In 1996-97, Dark Skies, one of my all-time favorite television shows, aired. The show detailed the Greylien "history" that has accumulated (like tartar) over the years. Unlike other shows, Dark Skies established an elaborate mythology and framework for the grey lore, built through research of the voluminous outpouring of writing and reporting on alien-related topics. Bryce Zabel developed a five year plan for the show, ranging from the early 60's to the millennium, all grounded in historical events. Each episode details the impact of The Hive on historical events. Harry Truman, The Beatles, Ed Sullivan, Jack Ruby, William Paley, Hubert Humphrey, JFK, Bobby Kennedy (in a recurring role), Timothy Leary, Jim Morrison, Jerry Rubin, Carl Sagan, and others all appear on the program. The "lookalike" actors are outrageously over the top and campy...which adds a note of bent humor to the proceedings.The Greys, it seems, are merely hosts for the real aliens, called the Hive. The Hive is far more dangerous and insidious than the Greys. The Greys, in fact, are a race not particularly warlike until they are taken over by The Hive.
The Hive in the form of The Greys has stealthily infested America, and the world. The awful truth is kept from the American people by Captain Frank Bach, the leader of a super-secret government organization called Majestic-12. John Loengard and Kim Sayers are on the run from the alien Hive and from the Government. Their travels lead them all around the country as they learn more about the massive infestation of The Hive, and Majestic's efforts to control it at any cost. It's never clear in the show whether the cure is worse than the illness.
Dark Skies seamlessly put together science fiction, UFOlogy, and past political events and social movements that took place during the 50's and late 60's. Unlike the X Files, Dark Skies was a one trick pony--it was about aliens, and UFOs, and nothing else. They cancelled the show just as it was getting traction. You can get a bootleg copy of the series. I did just that, and I enjoyed the show even more the second time around.
Episode One: The Awakening
Bureaucrat John Loengard and his girlfriend Kimberly Sayers stumble across UFO information considered off-limits by the top-secret Majestic-12 group headed by Col. Frank Bach. Loengard joins Bach and the Majestic group, before becoming disillusioned with their desire to shield the public from the truth. Loengard steals evidence to persuade President Kennedy onto their side, propelling the couple on a dangerous journey where the future of the world is at stake.
Episode Two: Moving Targets
Following Kennedy's assassination, John and Kimberly learn from an eyewitness about the first alien encounter years earlier at Roswell. But when the couple return to Washington for the President's funeral, they discover a more sinister alien plan to destroy world government.
Episode Three: Mercury Rising
Kimberly's recurring dreams of a floating astronaut lead them to the newly re-named Cape Kennedy launch center, where they meet astronaut Ty Yount, a fellow alien abductee. Though Yount was not implanted, Kim realizes that his co-pilot was. Kimberly and Loengard eventually discover that the Hive intends to sabotage the next manned space launch -- and they risk their lives trying to stop the final countdown. They do of course. And the world is safe(r) for another week.
Episode Four: Dark Days Night
The Beatles are coming to America, and the Hive has an evil plan to use this event to cause mass suicide. As John and Kim have found out, some humans aren't suitable for implantation for some, as yet, unknown reason. While these people were aboard the alien ships they were hypnotized and given a post-hypnotic suggestion that, when activated, will cause them to go into a trance of sorts and kill themselves. Captain Bach and Loengard team up temporarily on this venture to stop the Hive from broadcasting the glyph during the Beatles set on the Ed Sullivan Show, and they are successful.
The show goes on, and the Beatles become the sensation that we've all come to love. Loengard and Kim leave New York and search for their next adventure.
Episode Five: Dreamland
Billionaire recluse Howard Hughes joins John and Kimberly's investigation of an underground alien base, mistakenly believing the Hive implantees are communists. This episode is wonderful merely for the nutty portrayal of Hughes.
Episode Six: Inhuman Nature
Loengard and Kimberly investigate a series of Midwest cattle mutilations bearing bizarre alien markings. When they recruit a veterinary student to probe a similar living cow, they are shocked at what they find.
Episode Seven: Ancient Future
The great Alaskan earthquake of 1964 uncovers a ghostly alien scout ship, which provides John with glimpses of the future, a future where the aliens have won.
Episode Eight: Hostile Convergence
Loengard attempts to publicly reveal plans by the U.S. government to replicate an alien spacecraft at Area 51. Kimberly attends her sister's wedding, only to find that Majestic's reach extends close to home. Bach makes a horrific discovery when he interrogates a violently ill Jack Ruby.
Episode Nine: We Shall Overcome
Mississippi in the 1960's was a very hostile place. Racial divides were still quite strong, but times were slowly and painfully changing. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing but the Hive had other plans for humanity.
Our own species' lack of unity provided the Hive with a weapon that, although, mostly silent, kept the people fighting amounts themselves instead of uniting to combat the real threat from the stars.
Then FBI director J. Edger Hoover and Majestic clash over who has authority in the Mississippi events, and finally one of Bach's men meets with Hoover and refuses to disclose any information to him, and this displeases Hoover, but the Hoover would be silenced. Majestic knew about Hoover's gay lover, Clyde, and Hoover agreed to drop the matter if they didn't disclose that information to the public.
This one problem was resolved, but it is now clear to John and Kim that the Hive will use any means to conquer humanity through total subversion of our culture. They will continue to exploit our weaknesses until we resolve them.
Episode Ten: The Last Wave
Loengard and Sayers return to Los Angeles to bury a college friend who died under suspicious circumstances. With the help of college friends, and a young Jim Morrison, they uncover the truth behind the illness which has been killing surfers.
Episode Eleven: The Enemy Within
Seeking shelter with his family, John discovers his brother has become Hive, and that Majestic is watching. John is committed to a mental institution by his parents when he tries to remove the alien implant from his brother. Bach uncovers a Hive operative within Majestic.
Episode Twelve: The Warren Omission
With the Warren Commission looking into the assassination of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asks John to testify. Despite Bach's warning, Kennedy paves the way with his own testimony before Loengard describes the events that led him into Majestic. And while John has a long way to go before convincing a skeptical Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and his fellow commission members of his story, Bach decides to thoroughly discredit him anyway.
Episode Thirteen: White Rabbit
On a stealth mission to Vietnam, Bach and John are captured by North Vietnamese. Back in the United States, Kimberly takes matters into her own hands. . .and kidnaps Bach's wife.
When Soviet operatives fire on a Hive ship over the Gulf of Tonkin, Bach claims that US naval vessels were their target and starts the country's involvement in the Vietnam War. After air strikes down a Hive ship, Bach kidnaps Loengard for a reconnaissance mission. Yet, when military officials express reservations about having Majestic's Juliet Stuart co-ordinating with Russians also tracking the Hive, Bach joins Loengard for the trip himself. Teamed with Vietnamese guide Tay Ma, Loengard comes across a crazed American soldier as he finds a Grey's severed head. And when John finds that the crash site has been visited by the Viet Cong, Bach orders him to destroy it while requesting an air strike that could kill them all. Of course, they escape.
Episode Fourteen: Shades of Gray
Both John and Kim now working for Bach and Majestic. They plan to use the resources of Majestic to further their cause while secretly trying to take over the organization from within. Majestic's latest plan is to lure and capture an alien craft by making a fake crop circle. The plan works, but Majestic fails to down the alien craft. An injured Grey is left behind, and he scurries off into the cover of night. Bach decides to send John and Kim after the grey, because of Kim's unique ability to track them using her Ganglion-induced sixth sense.
The Grey finds a little girl named Monica and he persuades her to help him. John and Kim find the gray, but Monica almost kills them, but Juliet, the Russian operative working with Majestic shows up and saves them. They recover the Grey and head back to the Majestic base camp. A successful A.R.T. is preformed on the Grey and the now friendly Grey begins to communicate with Kim telepathically. She learns that Monica is in danger, and John and Juliet head over to the girl's house to help. They rescue her just in time.
Back at the base camp, the gray continues to communicate with Kim, and she learns a lot about the history of the Gray species before the Hive arrived. She also learns some shocking news. She's pregnant... and the child is Hive.
Episode Fifteen: Burn, Baby, Burn
A man helps Loengard search for pregnant Kimberly amid the Watts riots, after aliens abduct her in Los Angeles. A lot of crazy scenes of the Watts Towers and footage of the riots are included.
Episode Sixteen: Both Sides Now
Anti-war demonstrations led by Jerry Rubin sweep up Loengard and Juliet on a mission in Berkeley, California, to shut down a Hive operation
Episode Seventeen: To Prey in Darkness
The search for the Roswell alien-encounter film leads Loengard and Juliet to crusading columnist Dorothy Kilgallen and a TV news network.
Episode Eighteen: Strangers in the Night
Juliet and John are sent with Major Colin Powell to investigate the collapse of Aura-Z, the USSR's equivalent of Majestic, while Bach enlists the help of astronomer Carl Sagan to track down the Hive's home planet.
Episode Nineteen: Bloodlines
Alerted to a planet size object (the Hive's Tenth Planet) transmitting a message to Earth, Bach orders Dr Carl Sagan to decode it while he keeps the news from Majestic's directors. And though he's kept in the dark, Albano agrees to ask the captured Gray to shed some light on its contents. Meanwhile, Loengard and Juliet use Dr Timothy Leary to find the San Francisco lab where the Hive has been producing a hallucinogen under the direction of Steele and Kim. And when Kim tosses the drug into John's face, it causes him to see their son aboard a Hive ship.
Loengard offers to infiltrate the Hive's mothership to gain critical intelligence data and find his son. At the end he tells us he succeeded.
Albano kills Frank Bach and reveals that he is now Hive.
At the end of the episode, Loengard speaks thirty years later. He alludes to the fact that somehow the Hive were beaten.
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