The time: the far future – and Earth’s very survival is at stake

Do not adjust your sets, yes you are watching episode 6 of The Nevers, you didn’t click on a different series by mistake. You know that feeling when you ask a number of questions but in your heart of hearts, you don’t really think any of them will be answered? That was me at the end of episode 5 of The Nevers. Oh what a difference an episode makes. Hold on to your hats folks, your minds are about to be blown.

I’ll reiterate at this point that I’ve never been uncomfortable with the anachronisms in play in The Nevers, but my reasoning for this was that this is a science fiction fantasy set in the late 19th century but made for 21st century viewers. Turns out The Nevers is much cleverer than that, and I have no doubt that there will be some critics of earlier episodes, myself included, who will be noshing on some hearty helpings of humble pie. So much so I feel a re-watch of episodes 1-6 may be needed to fully appreciate the many levels of clever woven in to the story and the performances.

It turns out we began our viewing way back at episode 1 in what was a time jump which must have created the alternative late Victorian era full of the mysterious Touched. Some sort of apocalyptic event has already occurred hundreds of years in the future and we meet some new protagonists (or are they?) in a more ‘traditional’ sci-fi setting at what feels like something of an end game. Things appear to have Gone Very Wrong and no, we don’t want the mysterious big shimmering orb thing to be destroyed, or to go away, no thank you please.

Over time, the Touched and their descendants have clearly caused something of a schism in society, right down (quite literally) to its DNA. This plays out in fascinating ways, and this episode piles on the shocks and poses some new questions as much as it answers those from previous ones. I have never been more invested in getting the answers, though.

We know it’s a time jump at the very least because one key character was thrown back there, explaining the unlikely survival of their attempt to make a hole in the Thames. They didn’t survive. This makes sense of every single anachronistic trait of that character as portrayed thus far. In a weirdly clairvoyant way, I decided not to use either character or actor names in these reviews in an attempt to make them slightly less spoiler-filled, and how strange that this should be the case, when I find now that names are sacred in the dystopian future we now see – a person can be married and still their name is too precious a thing to reveal even to their spouse. There’s one name I feel I need to mention now though: Laura Donnelly. She gives a cracking performance, to weave all this in to her badass character over 6 hours takes some serious skill.

Verdict: Totally flipped all my expectations, in the best possible way. Never(s) have I ever seen anything like it and after what I thought were some weaker episodes in this first half of the series, I am 100% on board.  10/10

Claire Smith