Natural Selection
Charlie Craig, executive producer of Prey, thinks the days of Homo Sapiens may be numbered. By David Richardson.
Natural selection works on a simple principle: if two species occupy the same space and compete for limited resources, the strongest will survive. This was the case 40,000 years ago, when the Neanderthals vanished from the face of the earth, to be replaced by Homo Sapiens. But what if the process was to occur again? What if a new species, one that smarter than Homo Sapiens, evolved on this planet? How could we continue to exist?
That's the premise of Prey, ABC'S new 13-part weekly drama which premiered during January. It finds young anthro-biologist Sloan Parker (played by Debra Messing) confronted with the terrifying prospect that a new species of the Homo genus has emerged. These creatures, which look and sound like us, have infiltrated society, intent on becoming the dominant life form. When Sloan's mentor is murdered for these discoveries, the young scientist becomes the next target - and she must attempt to convince a sceptical public of the truth.
Prey's executive producer is Charlie Craig, a man who extensive credits include The X-Files. Like Chris Carter's show, Prey is dark, sometimes frightening and often thought provoking. It takes scientific facts and shrouds them in a dramatic framework, presenting a disturbing scenario that could actually happen .....
'Obviously we're taking dramatic convention here'. Craig admits, 'but the germ of this idea does derive from anthropological study, and working ahead from the given points that we have. It would stem from, like we say in the pilot, 'a single, genetic anomaly' that would bring about this next species.
'It's all based on parallels to earlier parts of history. The Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens existed in the same time, and then Neanderthals disappeared. There are a lot of theories about why that happened; maybe climate change, maybe Home Sapiens were just really pissed off and decided to take matters into their own hands.
'But in talking to these anthropologists, they do say that the climatic change will bring about genetic changes within people. Certain high density urban areas, like the slums of Brazil near the equator, would be the breeding ground for something like this taking place. It would bring about a species more adaptable to rising temperatures, to the shifting of the climate in general. That species, in being more set to adapt to this environment, would be superior, it would be set up to survive better that we are. Survival of the fittest'.
In order to ensure as much scientific accuracy as possible, Craig hired a scientific consultant for the show.
'We had an anthropologist at Emory University as one of our advisors'. he reveals. 'It really could happen - that's what's fun about this show. It attacks the sort of egocentric approach that I think people have right now, which is we're obviously the last and best model of human beings. But you know, a new car comes out every year'.
The idea for Prey has been circulated for some time, and the show has gone through a number of changes during it's development period. A pilot was actually filmed last year, starring Sherilyn Fenn as Sloan Parker, but studio executives were not happy with the episode.
'I'm not the creator of the show' Craig clarifies. 'ABC and Warner Bros got together, I guess last development season. ABC was looking for science 'faction' shows- you know, science fiction but something that could really happen. They made the pilot, and when that didn't work, I was on a deal at Warner Bros. They brought me in and said 'How about we start over again, and try to make it work'. and that's how we got here.
'The pilot confirmed their belief that there was a really good germ of an idea in the show. They had several problems, and clearly Sherilyn was one of them. And then they brought me in, and the pilot was re-written and certain elements of it were recast. So, I wasn't really involved in what went down with Sherilyn, but it worked to our advantage'.
As Prey was re-cast, re-thought and re-written, Craig, and his team spent a great deal of time deciding how they should present the new species. Always intent on retaining credibility they elected to take a low-key approach to the aliens among us.
'That was a real challenge for us'. he claims. 'What was very important to me, and important to ABC, was that we didn't go the super-power route. We didn't say, 'You know what would be great? If they could jump really high, or they could run really fast.'
'In talking to technical advisors, it became apparent that one of the major differences would be in brain power. Interestingly enough, the size of the brain would be smaller, as would the size of the person, which is something we didn't go for, casting-wise. But with an increased level of brain activity, we presupposed certain things from that point on. Brains are an electrically-based system, therefore a more advanced brain would be able to read or pick up the electrical energy coming from another person.
'So members of (the new) species can essentially tell when somebody's coming, or they can identify who is coming. They can, therefore, identify members of the new species versus members of our species on sight, or even before they can actually see the person.
'Other than that, we've been very careful. They're a little bit stronger. They're a little bit sharper, but they don't possess powers that would take it out of the realm of (credibility), and into the realm of that they are a mutant, or they are a super-power. That adds to the believability, and that makes it more scary, to me'.
Some critics have compared Prey to They Live, the John Carpenter movie in which society's ruling classes are revealed to be alien creatures. Were Craig and his team influenced by this film at all?
'I don't think so, since I didn't create this show, we just made the idea watchable. I don't think it influenced me at all., although, it's an interesting movie. The real challenge on this show has been stretching it out over an extended period of time (compared) to a feature. And so many questions get raised in the course of working your way through episode seven that don't get raised when you can just do a feature, that I think it really starts to distance itself from something like that'.
It's almost inevitable that, because of its scientific themes, Prey will be compared to The X-Files. This could work in the show's favour, or it might be its undoing - just witness the premature cancellations of Dark Skies, The Burning Zone, Sleepwalkers and The Visitor.
'Every time a show comes on, it just gets compared to The X-Files and then it gets cancelled'. says Craig with a wry smile. 'The X-Files is really hot. I don't think it would be wise for the average development person to be going out and trying to copy The X-Files. I think the attractiveness of this show, to me, although I enjoyed working on The X-Files, is that it's not The X-Files and there's some real differences to it.
'What The X-Files always did was came up with an explanation. They came up with a reason whereby you could believe that this was taking place right now. As long as you believe it could take place, you can be scared by it.
'I think television popularity is just based on gripping shows that somehow the audience can get emotionally involved with. This show can just make you frightened. People love to be scared, there's no doubt about that. If you can get scared in a believable way, then people are interested in coming back. That's what attracted me'.
In the original pilot, Prey was set in the year 2012. Craig insisted on changing this to the present day, believing that the future scenario was detrimental to the show.
'Things are less frightening when they're distanced by 15 years'. he asserts. 'I just like making people feeling like that could happen to me, because then that helps them feel the characters of these guys. It enables us to tap into the whole Invasion of the Body Snatchers (aspect). Through these 13 episodes you begin to realise it's not just that you have to be wary of people you've known all your life. They could be altered to the extent they are a member of the species now. People who were your best friends, could become one of them. I think there's something really affecting about that'.
The show takes an unexpected and intriguing turn during the first episode when Sloan discovers that the handsome FBI agent Tom Daniels is actually a member of the new breed. When Sloan arrives home, Daniels is there, waiting to kill her. Admitting that he is attracted to her, the agent is unable to carry out his assignment.
'They do fall in love,' says Craig 'Sloan is faced with somebody she's attracted to who not only is the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, but he is another species. They're determined to wipe us off the face of the earth, and yet she's in love with him'.
So far 13 episodes of Prey have been shot, taking the show's run into the spring. Its future has yet to be decided, and although critical reaction to early episodes has so far been very good, some have voiced doubts that the story can sustain itself in the long term. After all, The X-Files is able to re-invent itself every week, introducing new mutants, monsters and aliens.
Prey is restricted by it premise, and so the writers and producers face a major challenge in keeping the show fresh and exciting. They have addressed this issue by continually introducing different members of the new species, thus allowing the audience to learn more about the race as the series develops.
'Roger Howarth (who plays the serial killer Lynch in the pilot) is kind of the prototype'. Craig reveals. 'He comes in for an arc of two or three episodes, and we learn certain things about the species and the plans of the species and the abilities of the species. Then he moves on, and we move into another person who is completely different from Roger. It's sort of different bad guys representing different aspects of the new species'.
At the end of the day, Prey will be judged on its ability to entertain, yet Craig is proud of the fact that this show is a rare thing: one that contains a very important message. It does not preach, but the advice is there for those who are willing to listen.
'Its an environmental message.' he says. 'These guys are the result of bad things happening to our environment, and the lack of regard for our world.'
Xpose ..... March 1998
David Richardson