'Terra Nova,' which I reviewed here, has been one of the most anticipated television programs of the year, and if you're like me, you had a number of questions once the two-hour pilot ended.

What's up with the Sixers? How crazy will the people vs. dino battles get? Will the teen son become less annoying?

As luck would have it, I spoke to 'Terra Nova' executive producer Rene Echevarria in August, and I was able to ask him some of the questions I had (I'd only seen the first hour of the pilot at that point, or I would have asked him more).

In any event, here are a dozen of the most pressing questions I had, and I'd love to get your answers to those queries, as well as your theories or predictions about where the show will go from here. And of course, I've included Echavarria's answers to various queries where relevant.

Spoilers ahoy, obviously. If you haven't seen the 'Terra Nova' premiere, stop reading now.

A Dozen Burning 'Terra Nova' Questions:

1. Will we ever find out who supplied Jim with the money and resources he needed to both break out of prison and get his daughter? I know we saw his wife get him the tool he needed to break out of his cell, but, in a short period of time, he then gathered a huge amount of cash and also managed to arrange get his daughter to the Terra Nova embarkation station. How'd he pull that off? Are we just supposed to accept that he did and move on? I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world if that were the case, but it strikes me that it might be an interesting character note to find out that Jim had some underworld contacts and was willing to use unorthodox methods to get what he needed. Or maybe when he needed money to get the proper documents and his daughter, he just robbed a bank and that's that.

2. Is Nathaniel Taylor's son one of the leaders of the Sixers? How likely do you think that is?

3. What were those symbols on the rocks all about? And why doesn't Taylor want anyone to see them? Any guesses?

4. Can you foresee an arc in which the Shannon family eventually realizes the Sixers have the right ideas and goes off and lives in that settlement? Or do you think that's unlikely to happen, given how potentially subversive that story line is? (Plus, it's worth noting that Fox already spent a fortune building the Terra Nova settlement we saw in the premiere.)

I didn't ask Echevarria that exact question, but he did say we'd see the Sixers' camp when I asked him if the Sixers are "the bad guys" of the drama. "As the season unfolds, we will start to get to know them better and [have] scenes with them in their camp and start to see what they're about," he replied. "You know, bad guys never believe they're bad guys, they always believe they're doing the right thing for their own reasons."



5. Will we learn more about the political structure of Terra Nova? Related to that, will anyone question the idea that Taylor is in charge of both security and the government? If he's the only law of the land, that could be a very bad idea, unless he's the second coming of William Adama.

6. Did you want the dinosaurs to eat Josh Shannon? I don't blame the kid for thinking that his father hitting that population-control cop was really terrible idea, but we all know how I feel about STPs (Stupid Teenager Plots). Much of the second half of the 'Terra Nova' pilot was STP on dino-steroids.

Whatever your feelings about Josh, Echevarria indicated that the teen's story line will evolve after the pilot.

"I think in the pilot, he was asked to bear the load of the family strife. I understand some people didn't connect to him," Echevarria said. "He's a wonderful actor. And we pretty much leave that [strife] behind after the pilot. He's got a point of view -- he left a girl behind. He promised her he'd get her [to Terra Nova], that becomes a huge story for him, very romantic, and it turns out, it takes us right into the heart of the conspiracy."

7. Who sent the Sixers? Did they get on that transport all on their own, or did they have help?

Well, Echevarria's use of the word "conspiracy" above seems to indicate that the Sixers may have friends in high places -- and I was glad to hear they would be a major part of the story going forward. As I said in my review, I thought the potential clash between Taylor's settlement and the Sixers has some real dramatic potential.

"This conspiracy involving the Sixers, we're going to pay it off this year," Echevarria said. "You're going to find out why they're here, who sent them and what they're about, and that all climaxes with the arrival of the eleventh pilgrimage."

And we'll learn about "what their agenda is," he added. "We have a bartender who you meet later in the [season], he's sort of an entrepreneur who says, 'This place is going to make somebody rich, and it's going to be me.'" The bartender's name is Tom Boylan, and he has a history with Taylor. The men served in the military together, but Boylan didn't re-enlist, and that has caused some friction between the them, Echevarria said.

8. Will we ever see present-day Earth again? Or is that aspect of the show done? Got any theories on that?

UPDATE: Writer and SFX editor Tara Bennett, who recently did a feature on the show, said that 'Terra Nova' executive producer Brannon Braga told her we would see future Earth again.

9. Will we ever find out why the Shannons chose to have a third kid? That seems to be an important point and more context on that would be appreciated.

UPDATE: On Twitter, Time critic James Poniewozik said that in an earlier version of the pilot, it was indicated that the third kid was an attempt to save a troubled marriage (I haven't seen any earlier versions of the pilot, I should say that up front). But having another kid to save a marriage under those kinds of conditions is kind of odd. In a nearly apocalyptic society, one would think adding to a family would only put it under more strain.

TVLine's Matt Mitovich added that Jason O'Mara, who plays Jim Shannon, now says the third kid was a "testament" to the couple's love. The exact quote from an interview that Matt will be posting Tuesday morning: ""The honest answer to that is Elizabeth and Jim are very much in love." So how do you account for the signs of strain between them that were still somewhat evident in the pilot? In any event, the idea that they had a kid to commemorate their love -- in that particular society -- seems a little weird as well. Would you really pay tribute to your love with an action that would put your entire family in danger? But maybe that's just me.

In any event, if the show fails to address the third kid, it'll be a problem for me. Given that the existence of littlest Shannon put a lot of what we saw in motion, shouldn't we understand what motivated her parents to bring her into the world? And I'm inclined to agree with something Poniewozik said in our Twitter conversation, "That's the sort of thing that undercuts my faith in a show--they took out something interesting and replaced it with... nothing." Yes. If the answer is, "They had a third kid ... just because. Don't question it," I'll be disappointed. A reader named Erin put it very well on Twitter, "I wish they'd left in the reason for kid #3. Without it, (so far) they've just done something dumb for...no reason at all? Hmm."

10. How many dinosaurs will die?

Echevarria said one of the show's executive producers, Steven Spielberg, had weighed in on the subject of humans killing dinosaurs. "Mr. Spielberg has said it's not something he wants to see characters do lightly. If there's another way, you take it," he said. "I think our characters feel that way -- certainly Taylor feels that way. They consider themselves guests in this world, in a weird way, and they are not there to exploit the place."

11. It's clear that Fox has high hopes for 'Terra Nova,' but you never know what will or won't click with viewers. I have a feeling 'Terra Nova' will do at least all right, especially at the start, but still, will the season conclude in a way that'll give fans closure if it only gets one season? Or will it end with a cliffhanger?

"I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger, but we're playing out the arc that we've set in motion," Echevarria said. "We're going to change it up at the end of the season and leave the characters not in a cliffhanger situation, but in a new situation that they have to deal with."

12. Bonus nerd question: How do the colonists communicate with the Earth of 2149?

Echevarria said they can only communicate with the Earth of 2149 when the portal is open and new colonists are coming through. They can order supplies and relay information during those periods, but whatever the colonists ask for, they have to wait eight months to get it -- supplies only arrive with next group of settlers.

'Terra Nova' Season 1 airs Mondays, 8PM ET on Fox. And if you haven't seen the pilot, you can watch it on Hulu now.

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