Primeval Episode 1.01 Episode 1

Nick Cutter is an evolutionary zoologist who finds himself confronted with the subject of his studies in a way he could never have imagined. Prompted by the enthusiasm of his geeky but brilliant graduate student Connor Temple, Professor Cutter and his lab technician Stephen Hart go to investigate strange sightings of an unknown animal in the Forest of Dean.

Close by Abby Maitland, a zoo animal handler, is discovering that the forest is also home to the strangest pet she's ever seen. Could a small lizard, picked up by a young boy in the woods, really be an entirely new species? Determined to find out more, Abby and the boy head off, but as night falls the forest becomes a frightening place...

Cutter invites Claudia along to join the search for the phantom beast, which turns out to be all too real. When they go down to the woods, they find a petrified Abby face-to-face with a Scutosaurus, a giant beast straight from the Permian Era of 250 million years ago. Terrifyingly though, this creature seems to be the least of their worries. Abby is convinced the Scutosaurus is vegetarian, so how can they explain the sickening sight of a dead cow hauled high into a tree?

The young boy's tales of a flesh-hungry monster at his window may sound like nonsense to his mother, but his story confirms Cutter's worst fears; a savage Gorgonopsid, one of the most dangerous predators of the Permian Era, is also on the loose, and it becomes a race against time to track the beast before it finds its next meal.

But the first question which needs answering is where on earth are these creatures coming from? Are they an evolutionary throwback? Or an experimental hybrid perhaps? The truth is even more incredible than they first theorized. As they follow the Scutosaurus through the forest, the creature inadvertently leads the team to the answer. A shimmering in the air, a distortion in the light, and, suddenly, the Scut disappears before them.

They have found the truth, but how can it be possible? Can they really be looking at a rip in time - an anomaly, which leads back to prehistoric times? Can creatures come through from their own era into ours, and if so, can humans go the other way? There's only one way to find out and Cutter is determined to make the trip, convinced that the answer to his wife's disappearance could lie on the other side...