Threshold

- Brent Spiner as a NASA-employed microbiologist

My Netflix rentals lately have been of the defunct 2005 science fiction tv series Threshold. I'd not heard of it before but the Netflix bot recommended it to me so I gave it a try despite the fact that it had been cancelled even before the first season was over.

The series has some interesting actors -- Brent Spiner (Data), Brian Van Holt) (Black Hawk Down), and Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) -- and the plot had an interesting proposition: that an alien probe that comes to Earth can transform the DNA of life here through visual and auditory sensory data (research has shown that what you see and what you hear can actually change the structure of your brain). I don't know if I'd recommend the series -- it's not that great -- but as compensation, there is a very cute little dog in it :) Here's a description from Wikipedia ...

The series stars Carla Gugino as Dr. Molly Caffrey, a high-level government crisis management consultant .... one of her plans, code-named Threshold, is developed for dealing with the unlikely eventuality of first contact with aliens. One night, the crew of a U.S. naval vessel encounters a UFO .... Caffrey's Threshold plan calls for the formation of a secret government task force known as the Red Team. As a result, several top scientists are seconded: Dr. Nigel Fenway (Brent Spiner), an individualistic NASA-employed microbiologist; Lucas Pegg (Rob Benedict), a somewhat unsure-of-himself aerospace engineer on the eve of his marriage, and Arthur Ramsey (Peter Dinklage), a mathematics and linguistics genius whose libido makes up for his lack of height. Caffrey's government liaison is Deputy National Security Advisor J.T. Baylock (Charles S. Dutton), while freelance paramilitary operative Sean Cavennaugh (Brian Van Holt) serves as the "muscle" of the group (and apparent potential love interest for Caffrey).

And here's a YouTube of the beginning of the pilot .....