SDCC 2011: Steven Spielberg’s ‘Terra Nova’ Panel Recap

The panel for Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi “Terra Nova” was held today and producers Rene Echevarria, Brandon Braga, Kevin Blank and Jose Molina all made appearances as well as “Terra Nova” star Stephen Lang (Avatar). The audience were gifted with the first half hour of the of the two-hour premiere and it was everything I had imaged and more. I drank the Kool-Aid when I got the chance to preview this at WonderCon, now I’m a swimming in it.

From the footage which I’ll refrain from spoiling too much as it’s part of the pilot which debuts this fall, we got to see the Shannons, the renegades known as the Sixers who broke off from the Terra Nova colony, dinosaurs, a terrifying T-Rex as well as some sweet “dino-on-human action.”

According to Jose Molina, we will see a lot of dinosaurs. It will be a dinosaur show and that we’ll see them on-screen and that “it’s going to be badass.”

“We’re an expensive show. You’re going to see the money on the screen,” he joked.

Influence and inspiration for the show came from Gene Roddenbury and Star Trek and maybe a little from Giligan’s Island.

Other highlights from the panel included how much of a challenge it was making “Terra Nova,” due to the TV schedule and the budget. Kevin Black, the show’s visual effects supervisor chimed in saying how it’s all a learning process for them but it’ll all be worth it and that fans can expect to see even more dinosaurs in the second half of the pilot episode.

Lang spoke about how a lot of imagination went into the series especially when you’re acting with a CGI dinosaurs. He relates this to his time working on “Avatar.”

Overall, “Terra Nova” looks great. I’d put it on the same level as TNT’s “Falling Skies,” if not slightly better in terms of production and CG. Because we’ve only seen parts of the first episode, I can’t really comment on the characters or the plot. So far the characters aren’t as engaging or likable. But maybe it’s just because I haven’t grown to like them yet. I guess only time will time. But hey, at least there will be dinosaurs!