[1][2] The series documents the Shannon family's experiences as they establish themselves as members of a colony, set up 85 million years in the Earth's past, fleeing the dystopian overpopulated and hyper-polluted present of the mid-22nd century.

When scientists discover a temporal rift permitting (one-way) human transmission, they initiate a series of "pilgrimages" to a parallel "time stream" resembling Earth's Cretaceous Period.

[5][6][7] The series focuses primarily on police officer James "Jim" Shannon, his wife Elisabeth, and their three children Josh, Maddy, and Zoe, as they join the colony there,[8][9] named "Terra Nova", Latin for "New Earth" or "New World".

Her husband, imprisoned for violating population control by harboring a third child and assaulting an official agent to protect his young daughter, stows away to join them and eventually convinces the colony's leader, Commander Nathaniel Taylor, that his own police expertise is of use to the administration.

Opposing the colony (and its leader Taylor) is a group of separatists known as the "Sixers", so-called because they arrived in the "Sixth Pilgrimage", working in concert with corporate industrialists to strip the Cretaceous Earth of its resources and transmit them to 2149, allowing for massive profits at the cost of environmental destruction.

Toward the end of the series, Lucas perfects travel to and from the future, thus enabling the industrialists, with a private army called "The Phoenix Group", to invade Terra Nova.

At the end of the series, Jim Shannon returns to 2149 to destroy the gateway permitting travel to the Cretaceous, whereupon the Phoenix Group retreats to the nearby "Badlands", leaving behind a wooden ship's figurehead apparently located there by another temporal rift.

As the 11th pilgrimage begins arriving, a suicide bomber appears and sets off an explosion, killing Kara and rendering Jim unconscious.

Skye lures Lucas into an ambush so that Jim, the pyrosonic bomb and a carnotaurus can be sent to Hope Plaza in a swapped shipping container.

After her agent booked her a fortnight in Los Angeles pitching to American networks from a fleabag hotel, she received an offer to write a 13-episode season at $300,000 a show, which Marcel refused.

[39][40] The shoot was plagued by torrential rain and additional material had to be shot in 2011, with a total estimated cost of US$14 million to be amortized over the season.

[53] With a long production process on the series,[42] it was announced in July 2011 that the first season would consist of thirteen episodes to finish airing in December 2011.

[55] Shortly after the airing of the season one finale in December 2011, Fox Broadcasting stated that no decision would be made until 2012 regarding the continuation of the series.

[59] Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment set up a "video mashup" website where purchasers of the DVD can create a motion comic continuing the series.

[62] Terra Nova was expected to premiere in the U.S. in May 2011 with a two-hour preview, but due to the time involved for visual effects, its pilot was moved to autumn (late September) 2011 to air with the rest of season one.

[66][67] Terra Nova's high DVR gains were attributed to competition from Monday Night Football which, being a sports event, is less conducive to delayed viewing.

In June 2011, Terra Nova was one of eight honorees in the Most Exciting New Series category at the Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots.

[73] The Los Angeles Times wrote: "Easily the most exciting show of the fall season, Fox's Terra Nova has such obvious, instant and demographically diverse appeal.

"[74] USA Today wrote, "What matters are the dinosaurs, who – particularly in the first hour – are as convincing and startling as TV has ever offered, roaming a gorgeous, CGI-enhanced terrain.

"[75] The Wall Street Journal wrote: "Terra Nova leaves ye olde cheap-set series in the dust with production values that make each episode look cinematic.

"[76] The Washington Post wrote, "Literally the biggest thing on TV this fall, Terra Nova has it all: time travel, misguided utopianism, 'Swiss Family Robinson'–style cohesion and lots of hungry dinosaurs.

The site's consensus is: "The excessive exposition can be a lot to keep up with, but Terra Nova boasts appealing visuals and the potential to be a truly compelling series.

The set contains deleted scenes; bloopers; the Making of the Pilot, an extended episode with commentary, and "Cretaceous Life: The Dinosaurs of Terra Nova".