By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright CBS
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
In September 2005 a new sci fi series debuted on television called Threshold. The show featured several big names including Peter Dinklage as Arthur Ramsey. It would run for one season. CBS messed about with scheduling and did not support the show whose quality was top notch. Such was the show mishandled that the final four episodes went unaired until Sky 1 aired them and now they can also be seen on YouTube.
In Threshold, an alien species that exists in four or five dimensions send a probe to our world. The probe is witnessed by the crew of a ship and emits a signal like shattering glass upon which said crew immediately begin to transform. Some survive while the others escape into our society. Rather than an alien invasion with space ships, these aliens transform us at the genetic level into them. Instead of terraforming, they are bioforming us. There is no waste or destruction; everything is intact as the aliens take over. However the process does not work on every person, horribly mutilating some in their death throes. Nor is this signal limited to humans as animals are affected too. For example a senator plays a copy of the probe footage which kills his girlfriend and turns their cat into a vicious mutation.
Molly Caffrey is a high level crisis management consultant whose job it is to come up with plans for disasters including alien contact. Her plan for this scenario is activated and went under the codename Threshold. Caffrey brings together a team of top specialists including the mild mannered Lucas Pegg played by Rob Benedict while afraid of what is happening commits everything he has to stopping the aliens.
Long before he revealed himself as God and went mad, ready to destroy the world because of the Winchesters in Supernatural, Rob Benedict along with Peter Dinklage and Brent Spiner starred in Threshold.
Lucas is without a doubt the softest, most compassionate member of the team. He is deeply religious which Ramsey (Peter Dinklage) makes fun of with comments like on the eighth day God made aliens. Lucas wonders if this invasion is somehow part of God’s plan.
Lucas is a genius having designed satellites including the Jupiter probe. He was also the highest winner on Jeopardy. Lucas is also due to get married to Rachel, a doctor however due to the Threshold protocols, he is kept away from her and she cannot know what he does. Boss of Threshold, Baylock (Charles S Dutton) manages to allow him some contact with Rachel. Lucas is a natural worrier. Both he and Rachel are vegetarians. He along with Cavanagh (Brian Van Holt) and Caffrey (Carla Guigino) are exposed to the alien signal causing them all to dream of the Forest of Glass Trees. This means they could turn at any time but given their limited exposure they are safe for the time being, When the aliens begin to infect people then drain their blood to create a fertiliser thereby infecting crops with the alien DNA. Lucas comes up woth weapons to take down the infected without killing them. If they infect the food supply then it will not be contained.
However, Lucas begins turning causing upset to the team. Lucas insists Rachel does not know about his death given he is now mutating. Lucas forms a close bond with Ramsey and they end up a double act during the show’s run. When Ramsey sleeps with an infectee, Lucas wants to know what it was like with enhanced strength and stamina, He believes that he may never go back to Earth girls. Lucas is sucked in until Ramsey says he as triple helix rash on his privates. Lucas simply turns away and tells him to go away now. Their banter is one of the hearts of the show. Ramsey is a loudmouth rebel but even he cannot remain unaffected by watching Lucas die given they have already witnessed a friend dying in this way.
In a surprising show of emotion, Ramsey tells Caffrey that while life isn’t fair, it is way out of line in taking Lucas. However, Lucas’ exposure seems to slow the mutation down so in one last desperate attempt to save Lucas, Fenway (Brent Spiner) ups the amplification to the alien signal to see if it stops the mutation. On his deathbed Lucas reveals he and Rachell got married in secret a couple of weeks previously before Fenway along with Ramsey launches his experiment. It works but Lucas has a vision in which someone in old fashioned clothes tells him he found a way to defeat them and it is all in his journal but the man shoots himself in the head before Lucas can find out any more.
Now he has a new mission. Identify the man and he can narrow down to who the man was and what time he came from. Because of his exposure to the signal Lucas becomes a target for a partially infected man who thinks it is his job to kill all the infected. Ramsey and Lucas find themselves targts of an infected mother who wants her newborn baby back and must work together to stop her from killing them and stealing her baby back and delivering it to the aliens.
But given the canllation of the show, Lucas will forever be one half of one of the best double acts that didn’t get to flourish completely. All episodes of Threshold can be found on Youtube so go check them out.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 