Primeval: New World - Ep: 1.11

In Canada, episode 1.11 'The Inquisition' aired this week and you can read the latest review below.  In the UK, episode 1.5 aired (you can read or review of that episode HERE)

Evan, Dylan and Toby try to crack the Project Magnet pass-card slipped to them during last week's episode, but they have no idea the secrets it's about to unlock - on both a personal and professional level. Out from behind the curtain comes Colonel Hall (Stargate: Universe's Louis Ferriera) to try and use every means at his disposal to get Evan to work under a new agenda and remit - one with far-reaching ramifications. Hall doesn't like to lose and is more than happy to try and intimidate Cross. The question is, who is playing who?  With Ken Leeds also being held by Hall for misconduct and Mac and Dylan investigating the facility elsewhere, who will eventually have the upper hand? 

Perhaps the problem with 'The Inquistion' is that it's essentially people sitting around tables talking, posturing but otherwise being more reactive than proactive - even to the extent of a raft of clips brought in from previous episodes.  This is an episode which contains some genuine revelations, hugely important to the season-arc and the start of a pay-off to key events we've seen unfold. By all rights, it should be dripping with a sense of menace, shock and brinkmanship, but the most worrysome thing is the 'Movember' catterpillar that's made its home under Colonel Hall's nose and which appears to be clinging on for dear life, less he decide to twirl it malevolently at any given moment. The man - and the secure military facility he strutts around -  just isn't that threatening. The interrogation room looks suspiciouly like a conference room with lots of bright colours, generic chairs and landscaped gardens...  the hallways like a co-opted college facility rather than a high-security complex designed to coerce a scientist into working with 'the enemy'.  And for all the intimdation techniques and sense of superiority that Hall employs, he still reaks of a certain middle-management megalomania. 

Again, there's nothing 'wrong' with this episode and it's a necessary gathering of informational clouds before the final episodes of the season - we NEED the facts we're given here to fully make sense of what's gone before and what's possibly to come. The cast are all fine and they furrow their brows with gusto. But it just feels like the weaker chapter of the series' final trilogy of stories, exposition-heavy and somehow slightly off in tone... almost played against a background pallete of 'sunny and bright' when there should be... well, the sound of thunder. The script is fine, the episode important... but whether it's the fact that dinosaurs are reduced to physical props rather than the more kinetic FX shots we're used to, the somewhat generic direction or some other x-factor, this seems like a rare case of the show's elements not quite gelling as they usually do. 

The fact is that though there's information in spades and some interesting debate-worthy motivations revealed, this is very much all setup for what's to come, getting people where they need to be and dusting off the toy-box for playtime.

The anticipation before the thunder. Possibly quite literally.

7/10