LIFE AFTER THE BIG HIATUS

Brannon Braga isn't very popular among the sci-fi geeks out there in fandom and on the net, but I'm sure he couldn't care less. At the TV Guide website, he's written an article detailing what would have happened had his series 'Threshold' been allowed to not only finish out its initial TV season, but in the second season as well:

"We had tons of other stuff planned: Molly was going to get excluded from the very project she’d created, thanks to an overzealous politician. But she would still have been secretly working with the Threshold team members. She’d have hooked up with a vigilante, who’d become sort of a love interest for her. Together, they’d uncover a conspiracy to blow up Threshold’s headquarters, so she would have to save her team from the outside.

After that, another probe would be shot down and would then send out a signal calling in 80 more alien probes. That would have led to Season 2, and when these probes arrived, all hell was going to break loose."

Braga also had details for other members of Molly's Threshold team:

Dr. Nigel Fenway - When Molly ends up in a coma, her plan calls for Fenway to become the new team leader. He was also going to become romantically involved with a new team player who was to be played by Catherine Bell.

Arthur Ramsey - After sleeping with an alien-hybrid stripper, Ramsey was going to spin out of control.

The DVD boxed set which will be released this year will include the dozen episodes that were filmed, even though only eight of them aired on American TV. (Apparently, this means that in other countries - like Finland where 'Threshold' was staggeringly popular in the manor, Squire! - their audiences got to see the full run.)

Those remaining four episodes will be considered part of the established canon for the series in Toobworld. As the technology grows (and this includes mini-episodes for cell phone download), the concept of Toobworld has to broaden and adapt.

But I'm not so sure we should concern ourselves with Braga's vision how how the show would have continued; I think we can disregard that outline he laid out about all hell breaking loose with eighty more probes showing up. It's not that I don't think the "action" of the series doesn't continue even though the show is cancelled - that goes against the very core of Toobworld belief. No, it's more that such a plan means we'd have to find some way to splain why no other TV show in the Great Link was showing any concern about this massive alien invasion.

I'm perfectly happy thinking that the work of the 'Threshold' team continues on a case-by-case basis, secretly behind the scenes. That way there's no reason to come up with splainins as to why Jack McCoy isn't prosecuting alien hybrids on 'Law & Order', and why 'The Unit' hasn't been called out to do battle against these alien probes.

Someday perhaps, maybe 'Threshold' will be revived in much the same way that 'Star Trek' and 'Battlestar Galactica' were brought back to TV life (although 'BG' has to be set in an alternate universe since it's a complete re-working of the original concept and has no place in the main Toobworld). And then, whatever that vehicle might be - sequel series, TV movie, even a theatrical release, - we'll have to accept whatever past history they present to account for the missing years.

But as things stand now, that's not very likely. It would have to take massive sales of the coming DVD boxed set for the suits to even consider that option (as was the case for 'Family Guy' and 'Futurama').

There's another old TV classic, long buried in the past, which has had a similar outline discussed by its creator - 'Coronet Blue'. And in this case, I'm more inclined to accept the creator's outline for what would have happened had 'Coronet Blue' not been cancelled.

It was my "Iddiot" compadre Stan L of the Idiot's Delight Digest who alerted me to this:

"As per an interview with Larry Cohen on 'Branded', the complete second season DVD set,

LC created 'Coronet Blue'
It was the name of a Russian spy ring to which the main character belonged.
He was a Russian trained to be a double agent /spy for the Russians while masquerading as an American.
He decided to defect and was pulled out of the Hudson River after his former colleagues tried to kill him for defecting.
All he remembered was the name of the spy ring, Coronet blue."

Now, I have no problems with Larry Cohen's vision of how the show might have turned out. It seems perfectly in keeping with what was officially established in the series as broadcast.

The same could be said for Braga's descriptions about the alien probes arriving en masse. But as I stated earlier, that would have played hob with the general overview of an integrated TV Universe. Cohen's vision could have been easily absorbed into Toobworld's history and not have any widespread effect on what was happening in other shows.

And besides, as the main character (the amnesiac who took the name of Michael Alden) himself worried that he might not like the person he used to be once he found out the truth, the revelation that he was a Russian spy would be a great direction for the show to have taken.

Especially for the times in which the show was first released, whereas Braga's plan would have been better suited for a Toobworld in which there was no future possible for new TV shows to come along.

Let's see if we survive past December of 2012 before we worry about using the alien probe invasion.....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby