Project Blue Book (TV series)
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Project Blue Book is an American historical drama television series broadcast on History from 8 January 2019 to 24 March 2020. It is loosely based on Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigations of the 1950s and 1960s. Aidan Gillen stars as astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who begins as a skeptic, alongside Michael Malarkey as a fictional Air Force partner. Each episode drew on a real case, from the Gorman dogfight and the Flatwoods monster to Roswell and Skinwalker Ranch, mixed with invented Cold War intrigue. It ran for two seasons of ten episodes before History cancelled it in May 2020. Critics found it watchable but limited, and a skeptic criticised its historical liberties.[1]
Premise
The series follows Hynek, an astrophysics professor recruited by the Air Force, and his partner Captain Michael Quinn, a decorated Army Air Force pilot of the Second World War. Together they investigate UFO reports across the United States, and Hynek gradually discovers that not everything can be explained by science.[1]
Cast and characters
The main cast were:[1]
- Aidan Gillen as Dr. J. Allen Hynek. Skeptical at first, he tries to explain each case analytically.
- Michael Malarkey as Captain Michael Quinn. A fictional character inspired by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of the real Blue Book.
- Laura Mennell as Mimi Hynek, Hynek's wife.
- Ksenia Solo as Susie Miller, Mimi's friend and neighbour, secretly a KGB agent.
- Michael Harney as General Hugh Valentine. Founder of Project Blue Book, inspired by Major General Charles P. Cabell.
- Neal McDonough as General James Harding. Co-founder of the project, inspired by Brigadier General William Garland of Cabell's staff.
Recurring characters included a mysterious "Man in the Hat," later revealed as one of the Men in Black and partly inspired by Ingo Swann. Historical figures played by guest actors included Donald Keyhoe, Wernher von Braun, President Harry Truman and Senator John F. Kennedy.[1]
Episodes and their real cases
Season one (January to March 2019) loosely adapted these cases:[1]
- "The Fuller Dogfight." A pilot's dogfight with a craft over Fargo, based on the Gorman dogfight.
- "The Flatwoods Monster." A crash and a being near a West Virginia farm (see Flatwoods monster).
- "The Lubbock Lights." A V-shaped craft over Texas (see Lubbock Lights).
- "Operation Paperclip." An airliner encounter that leads to ex-Nazi scientists in Huntsville (see Operation Paperclip).
- "Foo Fighters." Wartime lights and a group claiming to contact them (see foo fighters and Marfa lights).
- "The Green Fireballs." Fireballs near a nuclear weapons test (see green fireballs).
- "The Scoutmaster." A scoutmaster's encounter in the woods, inspired by the Sonny DesVergers case.
- "War Games." An Army platoon filmed under UFO attack.
- "Abduction." Regressive hypnosis of an abductee, inspired by the Betty and Barney Hill case.
- "The Washington Merry-Go Round." UFOs over the capital (see Washington, D.C. UFO incident).
Season two (January to March 2020) continued:[1]
- "The Roswell Incident," Parts I and II. Inspired by Roswell and the alien autopsy video.
- "Area 51." A soldier seemingly abducted at a Nevada base (see Area 51).
- "Hopkinsville." An alien home invasion in Kentucky, inspired by the Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter and referring to the Pentacle memo.
- "The Men in Black." Hynek kidnapped, with references to the Maury Island incident.
- "Close Encounters." Set on the film set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with flashbacks to the Robertson Panel and a contactee based on George Adamski.
- "Curse of the Skinwalker." A Utah ranch (see Skinwalker Ranch).
- "What Lies Beneath." Referring to Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson.
- "Broken Arrow" and "Operation Mainbrace." A lost military plane in Canada, and UFOs over a large naval exercise near Russian waters.
Production
The series was created by David O'Leary. Its executive producers were O'Leary, Robert Zemeckis and Sean Jablonski, and it was made by Compari Entertainment and A&E Studios for History. It was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, with music by Daniel Wohl. History renewed it on 10 February 2019 for a second season, whose filming began on 15 July 2019 and was due to end that November; it premiered on 21 January 2020. In May 2020 it was announced that the series had been cancelled.[1]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes gives the series a 65% approval rating from 17 reviews. Its consensus says it "will likely intrigue fans of the paranormal" but "lacks the narrative verve to appeal beyond the true believers." Metacritic gives it 56 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Skeptic Robert Sheaffer, reviewing the first four episodes, argued that their historical inaccuracies went well beyond what being "based on real events" would allow.[1]
References
- Project Blue Book (TV series) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Project Blue Book (TV series)”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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