Stephen James Hart[1] was Nick Cutter's lab technician and right-hand man, and was one of his and Helen Cutter's college students. Stephen had a strong friendship with Nick but also had romantic feelings towards Nick's wife. Stephen was a member of the Home Office Anomaly research team and later the main Anomaly Research Centre field team, and was the animal tracker and marksman of the team.
Background
Stephen was born between March 1974 and March 1975[2]. He became a junior fencing champion and a junior shooting Olympic prospect in high school. Because of this, he was extremely fit, running an average of thirty miles a week. He also gained lightning reactions and extreme physical fitness. However, Stephen strongly felt that humans were killing the Earth around them, and thus he took a job as a wildlife conservationist as a young man.
Eventually, Stephen went to university as a student of Professor Nick Cutter and his wife Helen. During this period, Stephen had a much-regretted affair with Helen. (Episode 1.6) After completing his studies, Stephen took a job as Nick Cutter's lab assistant at the Central Metropolitan University Department of Evolutionary Zoology. After Helen suddenly disappeared with no explanation in the late 1990s and was presumed dead, Stephen began to grow closer to a grieving Nick, and the two became firm friends.
At some point, Stephen gained a girlfriend named Alison, who, six years after Helen's disappearance, went to the Amazon Rainforest for some time to research tropical diseases. (Episode 1.3)
Original timeline
Episode 1.1
- « "Pick on someone your own size!" »
- — Stephen draws the Gorgonopsid's attention.
One day eight years after Helen disappeared, as Cutter and Stephen arrived at the Central Metropolitan University and headed to Cutter's office, they were approached and badgered by Connor Temple, who tried to convince them to investigate a creature sighting with him. Stephen and Cutter initially refused and deemed the sighting a hoax; but when Connor mentioned that the sighting was in the Forest of Dean, Cutter immediately decided to investigate, and he, Connor and Stephen then left. After the trio arrived at the site of the sighting, while Cutter and Connor questioned Dave Greene on it, Stephen examined the attack on a truck by the supposed creature to see what the predator was. Stephen remained convinced that it was a hoax, but became less certain after he and Cutter saw that the supposed creature had also flattened an iron fence.
Later, while the group were staying at the Eddington Hotel before heading off into the Forest of Dean in search of the creature, Connor showed Stephen his database on extinct animals, which Stephen found both impressive and somewhat pathetic. At the Hotel, the trio also met up with Home Office official Claudia Brown, who chose to join them in the search for the creature. The group then headed into the Forest, and Stephen led the search by using his tracking skills to search for signs of the creature; eventually discovering a dead cow in a tree.
Stephen and the group continued to search the Forest for the creature as night came, eventually finding a Scutosaurus and meeting Abby Maitland and Rex. Stephen and Connor stayed with the Scutosaurus to watch it, while the rest of the team went to the Trent house; when Connor became convinced that the creature was a dinosaur, Stephen dismissed it as unconfirmed. The rest of the team then returned and they used torches to scare the Scutosaurus into heading for safety, and Stephen and the team watched it vanish through the Anomaly in the Forest.
The next morning, after the Home Office secured the Anomaly, Stephen tried to comfort Abby and discussed the events of the night and what they had seen with her. While the others were taken to the Home Office by Claudia to sign the Official Secrets Act, Stephen and Connor stayed behind in the Forest to search for any more creatures, and Stephen found signs that there was a large predator present. Eventually, Stephen and Connor found a footprint from the predator, and Connor identified it as a Gorgonopsid. Stephen then went off on his own to track down and stop the creature, and followed the Gorgonopsid into a school it was attacking. After getting the Gorgonopsid's attention, Stephen lured it after him through the school to a fire exit, where the creature cornered Stephen and threw him through the doors and outside; knocking him out.
The following night, after Stephen recovered, he drove back to the Anomaly site in time to run over and stop the Gorgonopsid, which was attacking there. Stephen then shot and killed the injured creature. The next day, after Cutter and James Lester confirmed that Helen had indeed gone through the Anomaly after she disappeared and Cutter vowed that the Anomaly crisis wasn't over, Stephen left the Home Office with the rest of the newly-assembled Anomaly research team.
Episode 1.2
Following the Forest of Dean Anomaly incursion, Cutter and Stephen began looking through Helen's last research and notes before her disappearance in search of references to the Anomaly that they had overlooked; Stephen was doubtful that they would find anything, and was convinced that Helen would have told Cutter about the Anomaly had she known about it before disappearing through it. Stephen later got a text message from Abby saying that she and Connor were investigating a possible new Anomaly in the New Forest by themselves, and Stephen then rushed to Cutter and Claudia at Cutter's University office to inform them. Stephen was present at the New Forest the next day, looking at the animatronic dinosaur that Connor's friends had used to prank him and Abby in the night, when Cutter removed Connor from the team.
When Cutter and Claudia suspected that there was a venomous creature from another Anomaly loose in the London Underground, Stephen travelled with them, Abby and the Special Forces to Arsenal Station as the Special Forces went into the Underground to investigate. After the Special Forces returned and Ryan explained their encounter with Carboniferous Arachnids, the team theorised that there was indeed another Anomaly in the Underground, but this one linked to the Carboniferous instead of the Permian.
Cutter subsequently decided that the team had to go down and see the Arachnids for themselves, and he, Stephen and Abby then geared up and went down into the Underground, to the abandoned bunker where Ryan's men encountered the Arachnids. There, the trio found that the light from their torches repelled the Carboniferous Arachnids, and located the new Anomaly. The trio were then attacked by an Arthropleura which separated Stephen and Abby from Cutter. When the Arthropleura attacked Stephen, Cutter drew its attention away from him, and a reluctant Stephen and Abby then fled the bunker and returned to the surface while Cutter stayed trapped with the Arthropleura.
On the surface, when Claudia failed to reach Cutter over the walkie-talkie, Stephen noted that he must have been trapped in the sealed tunnel area. Stephen wanted to go down immediately to rescue Cutter, but Claudia refused to risk anyone else until they knew what the Arthropleura was. While Claudia went to order Captain Ryan to bring Connor to the scene to identify the Arthropleura, Stephen still refused to leave Cutter trapped in the Underground, and so took matters into his own hands and went back down without telling anyone other than Abby. Finding a pesticide sprayer, Stephen turned it into a makeshift flamethrower against the creatures, and returned to the bunker where the Anomaly was in search of Cutter. Stephen initially used the sprayer-flamethrower to fend the Arachnids and the Arthropleura off, until the Anomaly's magnetic field pulled it in and left him defenceless. The Arthropleura then launched an attack on Stephen, biting and poisoning him, which in turn left him convulsing and unable to move on the bunker floor.
Helen Cutter later arrived and found the poisoned Stephen, and gave him a message to give to Cutter - she would wait for him on the other side of the Anomaly if he wanted answers - then left Stephen. Cutter soon after found Stephen, who told him about Helen and gave him her message. Cutter subsequently took the poisoned Stephen out of the Underground with the help of Ryan and his men, who took the weak Stephen to a waiting ambulance as he mentioned seeing Helen to Claudia. As Stephen was loaded onto the ambulance, Abby stayed by his side and tried to comfort him. Stephen asked Abby out to dinner despite already having a girlfriend in Alison, and seemed ready to accept that he was dying. Stephen - by this point unconscious from the venom's symptoms - was subsequently sent to hospital and cared for by Dr. Lewis, until the staff developed and administered an antivenom to the Arthropleura's venom for him.
Stephen later awoke and began to make a full recovery in the hospital, but also lost all memory of what happened to him in the Underground (being bitten and seeing Helen) from the venom's effects. Claudia went to Stephen and asked him about it, but Stephen assumed that he was just hallucinating from the poison. Abby also asked Stephen if he remembered what he said to her in the ambulance, but Stephen didn't, and Abby didn't tell him that he had asked her out.
Episode 1.3
After Stephen made a full recovery from the Arthropleura bite and was preparing to leave the hospital, Connor and Abby visited him there and Connor discussed sorting out one's priorities in life quickly with him. Abby offered Stephen a lift back to his hme, but Stephen declined as Alison was picking it up (Stephen's amnesia leaving him unaware that he had earlier asked Abby out and therefore unaware of how the revelation about Alison would make her feel). Stephen then left and reunited with Alison, but not before noticing Abby become angry and upset towards him.
When the team, including Stephen, went the same day to investigate a possible new Anomaly incursion at the Crystal Palace Diving Institute, Stephen went diving in the swimming pool, while talking with Connor and Abby about the creature incursion. Connor discussed with Stephen how the latter had always given to him and Abby the impression that he was single, but Stephen was unaware that Connor was referring to the Abby-Alison situation. Later, when the Anomaly from the swimming pool reopened at a reservoir, Stephen and the rest of the team went to there to investigate, and Stephen analysed water samples with Abby until the team located the underwater Anomaly in the reservoir. Stephen subsequently went out diving in the reservoir with Cutter and the Special Forces in search of the Anomaly, and Stephen and Cutter eventually found the Anomaly when a Special Forces diver with them swam through. After the Anomaly closed, Stephen stood amongst the Special Forces soldiers as they talked with the Home Office about the diver that was now marooned on the other side of the closed Anomaly.
Afterwards, back at the Home Office, Stephen was present as Cutter explained his theory that the reason the present side of the Anomaly was mobile was because it was running along a temporal fault line. Shortly after this, when Stephen saw pictures and footage of the London Underground Anomaly and the Arthropleura, some of his memories from when he was bitten returned, including seeing Helen Cutter. Stephen subsequently talked with Nick about this, and the two argued over why Cutter wasn't telling anyone else about it, with Stephen believing that Helen had her reasons for staying away. Stephen reluctantly agreed to keep the Helen secret between him and Nick and deal with it Nick's way, but stated that he would handle it differently were it up to him.
When the Home Office learned that the underwater Anomaly had reopened at the Dexter house and flooded the cellar, Stephen went with the rest of the team to the house as the Anomaly site was contained by the Special Forces. While Abby and Stephen were unloading equipment, Stephen realised from his regained memories why Abby was angry with him over Alison; Stephen tried to apologise to Abby and explain why he had asked her out when he already had Alison, but Abby pretended to forget about it and remained angry with Stephen over it. When Claudia and Lester revealed to the rest of the team in the house the truth about Helen and how she was alive and living in the past, Stephen was present and seemed to vote to Lester that Helen be left alone unless she made contact herself.
When it was decided that Cutter would go through the underwater Anomaly to make contact with Helen, Stephen gave Cutter warnings and advice on his air supply and swimming on the other side of the Anomaly, and gave him his harpoon gun as a defence against any predators he encountered on the other side. While Cutter was on the other side of the Anomaly searching for Helen, Stephen and Captain Ryan kept him tethered to the present by a rope through the Anomaly, and gave him two hours before they pulled him back through by the rope. After ninety-two minutes, Stephen went to check with Abby how much more time Cutter had left, and learned from Connor that a small enough creature from the Anomaly could escape to anywhere via the local drainage system. The team then found Claudia secretly bringing in a team of Special Forces divers, but she refused to reveal why.
Stephen later returned to monitoring Cutter's time with Ryan, and grew anxious as Cutter's two-hour time ran out. Stephen and Captain Ryan then pulled a drowning Cutter by the tetherline back through the Anomaly from the other side, and as a recovering Cutter was taken out of the house, Claudia sent the Special Forces divers through the Anomaly to bring Helen back by force as Stephen demanded to know what was going on. Stephen was later present as the Special Forces returned with Helen and took her away from the Dexter house to be questioned by the Home Office.
Episode 1.4
- « "You idiots. You've turned her into bait!" »
- — Stephen learns that Abby is in danger from Tom.[src]
While Helen was interrogated at the Home Office, Stephen, Cutter and the Special Forces responded to a creature report at a block of flats in Central London, which turned out to actually be an illegally imported python. Stephen subsequently helped Abby and Connor deal with the python, and seemed to be nervous of it despite hiding this and claiming to Abby that he loved snakes.
Later, when Helen began talking in interrogation at the Home Office, claiming that a pride of Smilodon would soon come through an Anomaly into Central London, Stephen went to Abby's flat to tell her. When Stephen found Abby and Connor both at the flat and in their underwear, he was suspicious and suspected the two were together, though they denied and claimed they were in their underwear because of the broken heating. Stephen, Connor and Abby subsequently followed Helen with the Special Forces, Cutter and Claudia to a football stadium where Helen claimed the Anomaly was, and found that there was indeed an Anomaly in the stadium kitchens. When Helen escaped through the Anomaly from the team, Stephen went through with Captain Ryan after her, and found on the other side of the Anomaly that Helen had lied about the Smilodon, and the Anomaly was part of a temporal Spaghetti Junction.
Ryan and Stephen subsequently went back through the Anomaly to the stadium, and shortly after, a flock of Dodos came through the Anomaly but were round up by Stephen and the team. As Stephen and the team began sending the Dodos back through the Anomaly, the last one mysteriously died before it could be sent back, and Cutter, Stephen and Abby subsequently took its corpse back to the Home Office for an autopsy. Just as they were about to begin the autopsy, a Parasite emerged from the Dodo and went after Abby until Stephen trapped it. Stephen and Cutter subsequently learned that the Parasite was what had killed the Dodo, and was passed on through bites and killed the host after reproducing.
Shortly afterwards, when Connor reported to the team that Tom and Duncan had stolen one of the Dodos from the stadium and it had infected Tom with the Parasite, Stephen went with Cutter and the team to Tom and Duncan's flat in search of Tom, who had fled, and Stephen and Cutter found the infected Dodo dead and set about sending it to Abby for an autopsy before searching for Tom. When Tom attacked and infected a doctor at a hospital, Stephen, Cutter and Claudia went to the hospital and investigate, but Tom fled the hospital before they could find him. Stephen and the team set about thinking like Tom to work out where he was and what he'd do, and Stephen suggested they go to Connor and Duncan about that, which Cutter agreed to.
While Cutter and Stephen were unsuccessfully questioning Duncan and Connor about where Tom could be, they learned from Duncan that he and Tom had bugged Connor, and found the infected Dodo when it swallowed the transmitter. Stephen and the team realised from this that Tom would follow the transmitter to the dead Dodo, and in the process Abby, and thus Abby was in danger. They went to the University, to find Tom had already tracked the Dodo to there and taken it and Abby. Using the transmitter, Stephen and the team traced Tom and Abby back to the football stadium, and arrived in time to stop Tom from infecting Abby with the Parasite. Stephen watched with the team as Connor coerced Tom into resisting the Parasite's influence and letting Abby go, and watched and was left stunned when Tom successfully fought the Parasite's influence off and died in Connor's arms.
Episode 1.5
When a golfer was killed at the Forest Heights Country Club golf course, Stephen and Cutter went with Claudia and Ryan to the golf course to investigate. After Cutter concluded from the golfer's remains that it was indeed a creature incursion, he, Stephen and Abby went out into the golf course's fields in search of the Anomaly. The team found a magnetic field but could not see the Anomaly anywhere, bringing Stephen to initially suspect it was a false magnetic reading, until the trio worked out and saw that the Anomaly was aerial and located high in the air above them. Stephen also realised from this that the predator that killed the golfer was aerial, and began looking for any signs of it in the sky until the team eventually saw a Pteranodon flying above the golf course.
As the Pteranodon flew around and circled, Stephen suspected that the Pteranodon was the predator that had killed the golfer, but Cutter argued differently because Pteranodon's diet was fish and small reptiles. When the team saw that the Pteranodon was circling and pursuing Connor down the golf course and suspected that it was after Connor as prey, Stephen supported Claudia's argument that they shoot the Pteranodon down before it reached Connor due to fear that they couldn't take the chance that it may not have been after Connor; but Cutter stopped Ryan from shooting the Pteranodon anyway, and Connor narrowly escaped the creature.
Just after Connor's close shave with the Pteranodon, Stephen and the team learned that Rex was with Connor and that Abby had secretly kept and harboured Rex at her flat after Rex had returned from the past. After the wounded Pteranodon fled into the city, Cutter and Stephen located it at an office block's rooftop using satellite imaging, and Stephen, Cutter and Claudia drove ahead of Ryan and the Special Forces to reach the creature first to tranquilise it and capture it alive. The trio subsequently made their way up to the building's rooftop, where Cutter and Stephen found the Pteranodon flying around. When Cutter realised that the Pteranodon was attracted to the colour red, Stephen gave Cutter his red shirt to use as a makeshift red flag to draw the creature to them. As the Pteranodon flew straight for the red flag, Stephen attempted to tranquilise it, but the darts kept missing the creature; so Stephen waited until the Pteranodon got dangerously close, then successfully hit and tranquilised it, which almost got Claudia crushed by the Pteranodon's body before the unconscious creature knocked her out with a hit to the head.
The tranquilised Pteranodon was subsequently transported back to the golf course, where Stephen stayed with the unconscious creature as Ryan and the Special Forces kept it guarded. When the Pteranodon defecated, Stephen, to test Cutter's theory about whether or not the Pyteranodon was dangerous to humans, checked the dung for any human remains from the golfer by tasting it (much to the soldiers' and Ryan's repulse). Stephen found from the Pteranodon dung that there were no human remains and only bones and bits from fish and reptiles, confirming Cutter's theory that the Pteranodon did not attack humans and that it was after Rex and not Connor when it had chased the two on the golf course. Stephen called Cutter to tell him about this, but the call was cut short when Cutter's phone's battery ran out.
Later on, after Cutter, Claudia and Helen killed the real predators (a swarm of Anurognathus), Stephen set with Cutter and the team about returning the Pteranodon through the Anomaly once it awoke by having Cutter go on a lift up to level with the Anomaly and lure the Pteranodon back through with a red flag. Once the Pteranodon awoke and was released by the team, Cutter succeeded in drawing it back through the Anomaly just before the Anomaly closed, and Stephen then cheered and celebrated with the team on the ground.
Episode 1.6
After the original Anomaly in the Forest of Dean reopened and a creature came through and breached the area, Stephen, Cutter and Ryan arrived to investigate the new incursion, but when Stephen was unable to find any tracks, he and Ryan assumed the creature must have gone back through the Anomaly before they'd arrived. Later, Helen approached Stephen at the University and talked with him over a cold beer - claiming to know about a recent spate of three disappearances which a new creature was behind, and demanding that Stephen have Cutter and Lester meet her without any ambushes to talk to her about the creature.
The next day, Stephen told Cutter, Claudia and Lester about Helen's demands and how she'd claimed to know about a creature behind the recent disappearances, and Lester agreed to go along with it. Cutter, Stephen, Lester and Claudia subsequently met with Helen at a park to discuss the new creature incursion, and Helen explained to the team that it was a Future Predator, a powerful, fast and deadly creature from not the past but the future, which had apparently entered the Permian through a future Anomaly there and then come through the reopened Forest of Dean Anomaly to the present.
Following the meeting, Stephen filled Connor in on what Helen had told them about the Future Predator and discussed the scrambled bat DNA that Connor had found at the sight of one of the Predator's attacks. When Stephen learned from Connor that two of the attacks had happened recently at Wellington Zoo and that Abby was working late there, he immediately rushed to the zoo to check that Abby was safe, and had Connor follow with backup. Stephen met with Abby at the zoo by the sea lion enclosure, where the Future Predator arrived and stalked them, before the arrival of Special Forces backup caused it to flee into the woods.
Having tracked the Predator's lair to the woods in the Wellington Zoo area, Cutter, Stephen, Connor, Ryan and the Special Forces subsequently went into the woods on a search to pinpoint the lair's exact location and find and kill the creature - however, when the Future Predator launched a brief attack against the team and the soldiers, Cutter and Stephen found that they were severely outmatched by the Predator's fast speed and reactions and its agility and camouflage among the trees. As Cutter, Stephen and the team discussed what they knew so far about the Future Predator, in hopes of locating a possible weakness through which to even the fight against the creature; Connor and Cutter worked out from how the dogs had reacted before the Predator's attack that the creature was using echolocation to track its prey and stay one step ahead of them, and so Cutter send Connor off to retrieve an oscilloscope to track the Predator with. When the Future Predator attacked Connor and Abby while Connor was getting the oscilloscope, Stephen arrived and saved them from the Predator by driving te creature to flee back into the woods with a direct gunshot. Using Connor's oscilloscope, the team subsequently tracked the Future Predator's lair down to a rural crate storage hut, where they found the Predator had given birth to young and was hoarding its killed prey as food for them. The adult Predator then arrived and launched an attack against the team, until Cutter lured it away from them into a greenhouse and killed the adult creature, and the infant Predators were subsequently captured.
Afterwards, a decision was reached to send a mission consisting of Nick, Helen, Ryan and several other soldiers through the Forest of Dena Anomaly into the Permian, to use the Future Predator young's homing instincts to locate the future Anomaly there and contain it so that no more future creatures could come through and interfere in the past. The following day, Stephen and the team were present at the Anomaly, and watched as Nick, Ryan and Helen departed through the Anomaly for the mission, and afterwards were left waiting at the Anomaly site for the Cutters to return. While the team were waiting, Connor learned over the phone and relayed to Stephen and Abby that according to the lab's autopsy, the adult Future Predator Cutter had killed was in fact a male and therefore not the Predator young's mother, leading Stephen to fear that the real mother Predator was still on the loose. The Future Predator mother then slipped past the team and through the Anomaly, with Stephen and the others failing to see the creature in time.
Post-original timeline
In the new timeline created during the second mission into the Permian, Stephen's biography up to the mission was apparently mostly the same, except he and the rest of the team at some early point moved from the Home Office to the Anomaly Research Centre.
Episode 1.6
- Nick Cutter: "How could you keep that from me for so many years!?"
- Stephen Hart: "There was no point in saying anything. It was a long time ago, in the past!"
- Helen Cutter: "But the past has a habit of coming back these days, doesn't it?"
- — Stephen, Nick and Helen on Helen's secret affair with Stephen.
Nick and Helen eventually returned to the present as the sole survivors from the failed mission into the Permian, and Cutter declared no-one was to go through the Anomaly again. Helen then decided to sort out her 'unfinished business' with Stephen, revealing to a shocked Cutter in front of the entire team her affair with Stephen in the past. Cutter was furious and betrayed to learn of this despite Stephen's attempt to justify it by explaining he'd let it go and moved on. Though Helen asked Stephen to come with her on her travels through the Anomalies, Stephen (seemingly choosing Nick over her) flatly refused Helen's offer, and stayed in the present while Helen went back through the Anomaly to find the future on her own.
Once Helen was gone, Nick demanded to know from the team where Claudia Brown was, but neither Stephen nor any of the rest of the team knew or remembered Claudia due to the change in the timeline, and were confused and baffled by Cutter's behaviour and claims about history having changed.
Episode 2.1
Stephen and Connor held Cutter back as he tried to go back through the anomaly, but it closed before he could escape. The team then headed back to the Anomaly Research Centre, the team's base in the new timeline. Later, they learned from Oliver Leek that a new creature sighting had been reported in the Castle Cross Shopping Mall, killing two security guards, and they drove off to investigate. When they arrived at the mall, Stephen and Abby armed themselves with tranquiliser guns but did not allow Connor to handle one. Once inside, Stephen tried to apologise to Cutter about his affair with Helen as they searched for the anomaly, but Cutter refused to forgive him. They then used surveillance cameras to locate the creature. After finding the creature was a Raptor, Stephen and Cutter soon found the anomaly in the bowling alley and began looking for the raptor. Cutter insisted that the creatures be returned alive to prevent the timeline altering again, much to Stephen and the team's dismay. Stephen and the others were startled by what they thought was the raptor but turned out to be a cleaner who apparently had not been evacuated.
Stephen and Cutter set off the search for the raptor. While searching a laser tag arena, Stephen was pinned down by the dinosaur and pleaded for Cutter to shoot it. However, the gun jammed. Fortunately, the noises of the arena scared off the raptor. Stephen didn't believe Cutter when he said the gun jammed, thinking that Cutter wanted him dead after the revelation. They soon encountered the raptor again and Stephen tried shooting it, only for the gun to jam again. After fixing the problem he managed to tranquilise the raptor. Stephen apologised for not believing Cutter and for having his affair with Helen, and Cutter decided to forgive him.
After Stephen and Cutter encountered Connor shortly after his fight with the baby raptor, they set a trap for the other raptor using the baby. However after the raptor cannabilised the younger dinosaur and Abby distracted it, Stephen decided they would have to kill it against Cutter's wishes. Stephen didn't believe the timeline had changed, but agreed only to kill the creature if he had to. The raptor escaped and the two of them had to lure it back inside the mall with motorbikes stolen from a group of teenagers. However, after the raptor was lured back in, it hitched a ride on the lift Stephen and Cutter were on and surprised them by jumping out and nearly attacking them. The two were at its mercy before Connor brought it down with a tranquilizer gun. Cutter insisted on taking the raptors through the anomaly by himself, but Stephen suspected he wasn't going to come back and went after him. Stephen managed to convince Cutter to return by telling him no matter how many timesthe timeline changed, he still might never get Claudia Brown back. Unfortunately, the raptors awakened and the anomaly began closing. While running to get back through, Stephen was attacked by one of the raptors which held onto his foot while the others tried to pull him through. Fortunately he made it through shortly before the anomaly closed, cutting off the raptor's head. After heading back to the ARC, Stephen was present with the rest of the team at their introduction to the new PR person, Jenny Lewis, who Cutter identified as Claudia Brown.
Episode 2.2
Stephen was at the ARC when the team's new PR, Jenny Lewis, was introduced, and wasn't happy that they had someone else to answer to. He later returned to his flat to find a wounded Helen. Stephen reluctantly helped her with her wounds, and soon received a text telling him of a new anomaly. Despite her hope the pair could still be friends and ordered Helen to be gone by the time he got back. Upon arriving at the location he decided not to tell Cutter about Helen. While searching the building they came across a foul-smelling fog and helped rescue a firewoman from giant Worms Cutter suspected were from a Precambrian time period. Continuing to search for the anomaly, Stephen got lost in the fog and set the alarm on his watch to draw the worms' attention from him as he entered an elevator shaft. He called Cutter to tell him he'd found his own way up and began to climb the ladder rapidly as the elevator rose, narrowly avoiding being crushed. While trapped on the floor Stephen took down some worms and awaited help. Soon Cutter arrived as the fog began to clear. However the worms began to spawn and Stephen and the others tried to prevent them from burrowing beneath their skin before the fire sprinklers were activated. Stephen wondered if the anomalies were a challenge for humanity and if they should stop fighting the creatures and face the anomalies instead, but Cutter dismissed his idea. Stephen returned to flat and found that Helen had left as he'd asked.
Episode 2.3
- « "How many Valeries are there gonna be before we start telling people what's going on?" »
- — Stephen begins to question keeping the anomalies secret
Stephen was present as Connor unveiled his new anomaly detector, but soon a creature attack was reported. While preparing to search the Blue Sky park for what was suspected to be a giant cat, Stephen received a text from Helen thanking him for his help however he didn't reply. Stephen found a set of tracks and told the others, however it had doubled back on them and they lost it. During the night Stephen and the others searched the nearby forest using infrared images, and came across park ranger Valerie Irwin, whose car seemed to have broken down. Stephen offered to take her back to her place, and along the way gave hints that there were things going on with the creature the public weren't meant to know but didn't get specific. He later heard the park manager screaming and spotted the creature, a Smilodon, on the train tracks, but Valerie distracted him and allowed it to get away. She pleaded for Stephen not to leave her on her own, so he called the others about the attack as he took her home.
The next day after a trap had failed to secure the Smilodon a body was uncovered and deduced to have been done by the cat, meaning the anomaly had been open a while. Jenny had gone to arrest a farmer who used to keep lions, and Stephen, Abby and Connor arrived in time to keep her from getting killed, however the farmer had no idea what the sabre-tooth was. Cutter called the group when he learned Valerie had been hiding the Smilodon for years, and Stephen shot the big cat took later after it had killed Valerie. Cutter accused Stephen of telling her false information which Stephen denied, but said he'd wished he'd told her the truth.
Shadow of the Jaguar
TBA
The Lost Island
TBA
Episode 2.4
- « "If it had been left up to Stephen, we'd all still be looking in the wrong place, wouldn't we?" »
- — James Lester scolding Stephen's choices as team leader
Stephen, Cutter and Jenny were looking into the disappearance of a teenager who had gone missing near where an anomaly had opened, and he and Cutter searched the drains leading to the canal, but were unable to find anything, only hearing a creature singing. Stephen helped the rest of the team search the canal by boat and killed a shark attacking Jenny. Upon examination of the dead creature, it was concluded that it was from the future and that it hadn't killed Lucien. Stephen suspected there was another one that had killed him, but Cutter disproved all his ideas, telling Lester it was probably a marine mammal. Lester sent the team to search the canal again, and Cutter decided to search other places despite Stephen's objections. However Abby was taken by the creature while Cutter was trying to lure it out, and Stephen helped search but they soon gave up hope despite Connor's objections.
A furious Lester fired Cutter and made Stephen the team leader, who was willing to take over due to Nick's poor choices and asked for a remote control submarine as he was sure the creature was still in the canal. While looking through a large drainage pipe the Anomaly reopened and Stephen sped up the search, and distracted the creature as it prepared to attack Cutter. Stephen quickly grabbed guns and dived into the water, making his way through the pipe and killed all the creatures before they could kill Cutter or Lucien. Connor had followed Abby and a larger version of the creature through the anomaly, and Cutter and Stephen went after them and killed the creature. Upon returning, Lester blamed Stephen for looking in the wrong place and nearly causing everyone else to die. Stephen reluctantly agreed with Lester, and Cutter told him that he'd only been lucky, which Stephen muttered he was.
Episode 2.5
- « "You sound like Helen." »
- — Cutter thinks Stephen is coming around to think of him the same way Helen used to
Stephen arrived back at his flat to once again find Helen there, this time taking a shower. Helen told him that someone in the ARC was working against the team with a hidden agenda, implicating Lester and telling him Cutter was aware of the situation and hadn't told him. As he prepared to meet the others, Helen kissed him goodbye. While unloading their equipment, Stephen gave Connor advice on what to do with Abby after he'd told her he loved her, and refused to say anything for him. After using an experimental rover to explore the anomaly, Cuttersuspected it was the Silurian and spotted a girl trapped on some rocks. Cutter and Stephen decided to rescue her and went through, wondering what was scaring some Giant Millipedes and coming across some military equipment in the sand. Cutter suspected it was the Cleaner they'd encountered in the mall, and Stephen accused Cutter of of keeping him in the dark because Cutter himself wasn't sure what was going on, which Cutter noted made him sound like Helen.
Continuing on, they were pursued by something underneath the sand, barely making it onto the rocks. They prepared to go back with the girl, Taylor, however they were unable to reach the closing anomaly because of what was in the sand. Stephen suggested they find somewhere with water, and while looking for a new anomaly Stephen spotting something glinting in the distance but dismissed it. A sandstorm swept up as a new anomaly was detected, and after sheltering themselves they encountered the Cleaner, who attempted to take their supplies before Cutter tricked him into getting himself attacked by a sand creature. Stephen demanded to know who he was working for, suspecting Lester, whoever the Cleaner refused to talk before he was dragged beneath the sand. While making their way to the new anomaly Stephen was attacked by the mysterious creature and dragged under the surface, but Taylor managed to bring the creature to the surface, revealing it to be a Giant Scorpion. Stephen hung from its mandibles as another fought with it, and eventually fell free and escaped with the others through the anomaly back into the present, giving Lester the cold shoulder when they met with him.
Episode 2.6
Another anomaly was detected on the M25 and a mammoth had come through. Stephen knew they needed more firepower and went to search his car for a bigger gun when Helen appeared and told her to stay down as the others went by. Stephen told her Cutter did know about the conspiracy, and Helen suggested they take the anomaly operation public. Stephen noted they would need hard evidence, and wanted to give Cutter another chance and let him make the call. Helen reluctantly agreed but said Cutter wouldn't listen but Stephen was sure he would since it wasn't personal. However Cutter refused to listen to Stephen and fired him, and accused Stephen of being in love with Helen. Stephen returned to the ARC and was fascinated by the Columbian Mammoth they had caught, and tried to convince Abby that taking the anomalies public was for the best however Abby refused. Stephen tried reasoning with Cutter but he still refused to hear him out and Stephen said it was no wonder Helen had come to him, at which Cutter punched him. Stephen left and went home and told Helen what had happened. Helen was amused and Stephen thought all she cared about was Cutter's reaction, but she said it wasn't. Stephen and Helen then kissed, and later Stephen caught Helen finishing a phone call which sounded suspicious, and Helen claimed that she was going to see a journalist about the anomalies, which Stephen seemed to accept.
Episode 2.7
- « "Sorry mate. I'm doing this one." »
- — Stephen is prepared to die for the others
Stephen was annoyed to recieve a phone call from a frantic Lester informing him of a creature attack at a Holiday Resort and that the rest of the team was missing. On the condition that none of Lester's men are around, Stephen agreed to help. At the resort, he arrives and encounters a Silurian Scorpion, but after some struggling to get it into position, Stephen managed to tie it up to the pier and called Lester, telling him "it's done". Stephen then stayed on the beach for some time before he received another phone call, this time from Helen, who wrongly told him that Cutter and the others had all been killed and that she was being held captive by Lester. She asked for his helped, and devastated, he threw his mobile into the sea and travelled to Leek's hideout.
After locating Helen, he denied her option to go through another Anomaly and hide until they can fight back against Lester and decided to end it. While leaving, he spotted Cutter sitting on his own, and was furious that Helen lied about seeing Cutter die. He was still angry with Cutter too, but learned from him that Helen had indeed helped Leek, the actual traitor, gather all kinds of predators which were all in the lair and would kill everyone if they escaped. The three agreed in working together to lure the creatures into a single room so that they would kill one another.
But after setting things in motion, Helen was attacked by a raptor and fell to the ground in a doorway and accidentally damaged the door locking mechanism in the process. Stephen shot the raptor twice managing to save Helen, they found out the door could only be closed from the inside. Cutter volunteered to sacrifice himself, telling him and Helen to save themselves and reminding Stephen that Lester wasn't the enemy. However, Stephen knocked him down and went inside to lock the door himself. Stephen denied Cutter's demand to open the door, saying he couldn't allow the creatures to get back out, and asked him to tell Abby and Connor to stay out of trouble. He was killed by the creatures that surrounded him and presumably tore him apart. It is unknown which exact creature killed him although it is suggested by some that all of the creatures killed him at the same time.
Legacy
Following Stephen's sacrifice, he was buried at Kensal Green Cemetary and a funeral service was held for him, which the entire ARC field team and even Caroline and Lester attended along with Stephen's other friends and family. It was the death of his friend that brought Cutter to finally accept that Claudia Brown was gone forever, tearing up his photo of her at the funeral after the service. Helen also visited Stephen's grave after the funeral once everyone had left, leaving an Ammonite on the grave and promising Stephen that things would change. (Episode 2.7)
Though the entire team missed him, Stephen's death had the heaviest impact on Cutter, which he would never get over for the remainder of his life, due to his murder at Helen's hands. Cutter initially blamed himself for Stephen's death, (Extinction Event) but he later came to accept that it was Helen's fault and not his; although that didn't stop him from feeling responsible. (Episode 3.1) Helen, on the other hand, denied responsibility for Stephen's death and blamed it on Nick. (Episode 3.3)
Stephen's death was also the reason Lester hired Jake Hemple, and later Hilary Becker, to protect the team in the field; feeling that they couldn't afford to lose anyone else. (Extinction Event, Episode 3.1)
Later on, Nick Cutter was also buried at the same graveyard as Stephen. (Episode 3.3, Fire and Water)
Other references
Episode 1.2
When trying to talk himself up to Abby, Connor stated that Stephen was gay, however she did not believe him. Later on, after Stephen was bitten by the Arthropleura, Abby unsuccessfully tried calling him over a radio. Claudia found out and scolded Abby for letting him try to be a hero.
Episode 2.2
Lester asked newly recruited Jenny to keep an eye on the ARC field team, especially Nick and Stephen after Helen and Stephen's affair had been revealed. Jenny later tried to to talk to Nick about Stephen, saying don't do anything reckless, but he was to busy trying to rescue/find Stephen from the fog worms.
Episode 2.6
Connor tried to talk to Nick about punching and firing Stephen but was rebuffed by the scot. Later, when the ARC team were about to go and detect Oliver Leek's organisation on the ADD, Abby asked Cutter whether they should call Stephen back in, but Nick said no (considering he had just fired Stephen).
Extinction Event
Stephen was mentioned several times and Nick imagined his face.
Episode 3.1
Stephen's death was seen in a flashback when Cutter was brooding over his feeling of guilt over his friend's death.
Episode 3.2
Stephen and Taylor were seen seen in a flashback when Cutter was remembering the Cleaner's death in the Silurian desert.
Episode 3.3
After Nick had seen Helen's clone of himself, he asked her, "Please don't tell me you did this to Stephen?" Helen somewhat curtly responded by saying that despite being genetically identical, the clones could never be the original.
Fire and Water
Abby Maitland once had a dream that Connor was also dead and buried at the Kensal Green Cemetery and he, Stephen and Nick were standing over their own graves, disappointed that Abby had not come to visit them yet.
Lester also told Sarah that she had been feeling the same as Stephen in regards to going public with the anomalies, attempting to assuage her worries by mentioning he and Nick agreed to keep this all secret until they had more answers.
Webisode 4
Matt Anderson mentioned Stephen in his list of 'brilliant people' whom the ARC had lost, along with Cutter and Sarah during his meeting with the new ARC team.
Personality
Stephen was outwardly moody and cold and slightly blunt, often coming across as aloof. Despite this, Stephen has been shown numerous times to be very brave and deeply loyal, and strongly caring about his friends. Stephen was also impulsive about being the one to go into danger to help and to put his life at risk to save his colleagues and other people from threats (although Stephen's loyalties could sometimes be challenged by his feelings for Helen Cutter). Stephen had little - no problem with disobeying authority and superiors to help out or save others either.
Like Cutter, Stephen too disapproved of how the ARC kept the Anomalies and creatures and the deaths secret from the public; but where Cutter accepted that many more people would die before they knew enough about the Anomalies to protect everyone, Stephen failed to see it the same way and felt that it was keeping the Anomalies a secret that got people killed by the creatures. Stephen was normally open about opinions such as these at times, but preferred to keep his emotions in check; although when he didn't, he could in some ways be less apt than Cutter at preventing his feelings and opinions from clouding his judgment. Stephen also tried to move on from the past, as he kept his affair with Helen a secret from Nick for over eight years before Helen finally exposed the truth about it.
Relationships
Abby Maitland
After first meeting, Abby and Stephen showed romantic interest in each other, with Stephen flirting with her and Abby asking Connor if Stephen was single. When Stephen was poisoned by an Arthropleura and was delirious, he told Abby she was beautiful and asked her out to dinner, she agreed and offered to come over to his house for coffee and stay for breakfast the next morning. At the hospital as Stephen was recovering, Abby realised that she didn't know Stephen that well, to stay the night with him. When Stephen woke, he had amnesia and could not remember asking Abby out, but revealed he currently had a girlfriend, much to Abby's shock. Despite all that, she still showed interest in Stephen noting how good he looked in a wetsuit, however when he remembered asking her out, she chose not to pursue him. Stephen still showed interest in Abby, getting upset when she was abducted by Tom and rushing ahead of the team to warn her of the Future Predator.
Unfortunately when Helen Cutter revealed that she had an affair with Stephen; Abby almost stopped interacting with him, barring work. Stephen was slightly upset when Connor showed romantic interest in Abby. Later when Stephen wanted to leave the ARC team and reveal the Anomalies to the public, he directly ask Abby for her help/opinion but she rejected him, siding with Nick Cutter believing the creature would be in danger from humanity. After Stephen’s death, Abby missed him but not as much as Connor, Nick and Helen Cutter.
Connor Temple
Stephen had something of an older-brother relationship with Connor, ie occasionally teasing or giving him advice. When Abby showed interest in Stephen, Connor tried to put Stephen in a bad light, even calling him gay at one point, but that was just to make himself more appealing to Abby. Despite that, Connor really cared about Stephen, getting upset when Stephen was injured, or when Nick fired him. When Stephen's affair with Helen was revealed, Connor was the only one who did not treat him differently. After Stephen’s death, Connor missed him but not as much as Nick.
Helen Cutter
Helen was Stephen's university teacher, whom he had an affair with, despite her being married. When Helen disappeared, Stephen became closer to Nick as friends. After Helen returned, she revealed their affair and asked Stephen to travel with her. He initially rejected Helen and chose Nick over her, but she started visiting him regularly and Stephen soon began to fall in love with Helen again. She started to cause Stephen to doubt the ARC operation. Eventually, Stephen sacrificed his life to protect the public, causing Helen much grief, however she apparently got over him faster than Nick.
Nick Cutter
Despite having an unbeknownst affair with Helen, Stephen and Nick Cutter were loyal and good friends and had a strong bond with him. Although on the rare occasion that Stephen disagreed with Cutter on something then he would not hesitate to oppose Cutter on the subject. After Nick learned of Stephen's affair with Helen, he initially forgave him. Unfortunately, because of this, the two became more distant, and when Cutter discovered that Stephen was still meeting Helen, the two lost all belief in and rejected each other. It did not help with Helen trying to driving a wedge between the two. Despite this, Stephen still remained loyal to Cutter, sacrificing himself so that Cutter would not have to. Nick was still grieving a year or so later.
James Lester
Stephen viewed Lester with the same dislike as Nick but he usually respected Lester's authority. However, when the ARC team learned that there was traitor in the ARC, Stephen quickly assumed Lester to be the traitor, fuelled by Helen's lies about Lester being the enemy.
Appearances
Canonical
- Episode 1.1 (first appearance)
- Episode 1.2
- Episode 1.3
- Episode 1.4
- Episode 1.5
- Episode 1.6
- Episode 2.1
- Episode 2.2
- Episode 2.3
- Shadow of the Jaguar
- The Lost Island
- Episode 2.4
- Episode 2.5
- Episode 2.6
- Episode 2.7 (death)
- Extinction Event (mentioned)
- Episode 3.1 (flashback, mentioned)
- Episode 3.2 (flashback)
- Episode 3.3 (mentioned)
- Episode 3.5 (indirect mention)
- Fire And Water (mentioned, dream)
- Webisode 4 (mentioned)
Non-canonical
Gallery
Template:Gallery
Trivia
- Early magazines about Primeval indicated that Stephen's last name was going to be "Hardy" and his first name was to be spelt "Steven".
- Stephen Hart was one of the 5inch Primeval action figures made by Character Options.
References
Nick Cutter • Stephen Hart • Connor Temple • Abby Maitland • Claudia Brown • Helen Cutter • James Lester • Tom Ryan • Tom • Duncan
Nick Cutter • Stephen Hart • Connor Temple • Abby Maitland • Jenny Lewis • James Lester • Helen Cutter • Oliver Leek • Caroline Steel • The Cleaner
Nick Cutter • Stephen Hart • Connor Temple • Abby Maitland • Jenny Lewis • James Lester • Helen Cutter • Jake Hemple • Danny Quinn • Hilary Becker • Sarah Page
Minor Novel Characters