PRIMEVAL: VOLUME 1 (SERIES 1 AND 2) (2008)

Primeval: Volume 1 (Series 1 and 2) (2008)

Actors: Douglas Henshall, Andrew Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt, Lucy Brown, Juliet Aubrey
Directors: Andrew Gunn, Cilla Ware, Jamie Payne, Nick Murphy
Writers: Adrian Hodges, Ben Court, Bev Doyle, Cameron McAllister
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Language: English
Region: 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 4
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
DVD Release Date: November 4, 2008
Run Time: 585 minutes

Movie: * * *
Disc: * * ½

Dialogue deleted from an episode of Primeval, seasons one and two of which are now available on DVD:

Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) to his ragtag group: “All right, as you all know by now so-called ‘anomalies’ – holes in time and space – have started appearing all over the place for some reason. By ‘place’ I mean the UK of course, seeing as this is a British TV show. Each time an anomaly appears vicious, man-eating dinosaurs from prehistoric times come through them and then it is up to us to send them back – or kill them, depending how lazy we are that particular week - without disturbing the ‘time line’ too much. Anyway, there appears to be such an anomaly inside this building and according to reports we’ve been getting the chances are quite good that it’s infested with god knows what kind of nasty, cruel creatures intent on eating us. Heck, chances are more than simply ‘good’! Each week we’re up against some killer predator! Why is it that only that carnivores make their way through these damned pesky anomalies! For just once why don’t we come across some nice herbivores? Yup, some docile plant-eating dinosaurs would be a welcome change of pace, but then it’d probably be a dull episode! Any questions?” There is none. “Okay, so let’s go.”

A hand goes up shyly. It is Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) - Cutter's one-time student, becoming the research, equipment and logistics specialist.

“Connor, yes?”

“Um, aren’t we forgetting something?”

“Like what?”

“How about we take some weapons with us?”

”Mumble, mumble, mumble . . .”

“What’s that?”

“Sorry, my Brit accent is unintelligible to non-Brit ears at times. I meant to say that that won’t be necessary.”

“Um, but you just said that the place is crawling with man-eating beasties and now you want us to go in without any weapons at all!”

“We’re just going to investigate.”

“Still, how about just some tranquilizer dart guns then?”

“I don’t see your point. This is the UK; we don’t all go around armed to the teeth all the time like they do in the States, man!”

“Okay. How about then we take along some backup for a change. You know we must be working for the most over-funded government department in the Western hemisphere. We have all these highly trained SAS commando types with high-tech weaponry dressed in red shirts, I mean, black outfits, standing around doing nothing each episode. Can’t we at least take a few of them along this time?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Well, if you really insist: you know how we do something unbelievably stupid and dumb – stuff so dumb that they make the audience tear out their hair in sheer frustration! - in each week’s episode just because the plot requires it?”

“Yes . . .”

“Well, this is one of those episodes. So come on, let’s go!”

They go. Unarmed. Into the building. Crawling with flesh-eating monsters.