Global Frequency (Unaired Pilot)



Thanks to Lost there will be a veritable flood of new sci-fi/fantasy shows on the networks this season. Here’s one you won’t see. In the words of Jules Winnfield, this is a pilot that became nothing.


"I wonder if I can get a 'Mmmm Bop' ring tone for this thing..."

Global Frequency is based on a 12-issue comic book series written by Warren Ellis and drawn by a different artist each issue. It’s essentially a series of short stories about a semi-secret organization called the Global Frequency. The Frequency is a loosely collected network of experts in all fields who, under the direction of former secret agent Miranda Zero, deal with all forms of black-op projects gone mad. The series was typified by having a different main characters in every issue, as Zero would contact new people to investigate a cyborg soldier gone rogue or a bio-weapon about to be released in London. This being a Warren Ellis book it’s not surprising that even though the people recruited could be from any walk of life or any background they are all invariably bitter, cynical and foul-mouthed. The series succeeded by combining excellent art with Ellis’ wild technological ideas into punchy little stories.


"Are we in the Matrix? How about now? ... Now? C'mon, tell me!"

The pilot features a set-up that’s remarkably similar to the comic book. In terms of TV, this may be the most faithful adaptation of the comic book ever attempted. Miranda Zero (Michelle Forbes) and the Global Frequency’s workings are exactly as Ellis’ series described. Where the pilot diverges is by introducing two investigators who would have no doubt would have gone on to be the main characters in every episode.

Off duty police detective Sean Flynn (Josh Hopkins) finds a body in an alley. Only the left half of the body is there, the right half has been completely destroyed as if by terrific heat. Nearby is a large cell phone, which begins ringing. Flynn picks it up, and finds himself talking to Miranda Zero, who wants to know what happened. The dead man was an agent for the Frequency looking for a Russian immigrant with dangerous psychic powers, and Zero asks Flynn to use his detective skills to help wunderkind physicist Katrina Finch (Jenni Baird) with the search.


Ever have a Woody Allen kind of day?

If this series had made it to series the comparisons to The X-Files would have been inevitable. This whole episode is basically a meet-cute between Flynn and Finch, with a heavy smattering of government conspiracy. Perhaps the most disappointing thing is that while it uses the outline of the threat Ellis came up with for the first issue of the comic book series as the basis for the pilot, the writers dumb the nature of the threat down -- a lot. In the comic the Russian could teleport things with his mind, so the military put a chip in his head that linked his power to the bottom of a silo in Russia. When a signal was sent to the chip he would open a portal and a nuclear weapon would drop through the bottom of the silo to wherever the telepath was. In the TV series the telepath just blows stuff up, which is far less interesting. Still, with some smarter scripts this series could have gone somewhere. It's not a great lost pilot, but it isn't bad either.

Posted: Tue - August 2, 2005 at      

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