The town of Roswell is once again investigated for signs of extraterrestrial activity. Could a blackmail attempt and an infamous piece of “evidence” finally prove that the truth is out there..?

This second season of the History Channel’s “based on real events” drama (more on that later) opens with a heavy hitter, as Project Blue book investigators are called to the sleepy town of Roswell, site of the famous 1947 UFO incident. The project was an investigation carried out by the U.S. Air Force during the 1950s and ‘60s, with the primary goal of ascertaining whether supposed UFO activity could be a threat to national security. The major characters are based on real life personnel, although most of the names have been changed.

Our heroes are real-life scientific consultant Dr J.Allen Hynek (Aidan Gillen, best known to genre fans of course as Game of Thrones’ Littlefinger) and Captain Michael Quinn (The Vampire Diaries’ Michael Malarkey), a character inspired by USAF Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the original director of Project Blue Book and the man who is thought to have coined the term “Unidentified Flying Object”. It was Dr Hynek who came up with the famous “Close Encounters” scale, and indeed has a well-deserved cameo in Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

They are aided, or more usually abetted, by Brigadier General James Harding, played by Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers, Captain America: The First Avenger, and much more). Harding sees the project as less about finding the truth and more about keeping the possible truth out of the public eye, leading to confrontations over the more open-minded scientific approach of Hynek and Quinn. McDonough never fails to impress, and here is able to add a touch of humanity to a character that could be one-note and even cartoonish in less skilled hands. Malarkey is solid but doesn’t really have a whole lot to do here, serving mainly as someone for Dr Hynek to explain the plot to. Gillen himself is as entertaining to watch as always, even managing to make his obvious struggle with an American accent seem somehow charming.

Aesthetically the series reeks of the early, pre-rock ‘n’ roll, 1950s. Everything is beige or brown, teenagers don’t seem to exist yet, and everyone drinks copious amounts of Bourbon, seemingly with no deference to the time of day or situation (which actually provides a minor plot point). It’s probably as fake as any “UFO over the White House” photo but it sells the era well, and there’s certainly a lot of effort being made to give this a distinctive period feel.

This isn’t the first time that Project Blue Book has inspired a TV series. In the late 1970s Jack Webb (of Dragnet fame) devised Project UFO (coincidentally also sometimes known as Project Blue Book), wherein each week an actual UFO report would be dramatized, with the incident usually being explained away as a weather balloon, an unusual cloud formation or a barefaced lie. Only on rare occasions would it be hinted that perhaps there was some basis in truth. Twin Peaks also included it in its narrative, and even Galactica 1980 referenced it at the end of each episode for some odd reason. Which is to say that, along with a myriad of related films, series and “documentaries”, the whole 1950/60s UFO experience is well trodden ground. Does this series have anything new to say on the subject?

I think the answer depends on how credulous you are. As noted, there’s a post-titles caption that states that this is based on real events, but this is a highly misleading and dubious claim; as far as I can make out not one single event (other than flashbacks to 1947) depicted in these two episodes ever happened. Of course the original Roswell incident occurred, whatever the explanation, but that’s not enough to hang a “real events” label on. In fairness they do also say it’s “inspired” by Dr Hynek’s work, but without giving us some indication of what’s fact and what’s fiction the audience is left with the decision to accept it at face value, dismiss it entirely, or hit up the internet for some background and clarification. At which point, if you read the comments, it becomes immediately clear that many consider this (along with all the other films and series on the subject) to be part of a U.S. Government initiative to soften us up for the forthcoming reveal that, yes, it’s all true and they really do walk among us. Let’s not forget that although shown on the SyFy channel in the UK, it’s co-produced by (and in the U.S. shown on) the History Channel. There are plenty of people who will take all of this at face value. Does it matter? If you’re implying it’s depicting history, then yes, I think it does. Off genre, but it’s the difference between the “tweaked for storytelling” history of Netflix’s The Crown versus the “we read a Ladybird book then made the rest up” history of ITV’s Victoria.

I’m not quite sure what this series’ stance is on the existence of our large-headed, grey-skinned visitors (or even of course whether this is an SF series at all). In real life Ruppelt (the Quinn character here) later dismissed UFOs as “space age myth”, although Hynek remained open to the possibility, if sceptical of the actual cases he investigated. Overall though the implication here seems to be that there was indeed alien activity, with cover ups and conspiracies aplenty. U.S ratings have been steadily dropping, so it remains to be seen if we get a definitive answer.

Verdict: Misleading fodder for the tin-foil hat brigade, but also an entertaining watch for the rest of us. I would highly recommend reading up on the real people involved though, they’re much more interesting than the versions depicted here. 7/10

Andy Smith