Helix

The first two hours go at a brisk, thrilling pace that allows for character development as well. A lot happens and there's a desire for more.

Created by Cameron Porsandeh, it’s a delicate balancing act [between science and thrills], but the two-episode premiere (airing with limited commercials) and a subsequent hour--enhanced by Campbell’s stiff-upper-lipped performance, and the clever promo slogan “Play God. Pay the price”--dangle enough DNA strands for a discerning audience to want to see where they might lead.

Hints of a deeper mythology are revealed, too, suggesting that Helix will move beyond its stop-the-virus story into something even more intriguing. In the meantime, it's a suspenseful, scary thriller.

Helix is very involving, giving us characters to care about even in the midst of so much necessary setup.

Billy Campbell anchors the cast admirably as Dr. Alan Farragut.... Mr. Sanada is always intriguing to watch. And some of the show’s support players bring welcome spunk to the claustrophobic world of the research center, especially Catherine Lemieux as Dr. Doreen Boyle, a smart pathologist with a smart mouth.

Helix doesn't reinvent the virus thriller, but it's a solid slice of genre entertainment that offers some creepy visuals and believable scares.

If it doesn't match "Battlestar" for ambition or poetry or sparkling dialogue--to judge by the three hours available for review--it's well-made, solidly scary and disturbing all the same.

It may not be not the most original premise, and the supporting cast leaves much to be desired (with the exception of droll Catherine Lemieux as a feisty veterinary pathologist), but Helix creates an intense atmosphere of dread and fear in which a fade to snowy white can be as scary as the deepest black.

The series still has several marks against it--particularly in the acting and dialogue columns--but good sci-fi shows are thin on the ground right now, and there’s just enough that works in Helix to make it worth following for now.

Viewers glimpse the fuller scope of the problem, in most cases, at the same time Alan does, giving Helix a nice sense of ominous building tension. It’s also not too geeky a story, so someone who just likes suspense drama can follow it.

Helix isn’t always laughable, though, and at times can be pretty gripping. The makeup and props departments also have done their jobs well. But can this story sustain itself for 13 hours within a claustrophobic frozen outpost? Crises and mini-revelations are dispensed with the frequency of commercial breaks.

A sometimes intriguing sci-fi show from executive producer Ronald D. Moore about a viral outbreak at a desolate Arctic base. The bug isn’t airborne, but stupidity apparently is.

Perhaps in time Helix will develop into something more substantial but in its first two hours it sets up a lot of questions without providing answers or a compelling reason for viewers to stick with it.