Threshold: The Complete Series (2005)

Threshold feels like The Andromeda Strain meets Odyssey Five. From executive producer Brannon Braga of the Star Trek franchise, Threshold is a smart and snappy sci-fi series about a mysterious alien invasion of Earth. Carla Gugino shines as Molly Ann Caffery, a crisis-management consultant to the government who is called in to activate and head her alien-invasion and mass-contagion scenarios. (She reminds me of Nicole Kidman in The Peacemaker.) Also drafted into government service and secrecy "for reasons of national security" are the unctuous Dr. Nigel Fenway (Brent Spiner), nebbishy data analyst Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict), and worldly math and language expert Arthur Ramsey (Peter Dinklage). (Houston-born Spiner, who played Data, Lore, and Noonien Soong in Star Trek: The Next Generation, approximates Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park but Dinklage makes his role his own.) Supervising and helping them solve the gargantuan mystery that now faces the human race is the cool and collected J.T. Baylock (Charles Dutton) and Sean Cavvenaugh (Brian Van Holt) is more than a musclebound bodyguard. The team runs itself ragged to inspect crime and infection sites, perform forensics on hard drives and dead bodies, and chase or fight humans that are being transformed into aliens. How far the contagion has or will spread is anyone's guess but the mode of infection and extent its transmission is gradually revealed to be more fantastic and more serious than anticipated. Humanity has the fight of (and for) its life on its hands! The story progresses well with a script that is intelligent and makes sense scientifically. Disc 1, episodes 1-2: Trees Made of Glass, Parts 1-2 (A transdimensional alien weapon attacks a ship, with bizarre results), episode 3: Blood of the Children (The infection spreads to a military academy), episode 4: The Burning (An escaped mental patient's dreams deepen the mystery). [This review will be updated.] 4 stars.