1.1 Pilot & 1.2 Vector The show laid its paper-thin premise down in the previously aired first fifteen minutes. Nasty goings on in an Arctic research facility attract the attentions of the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), which despatches their best people in the form of Dr. Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell, The Rocketeer), his ex-wife Dr. Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky), other infection control experts along with, predictably, a member of the military. Once they arrive at the secret facility they soon realise that they’re dealing with a biological problem they’re not prepared for, and those who work there aren’t at all cooperative. If this sounds vaguely familiar, then you’ve been awake in the last few decades, because I’ve seen this idea presented at least half a dozen times before. What I found especially impressive is how many other science fiction movies, TV and even computer games they could manage to pillage over the 84-minute running time (that felt like 3 hours…). In retrospect, with generous amounts of exposition, Helix just spliced successive scenes and ideas borrowed from alternative sources. The Abyss, Godzilla, X-Files, Alien, Doom, The Thing, Resident Evil, Outbreak, The Andromeda Strain and Half-Life are all inspiration for various scenes, among others. Some are more subtle nods, where others are almost verbatim copies. There’s a bug hunt in ducting that’s almost a complete copy of the death of Dallas from Alien, and even the relationships between the various parties in the CDC crew seems to mimic those in The Abyss. Every writer is influenced, but some things got assimilated wholesale. Unless I’m wrong, North of the 83rd parallel above Greenland is open ocean, over which the US doesn’t have any control, it’s Denmark’s territorial waters. But as we get to see more of the research complex as the story unfolds, there are numerous levels descending well below the surface. This is super-clever, because sea ice normally only covers the North Pole by just 12ft. So does that mean the complex a massive submarine? Nobody questions this oddity, irrespective of their qualifications. If it had been on the South Pole this might have made sense, but where they placed it made utterly none. Also, using wind turbines in the Arctic (notorious for low visibility) around somewhere supported by helicopters seems moronic, as does building a huge facility without a heated hanger to support aircraft. I’m being picky I fully accept, but creating a believable universe is about more than finding the least convincing CGI effects you can and hoping the characters distract people from your lack of any scientific or geographic research. What didn’t help this exercise along was some of the diabolical dialogue that various characters were forced to exchange. It came out like third graders exchanging overheard sexual information than people with PHDs discussing potential pandemics. In fact some of the smartest people seemed remarkably dumb, given the credentials they supposedly had. In the opening scene Alan throws a vial to Dr. Sarah Jordan (Jordan Hayes), which he’s hinted contains Cholera. She reacts like he threw her a live hand grenade, when her dual PHDs should have told her that unless she opened and drank the contents she’d nothing to fear. My favourite dumb piece of dialogue was the idiot who told Alan that they use the 2ft long electric batons on Polar Bears. Given the reach of a fully grown male Polar Bear weighing 1700lbs must be at least 5ft, that’s something I’d like to see. No, really, show me how that works. So having been generally scathing about Helix, was there anything here worth sticking around for? The character the stand-out for me was Dr. Doreen Boyle delivered by the excellent Catherine Lemieux. She was both natural and believable, which is more than could be said for some others. I really hope they don’t kill her off, because most of the other female characters are painful to watch. I also liked Major Sergio Balleseros (Mark Ghanimé) who kept his military/company man character relatively cliché free. Though personally, I’m rooting for the black goo, if asked to take sides. At the end we get thrown a couple of narrative bones when they reveal that Dr. Hiroshi Hatake is far weirder than anticipated, and that Julia just can’t resist a snog when it’s offered, even by her genetically mutating ex. Helix didn’t infect me immediately, but it did perk my interest. The third episode was screened directly after the first two, come back for our review later this week.
