"PRIMEVAL" - NOT FOR U.S. EYES!

This post is going to discuss MAJOR events in Series 3, Episode 3 of 'Primeval', which has not yet aired in the USA. If you don't want to be spoiled, come back later for more toobfoolery and toobish delight.

But leave now.

Due to pleading, cajoling, much wheedling on my part, I got to see the first three episodes of 'Primeval' S3, thanks to Mark & Michael.
Wow.

My online reading about British shows must have been BBC-oriented lately, because I had no clue that this turn of events was even a possibility.

I'm not sure hwo much this will affect the series' basic dyanmic, but I think they did a good job with early introductions for three new cast members and (last chance to jump ship if you don't want to be spoiled!) with the gradual weaning of Nick Cutter from the central action . And even then they provided nice showcases for Douglas Henshall, literally from birth to death (plus a chance to act with himself!) Still, I'm not sure they've adequately filled the void left by the death of Nick Cutter; nobody has the skill or knowledge he had about those prehistoric time periods. That type of information is being left in the hands of a couple of kids, basically - with Connor and Abby.

The one new scientist is an Egyptologist who'll be focused on the origins of mythological creatures to better understand what they might have been and where best to find them. Soldier boy Captain Becker is a combination of the late Stephen Hart and the late Captain Ryan. (Including the fact that all three are/were supposed to be male eye-candy.) And I'm not sure what former DI Danny Quinn will bring to the table when he finally joins the team in Episode 4.

But looking beyond that dynamic in the present day, the ramifications from Helen's murder of her husband is the bigger picture. It opens up new areas of discussion with regard to the Toobworld timeline.
In fact, it could lead to several shows being brought back into the main TV Universe!

Helen used an anomaly into the Future to see Mankind wiped out by genetically engineered creatures. And somehow it could all be traced back to Nick Cutter being responsible for those creatures being created in the Anomaly Research Centre. So Helen decided to save Mankind by blowing up the ARC and shooting Nick dead square in the chest in order to negate that future.
Let's say Helen was right. If so, then her actions have wiped out that potential timeline and hopefully set the Toobworld Future on the path that leads to 'Star Trek', 'Babylon Five', perhaps even 'Firefly'.

But now we can say any shows set in the Future which had something of a post-apocalyptic feel to them did exist in the timeline for Earth Prime-Time - before Helen wiped them out. It's much the same theory Toobworld is using to keep 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' (with its President McNeil) and 'Monk' (with its California Governor Wechsler) in the main TV Universe.

With those shows, they originally played out as is. But then - either by intervention by a temporal 'Journeyman', a 'Quantum Leaper', or during the wholesale make-over by Helen and Nick Cutter's earlier journey into the past - everything in the world changed from prehistoric times onward.

So now, even though we didn't get to see it, 'Monk' saved the life of Governor Schwarzenegger at that parade, and it was Presidents Nixon and Ford who were involved in those early 70's adventures of the Seaview.
The same thing happens now, but in the opposite direction of the timeline, and with much more drastic alterations. The events from those shows wouldn't just be changed; the entire series would be eliminated, to be replaced by something more akin to the timeline we're now living through.

One alternate future that I'm removing from this consideration is that of the TV version of 'The Planet Of The Apes'. It's now the Toobworld contention that the series takes place in an alternate dimension in which apes have always been the dominant species - thanks to other TV shows like 'Lancelot Link' and 'The Chimp Channel'. But we can place on this destroyed timeline other shows that owe their apocalypse to more than just genetically engineered monsters. Those one-eyed bat thingies may have eaten what was left of Humanity, but most of the world's landscape could still have been destroyed by good old-fashioned nuclear Armageddon. If so, we can throw in a show like 'Whoops!' (like it or not) and that episode of 'The Twilight Zone' with Burgess Meredith, "Time Enough At Last". Farther down the line, we can add in 'Logan's Run', which had Rem, its own T-888 in the "Terminator" line.

I think the "Terminator" timeline established in 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' could be added in, with nothing changed until after John makes the jump into the Future with Catherine Weaver. (I'm just waiting for official word from FOX as to the fate of the show before I publish my analysis of its effect on the timeline, the creation of an alternate dimension, and John's self-contained temporal loop. Hopefully I can disable all of the major Zonks - like the mention of Terminators in other series and even the appearance of Summer Glau as herself on 'The Big Bang Theory'.) Most of the post-apocalyptic scenarios that can be dealt with in this fashion will come from single episodes in anthology series. However, if I understand the mechanics of the Many Worlds theory correctly, even if this timeline is wiped out from the main Toobworld, they would still exist as an alternate timeline. But at least this way, they would have their moment in the sun as part of Earth Prime-Time.
BCnU!
Toby O'B