Tom Mason is a fictional character and
protagonist of the TNT television series
Falling Skies played by Noah Wyle.
Falling Skies tells the story of the
aftermath of a global invasion by
several races of extraterrestrials that
neutralizes the world's power grid and
technology, quickly destroys the
combined militaries of all the world's
countries, and apparently kills over 90%
of the human population within a few
days. Mason is one of the leaders of the
2nd Mass, a group of survivors fighting
against the aliens.
The character was created by series
creator Robert Rodat. Noah Wyle was cast
in the role in 2009, on recommendation
by executive producer Steven Spielberg
who produced Wyle's previous series ER.
Character history 
= Season one =
At the opening of the series, 90% of the
human race has been destroyed in an
alien invasion. Tom Mason, a history
professor from Boston, is made
second-in-command of the 2nd
Massachusetts Militia Regiment, a group
of civilians and fighters fleeing the
city. Tom's three sons are Hal, Ben, and
Matt; his wife perished during the
initial stages of the invasion. At the
start of the series, Ben has been
captured by the "Skitters" – six-legged
beings who make up the alien ground
forces – and fitted with a "harness"
that is making him perform slave labor
through mind control. Around this time,
Tom encounters a group of scavengers led
by a man named John Pope. After a
firefight with Skitters, Pope's group is
reluctantly taken in by the 2nd Mass.
After learning that Ben is being kept in
a hospital with other brainwashed
children, Tom, Hal, and the 2nd Mass'
commanding officer, Captain Dan Weaver,
formulate a plan to infiltrate the
building, kill the Skitter guarding
them, and rescue Ben and the other
captives. Ben's harness is removed, but
Hal notices that his brother has
undergone physical and behavioral
changes during his time in captivity.
Meanwhile, Terry Clayton, an old friend
of Weaver's and the commander of another
survivor group, is revealed to be a
collaborator who is giving human
children to the Skitters. After
Clayton's treachery is revealed, Tom
fatally shoots him.
When Skitter forces draw back in major
cities, the 2nd Mass decide to launch an
offensive on the alien base in Boston;
Tom and Weaver scout it to detect
weaknesses. It is during this expedition
that they realize the Skitters are being
commanded by another race of aliens
later identified as the "Overlords."
During the initial stages of the attack,
Tom evacuates the 2nd Mass' civilian
population from the school where they
are hiding, then joins the fight in
Boston. Using a grenade launcher given
to him by Pope, Tom shoots down a
spacecraft which crashes into and
destroys the alien base. The Overlords,
having underestimated the human
resistance, offer to begin negotiations
with the 2nd Mass. Tom begrudgingly
agrees when he is told that it will save
Ben from his transformation by the
harness. The season ends with Tom being
lead aboard an Overlord ship.
= Season two =
Three months after the battle in Boston,
a traumatized Tom is returned to the 2nd
Mass and is accidentally shot by Ben. In
flashbacks, it is revealed that Tom was
put through agonizing torture before
being brought before the Overlords, who
offered to allow the 2nd Mass to
peacefully live in a "neutral zone" in
exchange for their surrender; Tom
refused. A "Mech" – one of the robotic
beings fighting alongside the Skitters –
massacred a group of humans as a
reprisal. After he recovers, Tom becomes
the focus of suspicion by other members
of the 2nd Mass, who fear that he turned
or was brainwashed while in alien
captivity; this tension leads to a
conflict between Tom and Pope, who forms
a parallel group called the Berserkers.
A parasitical alien probe is found and
removed from Tom's eye, leading him to
question his own loyalty.
The 2nd Mass decides to travel to
Charleston, South Carolina, where they
have been told that other groups of
survivors – led by former members of the
U.S. government – are organizing. Over
the course of the journey, Tom grows
ever closer to Anne Glass, the medical
doctor for the 2nd Mass. The group comes
across a Skitter that Tom identifies as
one of the aliens who tortured him
during his time on the ship. They learn
that a large group of Skitters have
fought off the control of the harness
and are mounting a rebellion against the
Overlords; the Skitter rebels desire an
alliance with the humans. During a
firefight with alien forces, Tom briefly
holds an Overlord – who was also present
during Tom's own captivity – captive.
Upon arriving in Charleston, Tom is
reunited with his academic mentor,
Arthur Manchester. Manchester, the
"Majority Leader" of Charleston's
government, is overeager to prevent
hostilities with the aliens, a position
that Tom and Weaver consider reckless.
When given the option of joining forces
with the approaching Skitter rebellion,
Manchester refuses and eventually orders
that all members of the 2nd Mass be
arrested. However, General Cole
Bressler, the commander of Charleston's
resistance force, mounts a coup and
deposes Manchester. Tom facilitates
dialogue between the rebel Skitters and
the humans, resulting in a plot to
assassinate the Overlord that was
briefly captured by the 2nd Mass. The
2nd Mass is forced to work with the
Skitters with no help from Bressler or
his men. During the attack on an
Overlord weapon, the location of which
had been provided by the rebel Skitters,
Tom, Weaver, Hal, Ben, Maggie and Anne
are captured by Karen and her Overlord
master. While torturing them to find out
what they know, Karen reveals to Tom
that Anne is pregnant with his child.
Before she can inflict harm on either of
them, Tom says that he will talk.
At that moment, the rebel Skitters
attack and free the humans while taking
care of the Overlord's forces. The
Overlord himself is attacked by the
rebel leader, "Red Eye", but Red Eye is
killed. Tom seizes the electrostaff that
Karen had used to torture them and used
to kill the Overlord. As he does so,
Karen flees, screaming that they will
never win. The weapon is successfully
destroyed, marking one of humanity's
first major victories since the
beginning of the invasion. However,
despite the victory and Manchester's
offer that Tom be elected to succeed him
as Majority Leader, Tom and Weaver
believe that the best thing for the 2nd
Mass is to leave Charleston and continue
their life on the road. However, before
they can leave, a firestorm apparently
engulfs Charleston and several pod-like
ships land, revealing new aliens.
= Season three =
As Season Three begins, the 2nd Mass is
still in Charleston and Tom has been
elected President of the New United
States. Also, the human resistance and
their Skitter allies have formed an
alliance with the new aliens, known as
the Volm, who have provided them with
the technology to effectively combat the
Overlords, whose name has been revealed
as being the Espheni. They have also
provided a device to remove harnesses
from enslaved captives, which Dr. Glass
is seen using. One of the Volm, whom Tom
names Cochise, is now serving as an
adviser to and fights alongside the 2nd
Mass. After seven months of combat, the
humans are finally drawing blood against
the invaders, so much so that the
Espheni have had to resort to espionage
to gain an advantage over the humans and
their intergalactic enemies, the Volm.
While Tom carries on his duties as
President of the New United States, he
has to deal with many of the hardships
of being a leader - including the issue
of a mole within Charleston. Manchester
is given the job of uncovering the
mole's identity, and is on the verge of
doing so when the mole kills him in his
office with an energy weapon. Anne later
gives birth to Tom's daughter Alexis,
but his joy is short-lived when
Charleston is attacked by a group of
soldiers working for a man they call the
President of the United States, Benjamin
Hathaway. Tom successfully defuses the
situation, but loses a member of the
Berserkers along the way. Then, with the
help of Lt. Fisher, Tom makes contact
with Benjamin Hathaway forces and
decides to travel to Keystone to meet
them along with Cochise, Pope and
Bressler. After receiving a somewhat
subdued reaction from President Hathaway
and his troops, he is later forced to
leave Keystone, leaving behind Cochise,
and while en route back to Charleston
has his plane shot down by an Espheni
ship.
Tom then finds himself in a dangerous
situation when he awakens in the burning
wreckage of the plane to find Bressler
dead, and Pope unconscious. When Tom
saves Pope's life, he then successfully
leaves the area with Pope's help,
evading Espheni forces along the way.
Much to Tom's shock and dismay, when he
awakens in the hospital in Charleston he
learns from his sons that Anne and
Alexis have fled Charleston due to the
revelation of her baby being part alien,
and she has been abducted by Karen.
During Tom's absence, his sons Hal, Ben,
Matt and Maggie lead an initial search
team to try and locate Anne and Alexis,
but later return home to Charleston
under the realization that the Espheni
have them, and that the best course of
action as suggested by Ben was to try
and use the Rebel Skitters within the
Espheni ranks to try and locate Anne and
the baby.
When Tom has recovered enough to walk
around and resume his duties, he is
thrust into further danger when his son
Hal, implanted with an Espheni eyebug,
attacks him and Peralta as they are
discussing the Volm weapon. To his
horror, he finds himself abducted by
Hal, who demands information on the Volm
weapon, and ends up being held hostage
in a nearby building which the 2nd Mass
later surrounds. Coming to the
realization that his son may end up
being killed for being the mole, Tom
attempts to connect with Hal by bringing
up the past and his mother to defuse the
situation without any loss of life. As
the situation begins to escalate and
Hal's demands of Tom to reveal the
information on the weapon increase, his
other two sons, Ben and Matt, enter the
room along with Maggie, bringing the
situation to a close. Tom later decides
to go along with a dangerous remedy to
cure Hal of the eyebug and invites him
along on the search for Anne and Alexis.
He then makes the decision to step down
as President of the New United States
and offers up the information on the
Volm weapon, which has been called
Project Orange, to Peralta, knowing that
she will be elected the next President,
and she is sworn in during his departure
from Charleston.
Tom then leads a rescue party out of
Charleston consisting of himself, Hal,
Matt and Ben to locate Anne and Alexis.
During their journey they find
themselves robbed of their supplies by a
local family, the Picketts. After
successfully retrieving the supplies,
but with the unfortunate loss of one of
the family members who had robbed them,
they resume their search for Anne and
Alexis. Tom later decides to return to
the Pickett house to check on their well
being, after telling them about
Charleston, but is ambushed by several
Espheni mechs and skitters.
Now captured by Karen, Tom awakens in a
dream world where the invasion has not
happened and he and his wife and sons
have been living a normal but happy
life. As Tom continued to live out this
false reality as a college professor, he
starts to receive messages from Anne
Glass but with no memory of her, the 2nd
Mass or of the alien invasion; things
around him start to fall apart. When
three locations are made exceedingly
clear to him during the dream, he later
realizes what he has been seeing was not
real and awakens inside an Espheni base
in Boston. He then discovers that Karen
was attempting to manipulate him into
revealing what tower the 2nd Mass will
attack during their operation. Shortly
afterwards Tom is rescued and shoots
Karen dead, when he awakens in
Charleston and discovers he is still
being manipulated by Karen. Finally
awakening in the real world, Karen
informs him to his despair that she had
Anne and Alexis killed. After initially
trying to attack Karen, Tom breaks down
in tears and is then shown the
activation of the Espheni planetary
defense grid and is informed that within
three months all life on Earth will be
lost.
Realizing that he needs to return to
Charleston, Tom then jumps from a ledge,
evading the Espheni forces in the area
and successfully returns to Charleston
unharmed. Upon returning to Charleston
Tom immediately reveals that Anne and
Alexis had been killed, and the
vulnerability of the Boston tower to
assault. Fueled by a desire for revenge,
Tom wants to lead a team once the weapon
is ready to be deployed, but before he
could act an explosion is felt in the
Charleston area and Tom discovers that
the Volm complex has been destroyed.
After Tom discovers Cochise severely
wounded, he helps him to the hospital
and after being told his wounds will
regenerate if left alone, he orders that
he be left alone. When another explosion
rocks Charleston, killing many and
wounding others, Tom finds himself
trapped underground and makes a
horrifying discovery as he learns that
Lourdes was the mole. After being
taunted by a possessed Lourdes, Tom uses
a Volm gun and makes an opening for
himself and others to escape to the
surface with.
While on the surface Tom and Cochise
discuss the situation with the Volm
weapon and come to the conclusion that
the Volm weapon was adequately protected
from the initial blast and that it
should be just be a simple matter of
digging it out. He then leads a team
along with Cochise, Kadar and several
members of the 2nd Mass on a boat with
the weapon mounted onto it and attacks
and successfully destroys the Boston
tower, bringing down the Espheni
planetary defense grid along with it. As
a result the Volm successfully land
reinforcements on their city-sized ship
in the area the tower once stood.
Believing the battle to be over for now
Tom along with the other members of the
2nd Mass celebrate their victory but are
left shocked when the Volm reveal their
plans to relocate them to Brazil.
Strongly opposed to this, Tom makes his
feelings clear to the Volm commander who
is revealed to be Cochise's father.
After a minor disagreement, he is held
captive and is visited by the Volm
commander and explains that after
everything that has happened, he along
with the other members of the 2nd Mass
wish to continue fighting the Espheni to
the end and that he, and they wish to
liberate the planet. The Volm commander
understands Toms feelings and lets him
go, and as the other members of the 2nd
Mass are about to be taken away by
Cochise and several other Volm, is
informed that they are free to go.
Though somewhat concerned that the
battle against the Espheni will be a
three-way fight, Tom decides to travel
back to Charleston along with the rest
of the 2nd Mass but along the way is met
by Karen, who informs him that the Volm
can't be trusted and is later given Anne
and Alexis in return as a sign of good
faith. When Tom shoots Karen, after the
dust had settled he reunites with Anne
and Alexis and discovers that Alexis his
daughter is now the size of a 6 year old
child. To his surprise he witnesses
Alexis draw out and destroy the eyebugs
inside Lourdes.
= Season four =
23 days later, Tom along with the 2nd
Mass arrive back at Charleston, but
before he can celebrate the group are
attacked by Espheni ships and mechs, and
are seemingly ensnared by the Espheni
obelisks, Tom is separated from Anne,
Lexi, Matt and Ben, and other members of
the 2nd Mass.
4 months later, Tom is held in solitary
confinement in an Espheni ghetto, a
place set up by the Espheni for reasons
he does not yet know, to hold prisoners,
including Weaver, Pope, Hal, and other
members of the 2nd Mass, and people who
had been captured. When Weaver is held
in a room next to his, Tom informs him
that he is working on a plan to escape
from the ghetto, and then reveals that
he had been leaving confinement to
gather more intelligence on the area,
and the skitter locations. Fearing the
area to be monitored by the Espheni, Tom
covers his face before leaving
confinement. However his actions which
sometimes involved provoking the
skitters, were not unnoticed by the
Espheni, a single overlord aboard a ship
monitoring the ghetto sends a message to
an unknown person demanding that the
vigilante, which some residents dub 'The
Ghost' be handed over, or the residents
of the ghetto will be killed.
Meanwhile Tom learns from Cochise that
the Volm had no choice but to leave the
Earth, and have left behind several
scout teams. He is then informed that
the Espheni had set up ghettos all
across the planet, for reasons he does
not yet know, and that the Espheni are
developing a new power source. Fearing
the extinction of humanity, Cochise
offers Tom words of support, and when
Tom requests that he try and find Anne,
Lexi, Matt, and Ben, he agrees.
Now freed from solitary confinement
along with Weaver, he is then faced with
an Espheni speaking through a harnessed
child who tells him, along with the
Ghettos residents that until the
vigilante is handed over, the residents
will receive no further food shipments.
With their survival now in doubt, Tom
discusses the situation with Weaver, who
believes Pope may have a supply of food
they could use.
Meanwhile Tom meets up with Hal who
tells him of the new escape plan, and
together they meet with Dingaan Botha,
who informs Tom that he had constructed
a Faraday suit which can be used to
scale the fence, and that he had escaped
from an Espheni camp before. When he
also is told of a working radio, he uses
it to contact Cochise who tells him that
the Espheni power source is offensive in
nature, unlike the grid used before, and
that he knows where Matt is being held.
When Tom requests that he rescue Matt,
he agrees.
Buoyed by the news about Matt, Tom
decides to dress as the vigilante and
hands himself over to the Overlord.
Aboard the ship he learns that the
Espheni plan to use humanity as hybrid
soldiers in a new war, and is presented
with a choice to save his family from
the transformation, but when the
Overlord gives him the choice between
extinction or evolution, the ghettos
residents dressed the Ghost, launch
projectiles against the ship, during the
chaos Tom uses the opportunity to study
the camps layout and power source. When
he later is released by the Overlord,
Tom informs Hal and Weaver that he had
promised not to resist anymore.
Faced with the news that humanity will
be skitterized by the Espheni in the
coming days, Tom puts the finishing
touches on his escape plan with Dingaan,
and then offers him a place among the
2nd Mass when they escape. Later that
day, with Pope, Hal, Weaver, Tector and
Digaan gathered, Tom, with a scale model
of the ghetto in front of him, informs
them that he will draw the attention of
the ghettos skitter guards while Dingaan
scales the fence. He then informs them
that Hal will lead the ghettos residents
into the tunnels in 15 man groups to
avoid suspicion while Pope and Weaver
cover for Dingaan, but faced with a
skeptical Pope, Tom explains that when
he manages to gather the skitters into
one area, he will blow the building he
was once held in with the explosive
charges.
The next day, Tom meets with an Overlord
and a harnessed child and informs them
that the deal they had is now off, and
that they should surrender, but when the
Overlord threatens his life, he attacks
it with a flamethrower and severely
injures it. With the escape plan now in
motion, Tom is now pursued by skitters
and Pope is forced to scale the fence
when Dingaans hand is injured, meanwhile
Hal waits with the ghetto residents in
the tunnels. With the fence now down,
Tom leads the skitters to the building
and blows it up and jumps into the water
in triumph. That night, Tom reunites
with Hal and the group and then thanks
Pope for his part in the escape.
Now on the run from the Espheni and
faced with increasing Beamer patrols,
Tom arrives at the Volm hideout in an
abandoned warehouse and is immediately
greeted by Cochise. When Cochise
explains that with the help of recon
drones they now have Matts location, he
decides to set out and rescue him.
Weaver explains to Tom that he
empathizes with how he must be feeling,
and joins him. Tom then leaves Hal in
charge of the group and tasks him with
gathering supplies and ammunition. Now
outside of the re education center,
Cochise is forced into a meditative
trance after being attacked by a mutated
Jeanne Weaver, so Tom leaves him behind.
Inside the camp, when the children raise
the alarm, Tom is forced to separate
from Weaver and is led by Mira to Matts
cell. He immediately rescues Matt who is
being attacked by Kent Matthews by
striking him, and with the help of Mira
who distracts the skitters, leaves along
with Matt. Shortly afterwards, Tom is
reunited with an emotional Weaver who
explains to him, Matt and Cochise what
had happened with Jeanne. Though
unbeknownst to Tom, he is currently
being tracked by the scorched Overlord.
After 3 days of travel Tom arrives back
at the Volm hideout with Matt, Cochise
and Weaver, he notices the message left
by Hal and takes measures to decipher
it, he however is unaware that the
Scorched Overlord along with several
Skitters are patrolling the warehouse
and is forced to make a quick retreat
after learning where Hal was headed.
Shortly afterwards, Cochise informs Tom
that he needs to rejoin his recon team
and then leaves. As Tom and the group
make their way through the forest, they
come across a camp inhabited by 2 men,
who introduce themselves as Nick and
Cooper, who are brothers. When they tell
Tom that they had escaped from the
Espheni, he's skeptical and voices his
concerns to Weaver.
Tom is then abducted by the men who tell
him the Espheni have a high price on his
head, concerned for Matt, he attempts to
talk with Cooper and tells him about how
Matt was only 8 when the Espheni
invaded. Cooper tells him that he had 2
sons who are now dead, as Tom continues
to engage with him, he learns that Nick
had caused the death of Coopers sons,
which causes Cooper to kill Nick. As
Cooper turns to kill Tom, Weaver shoots
him dead. That night, he bonds with Matt
and tells him about the meaning of
family and brothers.
Now in Chinatown, Tom is reunited with
his family and immediately asks Anne
about Lexi, but before they can talk
Lourdes interrupts and tells them that
she's in a cocoon. He stops Anne from
freeing her and tells her not to act
irrationally as it may get Lexi killed.
When Anne undergoes memory regression
for answers, he spends time by Lexi's
side and is joined by Weaver who offers
him words of comfort. Later that night,
Tom interrupts a 2nd Mass meeting and
overhears Pope suggesting Lexi should be
killed, he then warns them against
acting and is told by Pope that there's
clearly a conflict of interest going on.
As he leaves, Hal tells him that they
have a valid point but he doesn't
listen, he tells him of his disgust that
he was there. Realizing that people are
scared of Lexi and that he may need to
use force to protect her, he discusses
the situation with Lourdes.
Warned by Ben who stands by his side,
Tom is faced with an angry Pope and 2nd
Mass members who demand access to Lexi.
Tom diffuses the situation by telling
them should she become a monster, he
will deal with her. He then hears from
Anne before she puts her hand on the
cocoon that Lexi needs her.
When Lexi emerges from her cocoon
seemingly unchanged, Tom is faced with
Lexi's proclamation that she is leaving
Chinatown and then voices his concerns
to her along with Anne, but she doesn't
listen. He watches on as she walks into
the crowd gathered outside and is
shocked when Lexi kills Lourdes through
pity. Believing that the Espheni may
have done something to Lexi, Tom turns
to Dr. Kadar and learns that she has
changed at a cellular level.
Faced with an impending attack from the
scorched Overlord, Tom tasks the 2nd
Mass with laying traps around Chinatown
and to prepare for a ground assault, he
tells them that he believes they haven't
attacked with Beamers as the Overlord is
seeking vengeance against him. That
night, the Espheni begin their ground
assault and the 2nd Mass is hit with an
explosion from a ruptured gas line that
kills most of the group. With the
survivors now gathered, Tom orders them
to evacuate to an underground bomb
shelter and tells them that the attack
won't stop until the Espheni believe
they are dead. But before Tom can
evacuate himself, he is faced with
tragedy when he discovers that Dr.Kadar
has suffered a fatal shrapnel wound.
With Dr.Kadar now dead, Tom becomes
distressed by the deaths suffered during
the attack and turns to Tector and asks
him for his rifle to attack the
Overlord. Tector however tricks Tom and
sends him away before attacking the
Overlord himself while dressed as the
Ghost and then blows himself up.
With Chinatown now in ruin, Tom awakens
under the rubble unharmed and discovers
a distressed Dingaan while attempting to
escape. Together they manage to find a
crashed Beamer and are able to get
inside. Believing that they may be able
to use the Beamer to escape, Tom decides
to investigate and is implanted with a
parasite after touching a panel and
tasks Dingaan with removing. However
when he accidentally triggers an onboard
missile, Tom shields himself behind a
panel along with Dingaan and anxiously
awaits the explosion. When Dingaan tells
him that the beeping sound reminded him
of his wife's heart monitor before she
died, Tom comforts him. He is then
rescued when the explosion draws the 2nd
Mass to them. Later that night, Tom and
the 2nd Mass decide to gather around a
camp fire to mourn the loss of Tector
and Lourdes, and after learning that Ben
had given some of his spikes to save
Maggie, he then talks with Hal and they
both notice a strange pulsating light on
the moon.
Believing the light on the moon to be
the Espheni power source, Tom decides
that they need to dig the Beamer out of
the rubble to use against it, but when
he learns that they don't have the tools
to do it quickly, Cochise tells him
about a Volm supply cache that may hold
something of use to help unearth the
buried Beamer. He then decides to lead a
small team consisting of himself, Anne,
Matt, Weaver and Cochise. When Tom and
the group arrive at the site Cochise
informs him that they will need to wear
gasmasks as the air is toxic where the
cache is buried, they are then greeted
by Mira who tells them that she had
escaped the Espheni camp, Matt believes
her but Tom is suspicious and ties her
up before unearthing the cache. After
hearing from Matt that Mira had escaped,
Tom is attacked by Kent Matthews and
with Annes help, he is able to shoot him
dead. With the cache destroyed, Tom
decides to head back to Chinatown with
the group.
After the Beamer is inadvertently
brought to life and flown out of the
rubble, Tom is faced with uncertainty
when the 2nd Mass demand that he should
give them a chance to pilot the Beamer
on the mission to the moon. Tom is
against the idea but is convinced by
Anne to give them a vote, and tells them
that anyone is free to put their name in
contention for the role. That night,
with the 2nd Mass gathered, Tom draws
Bens name, and his own. He then admits
to Anne that he had rigged the draw as
he couldn't allow Ben to go without him.
The next day, Tom and Ben prepare to
enter the Beamer, but are interrupted
when Beamers attack. He then watches on
as Lexi destroys them.
Tom is angered by Lexi's return and she
apologizes to him. Tom tells her that he
doesn't want anything more to do with
her, as she had betrayed both him and
the 2nd Mass who he calls his family.
Anne convinces him to give her a chance,
and he allows her to join him on the
mission to the moon. Believing Lexi to
be a threat, Hal gives Tom a poison to
use on her just in case. When the Beamer
leaves the Earths atmosphere, he
realizes that the life support system
won't be able to maintain them both
ways. Lexi suggests to him that they
enter a cocoon together until fthey
reach the moon, to which he agrees.
However he dreams that he's now back on
Earth with the power core destroyed and
the Espheni on the back foot and quickly
realizes what he is experiencing is not
real. Believing Lexi to be the cause, he
demands that she release him. When they
both have a father-daughter moment and
reconcile the issues they once had, they
awaken and discover they're now close to
the moon.
When their Beamer is captured by the
Scorched Overlord, Tom decides to board
the ship along with Lexi. While inside
they are confronted by the Scorched
Overlord who attacks Lexi and reveals
his plan through Mira who is now
harnessed to them both. Tom attacks the
Overlord and injects him with a lethal
Volm poison which kills him, but before
he dies he destroys the ships auto pilot
system to prevent them using against the
power core. Tom however is told by Lexi
to return to the Beamer and is
distraught when he hears what he
believes to be Lexi saying goodbye, she
explains to him that as the auto pilot
is destroyed she has no choice but to
pilot the ship to destroy the core. Tom
reluctantly says goodbye to Lexi, but
they are attacked by a squadron of
Beamers and are rescued by the Volm. Tom
watches on as Lexi destroys the power
core, but the explosion sends his Beamer
spiraling into space out of control. He
then awakens on a bed aboard an unknown
spaceship and hears what he believes to
be an old radio broadcast, immediately
he decides to look around the room and
realizes he's in space. He is then
interrupted when an unknown alien makes
their presence known, to which Tom
responds with familiarity.
= Season 5 =
Tom is rescued from space by the
Espheni's ancient enemy, the Dornia who
tell him to find his inner warrior to
defeat the Espheni once and for all
before returning him to Earth. Guided by
the Dornia who communicates with him in
the image of his deceased wife Rebecca
Mason, Tom rallies all the militias
across the world into a global
resistance to attack the Espheni bases
and retake the planet. For his part, Tom
leads a march on Washington, D.C.. After
an encounter with a militia running a
witch hunt under the leadership of an
Espheni clone, Tom learns of the
existence of an Espheni queen when Ben
uses an Espheni communications device.
Shortly afterwards, Tom is approached by
the Dornia who offer him a bioweapon
that when used on the Espheni queen,
will wipe the race out and free the
Earth. Tom takes the weapon and has Anne
and resistance fighter Marty work on
modifying it so it's non-lethal to
humans, but is confronted by the
possible return of his daughter Alexis.
Tom learns that the Espheni queen only
comes to Earth when victory is certain
and the Espheni are moving from invasion
to occupation. Alexis also informs him
that the Espheni have been to Earth
before. Alexis, revealed to be an
Espheni clone, attacks Tom, but is
killed by Ben with the Dornia bioweapon
before she can kill him. The next day,
Tom leads an attack on Washington, D.C.,
having the militias attack an
impenetrable defensive wall while he
leads a strike team through the city's
service tunnels to reach the queen
herself. Tom is separated from the rest
of the team by an explosion, but
continues on alone and confronts the
queen face to face in the ruins of the
Lincoln Memorial. The queen explains to
Tom that the invasion is revenge for the
death of her daughter at the hands of
humanity 1,500 years ago in another
failed invasion. The queen starts
draining Tom's blood, but he takes
advantage of this and infects himself
with the Dornia bioweapon. Thanks to the
modifications Anne and Marty made to it,
Tom is immune to the weapon's effects,
but the virus passes through his blood
into the Espheni queen, killing her. The
bioweapon spreads through the queen's
connection to her species and the
Espheni are wiped out by the bioweapon,
freeing Earth and humanity. Shortly
afterwards, Tom learns that Anne has
died and desperately takes her to the
Dornia for help. As Tom awaits her
return, a mortally injured John Pope,
who has been seeking revenge against
Tom, arrives but takes no pleasure in
Tom's pain and lays down his weapon. Tom
refuses to kill Pope since the war is
over and he no longer has to kill
anyone. Pope dies of his wounds and Anne
is returned to Tom alive. Months later,
Anne is pregnant with their second child
and Tom rejects offers to be the new
leader of a united humanity, saying that
he is just a teacher. As humanity
gathers at the rebuilt Lincoln Memorial,
Tom gives a speech on how the Espheni
invasion gave them a second chance as a
species.
Casting 
Noah Wyle was announced as the lead in
the series in June 2009. He has
previously worked with TNT on The
Librarian films and was sent scripts for
various shows on their network. Wyle
said part of the reason he chose the
part was to gain credibility from his
children. He said "...with the birth of
my kids, I started to really look at my
career through their eyes more than my
own, so that does dictate choice,
steering me toward certain things and
away from other things." He also decided
to do it as he could relate with his
character, stating "I identified with
Tom's devotion to his sons, and admired
his sense of social duty." Spielberg
wanted Wyle for the role because he knew
him from his previous series ER, which
Spielberg's company produced. He had
wanted Wyle to appear in his 1998 film
Saving Private Ryan but due to
scheduling conflicts, he was unable to
star. Spielberg stated that he was
determined to work with him again.
Reception 
= Critical reception =
= Accolades =
Wyle was nominated for a Saturn Award in
the category for Best Actor in
Television.
References 
