Stewart plays secret British science operative Ian Hood, a Professor with a specialty in physics, though that never really comes into play in any of the four episodes. Hood's private life, with the exception of some mentions of his wife's relatively recent death, is somewhat of a mystery, and the show focuses almost exclusively on the crimes at hand. Also along for the ride is Special Branch Officer Rachel Young (Ashley Jensen), a comely Scottish miss who seems to mostly act as Hood's bodyguard and also as his liaison to the police department, which does not always look kindly on his meddling. In fact, the history of the relationships is never quite made clear throughout the series--the first episode, "Resurrection," seems to jump headlong into at least short standing relationships and one is left to surmise the backstories from passing comments made along the way.

The four episodes contain some disturbing elements. Up first is "Resurrection," wherein Hood discovers literally scores of malformed fetuses buried in the English countryside and soon realizes they are clones of other fetuses found throughout Eastern Europe. The subplot featuring a pregnant teenager contains some patently distasteful characterization as she seeks to escape her abusive boyfriend. The denouement is not particularly surprising and involves a distraught parent trying to reverse a personal tragedy.

"Containment" is probably the most reminiscent of the short-lived NBC series Medical Investigation and concerns an outbreak of a Smallpox virus. The melodramatic elements of this particular episode are highlighted by a "woman in distress" subplot featuring Officer Young, who may have been infected with the deadly disease.

Well, why not rely on Numb3rs for an episode reference at this point? In "Kryptos," when Hood's scientist friend disappears while researching global warming (do the British have reactionary Republicans who would stoop to such a level, I wonder?), he has to invent algorithms to decode an encrypted research document leading to the denouement.

The finale, "Miracle," is in some ways the most satisfying episode, from a character standpoint, anyway, as it explores a supposed miracle cure from local spring water. When the water ends up actually creating disease later, Hood and Young uncover a dastardly government conspiracy that even Hood can't completely unravel.

The Eleventh Hour is anchored by a rock-solid, if somewhat dour, performance by Stewart, with able support from Jensen. The supporting guest stars are uniformly excellent, and the entire series has quite a bit of directorial flair, with swooping crane shots and unexpected angles (as in POV shots from a grave, etc.) that keep the visual presentation riveting every step of the way. The entire series is bathed in the unreal green and blue lighting schemes that have been a police procedural staple since the early days of CSI. Where the series comes up a bit short is in the writing, and, most of all, plot development. None of the episodes is particularly interesting from a mystery standpoint, and they all contain some routinely disturbing elements that, instead of heightening the suspense, actually just help to drag the proceedings down due to the overall lackluster scripting in general. Creator/writer Stephen Gallagher (Doctor Who) evidently left the series early on (not that it lasted very long to begin with), evidently fed up with script changes that were foisted upon him, and one has to wonder what his original conception would have been like, as the makings of an interesting series are certainly here in the fundamentals. It will be interesting to see what if anything Bruckheimer ends up making from this.

The DVD

Video:
Image quality in this enhanced 1.78:1 transfer is excellent, though a lot of the series is purposely on the green and blue side, as discussed above. The image is sharp and well defined, with excellent contrast.

Sound:
The standard DD soundtrack sports above average separation and excellent fidelity, with no distortion or other dropouts.

Extras:
Fairly tiresome text interviews with Stewart and Jensen, as well as filmographies, are the only extras offered.

Final Thoughts:
If you're a Stewart fan, or inordinately interested in the CBS version Bruckheimer is developing, this is probably worth an evening's rental.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet