Primeval Series Premiere

With the deterioration of American television into the drivel that is reality TV hell, the BBC is giving the world of the televeision drama a run for it's money. Following the succes of Robin Hood, MI5, Hex, Doctor Who and Top Gear, our friends from across the pond are now giving us Primeval. This series first aired in England in February 2007, but had its American debut tonight on BBC America.

A rip in the time-space continuum allows prehistoric creatures from the past to enter the 21st century. Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) and his team are investigating the sighting of what seems to be an extinct dinosaur. They travel to the Forest of Dean, where it was seen, to explain how it appeared and discover an even stranger phenomenon, while the escaped creature is on a killing spree.

While Cutter and his team struggle to keep the looming disaster under wraps, Cutter also has to deal the fact that his wife, Helen (Juliet Aubrey), a fellow scientist who disappeared eight years ago, is not dead as he believed. In fact, she's been traveling through time. However, now she's back, and she holds the key to the riddle of the anomalies. But is it something she's willing to share? If not, what does she really want? Why did she come back?

Cutter, his research assistant Stephen Hart (James Murray), , zoologist Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt), and student paleontologist Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) race to understand what's happening, while government bureaucrats James Lester and Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) insist they have to keep the danger secret from the public. As the past threatens to invade the present and destroy the future, Cutter's crew faces a life-and-death race against time.

But the first question which needs answering is where on earth are these creatures coming from? Are they an evolutionary throwback? Or an experimental hybrid perhaps? The truth is even more incredible than they first theorized. As they follow a creature through the forest, the creature inadvertently leads the team to the answer. A shimmering in the air, a distortion in the light, and, suddenly, the creture disappears before them.

They have found the truth, but how can it be possible? Can they really be looking at a rip in time - an anomaly, which leads back to prehistoric times? Can creatures come through from their own era into ours, and if so, can humans go the other way? There's only one way to find out and Cutter is determined to make the trip, convinced that the answer to his wife's disappearance could lie on the other side...

After the first episode, I'm hooked! I can't wait for next week's installment. Primeval looks to have a long life on our side of the pond.