Sci-fi, fantasy starts strong

As the midseason premieres get fired up there’s a few speculative storylines that stand out as potentially interesting.

One I haven’t gotten to see very much of is “Alcatraz,” a mystery pursued by a shadowy agency and a few talented specialists. About 50 years ago the prison on Alcatraz Island closed. The prisoners were reassigned and the facility shut down.

That was the official story line. The show, however, explores the mysterious disappearances of “The 63s” – a group of inmates and apparently a guard or two who went missing in what is officially listed as an accident.

What seems really to have happened was they reappeared in 2012. According to a guard they recovered, “And then ... it wasn’t 1963 anymore.”

So this team -- including the granddaughter of one of the inmates and Jorge Garcia from “LOST” -- are tracking down these reappearing inmates. The obvious question is “What the heck happened?” but “The 63s” don’t seem to know. They were collected and quarantined and the next thing they knew it was 2012.

Well ... someone knows. It seems clear that some sort of time-travel experiment went as well as anyone could’ve hoped although no-one seems to know many of the details about it. What would be the interest in sending anyone or anything 50 years into the future? Once there it would be 50 years behind the times!

Or if you wanted to invest in IBM, Rip Van Winkle your way 50 years into the future and enjoy your fortune ... of course, you’d have needed a fortune to build the time machine. And it’s best to invest wisely. I’m thinking asbestos didn’t have the long-range returns it might have seemed to in 1963.

But then from the perspective of the experimenters, how can you tell if it worked? You have inmates in 1963 who reappear in 2012 ... from your perspective in 1963, you don’t know if it worked or not. All you know is they vanished. Until you encounter them rejoining the time stream to see how they fared, I’m not sure how confident anyone would feel in following their lead.

Still, whatever’s going on with this show it seems interesting. “Alcatraz” airs new episodes 8 p.m. Mondays on FOX.

‘The River’

“The River” centers on a naturalist with boundless enthusiasm through his explorations of the Amazon River, tracking uncharted territory and discovering new species. In the world of the show, Emmet Cole - based generally on the outsized character of the late naturalist and impresario Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin - filmed a weekly television program celebrating the wonder he beheld in nature.

He’d trek through the jungle with his family and with his crew aboard his ship The Magus, which was a floating production studio. He’d highlight the creatures he found in his weekly program “The Undiscovered Country.” “There’s magic out there!” he’d say, and generally he meant the wonder of the natural world.

But after he disappeared, long enough to be declared legally dead, his family was alerted to his emergency beacon. An expedition was cobbled together with Emmet’s wife, Tess, and his estranged son, Lincoln. Lena Landry, daughter of the missing cameraman, accompanied them along with part of his crew who’d been left behind him on his final journey.

They’d been trawling an obscure tributary off the Amazon River that was otherwise not listed on any map. The team found The Magus, and discovered some restless spirits on board.

From undated found footage, the team pieced together that Emmet had been exploring magic of a different sort, dark tribal magic of poltergeists, spirit trees and the like. A young medium on the team, a crewmember’s daughter, was possessed by what appeared to be the spirit of Emmet Cole himself who warned them “Don’t come looking for him,” she said. “They have him.”

So what The River seems to be is a modern-day ghost story complete with found footage, paranormal activity and violent ghosts who’ve taken at least one life already and the mystery deepens as to what really happened to Emmet Cole?

For such an exotic location the creepy-crawlies have been giving the team a wide berth so far, but the rain forest setting is absolutely beautiful. Also, the personality conflicts among the team members help drive a reasonably spooky and entertaining supernatural drama and ghost story. Generally, I liked it.

“The River” airs new episodes Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.