Threshold: Trees Made of Glass, Part 1

“I like to worry about things from all angles.”

Threshold aired in 2005-2006 as part of CBS’s plan to capitalize on the Lost-inspired craze for complex genre TV. Like many of the shows that attempted to capitalize on Lost’s magical formula of character ensembles, mythology, philosophy, and pseudo-science, Threshold failed to gain the viewers or the following necessary to succeed. Of the thirteen episodes produced, only nine even aired.

But Threshold isn’t a bad show. It’s not great: it varies between high camp and tawdry tackiness, between standalones and mythological complexity. (CBS was obviously uncomfortable with long-form storytelling.) What is it about? An alien invasion. Don’t expect little green men, though: these aliens work more subtly, using complicated harmonics and a pretty light show to change brain chemistry and turn humans against their own race via an extraterrestrial brain download. These aliens are smart, have a deep love for fractals and mysterious plotting, and look just like us. Oh no!

Threshold was created by, among others, Brannon Braga, the controversial writer responsible for TNG, FlashForward, and Terra Nova. While I can’t speak for TNG, I do know what went wrong with FlashForward and Terra Nova: lack of long-term plotting, lack of willingness to trust the audience, lack of understanding that mysteries must seem organic rather than plot-convenient. Weirdly, this earlier entry in Braga’s playbook skirts most of those errors, although it’s possible the show would have declined eventually. But something about Threshold keeps me coming back for more.

Perhaps it is the first-rate cast, which favors actors that those of us with a thing for offbeat TV love: Carla Gugino is Molly Caffrey, a contingency analyst who specializes in “worst case scenarios.” She has assembled a Michael Crichton-esque team of specialists to help assess and defeat the alien menace. Peter Dinklage is linguistic and mathematical genius Arthur Ramsey with a tendency towards vice. Robert Benedict is engineer Lucas Pegg, the kindly fish out of water who just wants to get back to his boring life. Brent Spiner is Nigel Fenway, lab guy. Brian Van Holt, as the meathead love interest, is the weakest link, but that lack is made up by Charles S. Dutton’s performance as the bureaucrat with a heart of gold who just wants to save the world. And if Tyrion from Game of Thrones and Chuck from Supernatural weren’t a big enough draw, each episode has at least one surprisingly familiar guest star. This episode alone includes William Mapother, Kevin Durand, and Seamus Deaver.

“Trees Made of Glass” originally aired as a two-hour pilot, and it’s fairly effective. The cold open introduces the concept of otherness that marks any alien race worth its salt, and contrasts neatly with Molly’s professional, intelligent, but not field-ready demeanor. As the team comes together and investigates, interesting—and sometimes frightening—details emerge that reveal the true nature of the alien threat, as well as the true nature of each of the characters.

Molly is my favorite, because she manages to be beautiful, intelligent, and witty all at once, which is exactly what I aspire to be. She delivers some of the more sarcastic lines with a bit of an edge, which is a nice change from the tepid humor typically allowed heroines in pop culture. She originally treats the aliens as an intellectual problem, albeit one that requires a strong dose of both empathy and heart. She alludes to a traumatic disaster in her own past as the inspiration for her career in contingency analysis, and she looks after her team both because it is the right thing to do, and because a happy and functioning team is the most pragmatic way to save the human race.

The revelation that low-grade exposure to the alien signal altered the theta waves within Molly’s, Cavennaugh’s, and Lucas’s brain waves turns the global into the personal. Molly may not have had much of a social life to begin with, but it’s only going to get harder with her brain altered in a mysterious way that seems to connect her to the aliens, at least in her dreams. The final scene of the episode is horrifying—horror-movie horrifying. And it effectively communicates exactly how weird, how creepy, and how threatening this alien menace is.

I’ll review all of Threshold this summer. It is, I think, perfect summer viewing. In the meantime, here’s Billie’s review of the pilot from back when it first aired.

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

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