‘Terminal’ Popular Despite Formula

Straight from the recycling bin comes “Robin Cook’s ‘Terminal”’ (NBC Sunday at 9), which, unfortunately, takes an intriguing issue and turns it into a routine suspense drama.

Cook’s novels, potboilers packed with insight into the world of medicine, lose a lot of substance when they’re adapted for television. There’s a formula: Good young doctor uncovers sinister plot devised by evil older and more powerful forces in medicine.

It all makes the tales seem pat and predictable.

That’s not to say they aren’t popular. For example, “Virus” was among the most-watched movies of the week in 1995.

That may be because that movie and “Terminal” play on our healthy distrust of the medical industry.

Doctors we might trust. But those who put power and profit before healing present a real menace.

Those elements were missing in this season’s “Robin Cook’s ‘Invasion,”’ and that’s one of the reasons it was a flop.

In “Terminal” (1996), it’s a young medical researcher (Doug Savant of FOX’s “Melrose Place”) who discovers that an apparent cure for cancer is being developed at a Seattle hospital. Nia Peeples plays a nurse (and the young doc’s former lover).

She helps him link a pair of mysterious murders to a horrifying plot by the developers of the experimental drug.

The good young doctors prevail in Robin Cook’s world. I guess people like that, too.

We’d like to think that there’s a whistle-blower on the inside who can save us from those things we know so little about.

You can find new material over on cable where Showtime rolls out the two-hour-long premiere of “Stargate SG-1” (Sunday at 8), a sci-fi series that will air weekly starting next Friday at 10.

It’s based on the 1994 film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. An ancient portal, called a stargate, transported American soldiers to a parallel universe where they battled an evil force.

Richard Dean Anderson steps into the role of Col. Jack O’Neill and returns to the parallel universe after a small group of aliens burst through the Earth’s stargate located in a guarded Army compound.

The end result is a mission on the other side where soldiers shoot, blow up and battle an evil alien race.

For a weekly series of this kind to work, the writers must develop chemistry among the main characters.

The opener is narrowly focused on action and violence. (There’s even a gruesome alien rape scene.)

The writing is weak and full of cliches.

Without sympathy for these characters, few of us will tune in each week to see how these folks free themselves from the evil alien empire.

Highlights

“Visitors of the Night” (1995), NBC tonight at 9: Back for another run is this slow, dull transparent (and, at times, appallingly acted) science-fiction thriller that is redeemed only by special effects.

Visitors from another planet terrorize a mother and her teenage daughter (Markie Post, Candace Cameron).

“The Practice,” ABC tonight at 10: This legal series about struggling young lawyers won high marks for intelligence. If you missed it the first time around, here’s your chance to judge the pilot episode for yourself.

“In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride and Madness” (1994), CBS Sunday and Tuesday at 9: This is a haunting and harrowing murder miniseries that which pulls out all the plugs to show justice gone greatly awry.

Keith Carradine and his disturbed ex-wife (Kelly McGillis) become entrenched in a heartbreaking custody battle. The evil mom is spurred on to fight her ex-husband by her sociopathic and racist first cousin (Harry Hamlin).

There’s not much pleasantness here.

Cable Calls

“Hostile Waters” (1997), HBO tonight at 9: This riveting tale follows a fact-based incident during the Reagan era when nuclear submarines from the United States and the Soviet Union collided off the coast of New England.

The Soviet vessel, which is carrying nuclear warheads and reactors, starts to near meltdown because of onboard fires.

Rutger Hauer and Martin Sheen are at the helm (at their best) in this suspense tale that will have you on the edge of your seat.

“Blood Money: Switzerland’s Nazi Gold,” A&E tonight at 6: Said to be history’s biggest swindle, this “Investigative Reports” examines the role of Swiss banks during World War II.

Included is a segment on efforts by Holocaust survivors to reclaim their savings from these banks. Among the folks interviewed in this extensive two-hour-long documentary are Swiss bankers, American officials and survivors.

“Big Guns Talk: The Story of the Western,” TNT Sunday at 5: You can saddle up to the small screen for this two-hour-long documentary on movie Westerns. James Garner hosts.

Movie Marquee

“Love Potion No. 9” (1992), ABC tonight at 8: Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan play victims of a love potion. They go from being nerds to being the life of the party in this light comedy that needs more than a potion as a gimmick.

“Four Weddings and a Funeral” (1994), ABC Sunday at 8:30: This romantic comedy follows a group of friends through good times, hard times and unhappy times. Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell make nice music together in this enjoyable romp.