This Little-Discussed 2000s Sci-Fi Show About UFOs Is A Series Worth Revisiting

Tim O'Mara's 2002 BBC series "Jeopardy" is probably one of the least Google-able TV shows out there. You look up "Jeopardy," and, naturally, you're going to find information on the long-running game show hosted by Ken Jennings. The BBC series, however, was very different indeed, being a scripted "found footage" drama about teenage UFO hunters. 

"Jeopardy" was about a group of students from Scotland who travel to Australia to investigate eerie lights in the sky. The gimmick of the series was that each one of the eight main characters was given a camcorder, and the show was seen largely through their lenses. Naturally, the teens will stumble across vast and ineffable alien technology, as well as mysterious viruses, memory erasure, and even time travel. "Jeopardy" lasted for 40 episodes over its three seasons, and followed a long, continuous arc throughout, the drama getting more intense as the series unspooled. 

The first season of "Jeopardy" was almost a "Scooby-Doo"-style fake-out, with the "aliens" actually being smugglers. The twist at the end of the season was that the aliens were real all along. The second season is about the panic following an abduction, and trying to locate some friends who had been kidnapped. The third season goes full-bore sci-fi. 

Also, in a fun programming coup, "Jeopardy" ended with one of three possible endings, voted on by the show's fans. There was a "happy" ending, a "spooky" ending, and a "surprise" ending. On its first go-through, fans selected the spooky ending. When the finale was rerun, fans were polled a second time, and they chose the happy ending. As of this writing, the surprise ending hasn't yet aired. 

The first season of "Jeopardy" was predicated on UFO hunting, but played out like a cautionary tale about camping in Australia. After leaving their school in Falkirk, Scotland, the eight main characters travel to the Australian outback and set up camp. Looking over synopses for the show reveals stories about how Sarah (Kari Corbett) saw a UFO, but no one believes her, or about how Leon (Stanley Smith) was bitten by a snake, and no one knows what to do. Indeed, Leon's snakebite will loom large over the season as the various kids split up to variously find some antivenom and get Leon to safety. It won't be until the show's eighth episode that they get to UFO phenomena like crop circles. 

The season climaxes with the characters of Melissa (Tammy MacIntosh) and Gerry (Steven Vidler), the team leader, getting tied up and held hostage. The real villains were smugglers this entire time. Luckily they get away and phone the authorities, hoping to call in a helicopter to fly them the heck out of there. The last-minute twist, though, is that they are not met by a helicopter but an actual UFO. 

The second season sees the teens at an Area-51-like detention facility, from which they will escape and go on the lam. The third season takes place back in Falkirk six weeks into the future, with some characters existing as invisible apparitions. This season also introduced the Red-Eye Virus, which causes sufferers to display one glowing red eye when they are stressed out ... shortly before vanishing into thin air. 

Full synopses of every episode can be perused on the BBC Originals website, and I encourage a gander.

The found-footage gimmick of "Jeopardy," naturally, invited comparisons to "The Blair Witch Project," just in a more kid-friendly mode. Weirdly, there don't seem to be any comparisons to "The X-Files," which had gone off the air the same year "Jeopardy" debuted. You would think "Jeopardy" was a relief, as those last few seasons of "The X-Files" really stunk. 

The teen characters all had teen concerns — a lot of time is spent with them conversing — and the danger never seemed to be all that harrowing. Well, until the authorities are chasing them down. 

By 2026, enough nostalgia had accumulated around "Jeopardy" to invite a glowing retrospective in the Express. It seems that "Jeopardy" was a big hit when it first ran, so it has legions of fans in England and Scotland. The long-arm story arc devoted to seemingly ineffable mysteries had the Express and others declaring "Jeopardy" a precursor to "Lost," and many fans on Reddit chimed in to remember how much the series terrified them as children. 2002, recall, was when many TV shows were slowly transitioning from a syndication-friendly episodic structure to binge-friendly serialized models. In this regard, "Jeopardy" was ahead of its time. 

If "Jeopardy" is an object of nostalgia in England, it's practically unknown in the United States. Sadly, it's not available on any American streaming services, and tracking down episodes online is going to prove to be nigh impossible, thanks to the show sharing its title with the popular game show. No shade on the game show, of course. Finding the BBC's "Jeopardy," though, will be one for the sleuths. Surely "Jeopardy" is hiding out there somewhere. 

Or perhaps the aliens have absconded with all the episodes.