PAST AND FUTURE: THE RETURN OF PRIME-TIME 'PRIMEVAL'!

It's Dino-time once more for heroes Connor (Andrew-Lee Potts), Abby (Hannah Spearritt) and Matt (Ciaran McMenamin) in season five of PRIMEVAL. Images: IMPOSSIBLE PICTURES.

Family friendly Dino carnage returns to the UK's ITV1 and HD channels this Saturday at 6pm with the return of cult-hit sci-fi/monster drama PRIMEVAL, as the scientist/army comprised ARC team responds once more to the threat of time breaching creatures of all shapes, sizes and weirdness, from past, present and future, onto British soil (well, Irish soil, really-the country now being the series main location filming base, filling in for London's noted modern architecture). This fifth (and likely final) series set with our current band of heroes, most notably series regulars Andrew-Lee Potts and Hannah Spearritt as scientists Connor Temple and Abby Maitland, sees the continuing threat of the mysterious anomalies growing larger as a scheme by scheming industrialist business Philip Burton (STAR TREK's Alexander Siddig) gets out of control and soon has frightening effects for the whole of sentient creation.

Check out our previous features on Season Five: ROMPER STOMPER! "PRIMEVAL" SEASON FIVE

MONSTER MUNCH! "PRIMEVAL" SEASON FIVE

CREATURE FEATURE! KOOL TV REVIEW OF "PRIMEVAL" SEASON FIVE

Season Five trailer (from when it was previously on WATCH): Primeval Series 5 Official Trailer - YouTube

Teaser posters for the new series PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD

It's not perfect, and the ultimate resolution to the series story arc (begun in tantalising small bits during the previous season four) is a bit ho-hum rather than as spectacular as it should be (probably the result of budget cuts when the series had to be co-financed between ITV, the satellite channel WATCH (who had first transmission dibs on it last year) and other European TV backers), but the work put into all by the resident creatures effects team is good, the cast give it their best and the series ultimately ends on a relatively successful all for one and one for all note. At least one of the main cast, Potts, will return for a cameo appearance in the now-in-production new series of PRIMEVAL being filmed in Vancouver, Canada, with an all-new cast within a major format shake-up re-imaging/spin-off hybrid thingy. PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD, made by the Space channel in association with some of the key creative team of the original UK series, promises in its press release to be a darker and scarier ride for its thirteen episode premiere season duration, giving the series a further youthful, sexed-up new cast (apparently including VAMPIRE DIARIES Sara Canning as a predator attack expert, HEARTLAND's Miranda Frigon, ONCE UPON A TIME's Geoff Gustafson and YOUNG JAMES HERRIOT's Danny Rahmi), and further gory special effects against a story backdrop that builds on what was originally established on the Brit side of the pond. Whatever happens with the new series, at least it can't be any worse than the early episodes of TERRA NOVA!

More news as and when...