Following the announcement of the spin-off series Primeval New World, Sci-Fi Bulletin caught up with the original show’s co-creator Adrian Hodges…

How much can you share with us about the new show?

There’s a limit to what I can tell you. I’m not really able to give you any detail, because Omni and Space are very sensitive about any of the information coming from us rather than them. Obviously we’re very pleased though. Primeval is the show that keeps bouncing back!

The pilot script that I read and commented on: obviously it’s starting a new story with new characters, but it certainly runs concurrently. What it doesn’t do is break any of the mythology, or change any of that. It may not refer to it necessarily but it is a universe in which it would be absolutely appropriate for one of the cast of the other show to turn up.

The Canadians are going to do their own thing and we will be watching that with interest. We do have an executive producer role and a consultation role, and we’re very keen to help them wherever we can. We will have input, as it is a co-production. We want to make sure they don’t veer off into an area that messes with what we have done.

Are we likely to see plotlines from the original series on New World?

We wanted a new franchise – we encouraged them  not to repeat stories. That discussion was there at the beginning. Tim Haines and I felt the best thing was to start something new, give it a new life. Primeval has been seen in the States of course. In an era when BBC America is getting bigger and getting larger audiences, it seems pointless just to remake it. The tone will be tougher and darker, though, given that it’s for a later slot.

Is there any news about further adventures for the current team?

There’s no word on a Series VI until we nail down ITV. At the moment, we’re stood down. It did very well for UKTV and they’d love another series, but we do need ITV to come in. What I really hope is the more modest ratings of the first part of that series on ITV was a blip, and we fight back with the new series and makes them think it’s a better commodity than they thought.

We were particularly pleased that Series V rated well above average in Germany, so Pro Sieben are still up for it. The ducks are in a row, but it does depend on ITV.

UPDATED March 8th: Click here for Adrian Hodges’ reaction to the start of filming.