UFO vs Threshold

My wife and I just finished watching "Threshold," an American TV
series about a government team combating an alien invasion. It only
ran for 14 episodes back in 2005. Its details were different, but
in broad strokes it was pretty similar to UFO. What it lacked, IMO,
is/are:

1) Cool tools. The Threshold team had the latest scientific gear,
but where was the sub with the airplane attached?

2) A driven leader. Carla Gugino could read the phone book and I'd
watch (especially if she was in her "Sin City" costume), but her
character lacked the depth and intensity of Ed Straker. She never
raised her voice, and when she said "jump" people didn't scurry to
obey. That was left to Charles S. Dutton, i.e. the Alec Freeman
character, but it wasn't the same.

3) A top-notch team. Threshold's bunch were a press-gang of top
members of their profession, so they were constantly whining about
being yanked away from their "real" lives. Straker would have
weeded them out in half a day. Even though they understood the
importance of the assignment, they never brought the enthusiasm and
professionalism of SHADO to their work.

3) Cool aliens. While the UFO aliens never spoke, the Threshold
ones became downright chatty by the end of its abbreviated run.  
Hard to keep the mystery that way.

Did anyone else see this show? Any other thoughts?

I watched it in its full run, and I may have to break down and buy the
DVD for the series.

It was a great show, but it was lost due to "Invasion" and the one
about the sea creatures. Both of those shows didn't last as well. Had
it came out now or in isolation, it might of had more legs.

Personally, I think any show that deals with an alien invasion on Earth
will draw a number of parallels to UFO (which may be the egg).
"Stargate SG-1" may be a closer parallel to UFO than "Threshold".

I liked "Threshold", because of Brent Spiner (of Star Trek fame),
Dutton, Peter Drinklage (he was simply amazing in "The Station Agent")
and of course Carla (your assesment of her reading the phone book is
correct). I've told my wife that Carla would be the only woman I would
leave her for.

I just like good stories... I've seen the first two discs of the UFO
series and the strongest story I've seen so far is one in which Straker
is "recruiting" his newest team member.

--- ruadan1963 <[hidden email]> wrote:


"[War] is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket — and are safely pocketed." — Smedley Butler, retired as a Major General of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1931 and was awarded two congressional medals of honor and the distinguished service medal.



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Are you referring to "Exposed" where Straker recruits Agent Paul Foster to the team? That was the turning point for the series (in my opinion) where it stopped being Straker and Freeman with some questionable support characters and became the trio of Straker, Foster and Freeman, with the mysterious Jackson and General Henderson for an added dimension of drama and conflict.In my country, they screened Exposed as ep 2, right after Identified, and then smuggled Flight Path and Computer Affair in later. A wise move, I feel.
   
Incidentally, Foster gets scripts which had been written for other characters (Desica was meant to have his role in The Dalotek Affair, but the character was dropped because Franco Derosa didn't work well with the cast and crew, Carlin was meant to have Foster's role in Ordeal and Foster seems to be added into Close Up with almost no scripted dialog, just given a few lines that were probably meant for someone else.) and I feel having the "new boy" in these eps makes them better than they could've been. Court Martial is one of the best eps which seems to have been scripted around the same setof characters that were in Exposed.
   
Z.
   
 

Clay <[hidden email]> wrote:
I watched it in its full run, and I may have to break down and buy the
DVD for the series.

It was a great show, but it was lost due to "Invasion" and the one
about the sea creatures. Both of those shows didn't last as well. Had
it came out now or in isolation, it might of had more legs.

Personally, I think any show that deals with an alien invasion on Earth
will draw a number of parallels to UFO (which may be the egg).
"Stargate SG-1" may be a closer parallel to UFO than "Threshold".

I liked "Threshold", because of Brent Spiner (of Star Trek fame),
Dutton, Peter Drinklage (he was simply amazing in "The Station Agent")
and of course Carla (your assesment of her reading the phone book is
correct). I've told my wife that Carla would be the only woman I would
leave her for.

I just like good stories... I've seen the first two discs of the UFO
series and the strongest story I've seen so far is one in which Straker
is "recruiting" his newest team member.

--- ruadan1963 <[hidden email]> wrote:

"[War] is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump and leap andskyrocket — and are safely pocketed." — Smedley Butler, retired as a Major General of the U.S. Marine Corps in 1931 and was awarded two congressional medals of honor and the distinguished service medal.

__________________________________________________________
Bored stiff? Loosen up...
Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games.
http://games.yahoo.com/games/front


         

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