'It isn't just about dinosaurs'

Just 12 days after the launch of what is touted to be television's greatest show ever, Terra Nova will debut this Saturday

In the Steven Spielberg-produced Terra Nova that takes place in a futuristic world, life on Earth is threatened and scientists open a door that allows people to travel back 85 million years to pre-historic times. Here, humans establish Terra Nova, the first human colony on the other side of the temporal doorway. Jason O'Mara who stars as Jim Shannon, the father of the Shannon household in Terra Nova, speaks about time travel, dinosaurs and how the show moves beyond just attracting the sci-fi nerd.


A still from Terra Nova (above) and a photo of O'Mara who plays Jim
Shannon

How was it like acting in a futuristic Chicago and how demanding was the filming?
Yes, well, first of all you know Brisbane stood in for Chicago (Brisbane was used as the location for a futuristic Chicago).u00a0 A lot of Chicago was Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) because we're not dealing with Chicago, we're dealing with that city 150 years or so from now. It has been very challenging shooting this show.u00a0 There were a lot of snakes. I don't know how poisonous it was, but I had a toad crawl across my boots just last week.

It appears that your wife on the show will become a source of contention between you and Taylor (the leader of the settlement). In the upcoming season, on a few occasions, we do argue about what is right. There are a lot of moral questions being asked with regard to how this place is run.u00a0 That's what's really exciting about this world, because we're building this place from the ground up, we're able to ask these allegorical, sociological, and philosophical questions.u00a0

Do you think Terra Nova will attract all kinds of audiences or those looking for sci-fi?
We're trying to create something that's a little bit bigger. This kind of has that all-inclusive look and feel of a true Steven Spielberg production where people are watching E.T. for the cinematic experience and not just because it's about a boy's relationship with an alien. Terra Nova isn't just about time travel and dinosaurs.u00a0

Will some characters end up on a dinosaur's menu, so to speak?
We don't kill dinosaurs because they're animals and we are as humane as possible when we try to corral and wrangle the local wildlife. They, however, don't have the same control with us; they're animals; they're wild and sometimes they get hungry.

The show will premier in India at 9 pm, Oct 8 on Star World.