Still missing "X-Files"? Check into "The Lost Room"

"Isn't science fiction in the future?" asked the professor, baffled, or at least annoyed, by the magnetic present-day mumbo jumbo of the three-night Sci Fi Channel miniseries "The Lost Room."

Magnets don't work on her heart of gold, so while Mr. Iron Ore sat riveted, she wandered off to do some chores, waiting for her beloved "CSI" and "Boston Legal" and "Medium" to get their TV turns.

But not before observing that "The Lost Room" has a lot more in common with "Medium" than it does with more typical Sci Fi stuff like "Battlestar Gallactica" or "Stargate Atlantis": bizarre deaths, obscure riddles, a handsome father, and at least one darling little girl.

It's a supernatural mystery, involving a few ghosts, a little time travel and lots of crazy people. People who have been missing "The X-Files" might really go for "The Lost Room."

The little girl is Elle Fanning, who, at 8, has appeared in nine TV series, from "Judging Amy" to "House," to two of the three "CSIs." She's the younger sister of Dakota, and wouldn't you just love to be Mr. and Mrs. Fanning, sitting home, depositing their girls' paychecks?

Most of the actors in this miniseries, which centers on strange events in a mundane motel room on May 4, 1961, have been in lots of TV shows. Peter Krause ("Six Feet Under") stars with Julianna Margulies ("ER"). From "Desperate Housewives," Roger Bart (Bree's pharmacist suitor) and Christine Estabrook (Mrs. Huber) add strong support, along with, to name a few, "Deadwood's" Dennis Christopher (who played Bellegarde), Chris Bauer from "The Wire" and "Third Watch," "Joan of Arcadia's" April Grace and "Everwood's" John Beasley.

Margaret Cho has a zippy cameo as a modern-day seer who uses the Internet as her crystal ball and works out of a back room at the dry cleaners. Movie star Kevin Pollack joins the TV folk, who signed up for "The Lost Room" for three reasons:

Shot earlier this fall, it left them free to go after new-series roles in TV pilot season, which is starting to heat up now. Nice paycheck for not a whole lot of work. And it's pretty much fun, fooling around with strong obsessions in various dimensions.

Backed by a spooky, minor-key score and filmed in a dark style (it will lighten up, visually at least, later), "The Lost Room" opens in a seedy Pittsburgh pawnshop where several shady types are locked in life-and-death negotiations over what seems to be an ordinary motel key.

Misery ensues, and our hero Krause, who starts out as uncomplicated police detective Joe Miller, embarks on his own life-or-death struggle, interacting with people who desperately want to change the world, desperately want to keep it the same, or are just plain desperate to control it.

The delicious mystery of the first hour or so will be partly spoiled, though I would never give any big stuff away, by what follows. So if you want to curl up in the dark on Monday and be blissfully confused, stop reading.

We come to learn that the magic key is only one of many objects that were present in that room in the Sunshine Motel on Route 66 in New Mexico, each carrying particular powers because of whatever happened back in the '60s.

Tap the pencil, get a penny. Some guy did that 50,000 times a day for a few years before he went nuts.

Tune the radio to the right station, you'll instantly grow 3 inches. Not all the magic powers are worthy of David Copperfield.

Use the comb, stop time for a few seconds. Very useful in eluding people shooting at you, people who want to get the comb for their collection. "Watch out! He's got the comb!" some shooters shout.

Of course, the guy could just give it up, and they'd stop shooting. But, did I mention that he's nuts?

"Get away! He's got the deck of cards!" yells somebody under attack from another cracked joker, with a pasteboard joker that can really mess with your mind.

One group of loose screws called The Order believes the objects are disembodied pieces of God. They pray to an alarm clock and a pair of glasses and an empty wristwatch box. (The guy who has the wristwatch uses it to boil eggs.)

Another group called The Legion just wants to destroy all the objects so that everything will stay normal. None of the other players likes them very much.

Then there are the evil folks who just want all the swag for themselves, hoping to become all-powerful. One of them is called The Weasel.

There's no weaseling out of the idea that some people might find all this a little frivolous.

Others will imbue it, as befits the best science fiction, with deep insight into the meaning of religion and the condition of mankind.

Me? I'll just sit there stuck until the end, eager to watch the well-wrought cleverness and find out what really happened 55 years ago on Route 66, while the professor works, doing the dishes and putting away the laundry.

Like some of the characters, I may have my own obsessions, but I ain't crazy.