If the very idea that the pilot episode of Terra Nova cost somewhere between $10 and $20 milliondollars, don’t watch it. It’s not meant for you. There’s nothing it could do to convince you, and it doesn’t try to. No, Terra Nova is for people who like blockbuster science fiction television, or ‘event television’. Event television, like event cinema, refers to programmes that constitute talking points merely by the fact that they exist.

That budget is one of the things that make the launch of Terra Nova an event in the broadcasting world. Another is Steven Spielberg’s name as the executive producer. He keeps company there with twelve other names. Twelve executive producers in one programme is extremely unusual. Then, there are the slatings it got in the US, admittedly not a consensus, but pretty damning nonetheless.

Before getting on to what happened with the money, it’s worth establishing just what kind of show we are dealing with. Terra Nova begins in the dying days of the 22nd Century. By this time Earth has become a dark wasteland. Humans cannot safely breathe the air outside. We meet the Shannon family. Various important things happen for them in the show’s first fifteen minutes but the really crucial thing is that they end up joining a pilgrimage to a colony founded 85 million years ago. Don’t question it. If you need to question it, don’t watch it. There’s some talk of discovering ‘time fissures’ and following ‘time streams’,  but basically they don’t want to tell you, and asking will only make it worse. What’s important is, we have this Jurassic utopian colony. The pilot follows the Shannons’ arrival in this place.

To the money. You can see it on the screen, in CGI dinosaurs and 2001 style establishing shots. And great sets. It feels high-budget, which is not true of all high-budget television.

Now on to the ‘mixed’ critical opinions. When this review was offered to me, it was suggested I could have fun being cruel about Terra Nova. But really, Terra Nova is not that bad. For every person who finds its budget offensive,  there’s another person who appreciate rarity of projects on quite this scale in this medium. And it’s fun.

It suffers from a particularly weak script, common in programmes of its type. I don’t know if we’re supposed to like the male members of the Shannon family. I don’t, but that’s hardly the point. The point is, if you weren’t put off by the ‘mixed’ reviews, by the price tag, or by the warnings about its minimal intellectual ambition...you’ll be ok.