Forgotten Television: Something is Out There

Officer Jack Breslin (Joseph Cortese) works in the Los Angeles Police department.  He is dating Mandy Estabrook (Kim Delaney), the wealthy daughter of the Police Commissioner and mayoral candidate. While investigating a series of brutal murders Jack becomes acquainted with Ta’Ra (Maryam dAbo) and discovers she is an alien tracking down a shapeshifting creature that escaped a prison ship where she was a medical officer. Now on earth, the monster is wreaking havoc in an attempt to repopulate its own species and is nearly impossible to kill. Ta’Ra looks human but does have some special abilities including telepathy and limited superhuman agility and she brought with her a small arsenal of futuristic weapons. Can Jack help Ta’Ra find and kill the monster all while keeping Ta’Ra’s secret from Mandy and Frank (George Dzundza), Jack’s friend and partner? Watch and find out!

This series started out as a two-part television mini-series airing on May 8, 1988, which drew high ratings attributed to the chemistry between the two leads. Only a week after airing, it was announced that it would become a series and thirteen episodes were ordered.  First airing opposite Dallas, and then moved to opposite Beauty and the Beast, the series never acquired the ratings the movie promised, and the show was cancelled after only six episodes airing and a total of eight having been filmed.  One of the reasons for dismal ratings is that the series pulled back from its science fiction roots and moved away from the “Monster of the Week” format and more on slight supernatural stories featuring telekinesis and telepathy. But audiences were expecting more “Aliens” in a show about an alien, and while the producers did try to rectify this and began pushing the show in that direction it was too late and the program was cancelled.

The original mini-series started off strongly for me.  The mysterious mutilations of some unknown creature with some good old fashioned science fiction horror elements hooked me in at first.  The script had some witty banter between Jack and Frank and Ta’Ra was just quirky enough to be interesting.  Unfortunately, by the second part, the story began to drag on and the hunt for the creature became boring and mundane.  The dialogue quickly moved from witty to feeling forced and unrealistic and corny.  The plot also never fully explained why the creature was taking certain organs from its kills and where they said it was a shapeshifter, but it was more of a parasite, possessing or inhabiting the body of its victims. The famous Rick Baker worked on the creature, but we barely get to see it.  Aspects of it are interesting, but the only full body view we get are just flashes across the screen.  With the help of John Dykstra, there were some adequate computer-generated special effects that were good for the 80’s time period. Basically, by midway through the second half, I just wanted it to wrap up and end.