Coming to Syfy, Helix is a thriller about a viral outbreak in an Arctic research station and the CDC team sent to investigate. Brought to the small screen by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Steven Maeda (Lost) and Lynda Obst (Contact), this 13 episode series starts on January 10th. Will you be watching?

I was able to preview the first three episodes of the show, and despite it not being complete (my preview copies had production notes for ADR and possible score changes, as well as unfinished FX) I was still impressed with what I saw. Billy Campbell (The Killing, The Rocketeer) is Dr. Alan Farragut, a CDC team leader who has been called upon to investigate a possible viral outbreak at an research facility in the Arctic. The catch, and there is always a catch, is that one of the people required to be on his team is his ex, and one of the infected people is his brother, whom his ex slept with and is why she is his ex.

The facility also happens to be above the 83rd parallel, and in Arctic speak that means it is in International territory and not subject to US jurisdiction. But the CDC is being invited to investigate, and the US Military is along for the ride in the form of one engineer since they fielded the distress call. Pretty quickly, however, it is indicated that there is more going on, that the military has more interest in the place and the accident, and that Dr. Hiroshi Hitake, the director of Arctic Biosystems, is definitely not telling them everything.

Helix does a good job of quickly establishing its characters and its setting. And all of the actors play their parts well. The writing is good, although I did find the occasional line to be a bit on the hokey side, but sometimes it worked well to offset the "grim seriousness" of other scenes. The plot moves along fairly briskly in these first three episodes, and I looking forward to see where the rest of the season goes.

My only hesitance or concern with Helix is that I truely hope that this is a 13 episode series that wraps up in 13 episodes. I just don't want to see what sort of poorly written contrivance they come up with to extend this to a second season, as the only plausible solution I can come up with is everyone being incompetent at their jobs. If it goes to a second season, I would want it to be because this season wraps up, tells a complete story but a sample of the virus somehow gets out, or we learn of parallel research going on at another facility. 6 seasons and a movie just doesn't work of every plotline out there. Some stories are better short and finished.

Still, what I've seen is good enough to get me to tune in to see the completed episodes (without the missing FX and other bits) and continue watching Helix for the rest of this season.