"Primeval:" "I'm finished with the past; I just don't know if it's finished with me"

Saturday night's episode of "Primeval" on BBC America was the British show's first-season finale. Next week's episode was the second-season premiere. A lot of time transpired between the two in England; a mere seven days separates the two here. But there seems to be a world of difference between the two installments.

(Goofy special effects gone wild.)

On Saturday, things change. This time, it's a beast from the future, not the past, that enters a time anomaly and terrorizes our present-day. Helen (Juliet Aubrey), Nick's (Douglas Henshaw's) semi-estranged, semi-strange wife who has spent the better part of the past decade traversing the time-space continuum, warns of "a serious creature incursion." As if all the others that killed and maimed people were just minor glitches.

Meanwhile, Claudia (Lucy Brown) is menaced by a goofy looking monster - in a dream. Twice. And she finally proclaims her love for Nick, which wouldn't seem to be such a good idea on a show like this, if you get my drift.

(Careful: Though it might seem like a good idea to stick your carefully coiffed noggin between those jaws leaking viscous slobber, saner heads might suggest otherwise.)

There's frenetic monster-on-monster violence, some unsavory revelations and history is changed so that Nick doesn't quite associate the present he enters at the end of the episode with the present he left about mid-episode. Huge cliffhanger.

But something seems to have happened between the two seasons with the show's brain trust - next week's episode seems pretty dumbed-down, more stunt- and action-oriented. What else can you say about an episode in which Nick punches a velicoraptor in the face?

Nick's still trying to make his way through a changed world that leaves him empty, when a bunch of raptors terrorize a local shopping mall after hours. Connor (Andrew Lee-Potts), a geek ostensibly trapped in a genius's body (or is it vice versa?), manages three thoroughly bone-headed plays in the mere expanse of one episode: He wanders out, alone and unprotected in a mall crawling with killer raptors, in search of a Slushie, he shoots Abby (Hannah Spearritt) with a tranq dart intended for a beastie, and then, lesson clearly not having been learned, he leaves her unconscious body alone and vulnerable to further attack. Idiot moves all.

"Primeval's" shift in sensibility isn't quite like they replaced "Mad Men's" writing staff with that of "According to Jim's," but it's kind of in the same ballpark. The attitude seems reflective of one character's declaration in this Saturday's episode: "Stuff professionalism."

- "Primeval:" 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Saturday; BBC America.