30 Years Later, Robert Carradine’s Most Criminally Overlooked Role Is Hiding in This Sci-Fi Thriller

Dark Skies is one of the few productions that captures the late 1990s paranoia. However, with the recent passing of Robert Carradine, one of the show's stars, these memories have taken on greater significance. While known for roles in movies like Revenge Of The Nerds and Lizzie McGuire, Carradine had an extensive career that many people may not have realized.

Ultimately, Dark Skies was overshadowed by larger media productions of the time. Therefore, it was unable to achieve its full potential. However, it has cultivated a following due to its dense mythology, combined with historical narratives and horror. Given the rich content produced during the time, Dark Skies offers viewers an opportunity to appreciate the boldness of the original concept, as well as the effective use of an ensemble cast that created roles for each character's personality, particularly Carradine's under-appreciated role in the series.

‘Dark Skies’ Turns American History Into a Conspiracy Playground

The show Dark Skies, at its essence, has a paranoid premise: the events that shaped the 1960s were actually the result of a secret war against an alien invasion. The series revolves around an optimistic congressional aide named John Loengard (Eric Close) who, along with his fiancée Kim Sayers (Megan Ward), uncovers the clandestine operation known as Majestic-12, which is a part of the government’s fight against an alien entity called the Hive. At that point, there is little turning back, as the series twists and turns through real-life historical events, many from the Kennedy presidency and the civil rights movement, to create a large alternate-history plot.

What makes the premise still pop today is its confidence. Dark Skies begins with high-density mythology, escalating stakes, and references to years/decades, which give all episodes an unusual amount of propulsive serialized energy that makes them feel fresher than The X-Files. It is understandable that many people have compared Dark Skies to The X-Files; however, while both shows have roots in science fiction, they differ greatly in execution. One major difference between them is their respective pacing: The X-Files has long used slow-burn mystery/ambiguity as part of its storytelling, whereas Dark Skies uses a fast-paced, chase-style narrative (i.e., an action thriller) to tell its story.

Despite the series' primary focus on its two lead characters and its memorable villain, Captain Frank Bach (J.T. Walsh), Dark Skies also features a great number of well-known character actors who appear occasionally throughout its storyline and lend their faces to the various conspiracies.

One such actor is Carradine, who many fans will know from his role as Lewis Skolnick in the Revenge of the Nerds TV series. Although he only appears for a small portion of the overall run-time of the show, Carradine serves as yet another example of Dark Skies’ ability to provide a very deep talent pool and to help establish something grounded in reality amidst the fantastic nature of the sci-fi genre.

Carradine took on the real-life role of Socorro police officer Lonnie Zamora. In the episode “Hostile Convergence,” the series folded Zamora’s widely debated 1964 New Mexico UFO sighting into its broader alternate-history mythology, which imagines a covert alien invasion concealed by the secretive Majestic-12 program. Carradine’s portrayal anchored the show’s conspiracy-driven narrative in a moment long regarded by UFO researchers as unusually credible, thanks to Zamora’s reputation and the reported physical traces left at the scene. The qualities found in Carradine’s performance are the same as those found in almost all the other actors used by the show to create a feeling of unease throughout the story.

Why This One-Season Wonder Still Deserves Your Time

Revisiting Dark Skies now, its strengths are easier to appreciate without the shadow of its ’90s competition looming overhead. For one thing, the commitment to period detail is impressive. The production leans hard into its 1960s setting — from newsreel footage integrations to sepia-tinged visuals — creating a lived-in alt-history vibe that few network shows attempted at the time. The series also isn’t afraid to get weird or gross, with the Hive’s parasitic horror pushing the show closer to sci-fi body horror than many of its contemporaries.

More importantly, the storytelling grows sharper as the season progresses. Early episodes can feel formulaic, but around the midpoint the narrative tightens, the mythology deepens, and the emotional stakes rise — particularly as Kim’s infection arc becomes more central. By the time the finale arrives with its massive cliffhanger, the show is operating at full paranoid throttle.

Thirty years on, Dark Skies plays like a time capsule from peak conspiracy culture — and a surprisingly forward-thinking one at that. Its serialized storytelling, alternate-history ambition, and willingness to swing big make it far more than a footnote in ’90s sci-fi. For fans of paranoid thrillers, UFO lore, or dense mythology shows, it’s absolutely worth the dive. And for viewers keeping an eye out for deep-cut performances, Carradine’s appearance is one more reason this short-lived series deserves another look. Sometimes the most interesting sci-fi stories aren’t the ones that ran the longest — they’re the ones that burned bright, got cut short, and left just enough mystery behind to keep us wondering what might have been.