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welcoming the aliens Now I don't think that it's too much of a leap in logic to say that pop culture has a way of reflecting the collective mood of a country and or people. If that is to be taken as true, I have to wonder why there are so many new television shows this fall that have a strong science fiction element to them. ABC has Invasion, CBS has Threshold and NBC offers up Surface. This would be fine, but not one of these programs features aliens of the friendly variety. Invasion of some sort by these aliens seems to be the central theme, which leads me to wonder if these aliens are meant to be metaphors for terrorists. Maybe this is nothing more than coincidence, but I don't remember as many science fiction related programs making their debut last fall on network television. I wonder what changed during the past year. I haven't seen Invasion so I can't comment on it, but I have seen both Threshold and Surface. Of the two, Threshold is the more menacing and the first one that caught my attention. What drew me in almost immediately was the fractal pattern that is a central device in the show. From what I remember seeing in the first episode, ordinary people are transformed when they either see and or hear a transmission put out by some alien being of some kind. Once they have been exposed their DNA is restructured into something more than human. I probably saw the first three episodes and haven't watched it since that time. It isn't that I had a problem with the premise. Nor did the special effects bother me. There just wasn't anything there to hold my attention. Plus with a Friday night time slot, I suspect that it is doomed from the beginning. Then again I believe that The X-Files made their debut on Friday nights so that may not be a fast track to cancellation. This leaves Surface which at a glance did strike me as silly. Monsters from the sea was too old school science fiction for me. One has to be a firm believer in the idea that the human race knows less about the ocean than they do outer space. We need not leave the planet to find something truly alien and or harmful to us. Well, after having seen an episode last week Monday and another one tonight, I must confess that I will probably be back next week to see what happens next. Yes, I still find the computer generated sea creature that the boy had as a pet to be silly, but the idea that three people would build their own bathysphere intrigues me. |