SPOILERS: Murder And Marital Strife To Pollute Terra Nova

Terra Nova, the much-hyped, Steven Spielberg-produced dino drama premiered tepidly on Fox Monday night, taking only 9 million viewers, behind CBS sitcoms and ABC's Dancing with the Stars. The pilot, which cost a record $20 million to make, introduced former police officer Jim Shannon (Jason O’Mara) and wife (Shelley Conn), who pack up their kids and relocate from a dystopian earth circa 2149 to its idyllic, though dinosaur-ridden past. There was plenty of drama to be had during the show's two-hour premiere, but O'Mara says there is plenty more to come — particularly in the death count and spouse-sparring department.

O'Mara said that the more settled in his character's family gets, the darker things become, especially in relation to the overseer of the colony, Commander Taylor (Stephen Lang). "There’s an episode where we deal with the first murder in Terra Nova and how Taylor reacts to that, and Jim toes the party line when it comes to trial and retribution and how that’s addressed by essentially an autocrat," O'Mara told TVLine. "Elizabeth then takes offense and has an opposing view…. Husbands and wives argue over a wide range of things, and that was something we wanted to use in the show."

While the second half of Terra Nova's big premiere was mostly action, O'Mara reminded audiences to stay tuned for the twists and turns that come from no other place than human nature. "Not every episode is going to play out like an action movie, as the second half of the premiere does, but there’s lots of dinosaur action coming up, there are fatalities, and even one member of the regular cast doesn’t make it past the first season," O'Mara said, hinting at the fatality of someone important. "There are lots of twist and turns and action in store."

Terra Nova airs Mondays on Fox. Watch a clip here: