Is there anything duller than benign science-fiction tales about misunderstood extra-terrestrials? In 1947, Axxon Resources’ engineer Osler (Bert Emmett) overheard an alien communication in the desert and disappeared near Roswell, New Mexico. The government hushed up the possibility that Osler was taken aboard a spacecraft. In 2003, an ice-covered object is detected emitting a radio signal in close proximity to a US government experimental facility in Antarctica. Resident scientist Dr. Gierach (Nikolai Binev) contacts Dr. John Bachman (Roy Dotrice), who supervises cryptographer Julian Rome (James Spader); Rome has a reputation for investigating similar phenomena. Julian leaps at the opportunity to to vindicate his X-Files theories about aliens, and hopes to rekindle his relationship with Dr. Kate Brecher (Janine Esser), the former student whom he once loved and who now works with Dr. Gierach. Gierach's researchers, who are working on 3.2 acres of hydroponic crops, are generally hostile and Dr. Michael Straub (John Lynch) has a particularly negative attitude. Julian discovers an harmonic sound similar to the one reported by Osler, but deciphers its message too late: It's a warning not to melt the ice and thaw out "the host." Once the scientists have been infected by this alien being, they become expendable to their government employers, who decide to "clear the area" rather than risk spreading the infection. Ironically, the alien isn't hostile and doesn't mean to harm its human hosts, killing only in self-defense. Straub, who had his eyes on the Nobel Prize, is an altogether nastier piece of work who isn't interested in sacrificing himself for the greater good of humanity and couldn't care less whether he spreads disease throughout the world. Although screenwriter J. S. Cardone handles this science fiction premise with intelligence, his script ultimately does little more than polish up old debates with some new technological lingo. --Robert Pardi
