"We've got to stare into the face of the unknown and make damn sure we don't blink."

Threshold is one of the Great White network Hopes to take on ABC's Lost. In this case the brainchild of CBS (NBC are packing Surface, while Fox have Brett Ratner's Prison Break - opinions to come) it takes as its signature enigma alien first contact (not the most original of ideas, as well as 'classics' like The Invaders this concept, in a sense, fuelled the intermittently entertaining 4400 last year). There is the sinister stamp of Star Trek's Brannon Braga - but also, more encouragingly, David Goyer (Batmin Begins and the Blade trilogy). The cast ... largely meh, apart from Brent Spiner (oh come on, he's worth a laugh) and a cracking performance from Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) as a gambling, booze and stripper addicted "expert in linguistics and applied mathematics". Anyway, the episode itself... well, it's rather good if admittedly a bit x-files redux - stretching a potential one-episode plotline from that show into an entire series arc. Also rife with plodding, laughable dialogue (see above) and a sickeningly 'contemporary' soundtrack, nonetheless it works on a visceral level and when not recycling sci-fi show standards the script can be surprisingly witty and the direction tense and fraught.
This is not a product on the same level as Abrams' Lost (not in terms of budget, nor script, nor acting) but it's compelling and at least as spookily unnerving as its desert island cousin. Whether it will make it to TV over here is another matter. if Sky are Fox and Ch 4 are ABC it looks as though Threshold may be doomed to Bravo or Sci-Fi. On the basis of this episode that would be unjust.