Product Description
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Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the ten-episode, 20-hour
miniseries Taken was one of the most ambitious projects
undertaken by cable TV's Sci-Fi Network, ultimately costing 40
million dollars — a price that proved well worth it, inasmuch as
the series posted the network's highest-ever ratings. Covering a
period from 1947 to the present, the story focused on three
different families, each of whom was profoundly affected by
extraterrestrial visitation. The Keys family was headed by WWII
bomber pilot Russell Keys (Steve Burton), who spent virtually his
entire adult life haunted by his "close encounter" with aliens.
The Clarkes were originally represented by lonely Texas waitress
Sally Clarke (Catherine Dent), who was impregnated by a charming
stranger (Eric Close) who turned out to be an alien survivor of
the Roswell c. And the lives of the Crawfords were dictated
by ruthless Army officer Owen Crawford (Joel Gretsch), who was
determined to prove that the government had covered up the truth
about Roswell by dedicating his life to tracking down all space
aliens and their half-human descendants. The story was narrated
by Allie Keys (Dakota Fanning), a "hybrid" child of the present
day, whose story determined the outcome of the final episodes.
Boasting impressive computer-generated special effects and
eye-popping facial makeup, Taken was seen over a two-week period,
beginning December 2, 2002, and ending on December 13.
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Steven Spielberg's alien abduction opus Taken is what happens
when you cross-breed Close Encounters of the Third Kind with The
Waltons. Obviously flushed with the success of the TV miniseries
Band of Brothers, Spielberg's Dreamworks studio has created an
equally epic 10-part story chronicling 50 years of habitual
abduction over several generations of three American families.
Beginning with the most notorious alien cover-up in U.S. history,
the 1947 "c" at Roswell, New Mexico, Taken introduces the
"Greys" and the families they routinely abduct, probe, and, in a
couple of cases, impregnate over the course of the ten 90-minute
episodes. The three families are: the Keys, from which first
Russell, then his son Jessie, then grandson Danny, are all
abducted; the Clarkes, who are descended from a liaison between
lonely put-upon housewife Sally Clarke and one of the Roswell
c survivors; and the Crawfords, the ruthless G-men who are
committed to uncovering the purpose behind the alien visitations
at any cost.
It's this question that forms the main thread of the story: but
even though the Greys' actions are at best ambiguous and at worst
hostile, the viewer can't help feeling that after all this
systematic abuse of their human test subjects the aliens will in
the end present them with a cure for cancer. In fact, Taken is
Spielberg at his most touchy-feely: for all its science fiction
trappings it's basically a soap opera, lacking the sinister
undercurrent of either Dark Skies or The X-Files. Nevertheless,
it's an engaging series with decent performances--most notably
Joel Gretsch as psychotic Owen Crawford--good special effects,
and an engaging enough storyline to make it entertaining, if
somewhat disposable, TV. --Kristen Bowditch