Anomaly Research Centre
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Anomaly Research Centre


Episode 2.1 is the first episode of the second series of Primeval. It was broadcast as Jurassic Mall[1] in North America, as Eine neue Welt (A New World)[2] in Germany and as Les Raptors (The Raptors)[3] in France.

Summary[]

"Cutter grapples with Claudia Brown being erased from history whilst struggling to adjust to working with her replacement Oliver Leek. Meanwhile, the team tries to recapture a [Raptor] that is on the loose in the local shopping centre."[4]

Full synopsis[]

A group of people are bowling, and one of them rolls. Then, they see a strange light behind the remaining pins. Meanwhile, a bowling ball rolls through the Cretaceous desert and is stopped by a foot with a sickle claw. Meanwhile, at the anomaly where Cutter went to stop the Future predators, and upon realising of Claudia Brown's disappearance, Cutter desperately tries to go back through the anomaly, but Stephen and Connor hold him back and the Anomaly closes before he can reach it. Cutter begins to discover much more has changed for the team as well as Claudia's disappearance: a new second in command has taken her place in the team – the oily Oliver Leek. Not only that but the team now have a headquarters: a hi-tech, highly sophisticated operations base called the Anomaly Research Centre, or ARC. No one believes Cutter when he tries to explain that the present has altered, resulting in Claudia's disappearance. In fact, they think he has gone mad (with the exception of Connor, who somewhat accepts the theory). There is, however, no time for idle chat, as the team get a call reporting a creature incursion at a shopping mall. A young security guard at the bowling alley informs his colleague that something strange is happening - bits of bowling pins are being flung out. Assuming it to be kids messing around, the guard heads behind the bowling alley with a torch and searches for the problem; he is subsequently pounced on and killed by a Raptor. His partner is soon afterwards pursued by another raptor and killed.

Once on site, the team arm themselves with tranquilizer guns. Stephen tries to discuss his youthful affair with Helen, but Cutter is unwilling to confront the issue. While the others investigate the anomaly behind the bowling alley, Connor heads for the confectionery, only to find a hungry raptor lurking among the sweets and soft drinks. Despite Connor narrowly escaping with his life, Cutter remains adamant that they should capture the raptors and put them back where they belong - alive. He thinks that killing the creatures altered time, and that they had to keep things as they were in order to prevent it happening again. The team face another scare when they hear what they think is the creature coming back for them - only to find it is a cleaner who has been left behind when the mall was evacuated. Cutter tasks Abby and Connor with evacuating the man, before informing Lester of the situation. Meanwhile, Lester has his own problems: Leek informs him a new public relations liaison is being assigned to them in order to downplay the damage left by the creatures.

While on the hunt, Cutter and Stephen are attacked by one of the raptors; Stephen desperately fends off the dinosaur, but when Cutter tries to shoot it, the gun jams and it gets away. Stephen accuses him of intentionally allowing the creature to kill him in revenge: a claim Cutter rebuffs on the grounds that if he wanted Stephen dead, he'd have shot him personally. The raptor attacks again, but this time, they are able to tranquilise it. In the aftermath, Cutter forgives Stephen on account of the fact he stayed to help, as opposed to gallivanting through the anomalies with Helen. The pair muse on the fact they probably haven't seen the last of Helen. Elsewhere, in the mall's locker rooms, the cleaner is fatally attacked by an infant Dromaeosaurus that Abby and Connor desperately try to capture. After an initial failure (namely shooting Abby in the leg with a tranquiliser dart), Connor manages to bring down the infant dinosaur. In an effort to catch the final raptor, Cutter and Stephen tether the infant in the hope its cries will draw the adult. The plan works (although the adult dinosaur cannibalises the infant instead of freeing it), and the raptor is tranquilised. During their battle in the mall, Cutter notices that all the radios seem to be suffering from some kind of mysterious electronic interference on the 87.6FM frequency and he suspects it to be connected to the anomalies. He realises they can now build a detector tuned to the same wavelength to locate new anomalies.

Having tracked down and captured all the raptors, Cutter returns them through the anomaly...alone. Having entered the anomaly and freed the dinosaurs, who are slowly coming to, Cutter moves to walk away, but a voice behind him calls out; Stephen, having expected Cutter not to return, followed him through. They argue about his planned choice: Cutter states all he wants to do is travel through the anomalies, find out what went wrong and put it right, but Stephen convinces him to return, on account of the fact he has work to do, and the fear that he could potentially change things for the worse-even wipe out humanity- and still not get Claudia back by meddling with the anomalies. They return through the anomaly, just ahead of the raptors, who have woken and attack; one manages to grab hold of Stephen's foot but the team pull him to safety. The raptor is less lucky, and is decapitated when the anomaly closes.

Upon his return to the ARC, Cutter is horrified to encounter the team's newest member; their PR manager Jenny Lewis, who is a complete doppelganger of Claudia Brown.

Cast and crew[]

This episode's cast and crew:


Appearances[]

Characters[]

Creatures[]

Locations[]

Objects and Technology[]

Organisations[]

Gallery[]

Template:Gallery

Continuity[]

  • This episode is continued directly on from Episode 1.6.
  • Lester tells Cutter to be back at the ARC by 9am after a 2 hour rest meaning the team finished with the Raptor incursion at the mall at 7am after being there all night. However as stated in a flashback in Episode 2.2, this episode ends at 12pm when Cutter finally turns up.
  • The flashback seen in Episode 2.2; continues on from the very end of this episode, as the scenes of Jenny being introduced to the ARC and team are expanded upon.

Trivia[]

  • This episode is one of five to receive Audio commentaries by the produces/director.
  • The Wilhelm Scream is used in this episode when a security guard is killed.
  • This is the only episode from Series 2 that Helen Cutter and Caroline Steel didn't appear although both their actress', Juliet Aubrey and Naomi Bentley, were credited.
  • The closing titles credit Lucy Brown as "Claudia Brown/Jenny Lewis" although she only actually appears playing the latter (excluding the stock footage recap and flashbacks).
  • The scenes when the team are in the camera room were filmed in the Anomaly Research Centre set.
  • Some scenes are reminiscent of Jurassic Park:
    • The shot of the raptor's eye just before it attacks the first security guard is similar to the opening scene of Jurassic Park (movie).
    • The scene in which the protagonists try to distract the raptor with an infant raptor has a strong resemblance to a part in the Jurassic Park novel. Just like the novel, the adult eats the infant.
  • This is the first episode to feature both a recap and a pre-title sequence. The only other episode to feature both is Episode 5.6. This episode also marks the point when pre-title sequences permanently replaced recaps in Primeval.
  • When the Raptor jumps onto the pool table, a 'trick shot' is animated with the pool balls it knocks.

Cut, alternate and deleted scenes[]

  • The scene of the male Raptor cannibalising the infant originally had more blood but that was altered out in the final scene.[5]
  • A cut scene would have included a reason why the claw game activated and distracted the Raptor.[5]
  • A deleted scene would have shown the Raptor walking over to Abby and Connor at the bowling alley.[5]
  • Another cut scene would have had Cutter and Stephen riding the dirt bikes down the escalators. The Bentall Centre (filming location) gave the crew permission to film this stunt but ultimately there was not enough time due to filming schedules.[5]
  • Another deleted scene had Stephen falling off the dirt bike while being chased by the Raptor, causing him to lose the big gun he was carrying and Cutter had to help him. In the actual episode, the gun seemingly disappears for no reason but this scene could have actually happened and just not been shown.[5]
  • In the original script, it was planned by writer Adrian Hodges that Cutter was to be suicidal when he travelled to the Cretaceous but his actor; Douglas Henshall suggested that it would be more in character for Cutter to plan to fix the timeline rather than die.[5]

Errors[]

  • Because Series 2 was made over 6 months after the first series, there are some noticeable differences between this episode and 1.6 despite directly continuing into each other:
    • Abby's hair is slightly longer, Connor's is slightly shorter and Cutter's hairstyle changes.
    • The design of Anomaly changes, so the Forest of Dean Anomaly is noticeably more opaque.
  • The security cameras quite clearly have jumps when things move (e.g, the bowling ball, the Raptor). But when Connor's searching for the Raptor while Stephen and Cutter are looking for Abby, they move quite fluidly, while the Raptor moves just like everything else on the cameras.
  • When the team are overlooking the security cameras, someone walks across the top corner of the screen, none of the team mention this later. 

Filming Locations[]

This episode has the first appearance of the ARC; the exterior of the building is the Duke of Kent building in the University of Surrey, and the interior was filmed in Longcross Studios. The Castle Cross Shopping Mall was filmed in several locations. The exterior shot was a still created by Framestore. The atrium was filmed in the Bentalls Centre. The clothes shop area was filmed in the Kingston John Lewis, and the car park scenes were filmed in the car park underneath it. The roadbridge featured was the bridge from the Bentalls Centre to the Bentalls car park. The bowling alley was filmed in the Tenpin bowling alley, Feltham. The laser tag arena was filmed in two locations, discussed in the audio commentary, however they are currently unknown. The Cretaceous era is filmed in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. All scenes filmed through the anomaly this series are filmed in Fuerteventura.

Study connections[]

  • References to Episode 1.6:
    • A doppelganger of Claudia Brown appears at the end of the episode. Claudia had previously disappeared.
    • Cutter stated the timeline had changed, the appearance of the ARC and Claudia's disappearance in this episode proving he was right.
  • The Cleaner, seen to be attacked by the infant raptor, returns later in Episode 2.2, 2.4 and 2.5.
  • The events of this episode are referenced in the novel The Lost Island.
  • Some Raptors of the same species return in Episode 2.6, 2.7, 3.10, 4.1 and 5.3.

References[]

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