"Xposé", Issue #10, May 1997"

By Simon Bacal.

Recently Xposé had the opportunity to witness the invasion of the alien Grays forst hand. We were invited to the set of Dark Skies in Hollywood to meet with the cast and crew… and a few of those revolting ganglia.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Dark Skies universe, Majestic-12, formed after a UFO crashed in Roswell in 1947, is a covert organization which has dedicated itself to preventing the Hive, a bunch of very hostile aliens, from taking over the human race.

After Russian-born Majestic agent Juliet (Jeri Lynn Ryan) receives an SOS signal from Aura-Z, Frank Bach (JT Walsh), the Majestic heavyweight, sends Juliet, fellow MJ-12 member John Loengard (Eric Close) and a bunch of cloakers to Chernobyl in the USSR to investigate. Unbeknownst to the remainder of the alien hunting team, Juliet is searching for her mentor, Colonel Mironov (John Saint Ryan), Aura-Z's head honcho. "She exhibits a deep respect and admiration towards her mentor," says Jeri Lynn Ryan. "I'm not going to reveal the episode's climax, but I will say that those emotions cause her to take some pretty drastic action."

Heading up the mission to Chernobyl is Major Powell (Wolfgang Bodison). Since Dark Skies, set in the mid 1960s, is a show which ties an ongoing extra-terrestrial invasion to real life historical events and figures, one has to wonder whether Major Powell is a young version of General Colin Powell, who helped spearhead such historical events as the US attack on Libya in 1986, the American invasion of Panama in 1989 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

"We can assume he's Colin Powell because he's an African American major who's pulled out of the Vietnam War specifically to lead this mission, but we're not hitting it right on the head," says Wolfgang Bodison, whose previous hits include A Few Good Men, Highlander, ER and Murder She Wrote. "It's up to the audience to decide.

"When they [Majestic] first talk about choosing someone to lead the mission, they go through several possible candidates, but Powell wins the 'grand prize' because he's won several awards and commendations," Bodison adds. "When he realizes that the mission involves real aliens, he's scared shitless - he's not a coward. Powell's seen terrible things in Vietnam, but he just doesn't want to deal with this type of thing because it goes beyond anything he's ever encountered. When he first sees a ganglion emerging from the mouth of a Russian scientist, he stands there in total disbelief, but he fights to the max. However, he would rather be in the darkest jungle fighting fellow human beings, instead of battling unknown things which don't even come from this world."

"I love this show's concept - the idea of bringing actual historical characters into what is obviously a fantastic situation," remarks Eric Close, whose fictional counterpart has hooked up with Robert Kennedy, rock and roll legend Jim Morrison and The Beatles, among other celebrities. "And Wolfgang is the perfect choice to play Powell because he is very talented. In fact, they [the producers and creators] have utilized talented people throughout the season, something which prompts you to do well. I mean, it's like playing a tennis match. You want to go out and play someone who's better than you because you will rise to the occasion and give them a damn good game even though they may eventually beat you. Ultimately, however, you will improve to the point where you're right in the mix competing with the best of the best."

In the shadowy world of Aura-Z, however, life is no tennis match - thanks to a bunch of corpses and some very serious destruction to the compound. "They've been conducting experiments with aliens," says Close, "so we're here to clean up the mess and get any pertinent information about those experiments."

It transpires that Pavel and Liudmilla, two survivors of that mess, belong to a team which has been implanting alien ganglia into convicts. The destruction, they reveal, has been caused by the convicts, who have become violent and murderous after having such creatures dumped into their heads. To make matters worse, information about these events is locked in

Mironov's private safe which is geared up with a special voice-activated code, a device that will cause the entire building to explode if anyone but Mironov tries to open it. However, Loengard opts to open the safe and retrieve the top notch intelligence - milliseconds before the building becomes little more than explosive mush.

On the day of Xposé’s visit to the Dark Skies set, Close, Ryan, Bodison are decked out in combat gear as they film the crucial seconds when their characters scramble out of Aura Z's headquarters before it explodes. "In this episode we discover that John's more than ready to risk his life for the Majestic team," remarks Close, "so he's definitely proving to be a trustworthy Majestic agent."

Within the next few minutes, Close is called back to the set for another run through of the scene. The episode requires the Dark Skies ensemble to undergo a period of shooting practice to prepare for some upcoming gunplay against the convicts. "I'm shooting several guns today," smiles Ryan, "Usually, I have a little .25, but right now I'm using an M16 and a .45. The M16 is fine, but I keep closing my eyes whenever I fire the .45 because I'm always getting bits of powder and debris in my eyes. It's also very loud, so I definitely have to work on my .45 skills before I go back on set."

"Working in science fiction is almost like reliving childhood games because I'm obviously in a world of fantasy and make believe," Bodison remarks. "I'm playing a character who's hunting down aliens, so I get to shoot off a gun, receive a wonderful adrenaline rush and go home without worrying about the police circling over my house, busting through my door and hauling me off to jail. The world of make believe presents a safe medium to do that type of thing, but I can definitely understand how certain people become power hungry and crazy when they have these weapons."

Loving the episode's high dose of action-adventure, Ryan says its storyline proves her character is no stranger to the world of alien busting. "We learn that Juliet has possessed an extensive military and training background with Aura-Z since age 16, when she was first recruited into the organization," she expands. "It's a terrific storyline for my character because it all takes place on her home turf, and its thrill ride energy enables me to understand what makes Juliet tick. The aliens abducted her during childhood, so her decision to join the organization and continue the fight against the Hive is also a personal vendetta."

The man who creates Juliet's extraterrestrial arch enemies is none other than Todd Masters, an LA-based special effects meister, whose impressive resumé screams such F/X credits as Tales from the Crypt, Star Trek: First Contact, Mortal Kombat, Jennifer 8 and the feature film version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Masters was absent from the set when on the day of shooting, but we spoke on a later date. "The scene where a ganglion comes out of a guy's mouth requires us to use a tongue puppet," Masters reveals. "Basically, the actor puts this thing on the edge of his tongue and wiggles it around. Then, it's supposed to jump onto the floor and become a shooting target, so we have another ganglion, which is operated by cables. In addition, we're using a gelatin model for a scene where the Majestic team blows the thing up. "We didn't have to build these things specifically for this episode because we had already created them earlier in the schedule," Masters continues. "Basically, we have a big bag of ganglia tricks, so we pull them out and use them whenever necessary."

Besides the ganglions, Masters is also the purveyor of such creatures as The Grays, aliens which have cropped up in a number of Dark Skies adventures. In this particular story one such Gray, captured by Majestic-12 in the recent episode Shades of Gray, is seen in the organization's isolation chamber. "It pops out and gives us a little scare," Masters says about the fully animatronic puppet. "The head is totally remote control, the neck is cable operated, the chest breathes by cable and air, the hands are also cable operated and the legs are operated by rods.

"For Strangers in the Night we built one alien, but throughout the series, we've constructed an alien body suit, a dummy, close up hands and a severed dummy head. Basically, the Grays' look has been thought out very carefully because we always knew the audience, which includes some real die-hard UFO buffs, would be very concerned about our treatment of the aliens. "To date, everything has worked out just fine," Masters adds. "We haven't been stumped yet."

Return to Darks Skies Page

Return to Interviews and Articles Page

This page is for fan enjoyment and review. I do not own any of the pictures. They remain the property of their original owners. No infringement of copyright is intended. I am making no money from this site... I wish! If you see anything on this page (or any other page on my site) that you believe belongs to you and you would like me to remove it, please just let me know and I will take it down immediately or, if you prefer, acknowledge you in full. (g)