Where Nick Cutter is a natural leader, a more sophisticated character, intelligent, has knowledge about the history, the anomalies, and is someone who usually thinks before he acts. Whereas Danny Quinn, it is more the other way around, does not think but act, not thinking of what the consequences are. A bit of a blunt knife. Because Nick Cutter dies, a very possible plot regarding Jenny Lewis / Claudia Brown is thrown into the bin, as also their relationship in regard to his wife, Helen Cutter. Regarding Juliet Aubrey’s portrayal of her character Helen Cutter, not sure how to explain it but she always looks surprised, with her mouth open in the form of an “O”, really distracted me when she was in a scene.

Because of these changes, series 3 changes dramatically. Sure, there are some interesting new plotlines, that of Christine Johnson and his team, I really thought that this was interesting, an organization that works below the radar, does not seem to have much oversight, is doing their own thing and wants to influence Lester’s team by presenting them with a new leader after Nick Cutter dies. Of course this new leader would listen to Christine, but James Lester, who is faced with a dilemma, points to Danny Quinn as the new leader, not his first choice but under pressure he says his name so that Johnson’s captain is set aside. Helen Cutter kills her own husband, she feels that the ARC is responsible for what happened in the future, a broken future. She is determined to stop this and thinks that killing Nick Cutter is the way to change everything, but when this isn’t the case, she takes even more dramatic measures. In the series 3 finale she has the intention of killing the very first humans, so that the earth and its animals do no longer need to fear mankind.

For me, losing Nick Cutter as lead character, is a big reason why I don’t like series 3 as much as the first two series. Douglas Henshall gave the show credibility, that was severely missing in series 3. You already see in the first 3 episodes, when Henshall is still there, that his role has already been reduced. At least, that is how I see it. Series 3 certainly is not bad, it still enjoyable but it misses a strong lead character in my opinion. James Lester still steals every scene he is in, I love this humor, his wit, his somewhat bloated personality. Sarah Page was also a nice addition, but I feel also a bit underused. Abby is Abby, nothing really wrong with her, only you ask yourself, what does she see in Connor. Don’t get me wrong, he is okay when he is at work, although the comical moments during the mission, I rarely laugh at. In the 3^rd series you would expect he becomes a bit more adult, but this really isn’t the case, he takes advantage of Abby when he stays in her apartment, he does the same thing when James Lester invites him into his home after he must make room for Abby’s brother, who is also very annoying. Apparently it is all done for comic relief but I found it to be very annoying. Connor certainly is intelligent, but socially he’s a bit of a dimwit. No, the comic relief of all 3 series regarding Connor, I could do without, to me this was Primeval’s Achilles heel. When you think about it, at some point Christine Johnson argues that the military should be at point when entering an anomaly. I don’t think it perse needs to be  military, but trained men wouldn’t be so bad I would imagine.

The final episode is the best in my opinion, it solved the matter of Christine Johnson, it concludes Helen Cutters arc, I don’t mind seeing her go to be honest. Danny, Abby and Connor are off world, no way to get home.

Final Word:

This is the final Primeval series I watched on DVD. The last 2 series I own on Blu-ray. It has been about 15 years since my last rewatch. I think back then I was more enthusiastic about the 3^rd series than with this rewatch. As I mentioned more than once, as you get older, your viewpoint can change about certain things and this also influences the way you watch TV series and movies. I still enjoyed it though. For me, the first series is still the best, in part because Lucy Brown is still Claudia Brown and I preferred this character over Jenny Lewis, so did Nick Cutter! 😊 Looking forward to the last two series, with Alexander Siddig as Philip Burton.

Screenshots: IMDb