"My name is John Loengard. I'm recording this because we may not live through the night. They're here, they're hostile, and powerful people don't want you to know about it. History as we know it is a lie."
- John Loengard, opening narration
As I said in my previous review of the Sci-Fi Channel's "First Wave," there was a time in the mid-late nineties when every network and cable station was hard at work trying to copy the success of "The X-Files." Not to be confused with the recent series of movies by the same name, "Dark Skies" may be the most obvious of the "X-Files" clones, but it only lasted one season out of a planned five year arc. That first season distinguished itself from the competition by taking place entirely during the 1960's, beginning with the Cuban Missile Crisis and ending in the Summer of Love. Had the series continued, each season would have spanned another decade in the alternate history of "Dark Skies," where aliens had made contact in 1947 and were planning a parasitic body-snatching invasion.
The aliens, the Greys, were actually a peaceful race not unlike Earth who had been conquered by a parasitic species of insectoid creatures called the "Hive." John Loengard (Eric Close), a young idealist recruited to work on Capitol Hill, discovered evidence of the cover-up and was subsequently drafted by Captain Bach (J. T. Walsh) into the fold of Majestic, a top-secret organization dedicated to fighting the aliens and hiding evidence of their existence. John, however, disagrees with Majestic's forceful methods and goes on the run, taking his girlfriend, Kimberly Sayers (Megan Ward) with him as they go into hiding and work from the outside against both Majestic and the Hive.
At first, "Dark Skies" struggled to find its pace with episodic storylines where, similar to Cade Foster's role in "First Wave," John and Kim would defeat a plot by the aliens or by Majestic each week, but events took a strange turn when Kim was abducted and implanted by the Hive and John found himself once again working with Majestic, paired with Agent Julia Stewart, a Russian operative played by a pre-"Star Trek: Voyager" Jeri Ryan.
"Dark Skies" is a conspiracy theorist's wet dream. From Roswell to JFK to cattle mutilations and a secret space program, the show tackled virtually every alien/UFO conspiracy theory to grace the internet and print. In the pilot episode, John goes from being an idealistic young politico on the rise, to a Man in Black, to a fugitive fleeing Majestic. Once can't help but identify him with the "X-Files" character of Bill Mulder, Fox Mulder's regretful father, who both collaborated with and worked against the alien conspiracy. The Black Oil here is given another face, the "Hive," a race of squirmy brain-parasites with nefarious intentions, that took over one planet already and is now working on us. Familiar faces abound, as the show features the likes of J. Edgar Hoover, William Paley, Bobby Kennedy, Carl Sagan, Jim Morrison, Colin Powell, the Beatles, and a number of other real life historical persons.
Ultimately, "Dark Skies" feels incomplete with just its one season, which ended on a spectacular cliffhanger where John Loengard infiltrates the alien mothership in search of his abducted son. Had the series continued, according to the Bible prepared by the showrunners, Majestic would have transformed from a government cover-up to a resistance cell, and in the last season, concurrent with the 1990s, the alien invasion would have been given a public face. One can't help but wonder how the show would have played out over 5 decades, but unfortunately we are left with one somewhat uneven season split between episodic storylines in the first half and more arc-based plotlines in the second half, after Kim is abducted and John returns to Majestic. It's a well researched show, and the research helps to maintain some sense of historical plausibility. J. T. Walsh is delightful as Frank Bach, Majestic's shadowy leader, and Eric Close and Megan Ward are adorable as a young couple thrust into a battle which they could never have dreamed of.
"Dark Skies" rewards the viewer with its carefully constructed alternate history, its use of real life events in its plotlines, and its fun, mid-nineties special effects (the puppet used to portray the aliens was even acquired by Rocket Pictures and used in a hoaxed "alien interview" several years later). Unlike "The X-Files," which rarely showed actual aliens and UFOs, and then only in the dark, "Dark Skies" features elaborate special effects sequences that still look good today. Only the CGI is a little dated. While not quite as original as "First Wave" or as broad as "The X-Files," "Dark Skies" is definitely worth a watch. The sixties setting is refreshing, and intriguing, and the show's incorporation of real life events is unique and admirable.
