Anomaly Research Centre
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Anomaly Research Centre


Fear of Flying is the third episode of the Canadian Primeval spin-off show, Primeval: New World.

Summary[]

"When a cargo plane disappears into an Anomaly, Evan and Dylan attempt a search and rescue mission into the distant and dangerous past."[1]

Full synopsis[]

At Spring River Airport, a plane piloted by Jim and Pallavi Grewal is heading down a runway and about to take off, when a large Anomaly suddenly appears directly in front of the plane. A shocked Jim and Pallavi try to avoid flying into the Anomaly, but they are too close to stop in time and the Anomaly is too large to avoid; and thus the plane ends up flying in, taking Jim and Pallavi with it.

At the Tank, Toby is sleeping on the couch when she is awoken by an Anomaly alert. Just as she is about to head downstairs to the computers, Toby instead calls Evan, who is out jogging, to inform him of the new Anomaly. Evan decides to hack into the CCTV feed, and tells Toby to contact Mac. Toby wants to be able to personally study the Anomalies and go with the rest of the team to the Anomaly site to do so, but Evan decides to take Dylan instead and assures Toby that she will one day get her chance. Toby is upset that she can't go out onto the field, but is happy at the thought of getting to wake Mac up. But when Toby calls Mac, he is already awake and is out on his motorcycle with Samantha. Toby tells Mac of the new Anomaly incursion, and knows who Samantha is, to Mac's shock. Toby warns Mac that Evan will be unhappy with Mac for bringing Sam along, but Mac is convinced that Evan will understand.

When Mac arrives at the airport, just as Toby predicted, Evan is upset about Samantha being there, and the fact that she now also knows about the secret existence of the Anomalies. Mac assures Evan that the former hasn't told her anything about the Anomalies before, and is convinced that Sam may be useful due to her shooting skills. Toby calls the team and tells them about Jim and Pallavi's missing plane, sending a video to them which shows the Anomaly opening and the plane vanishing through. Mac and Evan decide that they must go through the Anomaly to rescue the plane's crew, but Dylan doesn't think it's a good idea. Evan reminds Dylan that the two of them weren't harmed the last time they went through an Anomaly, and Dylan mentions the raptor they encountered; which causes Samantha to ask the two about seeing a raptor, and the team bring her up to speed on the Stanley Park incursion. Evan decides that he and Dylan will go through the Anomaly to rescue the plane crew, while Mac and Sam stay in the present and guard the Anomaly. Though unhappy about this decision, Mac accepts it and follows his orders regardless. Evan and Dylan then walk into the Anomaly.

As Evan and Dylan come out on the other side of the Anomaly, they fall from several feet in the air to the ground, as the other side of the Anomaly is some ten - twenty feet in the air. The two find themselves in a dark desert at night, with the plane directly ahead a short distance away. Evan tries to yell through the Anomaly to Mac to ask for a rope, but sound apparently does not travel through the Anomaly; so he and Dylan leave the matter of getting back through the Anomaly for later, and head across the desert towards the plane. Back in the present, Mac gives Samantha his tranquiliser rifle, and Sam is surprised that the team aren't using more powerful weapons against the creatures which come through the Anomalies.

Back on the other side of the Anomaly, Evan and Dylan reach the plane and Jim lets them come in. Dylan is surprised at Jim's lack of worry over the current situation, which Jim credits as being due to the many shocks and awes he went through while serving in the Gulf War. Jim also introduces Evan and Dylan to a worried Pallavi, and Evan decides that they should use the plane to fly back through the Anomaly. Jim explains that the wheel strut was damaged from when the plane landed and that the plane's wiring is fried from when it passed through the Anomaly; they will need to get power to the ignition system in order to be able to fly the plane. Evan and Jim then go out to fix the wheel strut, while Dylan and Pallavi stay inside and look for wiring to use.

In the present, Mac is speaking with Toby over the phone and tells her to try and stop any other planes from using the air strip. Samantha is surprised at how Mac and Toby kept the Anomalies secret from her, and mentions that she knows Toby because they use the same bathroom at work. Sam also calls Mac much more attractive than before because of what he is doing, and the two kiss in front of the Anomaly. On the other side of the Anomaly, Evan is working on the plane's wheel strut while Jim gives his war history to Evan. While Jim is out of sight, he starts choking violently, and after finishing the strut a concerned Evan goes to check on Jim. A repulsed Evan finds Jim eaten to death, when beetles start coming out of Jim's body through his mouth. Evan then sees thousands of more of the same kind of beetles swarming towards him from all around.

Evan then calls out to Dylan, who comes to the plane door to see Evan surrounded by the beetles. Dylan tells Evan to turn off his flashlight, then quickly tosses some rags out to between Evan and the plane, and shoots them with a flare gun. The flames from the burning rags repel the beetles, leaving a path for Evan to quickly escape into the plane. Evan and Dylan then close the plane door to stop the beetles getting in, and when a panicked Pallavi starts calling out for Jim, Evan tells her that he's dead and Dylan that the beetles are carnivorous. Evan and Dylan discuss flying in the plane back through the Anomaly, and Evan explains that the wheel strut is fixed but they will have to find a way to fix the wiring from inside. Dylan checks on the generator, when Evan thanks her for saving him from the beetles. He explains that he left the tools outside, and they will have to improvise.

In the present, Mac is growing increasingly worried about Evan and Dylan, and is even about to go through the Anomaly after them, while Samanatha is much calmer and less worried, and convinces Mac to just wait longer for them. When Sam makes a comment about how seriously Mac takes his job, Mac recounts how he was planning to join the British Army before Evan gave him a better offer as a Cross Photonics employee; and that he is grateful to Evan for this, as it may have potentially saved his life in future. Back on the other side of the Anomaly, Evan and Dylan are stripping some wire in the plane, when Evan asks Dylan about how she knew to turn off the flashlight and start the fire. Dylan explains that it was just a lucky guess based on the fact that some modern day insects have poor eyesight, and that she has seen bugs flee fire before when she was a firefighter.

When the sound of the beetles crawling over the plane's hull begins to echo and get louder, Evan and Dylan look out one of the windows and notice that the beetles are eating the silicon seals on the windows. Evan tries to get some guidance from a traumatised Pallavi on fixing the wiring, and Pallavi tells him where the plane batteries are. Evan then heads back to Dylan and starts breaking into the floor with ice picks. When Dylan notices Evan's knowledge of air planes, Evan states that while he could probably build one he cannot fly one, so Pallavi will have to calm down and fly the plane once it is repaired.

At the Tank, Toby is talking over the phone to Mac. She states that no other planes are heading for the airport, but she has no way of knowing how much longer the Anomaly will stay open. Mac is again about to go through the Anomaly after Evan and Dylan, when a giant, man-sized beetle comes out. The beetle attacks Mac and Sam, and the tranquilisers that Mac fires at it just bounce off its body due to its tough carapace. Mac and Sam take cover from the beetle behind the jeep, and Samantha suggests that they flee on Mac's motorcycle but Mac decides against it. The two then come out, weapons drawn, to face the beetle, only to find to has gone. Mac and Samantha initially assume that the beetle has gone back through the Anomaly, until they spot it heading towards a nearby hangar.

Back on the plane, Evan confirms that everything that the group need to fly the plane will run off battery power. Meanwhile, Pallavi becomes less and less calm from the sounds of the beetles crawling over the plane, and Dylan speculates that the beetles are attacking the plane because it landed on their nest after flying through the Anomaly. Dylan and Pallavi find a box that belonged to Jim, and as Pallavi browses through Jim's belongings in the box, she recounts how Jim became a Buddhist while in Thailand after the Gulf War. Pallavi is worried that Jim will go unremembered, but Dylan assures Pallavi that the latter will remember Jim. In the present, Samantha and Mac are tracking the giant beetle; Mac is surprised at how calm Sam is being in the situation, and when he compares dating someone like her to dating himself, Sam claims to Mac that they aren't dating (despite the fact that they have sex and eat together at work).

Back on the plane, Evan and Dylan discuss whether or not they will be able to get back through the Anomaly before it closes, and Evan jokingly suggests that if the Anomaly closes and leaves the two marooned in the past, the two of them may have children and become the progenitors of the human race. Dylan laughs this theory off, but Evan seems genuinely interested in it. When the trio notice that the noise of the beetles crawling on the outside of the plane has stopped, Pallavi tries to flee the plane but Evan and Dylan stop her (though not before Pallavi partially opens the plane door just long enough for the group to see that the beetles are still covering the plane). They become concerned that some of the beetles may have gotten into the plane, and Pallavi breaks down and goes into hysterics. Evan chains the door shut in case Pallavi tries to make a run for it again, and wants Pallavi to regain her composure so she can fly the plane back through the Anomaly. Dylan tries to defend Pallavi over the topic about Pallavi's loss of composure, and Evan reminds Dylan of how she kept her composure so as to do her job after Tony Drake was killed. When Dylan asks Evan about how the latter is still chasing the Anomalies even after his friend has died due to this and what sort of person this makes Evan, Evan decides that it means he has just gotten used to losing loved ones to the creatures; leaving Dylan confused at what he means. A beetle drops down from the plane ceiling onto Dylan, and while trying to get it off, she manages to crush and kill it by slamming her body against a wall.

At the Spring River Airport back in the present, a mechanic walks out of a warehouse and sees the Anomaly on the runway. Nearby, Mac and Samantha are still searching for the giant beetle when they get a warning from Toby that the Anomaly's signal is flunctuating and therefore it may be starting to close. As Mac becomes worried that Evan and Dylan will be marooned on the other side of the Anomaly, he and Sam hear a scream and see the mechanic being dragged into a hangar. The two then go inside after him. On the plane back on the other side of the Anomaly, Evan, Pallavi and Dylan head into the cockpit and start up the power, but find they are out of fuel. Evan is at first upset at Pallavi for the group's failure to predict this, and Pallavi explains that the plane's fuel compartment must have been damaged and leaked when the plane landed. Evan then realises that the group can instead use gasoline from the generator to replace the plane's fuel, but Pallavi states that the fuel tank is inaccessible from the inside. Evan then pulls the plane floor open and starts making a hole to reach the fuel tank.

In the airport hangar back in the present, Mac and Sam watch as the giant beetle wraps its mouth around the unconscious mechanic's head. The two decide that now is a good opportunity to capture the beetle, and Mac theorises that the creature's underbelly may be unarmoured and thus could be a weakness. Samantha and Mac try to lasso the beetle by the legs so as to flip it over, and Mac gets a cable wrapped around one of the creature's legs like a lasso; but before Sam can do the same, the beetle notices her and Mac and tries to escape by flying up into the air. However, Mac uses the cable already lassoed around one of the creature's legs to pull the beetle back down, knocking it out in the process.

On the other side of the Anomaly, Evan continues making a hole to the plane's fuel tank while Pallavi writes a note to her family. Evan then gets to the tank, but finds that it is made of metal instead of rubber and therefore could explode if not punctured open correctly. Evan successfully makes a hole in the tank without blowing it up, and when Evan mentions how upset Ange will be at him (as he is supposed to be working on a Cross Photonics project at this time), he and Dylan discuss Evan and Ange's long past with each other, and about Evan's late wife Brooke. Dylan confronts Evan about Brooke's death and the fact that it wasn't a bear attack like Evan claimed, and Evan has a brief flashback of Brooke's death by the Albertosaurus. Evan then brushes away Dylan's questions about Brooke's death and the fact that Drake wasn't the first friend Evan lost to the creatures, and makes himself busy while Dylan continues working on the hole in the fuel tank.

Back in the airport hangar in the present, Samantha and Mac have tied the giant beetle down and are tending to the awakening mechanic, who is having trouble breathing. Sam reaches down the mechanic's throat to find the problem, and pulls out a sac of gelatinous eggs. Samantha and a repulsed Mac then realise that the giant beetle is a queen, and was using the mechanic as a host for its eggs. The horrified mechanic then recovers and flees in horror; and Sam fears that there may be more eggs still in the mechanic's body, but Mac decides that Toby can track the man down later and give him a stomach pump to get rid of any other beetle eggs within him. Back on the plane, the group has finished refilling the fuel tank and Evan seals it up using a tire repair kit. Pallavi states that there still won't be enough gas to do a test flight, and Evan decides that they will have to skip that and fly straight back through the Anomaly, convincing a worried Pallavi that they can do it. Pallavi, having regained her composure, then heads into the cockpit and begins to start the plane up, when the windshield gives in and the beetles swarm through into the cockpit. The beetles quickly cover Pallavi and begin to eat her alive, but Evan and Dylan manage to get out and seal the cockpit door in time to stop the beetles getting to them.

With the original plan to use the plane to fly back through the Anomaly now impossible, Dylan comes up with a new idea and puts blankets over herself and Evan which she covers in water and then gas. Just before the two leave, Evan admits to Dylan that Brooke was killed by a creature, explaining it was an Albertosaurus. Evan and Dylan then throw a rag outside and ignite it with a flare, driving the beetles back. The two then use the fire to ignite the gasoline on their blankets to keep the beetles from coming near them, and run across the desert back to the Anomaly. Once there, Evan and Dylan take off the blankets and form a circle of fire with them to keep the beetles at bay. Evan starts throwing a grappling hook through the Anomaly to try and hoist himself and Dylan up and back through with, but the hook fails to catch onto anything on the runway. After the second failed attempt, Dylan fires a flare through the Anomaly to get Mac's attention. Back in the present, as Mac and Samantha are tying the beetle queen down on their truck, Sam notices the flare shooting out of the Anomaly and she and Mac quickly drive in the truck with the captured queen towards the Anomaly. Back on the other side of the Anomaly, the circle of fire begins to go out and swarms of the beetles begin to close in on Evan and Dylan.

Evan tosses the grappling hook up through the Anomaly again, and this time Mac grabs it and ties it onto his truck. Mac then backs up the truck, hoisting Evan and Dylan back up and through the Anomaly onto the runway in the present just in time as the beetles swarm over the ground on the other side of the Anomaly. However, the queen beetle then breaks free and starts flying in the air around the team. As Mac and Samantha try to shoot the queen beetle down, Dylan notices that the smaller beetles are climbing on the grappling hook rope up through the Anomaly, and so she and Evan immediately disconnect it and throw it back through the Anomaly. Samantha then manages to successfully shoot the beetle queen when it attempts an aerial attack, sending it bouncing of the truck's roof and back into the Anomaly. With the incursion dealt with, Mac compares scores with Evan and Dylan, and Dylan sadly explains that they had two casualties. Evan then takes out Pallavi's note, having taken it with him back to the present, and states that while Jim and Pallavi are dead, they will not be forgotten.

Cast[]

Appearances[]

Characters[]

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Objects and technology[]

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Errors[]

  • Whilst in the Jurassic desert, when Evan and Dylan approach the plane, city lights and an aircraft flying overhead can be seen in the background.

References[]

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