Terra Nova

Actually it pretty much was.

Trump delenda est

No, it wasn't. The show has been disjointed and boring at times, seeming to forget what it's own point or premise was but it never went into this kind of completely over the top hackery. It didn't even have much in the way of action in it, or dinosaurs outside of a capped Brach and the Carno.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

I'll grant you that the show has its flaws, but I thought it was pretty entertaining.

Regarding Wash, I had noticed in a few scenes that she seemed to view her being defeated by the bad guys as My Greatest Failure. I would say that she became a Death Seeker who also had Honor Before Reason mixed in.

Lucas, well, I don't think his going from a guy who hates his father to a moustache-twirler (hoo boy, is that a derogatory term or what?) was that much of a stretch. He was vaguely defined early on, and I guess the writers wanted to define him as sharply as they could. I think they were trying to make him an Evil Counterpart of Taylor.

I like to try to give a show I find interesting the benefit of a doubt.

edited 23rd Dec '11 7:55:14 AM by TiggersAreGreat

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!

The finale was alright. It wasn't incredible, but it was okay. I still cannot fathom why there are so few dinosaurs, but whatever...

Anyways, my thoughts on the finale:

Lucas Taylor is the worst villain ever written. "Oh woe is me, I have daddy issues! Daddy, please forgive me." "It's not your fault..." "PSYCH! *stab* I'm EVIL!" I was quite happy that Skye shot him. Oh, but we forgot, he's invincible, bullets don't work. What?

So did everybody forget that they have sonic weapons? Weren't they wasting bullets?

I actually liked Josh in this episode. Watching him hit Lucas was a lot of fun. His appreciation for Elizabeth's awesomeness was great.

All doubts about Jim Shannon's badassery have now been removed.

The Carnotaur in the cargo was awesome.

Oh, and did I mention that Lucas Taylor is the worst villain ever?

He's like fire and ice and rage. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time. Rory punched him in the face.

I think he is a decent villian and that everything he has done was pretty much expected.

On the subject of Wash, she still needed to be bait. The explosion was to get the guards to stop watching the walls. As soon as they realized that it wasn't an attack and just terrorism, they would instantly begin to search for the culprits.

The guarding of the gate was retarded though.

Please.

Here's the problem with that. First, it's stupid. Wash is a professional soldier. A seriously talented one if she was picked to be Taylor's second in command. Her not being able to rationally assess the situation and accept that there was no hope of victory and surrender without losing her shit just makes no sense. She shouldn't be happy about it, but turning into a Death Seeker? It's hack writing that takes an established character and forces them into a mold that was never meant for them just so the writer can have a character with a death wish.

Lucas has never been a good guy. He's always been an asshole when he's shown up. That's fine. There are plenty of pricks with daddy issues running around. However to make him "evil" he suddenly turns into a guy who executes prisoners, apparently wants an incestuous relationship with his "sister", gleefully plots the destruction of the colony, and has no issue just fucking over everyone he comes in contact with. It's awful, awful writing.

I dunno how that is supposed to even work. He took two to the upper chest. Best case scenario is he has one punctured lung. Based off where they hit though... I have no idea. It looks like he took one to the heart and one to the right lung. He should be dead as a door nail. To have him just disappear like that, he's officially completed his transformation into a comic book villian.

Sonics are nonlethal and only appear to be really damaging at short range. At least that's my read of it.

Agreed, though I was hoping he'd wait until later and shiv Lucas.

Uhhh, yeah. Search inside the compound, where the Shannons WON'T be in about ten seconds. She didn't stop anyone from doing anything. Most of the guards were still running around like crazy even after Lucas killed her because they weren't looking for just her or fanning out. They were still searching the compound.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

That would probably have been smarter. But no, it has to be set up so that Lucas now has a reason to hate Skye. "YOU SHOT ME! Now I'm going to be even more creepy and EEEEVILLL!"

I don't even know how to describe his weirdness towards Skye. It wasn't quite a Kick the Dog moment...more like Creep The Hell Out Of The Dog And The Audience.

Back to Josh, I was impressed. He seemed to be doing alright with Lucas until the other guys held him back.

I was expecting Jim to headbutt Lucas in their brief face-to-face scene before the torture started. Sadly, he didn't.

edited 8th Jan '12 2:36:10 PM by loganlocksley

He's like fire and ice and rage. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time. Rory punched him in the face.

Seriously?!? The second in command, who practically worships the ground Taylor walks on, feels that she has completely and utterly failed her commanding officer by her actions, and breaks down about it.... And that's "bad writing" instead of "shit that actually happens in real life?"

I think you're just pointing at things you don't just don't like to say "see, this is why it's bad" instead of actually looking at it objectively...

It was sudden? How so? Prior to the finale, we knew Lucas for all of 15 minutes... While that's not enough to get a gauge on the character, he was still doing over half the things on that list during that time prior to the finale... The idea that Lucas showed any sign prior to that point that he wasn't "evil" is going to need some backing...

But I'd agree that it was pretty bad that they'd have to drive that point home with his actions in the finale...

Yes... Because Kevlar(or it's equivalent) doesn't exist in 2149...

Tyylrym never said there were indications that he wasn't evil. He was the villain from the moment we saw him - but he hadn't become a caricature yet. The writers are trying way too hard to make sure the audience knows just how EEEVILLL Lucas is.

edited 27th Dec '11 6:47:00 PM by loganlocksley

He's like fire and ice and rage. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time. Rory punched him in the face.

And I don't see why that's a problem...

If Lucas' only "bad" traits are that he hates his father and that he doesn't want the colony to exist(beyond being a base of operations for the mining and such), I personally wouldn't see him as a "bad guy."

I am looking at it objectively. We don't see Wash worshiping the ground Taylor walks on. We see her looking up to him but not hero worshiping him. And again, she is not some fresh out of the academy butterbars. She is a seasoned combat veteran and a very competant soldier. However instead of, I dunno, organizing a resistence or trying to bust out to link up with Taylor she just finds a corner of the bar, sits down, and drinks herself stupid. She goes from a competant, seasoned soldier to a self hating drunk just so Jim can found the resistence rather than join one already underway. So yes, I consider it bad writing when a character gets derailed just so another one can look good and then killed off so the other character can take her place when he didn't need to.

Yeah, we hadn't known him for long, but at no point was there any indication that he was this far off base. If you're going to have him be the big bad in the finale you need to have set up just how off his rocker the guy is. So far we'd only seen him pissed off at his father and wanting to make the portal go both ways to let other people ruin his father's dream.

Secondly, there were four things on that list. You can argue that he was doing two of them before hand but I'd say that what we saw was him interested in ruining the colony's point. Prior to the finale it seemed to me that he was planning on making the portal go both ways, at which point the guys on the other side would figure TN could stop being a publicity stunt and become a commercial interest. Instead we see Lucas and company roll in on tanks and start to bombard the colony killing civvies in the process.

Prior to the finale Lucas was working against his father and an asshole. Neither of these things inherently make him evil unless you come from the Saturday morning cartoon mentality of black and white morality where opposition to the protagonist makes you capable of every horrible thing imaginable. Again, just because he wanted to mess up his father's dream doesn't automatically mean he's going to be cool with personally executing a prisoner.

When a bullet proof vest does it's job you usually don't see blood in the wounds. Also, we've seen the soldiers wearing body armor, it's not the kind of thing you can hide under a shirt like he's wearing.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

I just started watching the finale, I have to admit I again laugh at the silliness of the designs. I got as far as the dome scene before I had to stop. Seriously, if you're going to go and dump crap into the air with a dome, you put the output tubes outside the dome.

Fight smart, not fair.

I saw a bit of the... second last episode, I think?

Lucas is more of a comic book villain than some actual comic book villains.

It's not over. Not yet.

Agreed. The this is Sparta moment made me laugh in a supposed dramatic scene...

"Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything."

You mean the "WHERE. IS. HE?!" moment? Yeah, that was pretty hilariously bad.

It's not over. Not yet.

Thats the one.

"Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything."

Just got around to watching sunday's episode, I liked Taylor's 'bullet map' clue

If he need to sent a message, he'll just shoot you

edited 9th Jan '12 3:19:12 AM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

It does seem fitting for the character doesn't it?

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

I forgot about that! More proof (as if we needed any) that Taylor rules.

He's like fire and ice and rage. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time. Rory punched him in the face.

Now, if it only it were actually possible to do that with bullets that way.

Fight smart, not fair.

Writing out a code on the base? So long as you can be sure the round hits soft tissue and stops inside the body it should work. The base is typically not deformed during firing. So using a large, low velocity round aimed for somewhere meaty like the thigh would have a decent chance of actually working. If it hits bone or something solid in the way though, game over.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

plus theses are "future bullets" we are talking about.

hashtagsarestupid

More about cracking open the round and pulling the bullet out. These aren't homemade pistol rounds.

Fight smart, not fair.

Huh? Removing the bullet from a round isn't hard. You either use a special die in your press or an inertial bullet puller (looks like a hammer). People remove bullets from their casings all the time. You could stash the inertial puller in your rucksack no problem. Heck, in Terra Nova I'd expect handloading to be the law of the land as you waste fewer resources.

"Tyyr's a necessary evil. " Spirit

Man, Lucas is a cunt.

Quaritch did what any father would have done.

It's not over. Not yet.