The second feature-length episode of Taken, presented by Steven Spielberg, first debuted on 3 December, 2002. It was written by series creator Leslie Bohem.

The story opens during the winter of ’57 and guides us through 1958. Russel Keys (Steve Burton) has left his wife, Kate (Julie Benz), who has remarried, in an effort to possibly protect her from the terrors that occurred during his alien abduction. He’s riding the rails.

But in one of his abductions, he sees a young boy, and knows it’s his son, Jesse (James Kirk). The aliens have shifted their focus from Russel to his son. Can he protect him?

Meanwhile, Sally (Catherine Dent) has also had her child. Jacob (Anton Yelchin) is a quiet, introspective child, one with abilities. But Sally is haunted by her encounter with Joe (Eric Close). She’s lonely and sad, and falls prey to the space brothers cult that sprang up in the 50s, and which may have been organized for disinformation purposes by the government.

And of course, there is still Crawford (Joel Gretsch), who is now a lieutenant colonel. He’s trying to figure out how to reverse-engineer the alien craft that crashed in Roswell. He brings in Dr. Kreutz (Willie Garson) to help with that.

But when he sees a photo of Sally at a UFO convention with a young boy, his curiosity is piqued, and he works to insert himself into her life and find a way to lay claim to Jacob, and exploit him.

Jacob knows what Crawford’s game is, however, and is more than willing to protect his mother and siblings by using his abilities.

We also see how Crawford

Once again, Bohem marries his fictional narrative with alleged and documented incidents and reports.

Through Crawford, the story explores the government cover-up, Area 51, and disinformation aspects of the UFO lore. The Russell/Jesse story explores the genetic manipulation and studying that seems to be part and parcel of the alien abduction phenomena, while Jacob’s story lines up with some of the more gentle abduction tales that have been shared over the decades.

Bohem lets his characters develop and grow, and lets them meld with the events and the times. He obviously knows the UFO subject matter and is able to use that knowledge to tell a compelling story.

Some of the visual effects are shaky at best, but I do like the fact that the aliens use familiar imagery to make Jesse feel at ease. It just doesn’t look as good as it would now. It doesn’t eject the viewer from the story, but you definitely can see the constraints of a television budget, even one with Spielberg’s name attached.

But, damn, I am enjoying it.

Next time, we’ll see how the story progresses in High Hopes.