Rugged bounty hunter Dante Montana (a solid and credible performance by Michael Pare) is reunited with McDuff (a marvelously rough'n'tumble turn by Ron Donachie), an old friend who's dying of cancer. Meanwhile, Lucretia's father Darius Scott (a commanding portrayal by George Harris) asks her to capture unhinged geneticist Eccleston (a pleasingly twitchy and intense Mark Powley), who holds the key to an alien gene known as The Divinity Cluster. This tight and engrossing initial episode does a sound job of setting up the grim and brutal, yet funky future and the three central characters, with especially stand-out work from the cute Tanya Allen as Dante's endearingly scrappy and spunky niece Percy Montana. Claudette Roche likewise does well as Lucretia, Stephen Marcus amuses as Dante's irascible boss Rudolpho deLuna, and Murray Melvin holds his own as prissy hologram Caravaggio. The action scenes are exciting and well staged while the bits of nudity and moments of harsh violence give this show a satisfyingly hard adult edge. In a neat touch, Dante's spaceship the Tulip is a creaky rundown rustbucket. Moreover, there are several scenes of welcome humanity amid all the grimy bleakness; the loyalty Dante has for Lucretia provides extra touching dramatic bite. A worthy start for this nifty series.
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