So who is the subject of my first Favourite Character Praise Friday?
Connor Temple from the TV series Primeval, portrayed by Andrew Lee Potts.
For those who are unfamiliar with Primeval, it was a five season long television series which told the story of people who came across rips in time that would later be known as "anomalies" and how they would learn to predict and contain them. Connor Temple was introduced in Season One, Episode One as the protagonist, Professor Nick Cutter's excitable student with an interest in conspiracy theories. By the end of the series, he was a strong and dependable scientific mind.
The following praise will contain spoilers.
But why is Connor Temple one of my all-time favourite characters?
He demonstrated immense character development throughout the series
Connor's character is initially excitable and eager to impress those who surround him with his explorations, despite the fact that the information he was invested in was classified by the Home Office and therefore should have been kept a secret. He had a schoolboy crush on his friend, and colleague, Abby, who he actively endangered toward the start of the series. However, Connor realises early on in the series that keeping his mouth shut saves lives; when his best friend Tom is killed by a parasite that was transmitted to him via a bite from a dodo bird. He matures as he grieves over the loss of his friend.
In the second season, Connor is still depicted as somewhat childish and ditsy, being the only character in the main quartet that is not allowed to carry a gun, and when he is given the opportunity to use one, he shoots Abby in the leg with a tranquilliser dart. Later in the series, his lack of life-experience is played upon by the antagonists of the series, with a new love interest stumbling into his life and taking advantage of him.
In season three, Connor's technological prowess is demonstrated to be immense and he is no longer a character played off for laughs in times of distress, instead he is able to further the plot by building equipment to accompany tech he build that can detect the presence of the anomalies as they open in their era. The new devices were used to contain the anomalies to prevent creature incursions. When his mentor, Professor Nick Cutter is murdered, he makes sure to fulfil his last request of him and strives to do so. At the end of season three, he and Abby found themselves trapped in the Cretaceous Era.
Season Four and Five demonstrated how Connor had matured through needing Abby around him to survive during a year in the Cretaceous Era.After returning to work, he manages to create better technology, leading to the creation of the first ever man-made anomaly. At the end of the series, he finally proposes to Abby at the end of season five, and then denies it so she proposes to him to prove she would have said yes.
In a Canadian Spin Off of Primeval, Connor acknowledges that he and Abby are happily married, and that rounds off his character arc almost perfectly.
His romantic arcs were not the essential justification for his development as a character
Despite the fact that Connor was a character with several romantic arcs; mostly focusing on his repressed romantic feelings toward Abby, and how he was hesitant to acknowledge them throughout the series, he developed mostly out of grief and trying to prove himself to be a valuable asset to a team where practically every person can be deemed dispensable. Except those deemed to be "geniuses" such as Nick Cutter. Connor strives to be deemed great and is later deemed to be of great credit to the team when he and Abby return to modern England and how much they had been missed by their colleagues.
His character develops independently from his romantic arcs, he learns, when Abby is presumed dead, that he does not really love his girlfriend, Caroline and when he finds out she is alive, he crosses to the other side of an anomaly to save her. On the other side of the anomaly, Connor confesses he loves Abby but then reverts back into his shell, denying that anything was said. He then went on to continue to date Caroline.
However, he did not actively admit his feelings until much later in the series, despite every character being aware of their mutual feelings toward one another.
The other characters learned to respect Connor's intellect
Despite Connor initially being depicted as a character who was still young with unforeseen potential, unlike his colleagues, Nick Cutter, an evolutionary zoologist, Stephen Hart, a wildlife conservationist and skilled marksman and Abby Maitland, a zookeeper, Connor seemed to be the least likely candidate to be a significant character, let alone the longest living male character, appearing in every single episode.
Originally, his colleagues were sceptical of his skills, demonstrated when James Lester called him an idiot and an irritating student, and Captain Becker noting that his tech didn't work when he tested it, as if he didn't believe it would work in the first place. This demonstrated that his colleagues did not always have faith in what he could produce, but despite their moments of disbelief, he was a brilliant man of science, and the creator of the first man-made anomaly.
But what do these factors tell us about writing intelligent characters? Several things!
- Writing serial works means that characters have a lot of time to mature as people, going from excitable enthusiastic bright eyed students to scientific geniuses with the prowess to create revolutionary pieces of equipment
- A character is more than their love interests - Connor existed outside of his romantic feelings for Abby and it is important that your characters have more to them than their affections for another character
- Intelligence in the eyes of a western audience can be a deemed laughable quality, with nerds being shunned for favouring academics to other aspects of life. However, if characters are going to mock another's work it should revolve around it's own arc, for example, James Lester found Connor to be an irritating student but at the end of the day, was grateful he was alive and still able to contribute to the team
Thank you for reading my reasons for adoring Connor! I hope my praise influenced the way you perceive your own characters!
Until next time!
And remember:
Per Ardua Ad Astra!
- Imogen. L. Smiley
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