The Steven Spielberg Alien Abduction TV Series You've Probably Never Seen

Steven Spielberg knows a thing or two about sci-fi, especially extraterrestrials in fiction. While such stories about alien encounters often come in varying shades, the most enduring, nostalgia-laden film associated with the genre is Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." A classic in almost every sense, "E.T." captures the anxieties of childhood along with its wonders, etching a journey about homecoming through the most endearing friendships. On the flip side, we have Spielberg's 1977 "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," a first-contact tale where an everyman's obsessive drive to de-mystify UFOs propels him to choose openness in the face of the unknown. Although "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is not as heartwarming or fantastical in tone as "E.T.," it wears a Spielberg-ian brand of tender hope that runs through (almost) all of the director's sci-fi undertakings.

Then there's 2005's "War of the Worlds," which pits yet another everyman against the potential end of our planet after a powerful alien race executes a full-scale invasion. While the film ends on a note of hope, it explores some bleak themes, including the notion that inherent human flaws get magnified when challenged with a harrowing do-or-die scenario. But the catharsis lies in overcoming these personal failures to emerge as a hero worth remembering, both in the eyes of our loved ones and humanity at large. 

While Spielberg navigates these sentiments by alternating between grandiose spectacle and grounded mundanity, his most ambitious sci-fi story is one that is almost the most under-appreciated: the oft-forgotten 2002 miniseries "Taken," an alien abduction drama written by Leslie Bohem ("A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child") and produced by Spielberg himself.

"Taken" — also known as "Steven Spielberg Presents "Taken" — was not a critical flop by any means, as the series was praised for its competent exploration of the alien abduction trope, and it even won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries in 2003. It is rather baffling that an Emmy-winning, Spielberg-produced sci-fi miniseries has now become so obscure that it is not available for streaming anywhere (more on this later). With that in mind, let us dissect what "Taken" is about, its contribution to the sci-fi genre on television, and how Spielberg's involvement shaped this fascinating, generation-spanning story.

Contains spoilers for "Taken."

The most immediate impression left by "Taken" is its sheer scale. The show opens with the dramatization of the real-life Roswell crash of 1947, in which metallic/rubber debris was recovered in the aftermath of a failed military operation in Roswell, New Mexico. Although the crash is officially attributed to a malfunctioning weather balloon, a conspiracy theory alleges it to be a cover-up for the crash-landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Bohem approaches this quasi-real aspect of the incident with startling ingenuity, as he turns a conspiracy into a profound tale of terror, fear, and vulnerability that spans entire generations. 

In "Taken," three families play a key role: the Keys, the Crawfords, and the Clarkes, who end up playing their respective parts in shaping history and the future. The truth connected to the extraterrestrials is so terrifying that it turns morally balanced individuals into cruel, conniving instigators, who ensure that the longstanding truth about alien experimentation on humanity never comes to light.

At the same time, some suffer the traumatic ordeal of alien abductions, such as Russell Keys (Steve Burton), a war veteran who experiences seizures for quite some time and learns that his medical condition is caused by an alien implant (inside his brain). Russell is not the only target here, as the aliens have been abducting countless humans as a part of their experimental breeding program for decades, leaving pain and trauma in the wake of their cruelty. Their goal is to create a perfect hybrid, and the birth of Allie Keys (Dakota Fanning) finally allows them to enact the next step of their dreadfully ambitious plan. 

These horrific revelations are only a small part of what "Taken" brings to the table, as the series deftly weaves in and out of family trees and lineages to examine the disastrous effects of choice. Sometimes, empathy towards the extraterrestrials morphs into fatal errors, inadvertently dooming humanity and their relationship to anyone who is not from this planet.

What is most interesting about Spielberg's involvement with the show is the darker treatment of these well-tread themes, which feel more whimsical or benign in his earlier filmography. The tonally darker "War of the Worlds" is a post-"Taken" undertaking, which explains the drastic shift in tone from extraterrestrial stories of warmth, awe, and wonder to ones where the presence of alien forces emerge as a warning or a threat. "Taken" is some of the bleakest treatment of this concept, echoing sci-fi novel collections such as Octavia E. Butler's "Lilith's Brood," which explores human-alien hybrid identity in ways few genre stories have.

Extraterrestrial stories that function within set moral boxes like "good" or "evil" can be impactful when done right. Spielberg's alien-centered movies are proof that such stories can make an impact, irrespective of whether they evoke nostalgia or dread. "Taken" completely dismantles this moral system by posing the aliens as beyond good or evil, as they're an advanced species who do not share our traditional morality and lack the sociocultural framing required to make such judgments. 

The horrifying abuse and abductions are undoubtedly evil from a human perspective, but the aliens perceive their breeding experiments as a means to genetically acquire human empathy and morality. These complex, twisted notions of what counts as morality for the "other," who, in this case, is not human at all, make "Taken" more philosophical than it seems on the surface. The best part? "Taken" drives these heady themes home within 10 episodes.

Considering how promising the miniseries is in its treatment of popular tropes, the obscurity that encircles "Taken" feels puzzling. Despite its positive reception and success within awards circuits, the show never even reached middling levels of popularity. The reasons remain elusive, but it is possible that the Syfy channel couldn't draw in enough viewership when the miniseries aired in 2002, and a lack of effective or memorable marketing (I would argue, any marketing at all) did not do the show any favors. What's worse, the title is not available for streaming on any platforms at the moment, although you can get your hands on a DVD version or rent a digital copy online.

At the end of the day, cultural footprints can be made, so one can only hope that more people will seek out or stumble upon this Spielberg-produced sci-fi tale and allow this profoundly bittersweet story to get under their skin.