Terra Nova Interview: Jason O’Mara Previews The New Dino-Drama

FOX’s incredibly ambitious new high-concept series, Terra Nova, has its long-awaited two-hour premiere Monday night at 8PM. The series boasts Steven Spielberg as one of its producers and has a cast that includes Jason O’Mara, Shelley Conn, and Stephen Lang. Did we mention that there will be dinosaurs?

Yet, with all of the imagery and trailers we’ve seen for the show (many of which you can find here at KSiteTV), there’s a whole lot more to it than dinosaurs and time travel.

Last week, KSiteTV was able to participate in a conference call with Jason O’Mara, who plays the Shannon family patriarch, Jim, in the series. Jim Shannon is a character who will bend the rules to protect his family – and once he finds himself millions of years in the past, he is faced with new challenges, including ensuring that they thrive and survive in this new environment. In addition, he quickly is given a new responsibility within the show’s pilot. “Whether he likes it or not, he’s sort of been made the sheriff in this frontier town,” O’Mara says. “So he has to kind of go along with what Taylor does and says and sometimes he has reservations; sometimes he’s in accordance to it, but the questions that are brought up sort of affect the very fabric of Terra Nova’s society that is being created as we go along.”

The “Taylor” that O’Mara refers to is Nathaniel Taylor, Stephen Lang’s character, who seems to be in charge of this prehistoric reservation. “Even though Taylor is heroic in many ways in what he does, he also can be a little bit autocratic and so not everybody agrees with how he rules and Jim has to tow the party line to an extent,” O’Mara continues. There is also a kind of partnership and a friendship that is emerging between Taylor and Shannon. I really enjoy kind of the subtleties and the little relationship beefs that we have between all the characters on the show. It’s kind of – I believe it’s quite unusual.”

This is not to say that the relationship between Nathaniel Taylor and the rest of the characters of the show will completely be smooth sailing. “Who put him in charge? Was he ever elected? All these questions are asked so the Shannon family are caught up in all of this and they become the audience’s eyes and ears and they get involved in a first-hand way directly in the intrigue that’s taking place, politically and socially. At the same time trying to sort of survive in this place that is certainly a lot more hostile than it’s first thought and it’s not just the dinosaurs.”

What kind of hostility will we see? “Once the Shannon family gets there you realize, and it doesn’t take too long, you scratch the surface and you realize that there is something else going on here. There are splinter groups, splinter factions, people challenging Taylor’s rule over the place. You also find out that there are people close to Taylor who have become estranged and might even be plotting against him and his sort of rule, for want of a better word, as commander over Terra Nova,” O’Mara teases. Even the Shannons will have some conflict. “There are a couple of times in the upcoming season where we do argue about what is right. There are a lot of moral questions being asked with regard to how this place is run. Yes, there are a few moments where our opinions cross, but that’s what’s really exciting about this world because we’re sort of building this place from the ground up we’re able to ask these allegorical, sociological, and philosophical questions about the world we’re living in now and where we’re going and what we would do if had a second chance. I must say that dinosaurs aside, that’s kind of the thing that I find most intriguing about the series,” he says.

Which is not to say the dinosaurs will be no threat. “Dinosaurs do kill people. We don’t kill dinosaurs because they’re animals and we are as humane as possible when we try to corral and wrangle the local wildlife so we use nonlethal, humane weapons to control them,” he explains. “They, however, don’t have the same control with us; they’re animals; they’re wild and sometimes they get hungry so we have to be very vigilant around that. There are other fatalities to look forward to in the season, but they aren’t always series regulars. However, I can reveal that one of the characters that you will have come to know, and hopefully love, will die by the end of the first season. There will be a death of a regular character by this season’s end,” he reveals.

O’Mara is quite aware that he has not had a television series make it as far as a second season, despite the popularity of a show like the U.S. Life On Mars. Could the third try at a TV series be the charm for Mr. O’Mara? “In Life on Mars I had the most amazing cast assembled on television at the time, I believe, so I was ably supported in that. In Justice was a great show, but I don’t think we were able to make enough noise to kind of break through, but with this I’m really not sweating the premiere because it’s really about whether people are ready for a show like this, and I believe they are,” he says. “It’s not really down to me. The show is way bigger than the actors are. Steven Spielberg’s presence is one of the selling points. The dinosaurs obviously are a huge aspect of all of this, so we’re hoping that people kind of come for these reasons, but stay because they’re enjoying the world we’ve created and the dynamics between the characters and the relationships that are forming. As the season progresses and deepens you’ll get to know the characters better and see where we’re going with the story lines.”

“I really feel like it’s out of my hands and I’ve done my work and now it’s just a question as to how much of a hit this is going to be. I think we might be on to something here,” he says. For starters, Terra Nova is aimed at more than just a sci-fi audience. “We’re trying to create something that’s a little bit bigger than that,” he says. “It’s not just for a niche audience; this isn’t Battlestar Galactica; it’s not Star Trek. This is not necessarily for sci-fi fans out there even though I think sci-fi fans will get a lot out of it. This kind of has that all-inclusive look and feel of a true Steven Spielberg production where people are going to E.T. for the cinematic experience, not because it’s just about a boy’s relationship with his alien who comes down from space,” O’Mara continues.

“That’s kind of how the feeling is on Terra Nova. This isn’t just about time travel and dinosaurs; it’s about a lot more than that. I think that’s what’s going to bring this show and put it on sort of a level where an entire family can watch it. I really do stand behind that. I think there is literally something for everybody,” he adds. “I know that can be tricky. I know that’s hard to do. Everybody is really aware of that, but I’m betting that, and I have a pretty good feeling about the fact that we’ve done something approaching to that and hopefully we’ll succeed.”

And if it should succeed, what will we see in Season 2? “The 11th Pilgrimage is coming and it’s coming at the end of Season 1, but we don’t know what the 11th Pilgrimage is going to be made up of. By then it could be pilgrims, but it could be something else far more terrifying,” O’Mara teases.

Terra Nova premieres Monday, September 26 on FOX. Here are some extras associated with the show that you may enjoy: Preview Trailers & Videos – Images From The Series Premiere – Cast Image Gallery – Terra Nova Forum