Project Blue Book

Project Blue Book is a fictional series based on real cases from the files of the real Project Blue Book, an Air Force program set up to investigate and explain aerial phenomena.

In the 1950s Americans were watching the skies worried about a nuclear attack from the Russians. Hollywood capitalized on this fear, producing frightening films about alien invaders that gave Americans a way to deal with the threat from the skies in a metaphorical way. But soon hundreds of people were reporting actual sightings leaving the Air Force no choice but to step in with experts of their own In the series, Hynek is played by Game of Thrones Star Aiden Gillen. He’s paired with the ambitious young Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey of The Vampire Diaries) whose sole duty is to make sure Hynek tows the company line. But as they interview more witnesses and solve more puzzles, they both start to have second thoughts about the truth that is out there and whether they should be guarding those secrets or spilling the beans.

It’s interesting to note the real J Allen Hynek (with the help of several Captains who were composited together in the character of Quinn) created most of the terminology we use when discussing UFO’s including the abbreviation itself and the famous close encounters scale. Yes, there is a lot of fact mixed in with the fiction! While Hynek and Quinn are out investigating cases from The Flatwood Monster to Roswell, Hynek’s wife Mimi (Laura Mennell from The Man in the High Castle) keeps the home fire burning as she works through a few mysteries of her own with the help of her friend, the mysterious Susie (Ksenia Solo of Lost Girl).

The series also stars Neal McDonough and Michael Harney as Blue Book generals who may or may not know more than they’re letting on and Ian Tracey as the enigmatic Man in the Hat. The show, which was created for the History Channel, is a nice blend of fact and fiction. Visually it’s a real treat. The set designers, costumers and prop makers have done an excellent job of presenting the world as it was before cell phones and computers, when sending a man to the moon was the stuff of Saturday Morning serials and you could build your own bomb shelter in the backyard.

The show also has a cinematic quality that you don’t often find on basic cable, particularly in Season Two when they open up the episodes with incredible and varied locations, bigger special effects and more action. Conspiracy theories, alien abductions, monsters in the woods, mind-control experiments and a heavy dose of paranoia – it’s all in a day’s work for Hynek and Quinn. If you’re a fan of The X-Files or Close Encounters of the Third Kind (a movie based on Hynek’s work) you’ll love Project Blue Book