The Taken miniseries aired over ten consecutive weekday nights. High Hopes, the third feature-length episode, aired on 4 December, 2002. Leslie Bohem continues to script the narrative, interweaving his fictional families around alleged UFO encounters and historical events.

Set in October of 1962, things are developing for both the Keys family, the Crawfords and the Clarkes.

Jesse Keys’ (James Kirk) abductions are increasing (and as illustrated in UFO lore, they appear as menacing but everyday encounters that turn terrifying). He seeks out his father, Russell (Steve Burton) and as the Cuban Missile Crisis begins to worry the world, they agree to approach the military about their shared experiences.

Owen Crawford (Joel Grestsch) is still running the UFO program, and he’s intent on discovering all he can. He’ll use and exploit everyone, even as his family life is coming apart, as his wife Anne (Tina Holmes) succumbs to pills and drinking.

He uses Kreutz (Willie Garson) to investigate everything. Even as his two aides, Marty (John Hawkes) and Howard (Jason Gray-Stanford) begin to look for Jacob Clarke (Anton Yelchin) whom they believe may still be alive. That doesn’t go to plan.

Crawford hears about abductions, the Barney and Betty Hill case, and understands that the aliens’ plans for us are evolving and changing.

And when Russell and Jesse enter his web, they discover matching implants in their skulls. Crawford’s cruelty is revealed as he locks Jesse away, and orders Kreutz to remove Russell’s implant, which will kill him… and has disastrous results for Kreutz and the team working on him.

Jacob has been trying to hide through all of this. He’s been looked after by Dr. Ellen Greenspan (Brenda James). She helps him escape Howard and Marty, and has also been in touch with Jacob’s brother, Tom (Ryan Hurst) and sister, Becky (Chad Morgan).

And to bring it full circle, Tom, is intent on discovering who Crawford is after what he did to their mother (Catherine Dent).

The episode ends with Jesse being abducted from his holding cell, and encountering a strange vision of his father becoming an alien grey as the episode flares to white and credits.

There’s also a lot of anger being generated on Crawford’s part towards President Kennedy… are they going to imply his involvement in the assassination?

The story is becoming increasingly engaging. I love how Bohem is weaving actual and fictional events together. And as we hear more of Dakota Fanning’s narration, we can guess, pretty easily what her bloodline is, and how important she may be in future episodes.

I’m enjoying the way it’s shot, how the narrative weaves through history. And how Bohem obviously knows the subject matter.

Next time, the story moves into the 1970s.