Wow, I looked it up to get it soon, and I was surprised it was only a single season. I thought it was at least 2 - 3 seasons, and maybe 4 - 5? We need this show done again and given it's proper time, this first season was jam packed from what I remember, IMHO.
I thought the same, but upon rewatching Dark Skies recently, I figured out that i was young and stupid when I graded the bugger. The best word for this show is "Constipated" Their Producers were so amazed and content with their plot, that they had no idea or drive to deliver a new fix each week. Another word is "sanctimonious". Mulder becomes a man in black in the 60s. But all he does is bitch. These Men in Black seem to be even less mysterious than the Chief from Get Smart. "Sigh" Not even Jeri Ryan with a Russian accent killing people, could save this clusterfuck. They didn't really get half into the notion of what the60s were that Mad men has. Womanizing, high functioning alcoholism and smoking. That's all that really happened, which dark Skies avoids talking about.
It got a reduced season order (20 instead of 22 like its companion shows Pretender & Profiler) and didn't even get a single rerun. NBC treated its Saturday Night lineup like crap, often pre-empting it for inane filler like random assorted video clips or magic trick shows, but Pretender & Profiler still got a fair amount of reruns and aired 4 years before NBC cancelled it all with a sure-fire ratings success like the XFL. Remember that absolute joke? Dark Skies was in the 1st hour timeslot of the evening, a slot which was the weakest of the 3. Later seasons it was replaced with Sleepwalkers, Wind Over Water. Does anyone even remember those? IIRC, the show wanted to do a 5 year story with 1 decade per seaso: 60s/70s/80s/90s followed by the 'present' or future.
I must say I wanted to watch this show for many, many years. I even waited until the "official" release. But when I finally saw it, after the first six or so episodes, the quality quickly plummet. What the creators did with John's wife, Jeri Ryan's character completely wasted and the final was just a travesty. To bad too, their was a lot of potential, if only more skill was used in the execution. I mean what were we dealing with here: Berman & Braga ! ?
I thought it was hopelessly unremittingly awful. I liked the premise but it was an utter failure with no redeeming features. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.