Review: Primeval Series 5 Ep 5

The only way to prevent the annihilation of everything on Earth is stopping Philip from opening a huge anomaly – but can the team make it in time?

And if you’ve not watched the episode yet, stop reading this now! Because in fact, no, they don’t. After surviving attacks from all quarters – even inside the ARC, which gives Lester a chance to once again bear arms against a creature that’s attacking something incredibly precious to him – there’s nothing that Connor or Matt can do, either physically against the machine, or verbally against Philip.

It’s a rollercoaster ride of an episode, with rapid intercutting between scenes and even if from time to time, we see more reactions to the creatures than we do the monsters themselves, there’s an energy to the attacks that has occasionally been missing. They’re counterpointed with deft character moments for each of the team which along the way explain much of the backstory to the whole series.

Verdict: From the homage to the Godzilla movies that opens the hour to the James Bond antics that populate it, this feels like Primeval’s Greatest Hits… and it’ll be a crying shame if this is the start of the final two hours ever. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Check out our reviews of episodes 1, 2, 3 and 4

and the second part of our interview with co-creator Adrian Hodges.