History Trivia / TheTerror

*** Manson's confrontation with an officer over going into the hold was originally in episode one-here it is between Manson and Mr. Des Vouex, not with Mr. Irving, and it was due to his apprehension of meeting Billy Orren's body down there, due to him having been defenestrated from the mainmast earlier on, not due to dead bodies being eaten by rats in the hold.

* ActorAllusion: Possibly by accident, but during his long-winded retelling of his old war story at the officers' dinner, Fitzjames talks about feeling like "Caesar crossing the Rubicon." Franklin looks briefly amused. In Series/Rome, Creator/TobiasMenzies played Brutus to Creator/CiaranHinds's Julius Casear.

* DyeingForYourArt: A lot of the main cast lost weight to look appropriately gaunt for the starvation scenes later in the series. In a cast Q&A, Creator/JaredHarris and Adam Nagaitis commented on how they in particular ended up losing a lot of weight in the end.

* FanNickname:
** It's a bit of a running joke in the fandom to call James Fitzjames [[Literature/LesMiserables Jean Valjean]].
** Goodsir? More like Bestsir.

* DyeingForYourArt: A lot of the main cast lost weight to look appropriately gaunt for the starvation scenes later in the series. In a cast Q&A, Creator/JaredHarris and Creator/AdamNagaitis commented on how they in particular ended up losing a lot of weight in the end.

** *Crozier finding the HMS Terror at the end of the book, far south of where it was abandoned, finding evidence of something as nightmarish as the tuunbaq possessing the ship, and burning it, was abandoned as well. Originally the ships were supposed to be destroyed in Ep. 5 or 6 in a fire, but the discovery of HMS Erebus (surprisingly close to where Simmons placed Terror in the novel) and HMS Terror (ironically, in Terror bay, named in honor of the ship by searchers years prior) in 2014 and 2016 respectively forced them to change the ending to having Crozier leave skeleton crews on the ship, implying they would be sailed by these men south into their final resting places.
** The 1st draft of the 1st episode had several differences from the final product, including:
*** The Tuunbaq appearing to David Young in various split-second visions throughout the episode before making a quick appearance alongside the Shaman in Young's dying vision
*** Hickey being "attacked" by a polar bear cub during the grave digging scene, before shooting it
*** shortly before this scene Hickey and the grave digging crew would find a gigantic swathe of dead animals on the beach, implied to be the work of the Tuunbaq

* DyeingForYourArt: A lot of the main cast lost weight to look appropriately gaunt for the starvation scenes later in the series. In a cast Q&A, Creator/JaredHarris and Creator/AdamNagaitis commented on how they in particular ended up losing a lot of weight in the end.
* FakeBrit:
** It's highly ironic that the eminently English Franklin, who discriminates against the Northern Irish Crozier, is played by Ciaran Hinds, from Northern Ireland.
** Crozier himself is a mild example- Creator/JaredHarris naturally has an RP accent from being raised in England and attending ritzy English schools, so the very specific Banbridge Northern Irish accent he uses in character is fake, but he identifies personally as Irish (because of his father, Creator/RichardHarris) and Welsh (on his mother's side) and is a staunch supporter of Irish independence (in contrast to Crozier trying hard to fit in among the English).
* FanNickname:
** It's a bit of a running joke in the fandom to call James Fitzjames [[Literature/LesMiserables Jean Valjean]].
** Goodsir? More like Bestsir.

* BasedOnATrueStory: While most of the plot of the series is pure dramatic speculation, the Franklin Expedition really did vanish without a trace- from the point of view of the Western world, anyway. In reality, while the exact order of events is still a mystery, a member of the expedition popularly believed to be Crozier was spotted by local Inuit multiple times as late as 1858. A group of around twelve white men were reported living around Back Fish River in the mid-fifties, and a linguist visiting the area in 1937 met a group of mixed-race Inuit who stated they were the descendants of three white men who had come from two ships trapped in the ice nearly a hundred years prior. One of those three men was, from his description, very likely James Fitzjames- who had apparently led a long life with a large, happy family among the Inuit and died peacefully in his mid-eighties. However, as none of this is yet proven or disproven, and the show does an impressive amount of ShownTheirWork for what is definitively known, the artistic license is fully justified.
* AbortedArc / WhatCouldHaveBeen: Various.

* DyeingForYourArt: A lot of the main cast lost weight to look appropriately gaunt for the starvation scenes later in the series. In a cast Q&A, Jared Harris and Adam Nagaitis commented on how they in particular ended up losing a lot of weight in the end.
* FakeNationality:

** Crozier himself is a mild example- Jared Harris naturally has an RP accent from being raised in England and attending ritzy English schools, so the very specific Banbridge Northern Irish accent he uses in character is fake, but he identifies personally as Irish (because of his father, Creator/RichardHarris) and Welsh (on his mother's side) and is a staunch supporter of Irish independence (in contrast to Crozier trying hard to fit in among the English).

* AbortedArc / WhatCouldHaveBeen: Several plot points in the book were abandoned in the show, such as:
** Crozier marrying Silna at the end of the ordeal, presumably because it comes out of nowhere.
** Crozier finding the HMS Terror at the end of the book, far south of where it was abandoned, finding evidence of something as nightmarish as the tuunbaq possessing the ship, and burning it, was abandoned as well. Originally the ships were supposed to be destroyed in Ep. 5 or 6 in a fire, but the discovery of HMS Erebus (surprisingly close to where Simmons placed Terror in the novel) and HMS Terror (ironically, in Terror bay, named in honor of the ship by searchers years prior) in 2014 and 2016 respectively forced them to change the ending to having Crozier leave skeleton crews on the ship, implying they would be sailed by these men south into their final resting places.

* BasedOnATrueStory: While most of the plot of the series is pure dramatic speculation, the Franklin Expedition really did vanish without a trace- from the point of view of the Western world, anyway. In reality, while the exact order of events is still a mystery, a member of the expedition popularly believed to be Crozier was spotted by local Inuit multiple times as late as 1858. A group of around twelve white men were reported living around Back Fish River in the mid-fifties, and a linguist visiting the area in 1937 met a group of mixed-race Inuit who stated they were the descendants of three white men who had come from two ships trapped in the ice nearly a hundred years prior. One of those three men was, from his description, very likely James Fitzjames- who had apparently led a long life with a large, happy family among the Inuit and died peacefully in his mid-eighties. However, as none of this is yet proven or disproven, and the show does an impressive amount of ShowingTheirWork for what is definitively known, the artistic license is fully justified.

** A big part of this show is simply a very thoroughly researched and accurate-to-the-(admittedly patchy)-evidence reconstruction of how things might have gone down after Franklin's expedition was last heard from. Even the more extraordinary and sensational-seeming parts are based on solid fact: the carnivale in the ice might seem odd but the crews of the Terror and Erebus (then captained by James Ross and Crozier) had done just that on their previous expedition to the Antarctic. The cannibalism is based on archaeological evidence. The show is a pretty straight and very thorough telling of events - bar a couple of details like the giant spirit-bear than keeps eating people.

* FakeNationality: It's highly ironic that the eminently English Franklin, who discriminates against the Northern Irish Crozier, is played by Ciaran Hinds, from Northern Ireland.

* FanNickname: It's a bit of a running joke in the fandom to call James Fitzjames [[Literature/LesMiserables Jean Valjean]].

* FakeNationality: It's highly ironic the eminently English Franklin, who discriminates against the Northern Irish Crozier is played by Ciaran Hinds, from Northern Ireland.
** Crozier himself is a mild example- Jared Harris naturally has an RP accent from being raised in England and attending ritzy English schools, so the very specific Banbridge Northern-Irish accent he uses in character is fake, but he identifies personally as Irish (because of his father, Creator/RichardHarris) and Welsh (on his mother's side) and is a staunch supporter of Irish independence (in contrast to Crozier trying hard to fit in among the English).

** Crozier himself is a mild example- Jared Harris naturally has an RP accent from being raised in England and attending ritzy English schools, so the very specific Banbridge Irish accent he uses in character is fake, but he identifies personally as Irish (because of his father, Creator/RichardHarris) and Welsh (on his mother's side) and is a staunch supporter of Irish independence (in contrast to Crozier trying hard to fit in among the English).

** Goodsir? More like Bestsir.

* BasedOnATrueStory: While most of the plot of the series is pure dramatic speculation, the Franklin Expedition really did vanish without a trace- from the point of view of the Western world, anyway. In reality, while the exact order of events is still a mystery, a member of the expedition popularly believed to be Crozier was spotted by local Inuit multiple times as late as 1858. A group of around twelve white men were reported living around Back Fish River in the mid-fifties, and a linguist visiting the area in 1937 met a group of mixed-race Inuit who stated they were the descendants of three white men who had come from two ships trapped in the ice nearly a hundred years prior. One of those three men was, from his description, very likely James Fitzjames- who had apparently lead a long life with a large, happy family among the Inuit and died peacefully in his mid-eighties. However, as none of this is yet proven or disproven, and the show does an impressive amount of ShowingTheirWork for what is definitively known, the artistic license is fully justified.

** Crozier himself is a mild example- Jared Harris naturally has an RP accent from being raised in England and attending ritzy English schools, so the broad Irish accent he uses in character is fake, but he identifies personally as Irish (because of his father, Creator/RichardHarris) and Welsh (on his mother's side) and is a staunch supporter of Irish independence (in contrast to Crozier trying hard to fit in among the English).

* FakeNationality: It's highly ironic that Crozier, who's been held back because of his Irish heritage, is played by the English Jared Harris, while the eminently English Franklin is played by Ciaran Hinds, from Northern Ireland.

** Goodsir? More like Bestsir.
* RecycledSet: Was filmed in the same set as ''[[Film/TheRaven1963 The Raven]]''.

* FakeNationality: It's highly ironic that Crozier, who's been held back because of his Irish heritage, is played by the English Jared Harris, while the eminently English Franklin is played by Ciaran Hinds, from Northern Ireland.