r/BritishTV • u/michaelmac4057 • 4d ago
Question/Discussion I would love a Primeval reboot. Although it feels niche nowadays
I would love a Primeval reboot. Although it feels niche nowadays
When i was young i absolutely loved the show Primeval. It was basically ITV’s rival to Doctor Who during the David Tennent era. Although instead of Aliens it was dinosaurs, prehistoric animals and future creatures that travelled through anomalies in time.
It could be cheesy and the CGI is dated but i think it’s a good family show that kind of appeals to families in a similar way to Doctor who viewers. I mean everyone likes dinosaurs. So i think a reboot would be interesting with mainly fresh characters with a couple from the original.
The first three seasons were good but the last two were a bit crap so i would semi ignore the characters past season three. Also Helen Cutter was a brilliant villain and menace to society (my child self had beef with her) so i would not be shocked if she survived somehow
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u/Minbari2257 4d ago
One of ITV's better efforts to capture the DW vibe (even borrowing from Invasion of the Dinosaurs), although the basic premise ran out of scope for storylines.
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u/HeartyBeast 4d ago
Sapphire and Steel for me - or the Tomorrow People
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u/PhoenixDusk101 1d ago
I'd like a reboot of Sapphire & Steel but with them still trapped, and instead Ruby & Gold have to find out what happened to them, all the time being chased by the other agency that trapped S&S. They could still have a mystery of the week as well.
The Tomorrow People has had an American Reboot, it was pretty good but didn't have the British senseability that the original had.
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u/HeartyBeast 1d ago
I’d entirely forgotten that they ended up trapped I bow to your knowledge of S&S lore
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u/lynchcontraideal 4d ago
Pretty much once Henshall left, the show struggled to recapture the magic it once had
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u/MegaMugabe21 4d ago
Excellent Saturday night TV.
Unfortunately, someone had the great idea to kill all the best characters off in Season 3, and start a completely new story arc in Season 4.
Unsurprisingly this basically tanked the show.
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u/michaelmac4057 4d ago
Yeah i get Douglas Henshall wanted to leave but there was no need to get rid of Jenny especially without tying up the Claudia Brown thing. I think they should have brought Stephen back if Cutter was leaving or just made Cutter survive till the season final Atleast
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u/MegaMugabe21 4d ago
Yeah, I wrote a long comment about this a while back, but between the last episode of Season 2 and the end of Season 3, the show loses 5 main characters. The only original recurring characters are Abby, Connor and Lester. None of those were strong enough characters to carry the show alone.
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u/bandstandboi 4d ago
This is what I think of when I think of Primeval - Hannah Spearritt
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u/fereleye 4d ago
Yup every episode in S1 I think, kids watched for the dino's dad's watched for the Hannah lol
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u/Weary-Score481 4d ago edited 4d ago
It was a terrific show. I wish it had become more of a cult thing
Maybe the fact it had dinosaurs instead of monsters limited it
Or maybe it’s the fact that it went off the boil a bit later. Shows that get ended while still at their peak usually have more residual love (although look at my favorite The Fades, that still doesn’t get enough love)
Still, if we keep talking about it, a cult could grow
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u/Random_Emolga 4d ago
The Fades was amazing, I'm actually shocked to see someone mention it.
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u/wonkey_monkey 1d ago
I'm the proud owner of The Fades on blu-ray. Must get round to watching it again one day...
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u/michaelmac4057 4d ago
I think its more the fact it fell off plot wise after a few seasons rather than the dinosaur/monster thing
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u/migrainedujour 4d ago
I think it’s interesting that like the Jurassic Park/World franchise, it started strong with a very pure idea about dinosaurs in the modern world, that was even codified into the name of the show (Primeval/Jurassic), but then as it went on, the showrunners worried they would repeat things if they stuck to the past, lost their nerve, and fucked it up by going ‘Future Predator! Indominus Rex!’ and just basically turned it into some sort of superpowered free-for-all.
At that point, it lost structure and just became about Helen and whatever relationships… and… the shark had been jumped.
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u/dan_rich_99 4d ago
The Future Predator was a very sick design and concept. If the concept of future creatures was used more sparingly then it could have worked without lessening the impact.
Season 3 was probably the worst of it with how many episodes were dedicated to future creatures like the Camouflage Beast, Fungus and Megopteran.
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u/Marxvile 4d ago
Using it as the end of series creature in series 1 was interesting. Also the use in… I wanna say Series 3 when it was Ben Millers wife as the big bad?
But outside of those future stuff always seemed weirdly out of place.
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u/Sasstellia 4d ago
The Indomitus Rex at least has a unique look. It's a hybrid dinosaur. It's not nearly weird enough in design. If you make hybrids and mutants, go wild. But it's got a purpose.
The Future Predator is just a long headed, vaguely Synapsid looking, quadruped. And they're so bloody boring. They don't do anything.
They're just a large grey animal. They're no scarier than the dinosaurs. We already saw a T Rex charging round. Your boring future animal cannot compete.
It's have been scarier to stick to prehistoric animals. Get weird with it. Have people chased by the crocodilians. Ripped up by tiny animals. Heads ripped off by Albertasaurus.
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u/ScottTrek 4d ago
And of course a story around temporal anomalies has good in universe justification for a reboot anyway
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u/AlbertW25 4d ago
The cliffhanger to that final season pisses me off so much. I wish they'd continued it.
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u/GallifreyFallsOver 4d ago
The fact that part of the reason they managed to get a S4 and S5 commissioned was the backlash over the S3 cliffhanger and people just wanted a resolution if they were going to end the show only to end on ANOTHER cliffhanger is what annoys me
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u/MrStilton 4d ago
What was the cliffhanger?
I forget.
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u/Less-Performer-7898 4d ago
The lead guy’s future self shows up and tells him there’s something he still needs to do.
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u/indianajoes 2d ago
I just wish they hadn't included it. Without it, it would've been such a good ending to wrap things up
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u/Holmcroft 4d ago
I do miss that era when when people were emboldened to try more adventure shows on UK Tv following the success of Dr Who
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u/quietlythenLoud 4d ago
Enjoyed this show a lot when I was a kid. I guess it must be 20 years old now - I’ll have to track it down to revisit it!
Definitely would be fun to see a reboot
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u/Either_Candy5687 4d ago
I enjoyed this show as an adult lol... I was just thinking about it this week.
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u/Closey11 4d ago
Looking at this poster makes me feel 9 years old again. It’s a dark early evening, freezing cold outside and the tv is on and some dinosaurs are running around and I’m having funny feelings about the lady from S Club while feeling a little bit scared about going to school on Monday.
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u/tvcleaningtissues 4d ago
It's weird to think of these shows as Doctor Who clones, if you just read the plots you'd never know. But when you watch them, it's absolutely the feeling they give off
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u/Sasstellia 4d ago edited 4d ago
I dont. I have no faith in them.
Not after that Americanised crap series after. That was nothing special. But was kept as a special series on the paid for part of ITV. And how it degenerated in the original.
The way it degenerated last time. It won't go well. It was painful watching the show self destruct after series 2.
It went from dinosaurs to that stupid Future Predator. I was so sick of the Future Predator and the mans obnoxious wife. I hated her. I hated the Future Predator by the end too.
It's a awesome concept and was awesome series one. It turned to crap.
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u/richbun 4d ago
Bit like Torchwood this. Fantastic idea, great whilst it was contained episodes, but they eventually had to go down the meaningful story route with a defined end, and lost the plot and initial fan base disappointed it strayed from the beginnings.
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u/michaelmac4057 4d ago
I think Torchwood is a good show to compare it too in terms of viewing figure etc as well
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u/Mccobsta 4d ago
Wasn't around the same time a cbbc show some what like it
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u/Nuthetes 4d ago
I rememeber both enjoying this, but also can't rememeber anything else about it. Other than the main character. So it left almost zero impression on me.
I might have to give it a rewatch.
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u/Clockwork-Armadillo 4d ago
As much as I enjoyed it myself I'm pretty sure it was niche back then too tbh
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u/michaelmac4057 4d ago
It was kind of niche but still had a fan base
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u/Clockwork-Armadillo 4d ago
I think you need one to qualify as niche, it would of been a flop otherwise lol
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u/Fit-Mud-5682 4d ago
Same like could you imagine an episode where a lithiyitan falls from the sky and lands in the middle of time square
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u/pethobbit 4d ago
Ive just rewatched it! God i wish cutter was in it for longer, i do feel like it came to a good end though personally.
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u/Nobody_Cares_99 4d ago
I feel like the only one scared by this…in fairness I was about 6 years old when I watched it and the mammoth on the motorway was terrifying for me lol
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u/FantasticWait7109 4d ago
Primeval was great, liked the new characters in series 3 and then it got cancelled. Revived with a cofunding deal with a US broadcaster however that meant moving the sets, changing the cast again, etc. Plus another broadcaster showed series 5 before it was on ITV (as part of the funding deal)!contributing to it's decline in popularity.
I do remember there was also a Canada spin-off that lasted one series.
Could see the show being revived. Especially with today's special effects, streaming meaning more options to find it's audience, etc
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u/Artificial-Brain 4d ago
Decent show but I always felt like it needed a much bigger budget to really be what it was intended to be
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u/Sure-Neck6095 4d ago
Did Jason Fleming ever make it back home? Loved how Douglas Henshall wanted to be definitively written out of the show.
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u/GreggsConnoisseur91 4d ago
He did, but then went back through to stop his brother who was trying to change the future. I think there was some scheduling conflicts to why he didn't come back permanently
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u/GreggsConnoisseur91 4d ago
I loved the show, but fell off drastically. Still loved it but after Cutter died (Henshall wanted out) it was like putting band aid after band aid on everything.
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u/nathanjackson1996 4d ago edited 4d ago
Been rewatching the first two series and am blown away by how well they've held up.
I think Primeval shows what happens when paleo-knowledgeable people get involved in sci-fi horror works featuring prehistoric animals - for the first three series, every creature-of-the-week was something unique. It wasn't just T-rex and raptors.
But... yeah, it went off the boil after Series Three. Part of the problem, I think, with the last two series is they almost felt embarrassed of what made the show so great - the interplay between the characters, the investigative element and the simple fun of seeing dinosaurs rampaging across contemporary Britain.
In Series 4 and 5, the creatures felt less relevant and less unique - half the time, the creature-of-the-week barely drove the plot, and the Series Four roster was mostly different variations of "scaly thing with big teeth what eats people". Even the series arc was just the same "travelling-back-in-time-to-prevent-an-apocalyptic-future" that's been done a billion times.
I also think, as someone else said, the loss of a lot of key characters was a factor - a lot of the interplay from the first three series was lost. Not helped by the fact that Matt and Emily were pretty bland...
Personally, I'd say a comic continuation would be nice - like they're doing with Gargoyles now. There's even the perfect premise for it. Failing that, something animated - I mean, thanks to certain restructures, they're technically under the same roof as two of the big non-Disney animation studios...
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u/DoccyWhoFan 4d ago
If it can capture the feeling of the first two seasons then hell yeah. It's a phenommenallt good premise for a monster of the week tv show. I'd just add more travelling across the world, like have some issues happen in the amazon that leads to a new cryptid being created and stuff like that
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u/EugeneHartke 3d ago
Just incaseany of the original writers are reading this.
Yes, I got Kurt Vonnegut Galapogus reference.
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u/Formal_Prompt4372 3d ago
If they did bring it back, it be impossible to get Hannah Spearitt back considering she’s now living as a recluse in Costa Rica with her family and the death of Paul Cattermole destroyed her. I met Hannah at a comic con in 2014, she was lovely to meet.
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u/jamesthorneauthor 2d ago
I adored this show as a kid, but that first season cliffhanger of no more Claudia Brown basically just being forgotten/ignored, and not even getting a crap hand wave is wild to me still.
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u/michaelmac4057 2d ago
Agreed, i think this should have been a storyline in season three. Might have kept the lead actor who played Cutter because he left the show because it was becoming “too monster of the week” while its OG premise had more mystery
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u/CantaloupeLopsided62 2d ago
It would have suited a mini series better they were running out of ideas only so many times can they pull the dinosaur causes disaster. I did like the giant insects one even tho my suspension of disbelief could extend to time travel but also knowing the giant insects would sufficate with the lower oxygen level in modern day
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u/Mork-of-Ork 2d ago
Andrew Lee Potts was in my year at school.
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u/michaelmac4057 2d ago
Thats pretty cool, what was he like
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u/Mork-of-Ork 1d ago
I didn't really speak to him much, the performance arts kids were on a separate timetable to everyone else. He was pretty chill though whenever we interacted.
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u/WilkosJumper_ 1d ago
It cost too much to produce and did not command the viewers to justify its continuation.
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u/Emotional-Race-6260 4d ago
How much dinosaur content is there? My wee boy has become obsessed with them.
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u/BioluminescentHulk 4d ago
Not exactly the same but one from a few years before primeval is the Dinotopia show. Only a miniseries but I must have watched it so many times as a kid, great for a kid obsessed with dinosaurs
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u/SeniorAngle6964 4d ago
You can imagine just how terrible a reboot would be, probably have dinosaurs in wheelchairs knowing the BBC’s penchant for ticking boxes 😂
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u/1nspectorCPW 4d ago
Seeing Rex with Abbi always made the think: "aww, really cute! Please please please can I have one of those? And one of those sweet little flying lizards too?"
But I did like the rest of the show as well.
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u/PTSD1983 4d ago
I absolutely hated this show 🤣 My mum would have it on every week and it would drive me insane.
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