Shows That Should've Lasted Longer: THRESHOLD (2005)
Starring: Carla Gugino, Brian Van Holt, Brent Spiner, Rob Benedict, Peter Dinklage, Charles S. Dutton, with appearances by Catherine Bell, Jeffrey Donovan, and William Mapother
When it comes to prime-time sci-fi series on broadcast networks, it’s a rare program that makes it to a second season, and to be honest, it’s none too surprising: most such series need time to build and expand their premise before they really get rolling, and that’s just not the sort of thing that the prime-time landscape is designed to do. Either you make a major impression right off the bat, or else you’re in a downward ratings spiral from which there is little chance of escape.
That said, I still remember being instantly gripped by the pilot episode of CBS’s Threshold from the first time I watched my advance DVD screener, and revisiting it in order to write this piece, I still find it gripping TV. Granted, selling me on a sci-fi series is very much like shooting fish in a barrel, but not only was the premise strong, but then you throw in that cast… I’m sorry, but I’m still shaking my head over that.
Carla Gugino stars as Dr. Molly McCaffrey, a crisis management consultant who finds herself unexpectedly called upon to activate one of her previously-penned contingency plans: the one involving first contact with an alien species. With the aid of her government liaison, Deputy National Security Advisor J.T. Baylock (Charles Dutton), McCaffrey compiles a task force to help her delve into the alien encounter, which means that we’re quickly introduced to microbiologist Dr. Nigel Fenway (Brent Spiner), aerospace engineer Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict), and mathematician / linguist Arthur Ramsey (Peter Dinklage). Oh, and lest we forget, there’s the paramilitary tough guy of the team, Sean Cavennaugh (Brian Van Holt).
Seriously, how do you dismiss a cast like that?
Well, viewers somehow did, obviously, but I look at Threshold now, and I think, “If this series had been made even just a few years later, it could’ve easily had the same fate as Evil: one season on CBS, followed by a new life on Paramount+ for a second season, maybe more. It’s an exploration into an alien invasion that’s strange and terrifying, made all the more disconcerting by the way it takes place in a world which for all practical purposes looks just like the one we live in currently.
Take a look at the first episode: it’s a two-parter, but both parts are on YouTube.
Insanely, the series isn’t available online, but if you like what you see, you can pick up the complete series on DVD for $19.99, and if it’s your cup of tea, then I suspect that—like me—you’ll find it worth revisiting occasionally just because of its premise and performances…and then you’ll curse the fact that we never got any more of the series than we did.
C’mon, Paramount, this has got “cult classic series revival” written all over it…