"My name is John Loengard. I'm recording this because we might not live through the night. They're here, they're hostile and there are powerful people who don't want you to know. History as we know it is a lie..."
That voice-over opens most episodes of Dark Skies, a television series that ran for a single season on the NBC network between 1996 and 1997. Yet despite lasting merely a single season, it remains nevertheless unique more than fifteen years after it finished its run. That is thanks to a combination of things that made the series both unique and ahead of its time.
The basis of the show is a large factor in its uniqueness. Covering the years between 1960 and 1967, Dark Skies features a strong combination of 1960s history, period setting and UFO lore. Over the course of the series we learn that following the events at Roswell in 1947, a shadowy government agency called Majestic 12 began to fight a covert war with an extraterritorial intelligence called the Hive bent on invading the Earth. As a result of that conflict, events ranging from the U-2 incident to the JFK assassination to the Beatles first US TV appearance and beyond have played a part in that conflict. That line from the voice-over "History as we know it is a lie..." sums it up rather nicely.
The series makes strong use of UFO lore as a result. Well known elements and events such as Roswell, crop circles, cattle mutilations, abductions and the familiar gray aliens all come into play throughout the series. Alongside that are developments on that unique to Dark Skies: the grays are only puppets of the real threat which seeks to take over humanity as it once took over the grays and, as a result, what really is behind familiar aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
The series shows us these events though John Loengard (played by Eric Close) who starts out as a young congressional staffer and ends up a soldier on the conflict's front line alongside his girlfriend and White House staffer Kim Sayers (played by Megan Ward). The two of them together sell the reality of the series as two ordinary young people caught up in extraordinary events that both bring them together and yet threaten to tear them apart. Leading Majestic is Captain Frank Bach, played expertly by J.T. Walsh, determined to fight the secret war against the Hive at any cost. Walsh sells the reality of events by bringing a sense of authority to both Majestic and the character of Bach. Through them and a strong supporting cast including Conor O'Farrell as Bach's right hand man Lt. Commander Phil Albino or Jerri Ryan's Majestic agent in later episodes alongside real-life figures such as James F. Kelly as Robert Kennedy, we're given a window into this shadowy conflict and alternative history.
The period setting of the early to mid 1960s is also a big part of the show. Alongside the impressive sets for Majestic's headquarters with excellent period details and 1960s technology, the show features excellent costumes and recreations of period settings. These range from halls of power in Washington to Cape Kennedy, Vietnam and across much of the United States. As a result, the series presents a large range of different locations and stories covering many aspects of the period from the Cuban missile crisis to the civil rights, the space race and much more. It's no wonder then that some have called the series "Mad Men for the Close Encounters set".
Something that set Dark Skies apart was how it unfolded. Not only did the show incorporate all of the aforementioned elements, it developed both them and its characters across numerous stories arcs stretched across most if not all of what was meant to be a first season. The series was ahead of its time in this regard but came in an odd time slot in the era before DVR's and the ability to marathon shows where such things could be adequately developed in the minds of viewers. In retrospect, it gives the series something else that makes it all the more unique.
Despite all this, the series isn't perfect though. Many of the early and middle episodes of the series lean perhaps too heavily on being formulaic with Loengard and Kim arriving somewhere where where the Hive is active , Majestic follows suit and the Hive is defeated in this attempt at least. The scripts themselves, more especially in some of the dialogue, give into clichés and cheesy lines when can occasionally both the episodes no matter their strengths while occasional anachronisms occur (such as in the episode Mercury Rising which features the test of a Saturn V rocket in 1964, something that didn't occur until late 1967). Also, as strong as the period recreations and costumes are much of the time, there are occasions when the budget doesn't quite stretch to cover everything adequately. Yet perhaps nothing is more mixed in the series than its special effects which range from the excellent physical creations of the Grey's themselves to the quality of the CGI effects used when range from good to near laughable.
For its faults though, Dark Skies remains a fantastic series. Its combination of 1960s history, period setting with its trappings and the use of UFO lore continue to make it unique while it also features strong actors and good performances that make use of those elements. It's a series that ended before its time and, thus, brilliant but canceled.
That voice-over opens most episodes of Dark Skies, a television series that ran for a single season on the NBC network between 1996 and 1997. Yet despite lasting merely a single season, it remains nevertheless unique more than fifteen years after it finished its run. That is thanks to a combination of things that made the series both unique and ahead of its time.
The basis of the show is a large factor in its uniqueness. Covering the years between 1960 and 1967, Dark Skies features a strong combination of 1960s history, period setting and UFO lore. Over the course of the series we learn that following the events at Roswell in 1947, a shadowy government agency called Majestic 12 began to fight a covert war with an extraterritorial intelligence called the Hive bent on invading the Earth. As a result of that conflict, events ranging from the U-2 incident to the JFK assassination to the Beatles first US TV appearance and beyond have played a part in that conflict. That line from the voice-over "History as we know it is a lie..." sums it up rather nicely.
The series makes strong use of UFO lore as a result. Well known elements and events such as Roswell, crop circles, cattle mutilations, abductions and the familiar gray aliens all come into play throughout the series. Alongside that are developments on that unique to Dark Skies: the grays are only puppets of the real threat which seeks to take over humanity as it once took over the grays and, as a result, what really is behind familiar aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
The series shows us these events though John Loengard (played by Eric Close) who starts out as a young congressional staffer and ends up a soldier on the conflict's front line alongside his girlfriend and White House staffer Kim Sayers (played by Megan Ward). The two of them together sell the reality of the series as two ordinary young people caught up in extraordinary events that both bring them together and yet threaten to tear them apart. Leading Majestic is Captain Frank Bach, played expertly by J.T. Walsh, determined to fight the secret war against the Hive at any cost. Walsh sells the reality of events by bringing a sense of authority to both Majestic and the character of Bach. Through them and a strong supporting cast including Conor O'Farrell as Bach's right hand man Lt. Commander Phil Albino or Jerri Ryan's Majestic agent in later episodes alongside real-life figures such as James F. Kelly as Robert Kennedy, we're given a window into this shadowy conflict and alternative history.
The period setting of the early to mid 1960s is also a big part of the show. Alongside the impressive sets for Majestic's headquarters with excellent period details and 1960s technology, the show features excellent costumes and recreations of period settings. These range from halls of power in Washington to Cape Kennedy, Vietnam and across much of the United States. As a result, the series presents a large range of different locations and stories covering many aspects of the period from the Cuban missile crisis to the civil rights, the space race and much more. It's no wonder then that some have called the series "Mad Men for the Close Encounters set".
Something that set Dark Skies apart was how it unfolded. Not only did the show incorporate all of the aforementioned elements, it developed both them and its characters across numerous stories arcs stretched across most if not all of what was meant to be a first season. The series was ahead of its time in this regard but came in an odd time slot in the era before DVR's and the ability to marathon shows where such things could be adequately developed in the minds of viewers. In retrospect, it gives the series something else that makes it all the more unique.
Despite all this, the series isn't perfect though. Many of the early and middle episodes of the series lean perhaps too heavily on being formulaic with Loengard and Kim arriving somewhere where where the Hive is active , Majestic follows suit and the Hive is defeated in this attempt at least. The scripts themselves, more especially in some of the dialogue, give into clichés and cheesy lines when can occasionally both the episodes no matter their strengths while occasional anachronisms occur (such as in the episode Mercury Rising which features the test of a Saturn V rocket in 1964, something that didn't occur until late 1967). Also, as strong as the period recreations and costumes are much of the time, there are occasions when the budget doesn't quite stretch to cover everything adequately. Yet perhaps nothing is more mixed in the series than its special effects which range from the excellent physical creations of the Grey's themselves to the quality of the CGI effects used when range from good to near laughable.
For its faults though, Dark Skies remains a fantastic series. Its combination of 1960s history, period setting with its trappings and the use of UFO lore continue to make it unique while it also features strong actors and good performances that make use of those elements. It's a series that ended before its time and, thus, brilliant but canceled.