Well I suppose I ought to have read the cast list before shelling out £7.50 to watch this in a cinema. Had I done so, I would have probably been less surprised at just how poor this is. The is a sort of hybrid of "Star Trek V" (1989) with bits of "Stargate SG-1" thrown in too. The whole premiss centres upon a crew of astronauts who are sent to investigate a mysterious sphere orbiting the over-populated Earth and pinging out a coded message that suggests it might actually be God! Captained by MTVs very own Richard Blackwood, it is pretty clear that something nefarious is afoot. To solve that problem, we turn to Claudia Black "Karla" and her muscle-mate "Ulph" (David O'Hara) who are sent to investigate and, of course, it all goes a bit pear-shaped. Hovering above their investigation is their gazillionaire boss "Vance" (Phil Davis in a particularly scruffy -looking flannel/ill-fitting blazer combo) who adds precisely no menace to the proceedings at all. I never quite forgave Black for, in my view, totally trashing what had hitherto been an entertaining sci-fi series in "SG-1", she is a wooden and unremarkable actress who lives up to that description here. Admittedly, the dialogue is just as wooden and O'Hara only has the one gear which does all it needs to, but hardly challenges anyone. The plot is thin and the characterisations left largely on the page (or postcard) as the story lumbers on. The visual effects are easily the best thing about this otherwise derivative television movie that will be remembered next week by nobody.
