One of the theories I brought up in my post of the premiere episode of Terra Nova was that this place they are in — the place we and the citizens of Terra Nova believe is a far-distant-past Earth — is not, in fact, Earth at all. Actually, I brought it up in a comment to my post, after some great discussion from other commenters. The fact that everyone’s supposed to so quickly believe this place they are in is simply in an alternate timeline of Earth doesn’t sit too well with me … yet. So, what’s the truth?
One thing that may be a clue to Terra Nova not simply being Late-Cretaceous-period Earth is in the logo for the show. (This was a discussion I saw on Reddit, actually.) In it you can see one giant land mass on a planet — something that wasn’t occurring on Earth 85 million years ago, but instead during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic periods. Some call it Pangaea, but … it was 250 millions years ago:
A 165-million-year slip-up? Here’s what the planet should look like on Terra Nova, if the time period and location are to be believed:
Alright, so maybe it’s nothing, or maybe it’s a little wink-nudge to those who’re able to notice. They can’t be further back in time, because those dinos didn’t exist then. Another planet entirely, perhaps? I’d really hope the people responsible for the logo did a bit of research, though, and didn’t simply pick Pangaea because it looked cool. What do you think?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 06, 2011 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Call me cynical… I think they picked it because they think it looks cool.
I agree with Bob. They didn’t do the research, and picked it because it looked cool, and it’s generally known that a long time ago, all the continents were one big land mass. The average person (me included) wouldn’t know 250 million years ago from 85 million. It’s disappointing that they’d get something like that so wrong just for the sake of a cool logo. On the other hand, if you’re right, my respect for the show would shoot way up.
Really?
I mean really?
Have you seen the last episode? Do you think the writers of that garbage of an episode thought anything this complex through?
It’ll be awesome if your theory turns out to be right, but, like everyone else, I’m hesitant to believe the logo was thought through that far… which is unfortunate.
One thing that “Lost” has taught me is that the writers of network shows always have everything plotted out well in advance and that things that look like continuity slip-ups (or just plain mistakes) are, in fact, perfectly planted subtle clues to the grand story mosaic that they’re constructing.
Or wait, no, actually, they’re pulling shit out of their asses, flinging it on the screen, then hoping a dramatic music cue will make people think that there’s something more going on than there actually is. I rank this right up there with the four-toed statue and the army Jack was going to build.
There’s an article somewhere in here, though, about crowdsourcing creativity. This post regarding the logo of “Terra Nova” has me far more interested in the show than just about anything else the producers or the network have done so far to gin up my interest. I wonder what would happen if someone created the pilot of a sci-fi show (it’d have to be sci-fi because that’s what gets the nerds motivated), then let reddit (or better yet CliqueClack) write the bible to the show based on “clues” in the first episode. Guaranteed what would come out of that experiment is far more interesting and satisfying than anything the writers themselves could do…
(I’m reminded of an internet theory regarding Star Wars that I think proves this point. Starting with the OT, people claimed that Obi-Wan Kenobi, was actually Zero Bee One, or a clone of “Ben Kenobi” and that we’d find out more about that in the Clone Wars.
Further along those lines was that Lucas put forth the ideas of the midichlorians not because whatever creativity he had left was killed by that thing that lives inside his neck, but because he had to link Force prowess to biology to make the cloning idea work.
Palpatine’s plan under this theory was that by cloning himself WITHOUT midichlorians, he could rise to power under the noses of the Jedi’s without detection because he literally had no Force ability. When the time was right, Sidious would step in, murder the Force-less Palpatine and become Emperor.
That was the theory, and I thought it really kind of brilliant. Certainly it was more brilliant than it appeared in “Phantom Menace,” because there was NO WAY Lucas was going to make Sidious’s big plan to be to wear a cloak. I mean, that was like first draft kind of nonsense.
And then we get to the end of the Prequels and… yep, just a cloak. Just like the Island in lost is just magic, and then logo in Terra Nova is just some poorly researched coooooooool.)
I think Terra Nova is a pretty good show that had to be dumbed down because network is scared that families won’t watch a heavy lore show like Stargate.
I don’t know if the logo is intentional or not, but wouldn’t it be awesome if writers read this article and decided to include it in a future (?) season!
Yes, just a logo error, not caught by anyone in marketing, is my vote.
Remember the RAZOR marketing? It had the number 75, which is Galactica’s number, rather than Pegasus’ number 62. At least if memory serves, that was the deal. They did change that because of fan outcry.
Another viewer here who doubts the writers of the show had anything to do with the animated logo design. They probably weren’t told the dinosaur CGI wouldn’t be even close to Jurassic Park-quality, either.
But you are wrong about the timeline, Keith. I know that Pangaea was formed literally in seconds by a berzerk squirrel-rat (obviously a GMO the evil Terra Novans introduced from 2149) running along the Earth’s solid iron core and tangling up the magnetic lines. This video also proves that Lamarckian evolution, not Darwinian, is true, as was the existence of Atlantis or Númenor, originally west of Italy.
It’s probably just a moronic error. Although if this is an alternate time-line for Earth, what’s to say the formation of the continents didn’t happen at a different rate in this other dimension? If we’re to believe people from about 150 years in the future can travel 85 million years into the past (or to some other planet) through a wormhole, or whatever it’s supposed to be, then is it so hard to believe that continental drift might happen at a different rate if this is Earth in another timeline/reality?