First Wave
First Wave
| 09 September 1998 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    LouHomey From my favorite movies..
    Dotbankey A lot of fun.
    ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
    ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
    vespasian79 I'll be brief. I watched this show for most of the first season, then lost interest. It is basically what we writers call an "homage", which means anything from borrowing story ideas and plots to outright ripoff.In this case, the series is a blatant rehash of the classic 1960s Sci Fi series "The Invaders". The shows share identical plot lines and devices, for instance: In "The Invaders", architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) stumbled upon an alien plot to take over the earth, and spent the rest of the series trying (usually in vain) to get people to believe him.In First Wave, Cade Foster (Sebastian Spence) stumbles upon an alien plot to take over the earth, and spends the rest of the series trying (usually in vain) to get people to believe him.In "The Invaders", the aliens, when killed or wounded, glowed red and disappeared, thus leaving no corpse or no evidence.In "First Wave", the aliens, when killed or wounded (though not always when wounded) glow and (unlike Invaders) begin to show their true form and then disappear, leaving no corpse or evidence.Along the way, David Vincent meets unusual people (usually aliens, whom he kills so they can vanish), but sometimes he manages to convince people that he's NOT a nutcase, and he even forms an alliance of sorts with an alien resistance. Cade Foster gets a human partner, conspiracy nut Crazy Eddie (the underrated Rob LaBelle) and gains an alien ally in the form of Joshua (Robert R. Cross) and another human ally as well, Jason Radcliffe, hottie and ex-porn star Traci Lords.David Vincent discovers the alien plot by taking a wrong turn and seeing a flying saucer.Cade Foster, in an imaginative twist, stumbles on the conspiracy by discovering a "lost" book of Nostradamus which details the coming alien invasion in a whole lot of the usually cryptic Nostradamus quatrains, although given Nostra's reputation for being undeniably vague, I wonder just why he chose to interpret "went with Marcel to get coffee and croissants" as "big alien invasion coming, earth doomed unless stalwart human hero with mixed-bag of dubiously intelligent sidekicks can save it", is beyond me.On the whole, First Wave was an Okay Show, which different writers kept screwing up by drastically altering plot and story lines, which didn't save the show. (Idiot writers. When will we ever learn?) However, The Invaders comes out way ahead, for its originality (which actually paid 'hommage' to the Cold War 1950s and the really creepy Invasion of the Body Snatchers), and was very gritty for its time and surprisingly daring (by then-TV standards) story elements, while First Wave wasn't really innovative but was eerily prescient when it's realized that the events of 9/11 had yet to occur.Anyway, if you pick it up in reruns on SciFi channel, go ahead and watch. It's an Okay time killer.
    thrulahoop this is a strictly "hypothetical" what if? now as i understand the cloning process a suitable cell from one being is placed into the "evacuated " egg of another being the end result being a "cellular" copy of the former being? oversimplified I'm sure, now to the hypotheoretical .Isnt possible with some of the "lower" forms of life such as fish and frogs etc that the sex of these creatures can change at early stages of their lives depending upon environmental conditions, number of opposite sexed creatures in the vicinity etc ?So if humans were to be cloned one day might some individual who perhaps was dissatisfied with his or her original sexual designation convince some perhaps less than totally scrupulous MD to manipulate his/her clone to emerge from the womb a perfect copy yet of the other sex ?
    go2dean I think it goes without saying that Sebastian Spence really made this series work. He had that quintessential generation X (Markie Mark) look with an attitude to boot. Rob Labelle was also very distinguishing as Crazy Eddie. Traci Lords Character was a good addition in the 3rd season, but someone like Cynthia Rothrock could have given you just as much sex appeal along with the ability to kick some SERIOUS butt.Nonetheless, I enjoyed the series from beginning to end, and hope to see it available on DVD soon. This was a youth driven project looking to reach a young audience. It was also good exposure for Spence who displayed the ability to fulfill the demands of an action lead role. Roger Cross also did an excellent job in the anti-hero role of Joshua as well.
    docp Contrary to the views of another reviewer, I find this series outstandingly entertaining and my wife and I have been addicted to every episode. I am in my 50's and have a postgraduate degree - so much for moronic, sex-craved teens only! It is excellent escapism. No-one is suggesting that the programme is 'realistic' - that could hardly be described as the purpose of most SciFi TV series - but it does hold one intrigued from the beginning of the first series to the end of the last to find out how, if at all, everything is going to work out. The 'prophecies' of Nostradamus add a novel twist to everything and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I should imagine that Nostradamus would feel well flattered indeed by this programme and the only somersaults he will be turning in his grave will be one's of delight. I would suggest that this programme be accepted for what it is and that one should not expect it to be deeply meaningful or anything else that it does not purport to be. It is well acted and directed throughout and I would recommend it unreservedly.