The Sci-fi TV show terranova shows that they go 85 million years back in time...?

[NishanthRao]

Wouldn't it make more sense to go to a time after the mass extinction so that you can easily build on the ruins and also not have to contend with dino's, and also face extiction themselves as anything more than 25 kilos living on land was supposedly wiped out in this extinction event... I know this is not a science question but it just cropped up in my mind while watching the show so don't flog me...

 

[Evilest_Wendy]

They didn't have a choice, that was when the door opened, it's also on a slightly different time line.

 

[Smellthist]

...it's a Television Series... duh ! (obviously, "they" have captured you interest !)

 

[andymanec]

I'm not sure if they had any real control over when they got dropped back in time. I think the "time fracture" (or whatever they called it) just dropped them 85 million years back in time. That's why the team that was sent back first (a few years before the time the show is set, I think) arrived a few years before the main characters did.

I wouldn't worry too much about the extinction event though. They still have 20 million years, give or take, to worry about that. Humans advanced from living in caves up to traveling through space (and time, in this setting at least) in around 20,000 years. The new settlement has 1,000 times that, and they're already starting from an advanced point, so (assuming they don't get wiped out or wind up regressing into another dark age) they'll probably be able to deal with that when the time comes.

Plus, running around the jungle with dinosaurs is just plain cooler than running around the jungle with... large rodents.

 

[dbraunofva]

I don't think there's a choice. They found the portal accidentally, I think, and they aren't able to adjust it. Also, the portal takes the people back along a different timeline, so although the future world they come from includes a mass distinction, the timeline that they're in may not experience one.

 

[DJ2]

The premise of the show is they found this one wormhole & they have no control over the time or location in the past where it connects in time. They are not sure it will remain stable.