The Eleventh Hour

Network: CBS
Status: New Series
Timeslot: Thursday 10 PM EST
Premiere: October 9th
Website: www.cbs.com/primetime/eleventh_hour

Update December 2008: CBS has announced an order of five more episodes for this series. The show has performed quite well in total viewers this season averaging close to twelve million per week and coming in just behind bonafide hit The Mentalist in shows of interest to Science Fiction and Fantasy fans. However, it has continually lost as much as fifty percent of its lead-in audience from CSI which seems to have CBS executives a bit irked. Apparently it will be given five more outings in the same timeslot (which will begin airing in Spring after its winter hiatus), before the network makes a final decision on its fate.

Previous Entry:
The second of two American remakes of British series (first being ABC’s Life on Mars) comes to us from action/adventure mogul and shepherd of the CSI franchise, Jerry Bruckheimer. The British version followed Special Advisor Professor Ian Hood (with Patrick Stewart portraying the dour investigator) and his female bodyguard as they investigated abuses of science (called in at the “eleventh hour” as the last line of defense). That incarnation only ran for four ninety minute episodes (by design, not because of cancellation) and provided some rather intense, intellectual, and engaging drama. The American version will go with a younger actor to portray the protagonist, Rufus Sewell, but otherwise the initial reports suggest that the creative team is trying to stick close to the spirit of the original series. It will focus on science fact instead of science fiction and deal with topics such as cloning, genetic manipulation and new technology according to the producers. In fact, the pilot will redo the first episode of the British series which focused on a father who desperately wanted to clone his deceased son.

I have seen several episodes of the original and I liked it, but when I heard that Bruckheimer would do the American version I questioned how faithful the king of action/adventure cinema would remain to the series concept. Then I remembered that he also gave us the CSI franchise (which has a different version running every night of the week, I think) and figured that he would use The Eleventh Hour as his next incarnation of high-tech police procedural shows. Like The Mentalist, I question how much interest this show will have for Science Fiction and Fantasy fans. If it stays close to the feel of the original series, I may stick with it. If it turns into nothing more than CSI with sci fi buzz words, count me out. And while on the subject, if you want a series investigating abuses of science, why not bring back 1999’s Strange World (also from ABC)? Hey, they’re already resurrecting another failed series from that time period (Cupid), so it’s not too much of a stretch.