Nick Cutter

Nick Cutter
File:PrimevalEpisodeFour.jpg Nick Cutter and some Dodos
First appearance	Episode One
Portrayed by	Douglas Henshall
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Title	Professor
Occupation	Professor of Palaeontology at Central Metropolitan University
Spouse	Helen Cutter (wife)

Professor Nick Cutter is a fictional character played by Douglas Henshall from the ITV science fiction television series Primeval. He is one of the main characters, a professor of palaeontology at the fictional Central Metropolitan University he is one of a group of people who discover that prehistoric and extinct animals are passing through anomalies in time and space. He is later assigned to tackling the problems these creatures cause for the present civilization by the Home Office, due to his expertise in prehistoric creatures.

Characterization

Template:Spoiler Not only is Cutter an expert in palaeontology and the identification of extinct species, comments made by him in several episodes seem to indicate he may be somewhat familiar with physics; for example his theories about the time anomalies in "Episode Three" seem to be proven true at the end of the episode and Nick Cutter describes them being somewhat like an earthquake in time..

Cutter is a somewhat aloof individual, for example he initially rather briskly brushes off Connor Temple who comes to him with suspicions of a prehistoric creature being loose in modern times, he also keeps his encounter with his long lost wife to himself.

However Nick is not uncompassionate, his caring side is shown when he reassures Connor on several occasions, most notably when Connor's friend was killed by a parasite, and when Helen's apparent disregard for human life horrifies him in "Episode Three"

He is also very trusting of Helen, despite her comments and the others' suspicions that she may have intentionally set the parasitic dodos on mankind in "Episode Four".

Cutters attitude towards the Home Office involvement seems to be one of mild contempt, at least for the more bureaucratic members such as James Lester. He dislikes hiding things from the public, Helen says she thinks he would want to share the time anomalies the rest of the world in "Episode Three". He also seems to have an overestimated view of his own importance as tried to make demands of Lester in "Episode Three" when asked to bring Helen back only to be completly shocked when Lester overruled his desicion and brought his wife back by force.

Character history

While little is known about his early life, the Official site states that he graduated from his year at University College London with First Class Honours. At some point he met and quickly married his wife Helen. Their marrage proved to be a failure, however, as according to douglas henshall's web site, the relationship between them became as stormy as it was passionate. They were estranged at the time of her disappearance, this added to Cutter's sense of guilt when she vanished.

When the series begins it is established that he had a wife, fellow palaeontologist Helen Cutter, who went missing eight years prior to his first encounter with a time anomaly. He tells the others that she went missing sometime after the two of them had a fight.

At first, his insistence that his wife Helen is alive in the first two and a half episodes is seen by some members of the time as initially somewhat foolish and unrealistic, most notably Claudia Brown. He then kept the details of her visitations to himself, out of hurt pride that his wife could have left him alone for so long. This had terrible consequences later when the government found out.

When the truth was know, not only did he loose the respect of Claudia but also brough the wrath of Lester down on himself. After being tricked into leading Lester's troops to his wife the relationship between the two of them hit a new low as she was adament that he had set her up and he finaly lost patience with her evasions and riddles. She later escaped and his motives for trying to follow her through the anomaly where opened to question.

At the moment his relationship with Claudia is begining to turn to romance, as demonstrated when he rushed to her rescue and latter kissed her in Episode Five and she herself begged him not to leave her.

==References==