"TEKWAR"

1994-1996
Bold, brilliant, inventive...these are just some of the words which do NOT describe this show. Hailed as william shatner's masterpiece (by people who obviously never saw INVASION IOWA), and based on his best-selling novels, the show makes the most of its small budget, creating a dystopic vision of 2045, a time when the cyberdrug tek ravages the land. They were shooting for TRON meets RUSH, but soft writing left them far short. One tunes in hoping for grit and edge, but the dynamic is closer to a standard 70s cop show...and this is in the freakin' 90s! As with much sci fi of the late 20th century, you're left wondering how the gap between these folk and the STAR TREK talent pool can be so glaring - shouldn't the second or third best actors/writers in the biz still be pretty amazing? TEKWAR follows the exploits of ex-cop and ex-addict jake cardigan (greg evigan - BJ AND THE BEAR, MY TWO DADS), released from cryofreeze prison and trying to rebuild his life. His wife and son have moved on, and he lands a security job working for crusading anti-tek mogul walter bascom (shatner). They take on tek lords and assorted baddies. Cardigan has the requisite roguish charm, but his faint boorishness and violent temper eventually wear thin. Evigan's mildly wooden shortcomings get harder and harder to ignore, too. Shatner's bascom? Surprisingly vanilla. Maybe he felt he was overdue for something understated, but with the show stuck in meh, you keep waiting for something to come alive...and given his track record, you hope and expect that it will be him. But no...for the middle shank of the run, he doesn't even log an appearance (elvis has left the building, indeed). The show starts as a buddy drama, with eugene clark (KNIGHT RIDER 2000, ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES) as jake's steadfast partner, but a mid-season shakeup cruelly sends him to the rubbish tip. Natalie radford (SPENSER: THE JUDAS GOAT, SUPERSTAR), as bascom's top computer jock, survives the purge...but contributes no more talent or chemistry than those who don't. Maurice dean wint (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES), is an underused bright spot as an unyielding android police lieutenant. Torri higginson (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, STARGATE: ATLANTIS) shines as jake's initial love interest, but her scientist character is abandoned by the writers long before they have the decency to officially purge her. She's replaced by maria del mar (ROBOCOP: PRIME DIRECTIVES, 24), as jake's new partner sam houston, who seamlessly mixes femininity and toughness. And perhaps the brightest light of all (depending on your pulchritudinous preferences) is sci fi uberbabe lexa doig (ANDROMEDA, STARGATE: SGI) as cowgirl, a fearless cyberpunk. Her costuming (or lack thereof) is a tad obvious - if you're going to play that card so blatantly, producers, you should just have the integrity to make her a full-time nudist. The breast example (best - i mean best!) is in "Cyberhunt", and a glance at how her costume evolved from first appearance to last is probably worth a chuckle. But after a quickly-discarded disaster of an accent, she plays her character with intelligence and skill, and has to be in the running for sexiest nerd ever. Does TEKWAR have any juicy TREK guest appearances? A lil' nimoy or nichelle, perhaps? Nay, though there's one nicole ("Chill Factor"), as in de boer, four years before her DS9 debut. Overall, do i recommend you watch any of this halting effort? Nah. That said...
BEST OF THE LOT
-TEKLAB
One of the four telemovies that came to be known as as the first season, and memorable for no other reason than a ripping guest turn by michael york (LOGAN'S RUN, AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY), as the heir to the british throne. He schemes, fences, wears medieval armor...and raises the level of everything around him.
-Deadline
Lieutenant winger is attacked, and his cortical relay unit stolen. Without it, he'll die. The only episode that "humanizes" him, and shines a fine sci fi light on prejudice.
-Skin Deep
Jake's first love is murdered. Framed for the crime, he falls in with her security double, who has undergone both cosmetic surgery and memory implants to be a perfect match. They fall for each other, which sounds obvious...but this is the only episode to score as legitimate sci fi, that feels like nothing you've ever quite seen before. As if that isn't enough, the writing and chemistry are a notch above the show's norm.