Terra Nova "Genesis" Recap

Online, September 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Terra Nova is off after a huge start. The extended premier last night introduced us to who will probably be all the major players in the coming season, including, the unlikely character of Terra Nova itself.

At it's heart, Terra Nova really is a story about a family of new beginnings. The conflict and the sub-plots all point back to the over-arching theme of a family struggling to make it in a new (and old) world.

Terra Nova Genesis opens with the arrest and incarceration of Jim Shannon, the main-protagonist, for breaking population control laws. After two years at Dolan Prison, Jim's wife, Elisabeth visits her husband where she tells him that she's been selected to join the tenth pilgrimage to Terra Nova. However, only she and her two oldest children will be allowed. Jim, of course, will not be coming, nor will the families illegal third child. So Elisabeth has devised an escape for her husband.

After breaking out of prison, breaking into Hope Plaza - where the portal to Terra Nova is located - and securing a backpack concealing Zoe, the illegal third child, the Shannons arrive 85 million years in the past, in Terra Nova.

Immediately on arriving in Terra Nova, the pilgrims are introduced to Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang), who quickly summons Jim and Elisabeth. Jim informs Taylor that he was a cop, before being sent to Dolan, and asks for "a gun and a badge" so he can do what he does best. Taylor instead places Jim on an agricultural detail. Elisabeth, who has been chosen for her medical experience will continue, as planned, to work in the colony hospital.

Once at home some of the threads that weave this episode together start to be exposed. Josh, the Shannon's oldest son has developed some bitterness towards Jim for being gone. The next morning, skipping orientation and meeting Skye (from fifth pilgrimage) Josh jumps at the opportunity to go "OTG" (outside the gates) with some new found friends, all youngsters living in Terra Nova who routinely sneak off to have some fun away from Taylor. It's explained by Maddy that the first thing through the portal was a probe that was sent to discover to what and where the portal led. It's explained that the portal led to a different time stream, therefore their actions can't affect the future.

Borrowing a rover from the compound Josh, Skye, and the teens sneaks to an off limits area where some mysterious carvings are etched into the rocks of the waterfall. Skye shares with Josh that Taylor must not want anyone to come to this area, that's why it's off limits.

In the mean time Elisabeth is treating a thief, a "Sixer" who was siphoning power from Terra Nova. He wakes up, holds a knife to Elisabeth's throat before stealing a gun, and running off. Jim, catches sight of the Sixer and takes chase, stopping the would be assassin from shooting Taylor. Suddenly the idyllic Terra Nova, isn't what it seemed. The Sixer, named Carter, is thrown into the brig, Taylor and Jim go for a ride where Taylor explains who the Sixers are and invites him to be part of his security detail.

The Sixers are people from the sixth pilgrimage who "had an agenda" and have split off from Terra Nova to begin their own compound. Taylor has yet to tell anyone in the future because he's not sure who he can trust. As this is discussed Taylor notices two Sixer vehicles heading toward the Terra Nova compound. After battling off charging Carnitaurouses, the Sixer vehicles are trapped inside the gates of Terra Nova.

Here we're introduced to Mira, the leader of the Sixers. She's there to trade supplies for the prisoner Carter. She hints that she knows about Carter by "still having friends in Terra Nova." Taylor agrees to the trade in order to get the meteoric rocks that the Sixer control by having the quarries. As the Sixer patrol heads back the notice Josh and the teens rover. One splits off to steal it's power cells believing it to be a patrol to spy on the Sixer compound. While they're stopped the Sixers are attacked by a Slasher. The teens, hearing this make their way back to their vehicle only to find it stripped. They notice the Sixer vehicle and head towards it. They're quickly cornered by a Slasher who traps them, with the Sixer, Drake, in the vehicle.

Back in Terra Nova, Taylor has discovered the missing rover and teens and gathers a search party. The trapped teens wait in the dark as more Slashers gather around their vehicle, after scaring them away with gunfire, one teen, Sasha, the daughter of one of Taylor's security, breaks for Terra Nova. She is rescued, after being attacked by a Slasher, by the search party. Jim, noticing her wet clothes, realizes she had to cross water, sending the search party for the trapped teens. In the vehicle, Skye reveals her parents are dead before the group is again attacked by Slashers. One teen, Hunter, is pulled from the vehicle. Skye stays behind to cover him while Josh and Max run for their rover to try to power it up. Max is struck by a Slasher and Skye's gun jams just before the search party burst into the clearing to save the teens and drive off the Slashers. The party returns home to Terra Nova after discover the Sixer from the vehicle, Drake, has been taken by Mira. Skye, apologizes to Taylor for causing all the trouble and asks if they had gone to the off limits water falls. She lies and says that they haven't.

Finally, Mira and Carter are seen looking at the tracks of the teens near the water-fall. They know they've been there and have seen the inscriptions on the rocks. They've been left, Mira reveals, by Taylor's son, who has "gone missing." They're left there, Mira tells carter, to throw it in the old man's face. "These are the answers," she says, "the key to everything; why Terra Nova exists. Control the past: control the future."

The episode closes with the Shannon family, unaware of all this transpiring outside the gates, looking up at the beautiful ancient moon, ready to start their new beginning in Terra Nova.

How will the Terra Nova ratings come out? Will Fox have a hit on their hands after the premiere? Take a look at the Terra Nova Pictures from the show.