From space, to a TV near you - Adrian Paul is TRACKER.
© 2001 Chum Television

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TRACKER - "Pilot"

TRACKER provides yet another variation. The extraterrestrial hero who takes to calling himself Cole (Adrian Paul) is both soulful and goofy, a promising combination. Cole arrives on Earth via a cool p.o.v. effect and adopts the first visage he sees a male underwear model on a billboard. The first living person he encounters is stranded driver Mel (Amy Price-Francis), who is heading for Chicago to take possession of a bar she's inherited from her grandmother. With trepidation, she gives a ride to the near naked, evidently mentally disabled man she finds walking along the lonely road after he apparently fixes her engine (by touching it, though Mel doesn't see this). Cole is literally learning to walk and talk as he goes; Mel isn't sure what to make of him but can't quite bring herself to turn him over to Social Services just yet. We eventually realize that Cole is hunting another alien, Rhee, a killer who's hijacked the body of a statuesque prostitute (Joanie Laurer, aka wrestler Chyna).

Thankfully, TRACKER doesn't opt to go the Superman-Lois Lane route by the end of the pilot, Mel is aware of Cole's foreign nature, so we don't need to worry about endless episodes of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Although the elements here are all familiar from other shows innocent alien, homicidal aliens, culture clash, even a relatively comedic bar setting the juxtaposition is new, which keeps the pilot from too closely resembling anything else out there.

Because the first installment has to set up so many different story areas, it's hard to say what TRACKER will feel like when the explanations have stopped and characters settle into their normal patterns. In the opener, there's fun to be had with Cole's confusion about the basics of being human. Most shows about aliens take certain things for granted, but on TRACKER, even the fundamental operation of a human body is up for grabs. Paul provides us with a good time (and seems to be having one himself) by playing Cole as somebody who is persuasively perplexed by the mechanics of getting things like legs, vocal cords and facial features to work properly, feats he hasn't entirely mastered by the episode's end. Price-Francis' Amy is pitched a little too high-strung, but the actress has a warmth and underlying dignity that help leaven the character's neuroses. Leanne Wilson as bartender Jess is game and attractive and Geraint Wyn Davies as well-spoken, twinkle-eyed baddie Dr. Zin provides cheerful malice. (The joint presence of Paul and Wyn Davies also creates a kind of cult TV vortex, bringing together the leads from, respectively, HIGHLANDER and FOREVER KNIGHT.)

In broad strokes, TRACKER's nearest narrative relative would seem to be the film THE HIDDEN alien law officer tracks a mayhem-minded criminal alien that takes over human bodies but Cole is much less together and much more open and needy than Kyle MacLachlan's faux FBI agent. The WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME-style visual effect that depicts Cole moving at accelerated speed through seemingly frozen landscapes is pretty nifty, and the change in optical styles between regular action and alien perspective gives TRACKER a distinctive look. On the downside, the guest menace in the pilot is eye-catching but unmemorable even when we see Rhee commit murder, it's so uninflected that we feel no danger. However, Wyn Davies' calm jocularity suggests more intriguing perils to come.

Overall, TRACKER is still taking shape, but this first glimpse suggests it's on the (pardon the expression) right track.