‘Child’ Subtle, Engaging--Despite the Premise

Improbable premise, solid execution.

That’s the gist of “Evolution’s Child,” an appealing tale of human error and simple humanity airing tonight on cable’s USA Network.

As the drama opens, a scientist (Susan Gibney) makes the remarkable discovery of a Bronze Age corpse buried in the snowy Italian Alps.

Enter Dr. James Mydell (Ken Olin), a confident, compassionate fertility specialist called upon to extract this perfectly preserved 3,000-year-old man’s sperm for a DNA study that would be of obvious significance to science.

But just when you think this farfetched plot is evolving into a blatant knockoff of the old Timothy Hutton film “Iceman,” it veers off in a thought-provoking direction.

The error comes into play when Mydell, working with a friend (Taylor Nichols) and his wife, Elaine (Heidi Swedberg), who have been unable to conceive, passes the aforementioned semen specimen to a frazzled assistant, who mistakenly uses it to impregnate the unassuming Elaine.

Major complications ensue for Mydell with the subsequent birth and development of Adam (Jacob Smith), a healthy boy with an interesting gift, to say the least.

Rather than divulge more, suffice it to say the understated script by Walter Klenhard (based on Martin Booth’s book “Toys of Glass”), which dutifully grapples with the question of a physician playing God, never stoops to exploitation or cheap histrionics. In fact, part of the film’s strength is derived from the subtle tone set by director Jeffrey Reiner as well as the textured performances he draws from the uniformly good cast, particularly Nichols (“Barcelona”) and Swedberg (George’s fiancee Susan on “Seinfeld”).

* “Evolution’s Child” will be shown tonight at 9 on USA. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14).