Customer Reviews

Threshold - The Complete Series

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Threshold" reminded me of something Norm from Cheers said in an episode; "It's a dog-eat-dog world and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear". The networks put Milkbone underwear on a lot of their TV shows metaphorically speaking and if they can't get a large audience they get thrown to the dogs. CBS cancelled the show far too soon as the show only aired 8 of its 12 episodes (the pilot was a double length episode). The good news for fans is that when the producers found out the show was being cancelled they were in the middle of shooting the last episode ("Alienville")and this allowed them to rewrite the ending to provide a conclusion (of sorts)to the series.

**Caution some minor spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen the show*** Skip the next three short paragraphs.



For those that haven't seen the show the premise is very powerful allowing for suspense and very effective; an alien probe with 4 or 5 dimensional properties shows up. It's signal effects the crew altering their DNA from our normal double helix rewriting the DNA of the crew into a triple helix. It's an alien invasion done by making US the aliens.

Dr. Molly Caffrey (Carla Gugino best known from "Spy Kids" and "Sin City")created a protocol for first contact including hostile first contact. She assembles a team of top notch scientists in their field including Dr. Nigel Fenwya (Brent Spiner of "Star Trek:The Next Generation"); Lucas Pegg (Robert Patrick Benedict from "Felicity") a brilliant physicists and designer for NASA; Arthur Ramsey (Peter Dinklage "Elf" and from the film "Find Me Guilty")a brilliant mathematician and linguist and covert ops agent Sean Vavennaugh (Brian Van Holt from "S.W.A.T." and "Black Hawk Down"). They form the basis with Assistant Secretary of Defense J.T. Baylock (Charles S. Dutton)of "Red Team" whose job is to identify the threat, find out the aliens agenda and neutralize them.

The USS Big Horn's crew is infected with many of them dying while others develop superhuman strength, rapid healing abilities and all share a dream of the alien world and race that wants to "Bioform" humanity and terraform our planet for their own purposes. Suddenly Red Team has an outbreak on their hands and they must capture the sailors before they can infect others. The fact that the sailors choose multiple paths of infection make their job that much more difficult. When various members of their team accidently experience some level of infection it gives them a link to the aliens but also could potential pose a danger to the team.

**End of potential spoilers***

Well written, with top notch acting, writing and direction the show may have suffered from an inconsistent tone as the show was looking to establish its identity but towards the end of the run the show truly did find its voice. Unfortunately the best episodes of the series (the last four) never aired at all and fans of the series are in for a real treat. It's a pity this show wasn't given a chance (the producers had a three year story arc planned out)but what we do get provides for a marvelous and entertaining "mini-series".

The DVD comes with some very nice extras for such a short lived series. We get a four part documentary on the making of the show from the origin of the concept, through casting, the planned story arc and other elements. We also get a good featurette on the visual effects of the show. There's also an Easter Egg. Finally we get a very good featurette with science advisor/producer/writer Andre Bormanis ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") discussing the fractal geometry of the alien "message" that coverted people over and its real scientifici basis. He also discusses real efforts to work on adding a third strand of DNA to the double-helix in labs to modify food, etc. We also get a commentary track on the pilot by producer/director/writer David Goyer ("Blade")and Brannon Braga ("Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Enterprise"). The fact that the show was able to attract some top notch film directors/TV directors (Peter Hyams, Bill L. Norton, David S. Goyer among others) and writers is a pretty good sign of the high quality of the show.

An excellent series "Threshold" was the best of the science fiction shows that appeared in 2005 and one of the best (by its end) of the new crop of shows on the air. It's a pity it was cut short. The show is spread out over four discs and housed in individual slimline cases with two discs in each set.

I'd highly recommend this underrated show that was cancelled far too soon.

It's really too bad this show had to be cancelled so soon. It was a simple formula, but it worked very well. The storylines were engaging, the cast was outstanding and every episode had you on the edge of your seat. Not only can you see the episodes that aired during the show's brief run on CBS, but you can also see the ones that never made it to the air on this set. Not to mention that the box art is insanely cool. So pick up these DVDs and discover this awesome show

Well, now that I have written it down, that does look odd, but there were so many series last year where the premise was that aliens were among us, messing with us somehow. And this, the first casualty of the season, was the best of the bunch. Well written, great acting, thoughtful, intelligent, creepy and above all realistic. My first heartbreak of the 05 season was when this show was cancelled

As the other earlier reviewers have said this was a great show, cut way to early. Many inferior shows with the same premise, Aliens, made it the entire season. This one should never have been cut, excellent acting, good episodes that could stand on their own. I still hold out slim hope it will be picked up by FX or USA network.

I'm looking forward to picking up the DVD set.

Threshold was one of the most interesting new SF series to emerge in recent times. It had an excellent premise; a mysterious catastrophe occurs which kills most of the crew on a naval ship. Investigators gather some information including video shot of the event, which seems to show a strange multi-dimensional object spinning in space. This object seems to have terrifying effects on the crew, killing some and changing others.

The government agency gathers up a group of outstanding scientists to figure out what happened, and stop the threat. As the series progresses, it seems that the threat is an alien invasion which used the object to 'infect' the men with themselves by transmitting complicated information into their DNA helix. Some of the survivors escape and mingle with the population, apparently with the goal of infecting the entire human race with the ultimate goal to re-create the Earth as a new home for the alien invaders.

The makers of the series cleverly exploit the fear of hidden threats in a post 9/11 world where threats can emerge from nowhere, and from people you never suspected. The situation is made worse by the fact that the 'threats' are 'home-grown' and therefore impossible to detect and stop before they do damage. In a way, the invasion is an updated allegory of the internal threats to our society, real or imagined, from the 'other' who is hidden in our midst yet a clear and present danger.

Sadly, this series was quickly cancelled before it could really take off the ground, and the interesting themes explored in reasonable depth.

Too bad that this show was cut down in its prime by short-sighted and bottom-line oriented TV executives, and neglected by unimaginative TV viewers. I enjoyed it even more on DVD, and really dug the unaired episodes, especially the final one, "Alienville." This was a program that was adeptly cast, with very good acting, interestingly told (well written), and even decent SFX on a TV budget and schedule. The extra features on disc 4 were pretty cool too, especially the one that covered future plot developments had the show continued. With a noticeable scarcity of good sci fi on TV these days (Stars Trek and Gate both gone or going, etc.), it hurts even more that Threshold was never given the chance it deserved.

I mainly watch the Sci-Fi, History, Discovery and NGC on Satellite. On the night that Threshold appeared on the Sci-Fi channel there was some bad weather so the satellite signal was mostly garbled. But what I did see of the latter episodes shown that evening seemed really intriguing in spite having received a pixilated/gargled signal on the first episode & ¼ of the second episode. I was so intrigued that I went to Amazon.com and found that Threshold was sold as a DVD set which I went ahead and purchased because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and I didn't want to risk missing any more of the story due to poor satellite reception. I originally thought that Threshold was a mini series produced by the Sci-Fi channel but it wasn't until after I received the DVD set that I found out that it was a series that was canceled by CBS.

I started with the first episode and worked my way through the DVD set. Before I was through I was shaking my head in disbelief and disgust that CBS would cancel a show that had a great story line, great actors & character development and a really good production quality.

The only part of the show that I found to be a turn-off was the non-lethal taser bullets that they fired from regular guns; other than that story and the science fiction was great. The story was plausible and intelligent; it leads the mind but leaves plenty for the imagination and provokes questions.

If CBS was looking for something to compete with Lost or 24 this would have been an easy win for them. It is gritty and has shadow conspiracies like the X-files but with the best intentions and moral statements that would rival any Star Trek episode.

I hope that Sci-Fi considers picking up the series and taking it further.

Murphyld

This was one of the best sci-fi series on TV. It had good concepts and approached the whole alien invasion thing pretty sensibly and with a sense of mistery. I thought the cast did a good job as well. But, TV shows aimed at thinking viewers never last. Too bad SciFi channel did not pick it up. I enjoyed watching the whole series in sequence. It was even better the second time. There are also episodes on the DVD set that did not air on the initial series run.

Once again a largely original series that is not dumbed down or derivative, and has some cool ideas and terrific future potential, is cancelled whilst lesser series march on. I would go so far as to say that, by current standards, if the "X-Files" had made it's appearance now rather than 13 years ago, it too would have been cancelled in the middle of it's first season.

"Threshold" in my opinion had the most potential of the three 'alien invasion' shows that aired last season ("Invasion" and "Surface" nevertheless were not far behind, with "Surface" being the most enjoyable and exciting) and the show planned to evolve over three seasons as the story progressed from "Threshold" to "Foothold" and finally "Stranglehold", signifying the the level of alien presence. This would, indeed, have been unique on American television and the potential for each season would have been just tremendous and may have changed the genre for good. Imagine the core "Threshold" team either changing or being added to as the needs of defence from the invasion increased with each season. Imagine the story expanding to global proportions as the series moved from a localised incident to full scale global invasion.

As the special features reveal, the story of "Threshold" is rooted in realism and science today and the fantastic elements were not too far removed from what is possible. It taps into the fear and paranoia that 9/11 unleased and takes it to another level.

Perhaps one day the producers of this fine show could finish the the present "Threshold" story and show the "Foothold" and "Stranglehold" stories as two separate mini-series of, say, six hours each. This may not be good as the three season plan, but would at least allow audiences to see the complete story, and may also be a blessing in disguise in that the show could really go to town with the pace, suspense and scares as well as the special effects over a pre-determined number of episodes. However, in the interim, enjoy "Threshold" for what it is now and imagine the rest...

Fall 2005 turned out three separate aliens invade Earth shows on three separate networks. ABC had "Invastion" (not as creepy as the creator's other show "American Gothic"), NBC had "Surface" (I warmed up to this story), and CBS had "Threshhold". Of the three "Threshhold was the best. A very good cast of believable complex and interesting characters and strong story lines. I was sooooo annoyed when they cancelled it but I saw it coming. Science fiction shows just don't fly on the networks with their ratings drama and preemptions for specials, which add insult to injury.
Brent Spiner as the curmudgeonly genius doctor was great--part Star Trek 'Bones' part Dr. House. Carla Gugino (she does not have the luck of the Irish--she got axed a couplel of seasons back from her own show on ABC--a good show!)gets to be female and kick butt, what more could you ask for. Peter Dinklage was actually allowed to be a person and not just a 'little' person. So get this DVD, because 12 episodes of "Threshhold are worth 100 of most of the rest of the dreck that passes for Drama and or science Fiction.