Threshold Fridays, 8 pm Central, CBS
Touted as being the best of the crop of alien shows this year, Threshold has a decidedly X-Files feel to it. But, an extraordinary premise requires extraordinary writing to give the series legs. The show is off to a slightly above average start, but will last one season without killing off the intrigue in favour of pandering to lowest common denominator audiences with brief attention spans?
The series centers around an alien signal that was first encountered with a naval ship, the Bighorn. A small team of civillian experts, headed by Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino), who wrote a series of protocols that should be followed in the event of an alien encounter. She is overseen by team member Cavennaugh (Brian Van Holt), a goverment agent who is supposed to provide the protection and who reports to J.T. Baylock (Charles S. Dutton), the Deputy National Security Advisor. Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) plays the dry witted Arthur Ramsey, the mathematician and linguist who is also keenly interested in womanizing and drinking. Brent Spiner plays forensic microbiologist Nigel Fenway a relectant team member. Rob Benedict is astronomical engineer Lucas Pegg, a seemingly shy person.
Dr. Caffrey and Cavennaugh
The ship contains dead, physically distorted bodies and one crazed survivor. The team finds and watches a video tape of the alien "craft", which is some type of four-dimensional device that pulsates with light and continuously folds in on itself, while emitting a sound like knives sharpening themeslves. In the lab, the mysterious fractal pattern that shows up on the ship's electronic scopes, is analyzed and reveals a triple-helix DNA pattern. The sounds from the video tape end up affecting those who are exposed to it with strange dreams about being in a glass forest.
At the end of the first episode, we discover that the sounds from the video tape, used to try to trap some of the missing shipmates, who made it to shore, ended up attracting many of the townsfolk.
Threshold occasionally borders on the downright silly. The crazed survivor jumps off the ship and appears in Dr. Caffrey's house shortly thereafter. Before jumping, he gets shots several times, enough to kill any human or alien-controlled human. Blood congeals into the mysterious fractal pattern. The traffic jam at the end of the first episode, when see from above, has the cars in the fractal pattern. Okay, we get it! There's an intelligent alien prescence that is set to wipe out people by attempting to modify their DNA. Or maybe, wipe out certain people while making others invincible pawns of the aliens?
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