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The show kicked off in some quarantine-looking camp in Egypt. Population: 85 million, the text on the screen says in a very "JAG"-like manner. I hope this show is not like "JAG." A doctor, who we later learn to be named Rachel Scott (played by Rhona Mitra, whoever that is), begins taking blood samples from some of the victims? Patients? Sick or diseased people? What do we call them? They look like lepers - splotchy, bubbly skin. As they say, it don't look good.
The show cuts to a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. Different place, different time. Wait a second.ADAM BALDWIN SIGHTING. Elsewhere, enter Commander Tom Chandler, played by Eric Dane, who appears to be the series' main protagonist. He meets Dr. Scott, who, along with a team of people who are presumably medical experts, have set up a lab on Chandler's ship. It might eventually be of note that 216 crew members are on-board the ship. Dr. Scott says she and her crew are studying "birds." Right. Chandler walks away and she holds up a cage of lab rats and glances skeptically at her colleague. I have a bad feeling about these two.
Four months later, Chandler and company are sailing at an unknown location in the Arctic. They are in a state of radio silence, which means they have no radio communication, no emails in or out, nothing. Their mission appears to be some kind of weapons testing. They track down a target on their radar and blast it to smithereens. Mission success, they report. They're going home. Allegedly.
Dr. Scott and her colleague are on land... er... ice... and digging for something, but a couple of Chandler's soldiers are coming to pick them up. Time to go. She says she needs more samples, but Chandler is demanding that they return to the ship.
Back on the ship, Adam Baldwin, or "Mike," as I believe he is called in the show, says he can't wait to get home to see how the Cubs are doing. They were "six games up" at the time they embarked. Red flag. Ok, first of all, there's no way the Cubs (bless their hearts) will ever be "six games up" on anything, and, secondly, the fact that he just said that the Cubs were winning means that there is no chance they'll still be winning once he gets home. Commander Chandler and Dr. Scott seem to have developed some kind of tension in the past four months and do not appear to be on good terms with each other. There is a lot of talk about "going home," which leads me to believe that there is not going to be a home for them to return to. (Like, have these people never watched movies before or something? Such ominous dialogue. Geez.) Back in the lab, samples of whatever Scott was collecting are being injected into the lab rats with no immediate on-screen results. Scott makes a phone call to... someone... saying that she needs more time and that her mission is being compromised. Subsequently, Chandler receives a phone call from... someone... explaining that their mission is being extended and that they must return to radio silence.
A new "JAG"-like caption informs us that we are now two days into the mission extension. Chandler remains skeptical of Scott as she continues digging for samples. Amidst all the icy treasure hunting, Scott tells her colleague, whose name is apparently "Quincy," that she may have "got it." Within seconds, five Russian helicopters are bearing down on the ship - and Dr. Scott's frozen archaeological dig. What ensues is a mix of incredible marksmanship and bad CGI, as the helicopters launch RPGs at the ship and at a couple snowmobile-riding Americans. Somehow, the U.S. guards manage to shoot down one of the choppers with a handheld firearm, which is quite preposterous, if you ask me. But good for them. Meanwhile, Scott is scrambling to obtain more samples and there are some more crappy-looking explosions. One Russian hostage is taken and, upon interrogation, Chandler finds out that they were after "the cure."
After a delightful commercial break, Chandler is back to demanding answers from Dr. Scott. She explains, somewhat reluctantly, that a deadly viral outbreak occurred 7 months ago in Egypt. Government officials claimed that the outbreak was contained, but that was a lie. Her secret mission was to locate a primordial strain of the virus, which she believed to be located in the Arctic. The birds she had been studying had picked up the virus and spread it into "small clusters of Asia and Africa." At that point, the outbreak was classified as a "Phase Two." In the present day, the virus has spread to a "Phase Six" - a global pandemic. Eighty percent of the world's population is infected and Scott believes that what she has found here in the Arctic might be the only hope for mankind's salvation. Oh, and, of course, she knows all this because she broke the radio silence mandate with her own personal satellite phone. Tricky, tricky lady. Can't be trusted!
Commander Chandler receives a video conference call from America. It's the president of the United States. It's... a woman?? "I know," the woman says. "Last you heard, I was Speaker of the House." In this little video conference, we learn a couple interesting things:
- The president died two months ago. The vice president died a week later.
- The newly-named female president knows of a secure bio-lab on the coast of blessed North Carolina and will be sending coordinates to Chandler and his crew. She says it should be safe to start working on the creation of a vaccine there.
- Russia no longer has a functioning government.
- Most of the United States' population, along with armed forces is dead. "We have no allies. We have no enemies. Just a world of sick, dying people," she says.
Chandler and Adam "Mike" Baldwin are shown news clips which show the effects of the pandemic. London in flames, people rioting, people being herded like sheep, and the like. Chandler now believes that the "weapons testing" was a cover-up for what was actually happening. He wants to tell his crew everything. "I have news... from home..." he says. Cut to commercial. What? No epic "Independence Day" speech? Disappointing.
Now there's a cloud of nuclear radiation headed their way, so they've got to change their course. As they sail in another direction, they run into another ship just sitting there. It's... the Titanic?? Oh, apparently not. It's just some Italian ship that's just sitting there like a Carnival cruise gone wrong. After they don't respond to an attempted bridge-to-bridge radio call, Commander Electro decides that they'll board the ship, salvage all the food and fuel that they can, and get the heck out of dodge. Scott gives one final word of advice before boarding the ship: if the ship was taken out by the outbreak, the virus would be airborne and highly contagious. Their helmets must stay on at all times. (Obvious foreshadowing.)
On-board the cruise ship Italiano, the American crew searches for food. Oh great. The kitchen freezer is full of saran-wrapped bodies. Maybe somebody was just saving them for later? But as the crew reaches some kind of ballroom, we find that cannibalism is not a likely scenario, as pretty much everybody is dead. Wiped out by that nasty leprous disease. There's one old guy that's still barely breathing, so Scott draws blood from him. Psssh. Rude. Other crew members are booking it around the ship, carrying big bags of food, and then one dude trips down the dang stairway. Pop. Off comes the helmet. Niiiice. Also, he got a dead guy's blood on his face. Scott confirms that he's been exposed to the virus, so the guy does the next logical thing: he blows his own brains out. Man down. Man down. Commercial break.
A seaside burial is held for our dearly departed Franklin. Dr. Scott tells Commander Chandler that no one thought the virus would spread so quickly. She explains that the virus has a new gene now, which could only have been created with human intervention, meaning that some naughty, naughty person weaponized it. How dare they? The good news, however, is that the tampering means that the virus no longer needs to mutate to survive. It has been tamed, thus making it easier to vaccinate. The strains that Scott found in the Arctic will allow her to begin creating a cure.
Inside the ship, a crew member reports that a five-day-old message has come through from the president. North Carolina is no longer safe, but a new lab in Jacksonvill (Florida?) should be the ship's new destination. Another message has come through, as well. It's much larger - a video file. It's... Chandler's wife! She's alive, and so are his kids. His son and daughter join their mother on-screen. They're at his father's cabin. Everyone there is perfectly healthy, but they have not been able to contact a few other family members. Her sister did not make it out alive. Chandler gets emotional and his wife urges him to "get here, if you can."
Back on the coast of America, a crew mate informs the commander that there has been no radiation detected within a 100-mile radius. "We're home," Adam Baldwin says. Fat chance, buddy. Chandler says that the on-shore lab is 200 miles inland and he won't risk going ashore and must therefore stay on the ship. They have enough food for a week, but they only have 80 biohazard suits for the remaining 216 people on-board. Baldwin argues that they should draw lots to see which crew members get to "go home," but Chandler refuses and expects that his commands will be obeyed. He tells his crew that this ship is now "the safest place on Earth." Their mission now is to stay alive at sea until a cure can be found.
There's a cool shot of the ship out at sea and the camera cuts to the lab. Rats, still alive and presumably well, are shown in their cages. Dr. Scott's colleague, Quincy, is making a phone call. He seems nervous. In another language (perhaps Russian?), he refers to himself as "Seagull" as he addresses someone called "Arctic Fox." He is panicked that the ship is no longer stopping in America. They're turning the ship around.
- A crazy virus has overtaken the planet and affected at least 80% of the population in the past seven months.
- This ship of 217... er... 216 people appears to be completely free from exposure to the virus.
- The Russians are bad guys and somebody with an itchy trigger finger has access to nuclear bombs.
- The American government and military have been drastically altered by the outbreak and, at this point, may not even be functioning anymore.
- Somewhere out there is a cabin full of Chandlers who escaped unharmed - and they want their commander back.
- There's a doctor on-board that might be the only hope of restoring order to the world.
- ...but her colleague might be a psychotic double-agent with evil intentions.
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So what did you think? Did you like the pilot episode? It raised a couple intriguing questions, with the most obvious one being whether Dr. Scott and Quincy can be trusted. But also, where did the virus come from and who weaponized it? According to the teaser that aired just after the episode, Dr. Scott will be confronting somebody about it at some point this season. But who could it be? Do you think the show is worth continuing to watch? And what's the over/under on how long this thing lasts before it inevitably gets cancelled? Right now, I'm thinking it might only make it one season, but hey - I've been wrong before. We'll see what happens.
On a scale from zero to five, I'd give the pilot three stars. It was ok. Not incredibly gripping just yet, but not a total waste of time. And hey, for a Michael Bay show, I'm shocked at the complete lack of teenage perversion, so that was a relief. We'll see where this thing goes. Maybe.
If you've got something to say, sound off in the comments below. It would be fun to get a little conversation going.
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