Raptor (Primeval) (original) (raw)
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"Two versions of Cutter?Sounds like some kind of nightmare."This article is about unnamed Raptor species encountered many times by the Anomaly Research Centre, not any other Raptors or the family group; Dromaeosaurs. |
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Nick Cutter: "Cretaceous era theropod dinosaur. Genuine article."
Connor Temple: "Raptor! Always hoped we'd get one someday!"
―Nick Cutter and Connor Temple encounter a Raptor for the first time.[src]
The Raptor was an unknown species of dromaeosaur (possibly fictional) from the Cretaceous period. It was encountered many times by the Anomaly Research Centre team.
Characteristics[]
This Raptor species was recognised by its thin but strong body frame, its black and off-white skin patterns, and a coat of protofeathers along its neck, spine, shoulder regions and tail (which would stand up and bristle when the Raptor was agitated, showing aggression or about to attack). It was also known to produce complex avian vocalisations varying from hisses and screeches to clucking. They began life as infants about the size of small cats, but grew to be approximately five feet tall and seven feet long. (Episode 2.1)
A Raptor's sickle claw. (Episode 2.1)
Intelligent, vicious and aggressive predators, the Raptors would chase after their prey before jumping onto them to kill by biting and stabbing. Raptors were willing to hunt and kill animals like humans as prey, (Episode 2.1 et al.) and they also weren't adverse to cannibalism; (Episode 2.1, Episode 3.10) Raptors could also be moderately hostile but not actively aggressive towards other animals. (Episode 2.7) Raptors would even fight off dinosaurs many times their own size, seen when a Raptor attacked a Spinosaurus despite the far greater size of its opponent. Because of their small body, it was hard for large predators to shake Raptors off. (Episode 4.1)
Raptors sometimes lived in groups of two - three, but they seemed to prefer to hunt alone; they were also capable of killing animals as large as humans from a young age. (Episode 2.1) Raptors had loose social structure; infants were prone to being attacked by older individuals, (Episode 2.1) although Raptors did sometimes defend their own kind against larger creatures. Male Raptors were more aggressive than females, and were also had a much stronger metabolism; a female Raptor could be taken down by just a prick from a tranquiliser dart, while a male Raptor took approximately three - four direct tranquiliser darts to bring it down. Males could be distinguished from females by a blue spot over each eye, which female Raptors lacked. (Episode 2.1)
Incursions and encounters[]
Episode 2.1[]
« "There are three Raptors; one of them's a baby, so chances are they're a family unit." »
Three Raptors - two adults (one male, one female) and a baby - came through an Anomaly into the Castle Cross Shopping Mall in the present, where both of the adults killed a pair of security guards and then ran rampant in the Shopping Mall. When the Anomaly Research Centre team arrived, the female adult Raptor attacked Connor Temple at the Mall's sweet stands and nearly killed him, but Connor narrowly escaped under a closing metal shutter.
A male Raptor about to eat an infant. (Episode 2.1)
One of the adult Raptors later attacked Stephen Hart and Nick Cutter in a laser tag arena, and pinned Stephen down before being distracted and lured off by the laser tag sound effects. The baby Raptor, meanwhile, was in the employees' locker room, and attacked and wounded the Cleaner and took shelter from Connor under the room's benches before Connor managed to tranquilise it. The adult female Raptor also attacked Cutter and Stephen in a shopping area, until Stephen managed to tranquilise it on an escalator.
The team subsequently brought the tranquilised female and baby Raptors to the mall's bowling alley. The baby was used to attract the attention of the remaining male adult Raptor, but when it arrived it ate the baby. Before the team could tranquilise the Raptor, Abby Maitland accidentally distracted it, and the Raptor attacked her and Connor before fleeing and escaping. The Raptor escaped into the mall parking lot, and Cutter and Stephen used motorbikes to lure it back into the mall, where Connor managed to tranquilise it when it cornered Stephen and Cutter.
Both the tranquilised adult Raptors were taken by Cutter back through the Anomaly into their home. However, there the Raptors regained consciousness and the male chased Cutter and Stephen back towards the Anomaly. Cutter made it through but the Raptor caught Stephen's ankle. Fortunately, Stephen was pulled through the Anomaly just as it was closing. The Anomaly then closed on the Raptor's neck as it was trying to drag Stephen back through, decapitating and killing it.
Two Raptors in Oliver Leek's creature army. (Episode 2.6)
Episode 2.6/2.7[]
Two male Raptors were captured by Oliver Leek's forces and kept in Leek's Creature Prison as part of his creature army. The Raptors and the other creatures escaped when the facility's security was shut down, and subsequently ran rampant in the bunker. The two Raptors were later lured back to the cage room by the feeding time siren, along with the other creatures.
One Raptor, upon arriving back at the cage room, attacked Helen Cutter and grabbed her by the ankle as she tried to escape with Cutter and Stephen, prompting Stephen to shoot and kill it. The other Raptor was subsequently locked inside the cage room with Stephen and the other creatures, and set about surrounding and killing Stephen with the other creatures. The Raptor presumably died in the cage room when the trapped creatures turned on and killed each other.
Juvenile Raptors cannibalising another Raptor in the Cretaceous. (Episode 3.10)
Episode 3.10[]
In a forest in the Cretaceous, Danny Quinn, Connor Temple and Abby Maitland came across three juvenile Raptors devouring the body of another Raptor. When the Raptors noticed the trio, they chased them through the forest and up a tree. Shortly after, while the Raptors below tried to climb up the tree to reach the team, Danny threw a sound grenade which knocked the three Raptors out. Later, another, adult Raptor followed Danny through an Anomaly into the Great Rift Valley in the Pliocene, and stalked him across the Pliocene Valley.
Back in the Cretaceous, one of the juvenile Raptors woke up and menaced Abby before Connor distracted it and threw dirt in its face, aggravating it; he then knocked the Raptor back out with a stick. In the Pliocene, after Helen and Danny's argument at Site 333 ended, Helen prepared to depart, when the adult Raptor which had followed Danny into the Pliocene came up behind and attacked her. It tackled her and knocked them both off of the cliff they were on, causing them both to fall to their deaths.
A Raptor investigating the contents of Abby's bag. (Episode 4.1)
Episode 4.1[]
In the Cretaceous forest (a year after Connor and Abby arrived there), a male Raptor arrived at their den to scavenge for items with which to build a nest to attract a mate. It sniffed at Abby's dropped bag, and followed the scent to behind a tree they were hiding behind. However it turned back to the bag and stole Abby's foil blanket to add to its nest. Connor took the blanket back while the Raptor was gone, and also found Helen's Anomaly Opening Device, which the Raptor had incorporated into its nest as well.
Later, Abby returned and used the blanket to lure the Raptor towards a Spinosaurus that was blocking her and Connor's way to an Anomaly, and the Raptor took on the larger dinosaur.However, the Raptor was unable to last long in the fight, and was eventually killed and eaten by the Spinosaurus.
Episode 5.3[]
A female Raptor came through an Anomaly to London in 1868, where it went on a killing spree and became known as "Spring-Heeled Jack". It later came through another Anomaly into an Art Museum in present day London. The ARC team arrived and were attacked by the Raptor, until Hilary Becker tricked the creature into jumping back through the Anomaly while it was attempting to kill him.
In the Victorian, Matt Anderson found the Raptor in an old storage shack in a Victorian warehouse, but it fled the scene when Emily Merchant arrived. A short time later, the Raptor attacked Henry Merchant's stagecoach in the street, scaring the horse off and killing the driver. The Raptor then returned to its nest in the Victorian warehouse, followed by Matt and Emily. Matt distracted it with a whip until Emily knocked it out with Matt's EMD.
The Spring-Heeled Jack Raptor in an art museum in the present. (Episode 5.3)
Matt and Emily then dragged the unconscious Raptor back to the Anomaly, and threw it down a stairway through the Anomaly and back into the art museum in the present. When Henry Merchant came through the Anomaly and set off the art museum's motion detectors, the noise woke the Raptor up. It attacked and killed Henry before Becker either killed it or knocked it back out with an EMD. It is unknown what happened to the Raptor afterwards, but if it survived Becker's EMD shots, then it was presumably placed in the ARC's Menagerie.
Alternate timeline[]
In the timeline which existed before Matt Anderson's intervention in 1868, by the time Emily Merchant was committed to Bedlam Asylum, the "Spring-Heeled Jack" Raptor that was terrorising London at that time had caused twelve deaths. (Episode 5.2) This was presumably negated from the timeline after Matt went back to 1868 and he and Emily captured the Raptor and brought it to the present. (Episode 5.3)
Other references[]
Episode 2.2[]
When Connor saw the Cleaner in the Anomaly Research Centre, he noticed where the baby raptor had scarred his neck. He then mentioned this to Abby.
_The Lost Island_[]
Connor remembered the Raptors when he encountered another species of Dromaeosaurid in the Cretaceous coastal woodland.
Episode 3.1[]
One of the Raptors from Episode 2.7 was visible in Cutter's flashback of Stephen's death.
Episode 4.1[]
The Raptor which killed Helen Cutter in Episode 3.10 was seen in James Lester's recap of the events leading up to Series 4.
Raptors in the Watch YouTube game.
Non-canon[]
Raptors appear in the Watch YouTube Game, along with other creatures which attack Your screen as the Primeval creatures move over to Watch. Raptors are killed by only one shot.
Deaths caused[]
- Two Castle Cross Shopping Mall security guards
- A baby of its own kind
- A juvenile of its own kind
- Stephen Hart (discounting the other creatures)
- Helen Cutter (indirectly)
- Victorian coach driver
- Dr. Webster
- Henry Merchant
- Under twelve Victorian London citizens
- Twelve Victorian London citizens (alternate timeline)
Appearances[]
- Episode 2.1 (first appearance)
- Episode 2.2 (mentioned)
- The Lost Island (mentioned)
- Episode 2.6
- Episode 2.7
- Episode 3.10
- Episode 4.1
- Episode 5.3 (latest appearance)
Gallery[]
CGI Models[]
Trivia[]
- It is unknown exactly what species the Raptors seen in the original Primeval programme are. Different sources have given their species as Velociraptor[1] and Utahraptor,[2] but other sources say their size and appearance would suggest they are Deinonychus or perhaps Dromaeosaurus.[3][4]
- It is possible that _Primeval Evolved_s classification of the Raptors as Velociraptor might just be Deinonychus reclassified as a species of Velociraptor, a classification that is known to have existed in real life. Researcher Gregory S. Paul once classified Deinonychus as a species of Velociraptor in his 1988 book Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. Given that the Primeval raptors are similar to Deinonychus and the Sketchbook states they are from North America, in real life a location where Velociraptor fossils have never been found, but Deinonychus fossils have, Abby might have used this classification when writing in the Sketchbook.
- The design of the Raptors in Primeval are similar to two other dromaeosaur designs in media: the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park III (primarily the males from that film) and Dromaeosaurus from the 1999 documentary Walking with Dinosaurus. The aspects of the Jurassic Park III raptors is that the Primeval raptors from Series 2-4 have protofeathers like the males in JPIII and that they are sexually dimorphic with males having blue rings around their eyes, like the male Jurassic Park III raptors. The aspect of the WWD Dromaeosaurus seen in the Primeval raptors is that they both share the same skin coloration.
- Some of the behaviour of this species of Raptor is similar to that of the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park and some of the sounds these Raptors make are the same ones heard in Jurassic Park.
- The scene where the male raptor eats his own baby is very similar to a scene in the Jurassic Park novel and might be a reference to this said scene. In the scene in question, the characters Lex and Tim Murphy enter the Nursery of the Visitor Center while they are being pursued by a pack of Velociraptors. Upon arrival, the Murphys find an infant Velociraptor that they had encountered the day before when they were on the tour of Jurassic Park. As the raptor pack enters the Nursery, Tim gets the idea to use the baby raptor as a distraction, thinking that the pursuing raptor pack would be occupied with caring for the infant. But when Tim puts his plan into action the raptor pack proceeds to eat the infant.
- The brief fight sequence between the Spinosaurus and the Raptor in Episode 4.1 is an obvious homage to a mirrored scenario depicted in Jurassic Park, between the Tyrannosaurus rex and a Velociraptor. If one listens carefully when the Raptor is caught in the Spinosaurus’ jaws and screams, the sound of the Velociraptor squeals from the Jurassic Park series can be heard.
CGI action figure model
Action figure model
- Character Options created a 5.5inch scale action figure of the Raptor.
- Their colour changes very slightly over the course of the show, from black and white in Series 2 to bluish and off-white in Series 3 and 4.
- Discounting Coelurosauravus and humans, Raptors are _Primeval'_s second most recurring creature, after the Future Predator, appearring in every series except for the first. Also the Raptors made more appearances in Primeval than any other dinosaur.
- Although Raptors famously had "disembowelling claws" on their feet that would appear to easily be able to tear open a man, it was only shown using its jaws to attack.
- The digital model of the baby Raptor from Episode 2.1 was used for the Velociraptor identified by the Documentary Presenter (Nigel Marven) in Episode 3.4.
- The Spring-Heeled Jack Raptor in Series 5 had no protofeathers at all, it has been theorised by some fans that this was because the Raptor had contracted a disease in Victorian London that caused its protofeathers to fall out, because the empty knobs where the protofeathers were attached were visible and because the Raptor had a noticeably more sickly complexion. Alternatively, it could have just been moulting.
- In contrast to their portrayal in popular culture, the Raptors presented in Primeval have been anti-heroic several times. For example, in Episode 3.10, the adult Raptor stopped Helen Cutter from negating humanity's evolution from the timeline by killing her and itself; in Episode 4.1, the Raptor, by attacking and distracting the Spinosaurus, unintentionally gave Connor and Abby enough time to escape through the Anomaly; and in Episode 5.3, the Raptor unintentionally saved Matt Anderson from being shot and twice saved Emily from Henry.
- The Mill re-used the CGI models of _Primeval_s raptors for BBC's Doctor Who Series 7 Episode 2 "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship".
References[]
- ↑ Primeval Evolved Week 2
- ↑ Primeval Episode Guide. TV Guide.
- ↑ Series 2 Monsters. ITV.
- ↑ Raptor. BBC America.