Extant: Mickey Fisher's Big Home Run!

Mickey Fisher won the lottery - big time. The Ohio native entered his script for Extant into an TV pilot contest and got the right people to take notice - people who believed enough in its potential to send it up to Steven Spielberg's Amblin, where it got a green light for series. The themes resonated with Spielberg and Oscar winning actress Halle Berry, yet another film actor drawn to television as the environment offering the stronger characters.

The pilot for Extant is extremely strong. Kudos to CBS for retaining a title that many others would have been quick to change (Extant is the opposite of Extinct - referring to a species that is still in existence). The future in Extant is just this side of environments seen in Spielberg's Minority Report and A.I. and is convincingly believable. Berry is an astronaut who returns to Earth after a 13-month solo assignment, only to discover that, impossibly, she's now pregnant.

Fisher's script is tight and full of engaging character work and multiple levels of involving mystery. How lucky is Fisher? In addition to attracting the interest of Berry and Spielberg, the pilot is helmed by ace TV director Allen Coulter (The Sopranos, the Sons of Anarchy pilot, and House of Cards, among his many credits), who juggles elements of family drama, cautionary sci-fi and conspiracy with equal deftness. No surprise with Amblin's involvement, but the pilot has feature film quality look and execution. Small details of technological enhancements are cleverly sprinkled throughout the everyday world of Berry's family and space agency bosses.

Berry's Molly Woods and her scientist husband (Goran Visnjic) have a history of infertility - Visnjic's solution to their plight is a surprising one, and should make for a fascinating opportunity to explore the possibilities of where mankind's evolution might be heading.

Fisher, Spielberg and CBS have delivered one of the smartest and more engaging sci-fi series pilots in a long while. If they can sustain the initial intrigue and fascination of the mysteries served up in the pilot, Extant promises to be an extremely strong addition to the genre drama landscape. CBS and Amblin deserve huge respect for taking a chance on Mickey Fisher and his material. They all give hope and encouragement to writers everywhere who are still trying to get their dreams noticed. Highly recommended.