"Falling Skies", Season 1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Six

The series opens with the children recounting the traumatic events of the invasion. The aliens have destroyed most of Earth's cities, leaving only scattered bands of resistance fighters. One of these is led by Captain Weaver with Tom Mason, a History professor at Boston University, as his second-in-command. Tom and his three sons, Hal (16), Ben (14), and Matt (9), are among the major recurring characters.

Answer: Noah Wyle

Noah Wyle played Dr John Carter on "ER", one of the most consistently sympathetic characters on that show. On "Falling Skies" his character, Tom Mason, was a history professor at Boston University before the invasion and has a vast knowledge of military campaigns and tactics. Passionately devoted to his three sons, his character is in deliberate contrast to the gruff no-nonsense approach of Captain Weaver.

Answer: Steven Spielberg

The idea for "Falling Skies" was conceived together by Spielberg and Robert Ronat, who had written the script for Spielberg's successful film, "Saving Private Ryan". Spielberg's idea in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" of having enslaved children working for the villains was the inspiration for the harnessed children in "Falling Skies".

Answer: Skitters

Skitters are spider-like creatures that do much of the fighting for the aliens, although it is discovered that they too are a harnessed race and subject to control by other aliens. Both Ben and Mike, when freed from their harnesses, insist that the Skitters actually cared about them, and when Hal sneaks into the alien camp with a fake harness, he witnesses the Skitter caressing the youths as if they were pets.

Answer: Hal Mason

The aliens are fitting children and young adults with a "harness" on their backs which makes them subject to alien control. Ben Mason and Rick Harris have been harnessed before the series opens, but both are recaptured and their harnesses removed. Karen Nabler is Hal's girlfriend who is captured early in the series and becomes a spokesmen for the aliens.

In one episode Hal does put on a fake harness and pretend to be under alien control. This allows him to sneak into the alien camp and release his brother and five others.

Answer: Jimmy Boland

Jimmy is a 13-year-old fighter for the 2nd Mass. who has had to grow up far too soon. He escapes from an attack by a Mech and then is trapped in a doorway by a Skitter. Just in time Captain Weaver arrives and kills the Skitter. When Jimmy collapses in relief into Weaver's arms, we see an unexpected human side to Weaver.

Answer: That there is a third race of aliens involved in the invasion.

Tom and Hal and Weaver are on top of a building scouting out the alien structure through binoculars. They see a group of Skitters and Mechs being supervised by a tall slender alien, who is clearly in charge. This race has never been seen before and will be called "Fish Heads" in the second season. Later in this same episode Tom will come face to face with a "Fish Head" through a eyehole in an apartment door.

Answer: That bullets made from Mech armour are very effective.

Mechs are robotic creatures with humanoid form and devastating power and weapons. They rather resemble the Cylons on the original series of "Battlestar Galactica". They work in tandem with the Skitters but are controlled by radio connections that can be disrupted. At the end of the episode Pope demonstrates how much damage bullets made from Mech armour can inflict.

Answer: To blow up the alien structure over Boston.

Colonel Porter, the overall leader of the Massachusetts Resistance, has ordered the 2nd Mass. to join with the 4th, 5th, and 7th Mass. and to blow up each of the four towers supporting a strange alien structure that is being built over Boston. Even though Weaver and Tom suspect that these other units have been destroyed and Colonel Porter killed, they ask for fifty volunteers and depart to do their part of the mission anyway.

Answer: Tom is taken aboard an alien ship.

Both seasons of the series end with a totally unexpected event. In the first season, the attack on the alien structure being built over Boston fails to materialise, and as they return home an alien ship intercepts Tom and Weaver. Karen, the young girl harnessed by the aliens, orders Tom to enter the alien ship if he wants to save his son Ben from the effects of being harnessed.