The Terror is an anthology series based on the real-life doomed Arctic voyage of Captain Sir John Franklin.
It's Tobias Menzie's world. We just watch it.
The British character actor has starred and/or enjoyed a recurring role in some of the best, most popular drama series of the last decade — including Game of Thrones, Outlander, The Honorable Woman, Rome, The Night Manager, and Catastrophe. He has done this and somehow managed to remain a somewhat obscure name. Perhaps that will change with his next project, an anthology drama series called The Terror set to premiere on AMC in 2017.
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According to Deadline, the 10-episode series is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition — a real-life British voyage of Arctic exploration that ended in tragedy and has fascinated the British public ever since. The Terror is based on Dan Simmons' bestselling 2007 novel of the same name. The series will be written by feature writer David Kajganich, with Under the Dome's Soo Hugh serving as a co-showrunner.
Set in 1847, The Terror begins when "a Royal Navy expedition crew searching for the Northwest Passage is attacked by a mysterious predator that stalks the ships and their crews in a suspenseful and desperate game of survival." Spoiler: it doesn't end well. At least if they go by history's recording (which, judging by the inclusion of a "mysterious predator," they're not). Also: sign me up.
In real life, subsequent expeditions sent to first search for, then to uncover what happened to the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror suggest that the crew died from a combination of hypothermia, starvation, lead poisoning, disease, and exposure to a hostile environment. So, no mysterious predators... that we know of. Though there were findings that suggested the crew resorted to cannibalism, as one often does in these situations.
With such a high-stakes story and the casting of a phenomenal leading man, The Terror stands to be one of the best TV dramas of 2017. If you don't trust this admittedly vague synopsis, then trust Tobias Menzie's unparalleled ability to pick only the best projects to star in. It hasn't led us astray thus far.
