Robin Cook's Invasion was such a bad book that I had to see if the mini-series would make any improvements. It did not.
The miniseries almost immediately diverged from the book. Apparently to ease the budget, NBC used small black rocks instead of the small silver-dollar-sized disks that resembled small flying saucers. In the book, the disks were the only spacecraft. Shortly after landing the rock was seen to vaporize a snake. The disks had no such capability, although they could collapse into micro-sized black holes. The billionaire software mogul was not power and money hungry. And what was this business about RH negative blood? That certainly wasn't in the book. In the book, people who caught the flu and had some sort of genetic deficiency (like diabetes) died from the exposure. This was the virus's way of improving the human genetic stock. Infected people actively sought out the uninfected and infected them.
The series did manage to eliminate the architectural errors in the novel by not setting the Foundation in a mansion. No, instead the infected bought a military base. Not only did it seem strange that a private citizen would be buying a military base, but the general conducting the tour and spouting the benefits to its purchaser, suddenly claims that it is a military base and cannot be sold to a private citizen. But, the sale goes through with the help of a little virus.
The second part of Robin Cook's Invasion was even worse than the first. Not only were the few good parts of the book eliminated, but a complete break from the plot was enacted.
The foundation and its gateway continued to be assembled. Apparently to make a gateway you need a couple of old hangers and some large plastic water bottles (like the Department of Streets uses for watering median strips) which are then hung from the ceiling. And what is this gateway for if the aliens are arriving by ship? How should I know, there were no ships in the book. This gateway is also very fragile. Apparently just removing your hand from the controls will cause it and the arriving ship to explode. Very advanced!
As for the characters, different people died or were infected. Cassie was locked in an isolation ward as soon as she arrived at the secret installation (at her own request). In the book, that is. In the series she just hung out with everyone as she became more alien. Beau did not give up looking for Cassie in the desert. Instead they found the base and proceeded to slowly gain entry. Meanwhile the uninfected discovered, not an antibody (and certainly not microscopic BEMs), but that the virus breaks out of the body when the body is attacked by another viral infection. And guess what? They were working in a bio-war lab with hundreds of tailor-made plagues. They managed to find one to suit their needs in the catalog, a super cold that no one had an immunity to and was highly communicable. This was released an eventually cured the population. Far more believable than dropping a vial, having everyone cough twice and then be cured.
The ending of the movie was changed even further with the destruction of the gateway. In the book one of the heroes drives an all terrain vehicle through the mansion and rams the gateway apparatus. Very effective. In the movie Beau takes his hand off of a pad and everything blows up. Uh-huh!
If you have nothing better to do you might want to watch this. But reading the book would be better. Not much, but better. Better yet, reread Tolkien, watch Star Wars or even old episodes of Land of the Giants.
