Professor Nick Cutter isn't too pleased when one of his students, Connor Temple, comes to him gushing about some mysterious creature caught on grainy CCTV - but changes his mind when he learns it's in the Forest of Dean where his wife Helen vanished eight years ago. Upon investigating, they find Abby Maitland, a zoologist who's been contacted about a strange flying lizard found by a schoolboy. Their search leads them to a wormhole (an "anomaly") which has appeared out of nowhere, leading to a Permian desert from 250 million years ago.
And something bigger than a lizard has got through ...
- Adults Are Useless: Poor Ben gets this twice. First, his mother somehow remains oblivious to the sounds of the Gorgonopsid attack coming from his room, and blames him for trashing it. Then the next day, his teacher ignores Ben's warnings about the creature being on school grounds, and nearly lets it into the classroom when she opens the door to investigate the roars coming from the hallway.
- Anachronism Stew: An in-universe example. Cutter and Tom discover an abandoned campsite and human remains in the Permian, indicating that they weren't the first people to find the anomaly.
- Berserk Button: Cutter doesn't like his missing wife being mentioned.Connor: [about the mysterious creature sighting] Your wife wouldn't have ignored it.
Cutter: My wife was a serious scientist, not some gullible monster hunter. - Bird-Poop Gag: A non-bird version of this happens to Lester when the team is chasing Rex around the Home Office.
- Car Fu: Stephen uses this to incapacitate the Gorgonopsid.
- Fake First Kiss: Claudia introduces herself to Cutter by kissing him in order to drive off a drunk who wouldn't stop hitting on her.
- More Predators Than Prey: Averted Trope. As far as we see, in the Permian lands on the other side of the Anomaly, there's an entire herd of plant-eating Scutosaurus, and there's also a flock of plant-eating Coelurosauravus, but there's only one meat-eating Gorgonopsid.
- Never Found the Body: Helen Cutter vanished without trace into the Forest of Dean 8 years before.Connor: [about Cutter] Is he alright?
Stephen: Helen Cutter came to this area eight years ago to investigate a potential creature sighting. She disappeared in the forest, the body was never found. No blood, no clues, nothing. - Ramming Always Works: Stephen smashes down a rampaging Gorgonopsid with his truck.
- Stealing the Credit: Expecting it to make him rich and famous, Connor acts like he's the one who discovered the Scutosaurus when it was actually Abby.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The Gorgonopsid is able to track Ben down from the scent of a single drop of blood. It first tries to attack him in his bedroom, and the next day tracks him down at school.
- You Need to Get Laid: Cutter's response when Connor comes to him about the creature sighting.Cutter: Connor, go to a bar, meet a nice girl. Things will seem a lot simpler.
