up against 'Monday Night Football'.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[Creator/StephenLang Colonel Quaritch]] is back facing off against dinosaurs instead of blue-skinned alien elves, and it's a pity he never got to say "You're not in Kansas anymore, you're on Terra Nova."

* RoleAssociation:
** [[Film/{{Avatar}} Colonel Quaritch!]]
** [[Series/PowerRangersRPM Max used to be a Red Ranger!]]
*** [[SpartacusBloodandSand Also a Roman slave!]]
** [[PartyAnimals Ashika Chandiramani]] became a doctor in 2149!!
** [[{{Kings}} Michelle Benjamin]] has befriended Josh.
** [[Series/{{Degrassi}} Declan Coyne]] sure went out of his way to get away from Holly J.
** The Sixers are led by [[PushingDaisies Simone Hunden]].
** This isn't the first time that Jason O'Mara played [[Series/LifeOnMars2008 a cop who went back in time]]...

* SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying: The presence of Brannon "[[OldShame Threshold]]" Braga wasn't really that reassuring to those of us who were originally assured the show would avoid this trope. We... ''guess'' you could handwave all of this because we're in an AlternateUniverse, but for specifics:
** The show takes place 85 million years into the past, which puts it in the Late Cretaceous Period (the Santonian Age, to be specific). ''Carnotaurus'' (lived 70 million years ago) isn't too far out of place, but the brachiosaurs and ''Allosaurus'' (mentioned but not seen) are '''way''' out of place.
** In addition to issues of time, you've also got issues of space - although ''Brachiosaurus'' and ''Allosaurus'' fossils have been found in similar places from western to central North America, ''Carnotaurus'' was located in Argentina.
*** The show doesn't specifically refer to them as ''Brachiosaurus'' or ''Allosaurus'', it refers to them as brachiosaurs and allosaurs, meaning they are more likely related species (both groups had members known from the Santonian).
** There was a Brachiosaur 85 million years ago, it's called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauroposeidon Sauroposeidon]].
*** That says 112 million years ago, which is a loooonnnngggg way away from 85 million years ago.
** And then, there are the Slashers. They are a fictional species of [[RaptorAttack maniraptor]] that looks for all the world like a straight and unsarcastic version of [[http://optimisticpainter.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/a-brief-commentry-on-science-documentaries-about-prehistory/ this]]. With [[SomewhereAnOrnithologistIsCrying pygostyles that act as tail blades]].
** The second episode has pterosaurs which are clearly belong in rhamphorhynchoidea, small with long tails but that went extinct at the end of the Jurassic, and not the surviving suborder pterodactyloidea, larger with short tails.
** All of which arguably fulfills the [[MisplacedWildlife Misplaced Wildlife]] trope.
*** One could argue that "undiscovered" fictional dinosaurs are a nod to realism. The fossil record is patchy and it's entirely likely that a time traveler would encounter species that didn't get into the record.
*** Moreover, predator species tend to have a high rate of turnover, evolving into something else or going extinct within a few million years at most. With a short lifespan for each taxon, together with predator populations being smaller than prey in any stable ecosystem, odds are good that we've missed a good deal more carnivores (which is what the show focuses on) than herbivores.
*** Still, you would have thought that ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus'' would be a bit of a giveaway about the beast's home territory.
*** Er, that wasn't ''Spinosaurus'', it was a fictional species called the Empirosaur (it's name wasn't said onscreen).
** See one paleontologist's comments on the show [[http://dml.cmnh.org/2011Sep/msg00387.html here]] and [[http://www.jonja.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13115 here]].
** The symbol used extensively in media material and in-Universe by the expedition features the supercontinent Pangaea in a configuration from the Triassic Period, 150 millions earlier to the setting. By this point [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Gondwana was almost entirely broken up and much of Laurasia was covered in intercontinental shallow seaways]].
*** Maybe they picked it because it looked cool. Plus, they don't seem to have much ability to take a peek at what the entire planet looks like.
*** [[spoiler:The final episode does appear to acknowledge that the world is not just one big landmass at this point. When the Phoenix officers are discussing the planned detonation of the charges that will strip away the vegetation and animal life, they use a map image showing multiple detonations across a large land-mass and comment that the dozen or so detonations will clear half the continent.]]
*** For the most part, barring some minor continental drift and differences in sea-level, Earth was almost ''identical'' to it's present day configuration at this point in history.
** There's always the giant centipede. There were giant myriapods at one point in Earth's history, but they weren't centipedes and, more importantly, they lived over 200 million years before the timing of the show, in the late Carboniferous.
** Oooh look - grass 20 millions years early!
*** More like RealityIsUnrealistic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass
** Grass is one thing - how about Cretaceous apple trees! Okay, maybe imported. And a fungus eating on the apples. Okay, maybe imported as well. But then there are clearly indigenous beetles feeding specifically on that fungus.
*** Presumably there's some native plant that the fungus normally grows on, and the beetles would chow down on it whether it's growing on apples or its normal food source.

* HeyItsThatGuy:

** [[{{Degrassi}} Declan Coyne]] sure went out of his way to get away from Holly J.

*** As [[http://www.tfigblog.com/.a/6a01053647073b970c01127918d75b28a4-pi this map]] of the changing sea-level demonstrates, Earth over 80 million years ago was practically ''identical'' to how it is now. Oops...

** In addition to issues of time, you've also got issues of space - although ''Brachiosaurus'' and ''Allosaurus'' fossils have been found in similar places from western to central North America, ''Carnotaurus'' was located in Chile.

** The symbol used extensively in media material and in-Universe by the expedition features the supercontinent Pangea in a configuration from the Triassic Period, 150 millions earlier to the setting. By this point [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous Gondwana was almost entirely broken up and much of Laurasia was covered in intercontinental shallow seaways]].

** Grass is one thing - how about cretaceous apple trees! Okay, maybe imported. And a fungus eating on the apples. Okay, maybe imported as well. But then there are clearly indigenous beetles feeding specifically on that fungus.

** [[PowerRangersRPM Max used to be a Red Ranger!]]

** The second episode has pterosaurs which are clearly belong in rhamphorhynchoidea, small with long tails but that went extinct at the end of the Jurassic, and not the surviving suborder pterodactyloidea, larger with short tails. They are also bipedal, for those not in the know, see PteroSoarer.

* ShoutOut:
** Possibly a coincidence, but do you happen to know of another [[{{Firefly}} short-lived sci-fi show]] with characters named Malcom, Reynolds, and Wash?
** Sky and Josh's exchange about the Slashertails: ''[[{{Film/Alien}} They mostly come out at night... mostly.]]''
** "Instinct" was basically a huge ''TheBirds'' homage.
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Jim, I'm a doctor, not a chemist.]]
** In "Now You See Me", Elizabeth makes passing mention of one [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Nurse Ogawa]].

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

** Can you think of any other [[{{Firefly}} short-lived sci-fi shows]] with characters named Malcom, Reynolds, and Wash?

** Can you think of any other [[{{Firefly}} short-lived sci-fi shows]] with characters named Malcom, Reynolds, and Wash?

** [[{{Avatar}} Colonel Quaritch!]]

** [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Jim, I'm a doctor, not a chemist.]]
** In "Now You See Me", Elizabeth makes passing mention of one [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Nurse Ogawa]].

** In "Now You See Me", Elizabeth makes passing mention of one [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Nurse Ogawa]].

** [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Jim, I'm a doctor, not a chemist.]]

** "Instinct" was basically a huge ''TheBirds'' homage.

** "Instinct" was basically a huge ''{{Birds}}'' homage.

** Sky and Josh's exchange about the Slashertails: ''[[{{Film/Alien}} They mostly come out at night... mostly.]]''