Invasion Earth (Mini-Series)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: C+
The BBC is know for producing great Science Fiction
television and when they decided to co-produce a mini-series with A&E, the
result was Invasion Earth, made back in 1998. The show starts out with some promise in its initial episode The
Last War. However, it starts to go
off track by the next episode and never recovers. Fred Ward is one of the many military personnel around when
another soldier attacks a U.F.O. against orders, which then wrecks. Too bad the “passengers” survive.
The show then veers into too many digital visual effects,
the Horror genre and everything we have seen to death in the last ten
years. That’s a shame, because the
angle of British involvement promised something fresh and possibly a throwback
to great British Sci-Fi TV, but it eventually falls to the usual formula of
reactionary War fiction in Sci-Fi/Horror clothing and the usual dark, digitally
degraded look. Maybe this is the hip
thing and is making some kind of money, but that does not make it good. This program is still a cut above the
straight-to-video/cable channel filler that has given the genre a bad name, but
Invasion Earth ultimately has nowhere to go because it settles for formula
instead of following new possibilities, or what Science fiction used to be all
about.
The letterboxed 1.66 X 1 image has that clichéd dark,
digitally degraded look that is killing the genre. As compared to Steven Spielberg’s recent War Of The Worlds
remake, which had more naturalism and exceptional digital visuals, the
unnatural look and feel of the image is the kind that makes the humans so
dehumanized that you never buy them or any jeopardy they may be in. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds
and is the highlight of the set by default.
Extras are few over the 2 DVDs only has a list of alien invasion films
(a few of which you are better off seeing) and production notes. Obviously, this is out in time for the
Spielberg film’s DVD release and part of a plethora of such themed DVDs. This runs 4.5 hours over six episodes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
