Episode 3.1 by Steve Bailie

At the British Museum in London, curator Marion Taylor is busy preparing for a late night packaging up a large Egyptian relic known as the Sun Cage, when a portal opens up inside the artefact and a giant crocodile-like dinosaur bursts out. At the Anomaly Research Centre, James Lester greets the new head of security, Captain Becker, while Cutter struggles to come to terms with the recent death of Stephen, despite Jenny’s reassurances that he was not to blame. When the Anomaly Detector sounds out an alert, Cutter and Jenny curtail their dinner plans and set off with Becker and his soldiers to investigate, calling in Abby and Connor on the way. Meeting at the museum, the team discover Marian’s body and then meet the woman’s colleague, Egyptologist Doctor Sarah Page. Seeing the corpse of her boss, Sarah panics and runs off, only to come face to face with the rampaging prehistoric crocodile – however, instead of seeing it as a dinosaur, Sarah instead sees the Egyptian demon Ammut, somehow come to life. When the monster escapes from the building through a delivery shutter, Cutter, Abby and Becker set off in pursuit. Connor stays behind to study the anomaly and learns from Sarah that it is cursed – just after he touches it. When Sarah realises that the hieroglyphics on the Sun Cage depict not the sun but the anomaly Connor is intrigued, and on learning that the artefact is made of a magnetic stone called magnatite, he decides to try an experiment: by moving the Cage a few inches, he is amazed to find that the anomaly within also moves. Just then another of the crocodiles emerges from the Sun Cage; the creature is forced back by the soldiers, but Connor and Sarah know they must find a way to seal the anomaly to prevent more of the monsters coming through. As Cutter and Abby follow the crocodile’s trail of destruction to the South Bank, they deduce that it comes from the Eocene Epoch; Connor immediately uses this information to identify the creature as a Pristichampus, a voracious predator from fifty-five million years ago. Meanwhile, Lester arrives at the Home Office to meet the new military liaison, Christine Johnson, but his appointment is cut short when the woman receives a visit from a soldier named Captain Ross. Once Lester has left, Christine learns that Ross’ mission to retrieve a mysterious ancient artefact ended in disaster, as he and his team were attacked by Future Predators… Back at the South Bank, Cutter, Abby and Becker finally locate the Pristichampus – just as it emerges from the Thames and heads straight for a busy shopping centre full of people…

Douglas Henshall (Doctor Nick Cutter), Andrew-Lee Potts (Connor Temple), Lucy Brown (Jenny Lewis), Hannah Spearritt (Abby Maitland), Juliet Aubrey (Helen Cutter), Ben Miller (James Peregrine Lester), Ben Mansfield (Captain Becker), Laila Rouass (Doctor Sarah Page), Belinda Stewart-Wilson (Christine Johnson), Michael Wildman (Captain Ross), Regina Freedman (Marion Taylor), Christina Catalina (Cleaning Lady), Tim Faraday (Replica Clone)

Directed by Tony Mitchell
Produced by Tim Bradley
Executive Producer Tim Haines, Adrian Hodges and Cameron McAllister
An Impossible Pictures production for ITV / ProSeiben

TX:
28th March 2009 @ 7:20 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Doctor Nick Cutter, Abby Maitland, Connor Temple, Jenny Lewis, James Lester and Helen Cutter, and introducing Captain Becker and Doctor Sarah Page

*To accompany the series, ITV.com hosted ‘Primeval Evolved’, an interactive game in which the player takes the role of a new lab assistant at the A.R.C.; after being greeted by James Lester, the player meets Connor and Abby, then receives a message from an enigmatic woman named Eve, who asks for help in locating a mysterious artefact from the future…