Project New Dawn was a secret Prospero Industries project planned by Philip Burton to use the Anomalies as an energy resource. New Dawn's effects were responsible for reducing the Earth to a dying wasteland in Matt Anderson's future time, but this future was successfully averted by the Anomaly Research Centre team's actions in the present.
Aims[]
New Dawn was thought up by Philip Burton, based on Helen Cutter's instructions to him. The purpose of the project was to create a stable, man-made Anomaly in a controlled environment during Convergence (which would in the process close all of the natural Anomalies that were open at the time for Convergence), and to use the man-made Anomaly as an infinite energy resource.
Philip would then give the harnessed green energy away for free as a solution to the worldwide energy crisis.
History[]
Philip purchased a disused power station facility for Prospero to work on the New Dawn project. (Episode 5.2) Philip told James Lester that they were on a "threshold of a New Dawn" when talking about the ARC. (Episode 4.1)
Phillip mentioned 'New Dawn' to Connor Temple in what he thought would be his final words, as the room he was in was running out of air. He started to explain what it was, but fainted before he could complete it. Later, Connor asked about it, but Philip said it didn't matter. (Episode 4.3)
Episode 5.1[]
Upon recognising Connor Temple's intellect, (Episode 4.5) Philip recruited him to help with the New Dawn project, making Connor sign a confidentiality agreement first so he couldn't tell anyone, including Abby.
Episode 5.3[]
Connor created a smaller prototype of New Dawn's Anomaly-creating machine to use as a test of New Dawn, and successfully created the First Man-made Anomaly using it.
Episode 5.4[]
After a swarm of Future Beetles came through the First Man-made Anomaly and invaded the ARC, Connor recalibrated the Anomaly to release a gamma ray that would kill the Beetles, and which in turn closed the Anomaly. Connor then joined with Abby Maitland, Emily Merchant and Matt Anderson in their mission to stop New Dawn. Following the successful creation of the First Man-made Anomaly, Philip learned how to create his man-made Anomaly for New Dawn and began to power the machine up ready.
Episode 5.5[]
After Convergence started, Philip travelled to the New Dawn Facility to activate his machine and create a man-made Anomaly, so as to directly interrupt Convergence and use the Anomaly as an infinite energy source. Despite Connor, Matt, Abby and Emily's attempts to deactivate the machine and stop New Dawn, Philip was ultimately able to fully set up and activate the machine, which created the New Dawn Anomaly.
Episode 5.6[]
After the New Dawn Anomaly was created, it began to expand too quickly for the New Dawn staff to control it. It also began to wreak havoc on Earth's atmosphere and weather patterns above the facility, and its magnetic field started to weaken the building's structure.
Philip self-destructed the facility and the New Dawn Machine in an attempt to stop New Dawn, but the Anomaly remained as it had already grown powerful enough to sustain itself without the machine. Matt later used a Sun Cage to move the First Man-made Anomaly (which had reopened due to the creation of the New Dawn Anomaly) into the New Dawn Anomaly, which de-stabilised the two Anomalies and caused them to close; stopping New Dawn and saving the future.
Alternate Future[]
In the initial timeline, New Dawn was not stopped; and thus the New Dawn Anomaly's atmospheric effects spiralled catastrophically out of control, wiping out most life on Earth and reducing the surface of the planet to a sterile, inhospitable wasteland.
Appearances[]
- Episode 4.1 (indirectly mentioned)
- Episode 4.3 (mentioned)
- Episode 5.1 (first appearance)
- Episode 5.2 (indirectly mentioned)
- Episode 5.3
- Episode 5.4
- Episode 5.5
- Episode 5.6 (latest appearance)
Trivia[]
- "New Dawn" was also the name of the first episode of Walking with Beasts series, also made by Impossible Pictures.
- After Series 4 and 5, some fans were confused as to why Helen Cutter manipulated Philip into creating New Dawn, since New Dawn's effects would have doomed all life on Earth to devastation and eventual extinction, when Helen's very intentions behind her crusade to destroy humanity were to save the Earth's ecosystem.
- Fans have speculated that Helen had probably (true to her ultimate inability to realise the futility and backfire of her radical solutions to change the world) miscalculated the severity of the New Dawn catastrophe and failed to realise that it would end all life rather than just humanity.