My name is John Loengard. I’m recording this because we may not live through the night. They’re here, they’re hostile and powerful people don’t want to you know. History as we know it is a lie…

The Premise

20th century history as we know it is a lie. Aliens have been among us since the 1940′s, but a government cover-up has prevented the public from knowing this. As the series progresses, we follow John Loengard and Kim Sayers as they attempt to thwart numerous plans of the alien Hive, most of which are tied to historical events and figures. In addition, the pair must stay one step ahead of a covert government agency, Majestic-12, tasked with fighting the aliens while maintaining the conspiracy of silence.

The series starred Eric Close, Megan Ward, J.T. Walsh, Jeri Ryan, Tim Kelleher and Conor O’Farrell.

Created by Bryce Zabel and Brent V. Friedman, Dark Skies was originally planned as a five year epic that would span four decades of the twentieth-century, from the 1960s to the eve of the new millennium. Tying historical events such as the JFK assassination to an alien invasion of the sort popularised on The X-Files, Dark Skies looked to be a sure-fire winner. 

It was originally broadcast on Saturday evenings at 8pm as part of NBC’s ‘Thrillogy’, a strand of action shows which also included The Pretender and Profiler. Unlike those two shows, Dark Skies was cancelled and attempts to place it with another network or directly into syndication failed.In the UK it was seen on Channel 4 in a Monday evening slot.

The Music

To celebrate the show’s tenth anniversary, a limited edition CD soundtrack was released on Perseverance Records in September 2006, featuring selections from the original television score composed by Michael Hoenig and a previously unreleased Pilot Suite arranged by The X-Files composer Mark Snow.

I bought it from here.

Awards

Dark Skies won and/or was nominated for the following awards:

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA