OUTCASTS

The latest sci-fi original in the network’s
“Supernatural Saturday” block is set on
a colonized planet, Carpathia, to which stricken
Earthlings
have fled and
built a town,
Forthaven,
with governing
leaders, a police
force, and
“expeditionaries”
to explore
beyond
the walls.

All is not well on Carpathia. Strange “whiteout”
dust storms are frequent. The leading expeditionary
— Mitchell Hoban, played by Battlestar Galactica and
Law & Order: UK’s Jamie Bamber — is an extreme
rogue. Many dangers live outside the walls. And
when the last-known people transporter to leave
Earth arrives in orbit, it definitely has problems.

The writers, producers and directors’ credits
include such Brit series as MI-5, Life on Mars and
Primeval, and the production and cast (including
Liam Cunningham as President Richard Tate and
Eric Mabius as the mysterious Julius Berger) are
up to those standards.

There are Lost, Primeval and Battlestar overtones,
and a sense that, like Battlestar (which
BBCA is also running on Saturday nights), there’s
a deeper meaning about civilization at the heart.