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So...I’m getting back into the ITV show Primeval on Britbox after all these years. For those who’ve seen series 5, please no spoilers because somehow I didn’t manage to catch that one and I’ve started again from the beginning, only see three episodes of Series 1 so far.

For those who haven’t seen it, Primeval was a series developed by ITV in 2007 to compete with the revived series of Doctor Who on BBC1 a year before. It tells of how a series of “anomalies” ie timeslips to the prehistoric era have suddenly, inexplicably opened up all over Britain and the adventures of a team consisting of palaeontologists, zoo workers and the government to as they attempt to either send any creatures that come through the anomalies back to where they came from or else kill them in order to save the world.

The main characters for the first few series were Nick Cutter, the head of Palaeozoology at the local university, his lab tech Stephen Hart, Palaeontology student Connor Temple, former zookeeper Abi Maitland (who specialised in reptiles), civil servant Claudia Brown and their leader James Lester, who worked for the British government. The story began when Connor brought Cutter and Stephen’s attention to a reported dinosaur sighting at the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. (The Forest of Dean is roughly the size of one of those forests in North America where you’d expect to sight Bigfoot, just to give you an idea of how big it is!) Cutter and Stephen are attracted to the case because the Forest of Dean is where Cutter’s estranged wife Helen disappeared eight years previously. A professor at the same university as her husband, Helen was presumed dead but is revealed to have actually been travelling between the anomalies to explore the prehistoric eras beyond them. Meanwhile, Abi is called to a house just outside the Forest to collect a “lizard” that a boy named Ben has discovered and wants the zoo to take in. The lizard, named Rex, is actually a Coelurosaurus (winged reptile) that came through an anomaly and Abi ends up adopting him after he becomes trapped with her in the present day. The three men and Abi encounter two dinosaurs, one of which goes back through the anomaly and the other has to be killed when it attacks the group, and thus the team is formed.

Of course, over the course of the series, old characters leave and new ones come in, but I decided to make a crossover just with five of the main characters from the first series because it was the best team! (I couldn’t fit Lester in, he’d probably have been portrayed by someone like King Stephen or Wiggins or even King James from Pocahontas 2.) For the rest, I chose mainly characters that looked a bit like their live action counterparts, except for Stephen. I wanted a serious character for him so I went with Shang. Phoebus is Cutter, Charming is Connor, Jane is Claudia and Madelline is Abi. The background isn’t actually Disney, it’s from The Land Before Time.

If anyone hasn’t ever watched Primeval, I recommend it.

Description

So...I’m getting back into the ITV show Primeval on Britbox after all these years. For those who’ve seen series 5, please no spoilers because somehow I didn’t manage to catch that one and I’ve started again from the beginning, only see three episodes of Series 1 so far.

For those who haven’t seen it, Primeval was a series developed by ITV in 2007 to compete with the revived series of Doctor Who on BBC1 a year before. It tells of how a series of “anomalies” ie timeslips to the prehistoric era have suddenly, inexplicably opened up all over Britain and the adventures of a team consisting of palaeontologists, zoo workers and the government to as they attempt to either send any creatures that come through the anomalies back to where they came from or else kill them in order to save the world.

The main characters for the first few series were Nick Cutter, the head of Palaeozoology at the local university, his lab tech Stephen Hart, Palaeontology student Connor Temple, former zookeeper Abi Maitland (who specialised in reptiles), civil servant Claudia Brown and their leader James Lester, who worked for the British government. The story began when Connor brought Cutter and Stephen’s attention to a reported dinosaur sighting at the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. (The Forest of Dean is roughly the size of one of those forests in North America where you’d expect to sight Bigfoot, just to give you an idea of how big it is!) Cutter and Stephen are attracted to the case because the Forest of Dean is where Cutter’s estranged wife Helen disappeared eight years previously. A professor at the same university as her husband, Helen was presumed dead but is revealed to have actually been travelling between the anomalies to explore the prehistoric eras beyond them. Meanwhile, Abi is called to a house just outside the Forest to collect a “lizard” that a boy named Ben has discovered and wants the zoo to take in. The lizard, named Rex, is actually a Coelurosaurus (winged reptile) that came through an anomaly and Abi ends up adopting him after he becomes trapped with her in the present day. The three men and Abi encounter two dinosaurs, one of which goes back through the anomaly and the other has to be killed when it attacks the group, and thus the team is formed.

Of course, over the course of the series, old characters leave and new ones come in, but I decided to make a crossover just with five of the main characters from the first series because it was the best team! (I couldn’t fit Lester in, he’d probably have been portrayed by someone like King Stephen or Wiggins or even King James from Pocahontas 2.) For the rest, I chose mainly characters that looked a bit like their live action counterparts, except for Stephen. I wanted a serious character for him so I went with Shang. Phoebus is Cutter, Charming is Connor, Jane is Claudia and Madelline is Abi. The background isn’t actually Disney, it’s from The Land Before Time.

If anyone hasn’t ever watched Primeval, I recommend it.