Blast from the Past: Alien Nation

[The Master™]

Alien Nation

Why is it no one tends to remember this series???

I always thought it was a really good series, with some lovely ideas about bigotry and co-existance...

"A ship crash lands in the Mojave desert, containing 250,000 slaves..."

They are Tenctonese - bred to exist in harsh conditions, stronger, more intelligent than humans... And they join with the rest of the population of Los Angeles... Only trouble is, the humans dislike the "Newcomers"...

The series revolves around Detective George Fransisco (first Newcomer Police Detective) and Detective Matt Sykes (a human, forced to work with Fransisco, who dislikes newcomers)...

To be honest, I always thought the first movie (with James Cahn) was complete rubbish... But I really warmed to the series, and enjoy watching the subsequent movies...

 

[Morning Star]

Re: Alien Nation

Kick em in the armpit! Sour milk will take the pain away.

I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

 

[erickad71]

Re: Alien Nation

I used to watch this series all the time. But that was quite a while ago.

 

[Ivo]

Re: Alien Nation

I remember that show well. I really enjoyed it. It was up there with Star Trek with regards to the raising of certain social issues. Great show, maybe even better than the movie in the long run.

 

[Whitestar]

Re: Alien Nation

Why is it no one tends to remember this series???

I always thought it was a really good series, with some lovely ideas about bigotry and co-existance...

The series revolves around Detective George Fransisco (first Newcomer Police Detective) and Detective Matt Sykes (a human, forced to work with Fransisco, who dislikes newcomers)...

To be honest, I always thought the first movie (with James Cahn) was complete rubbish... But I really warmed to the series, and enjoy watching the subsequent movies...

Hi Master.


Agreed! Alien Nation, the tv show was a great one. In fact, I too, liked it more than the movie itself because the show took the time to really develop the characters. The movie is available on DVD, but I was hoping that the tv show would be release as well. Do you happen to know when it's coming out?


Whitestar

 

[Princess Ivy]

Re: Alien Nation

I loved it, including the movie. one of the things most remembered is not the sci-fi aspects, but rather the way that it was handled as a cop movie and show, with the sci-fi mearly the back drop. I watched this one recently again on one of the Sky-Cinema chanels. wish they would bring the series back, maybe we should petetion the nostalgia channels?

 

[Whitestar]

Re: Alien Nation

I loved it, including the movie. I watched this one recently again on one of the Sky-Cinema chanels. wish they would bring the series back, maybe we should petetion the nostalgia channels?

Hi Princess Ivy. I have the distinct feeling that the Alien Nation tv series will eventually be release on DVD. As you well know, the final episode ended with a major cliffhanger, where human purists have developed a lethal virus to wipe out all newcomers. Alien Nation creator Kenneth Johnson (who also created V) decided to do a tv movie follow-up to the final episode entitled, "Dark Horizon", in which the cliffhanger is resolved, reuniting nearly all of the cast members. The tv movie was so successful that it spawned four more sequels: "Body and Soul", "Millenium", "The Enemy Within", and the final tv movie "The Udara Legacy".


For more information check out the following site:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/trekker/aliennation.html


Whitestar

 

[dwndrgn]

Re: Alien Nation

I liked the series but for some reason I didn't see a lot of it. I guess I was busy with other things. I never saw the original movie or any of the subsequent ones. I may have to do some digging now that you've brought it back up...

 

[The Master™]

"That was the scene in California's Mojave Desert five years ago - our historic first view of the Newcomers' ship. Theirs was a slave ship, carrying a quarter million beings bred to adapt and labour in any environment. But they'd washed ashore on Earth, with no way to get back to where they came from. And in the last five years, the Newcomers have become the latest addition to the population of Los Angeles... "

Cast:
Lauren Woodland
Role: Emily Francisco
Gary Graham
Role: Detective Matt Sikes
Jeff Marcus
Role: Albert Einstein
Eric Pierpoint
Role: Det. George Francisco
Michele Scarabelli
Role: Susan Francisco
Sean Six
Role: Buck Francisco
Molly Morgan
Role: Jill (1989)
James Greene
Role: Uncle Moodri
Jeff Doucette
Role: Burns (1989)
Jenny Gago
Role: Beatrice Zepeda [ with episode 19 ]
Ron Fassler
Role: Capt. Bryon Grazier
Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs
Role: Sergeant Dobbs
Terri Treas
Role: Cathy Frankel

 

[Dave]

One of the all time top scifi series IMHO. Though the original film was even better. I wish they would bring it back. As an allegory to immigration issues it is still so relevant today.

 

[mightymem]

I remember watching as a child I use to love it, but my dad use to hate their heads, he use to come home late and eat his dinner while we watched around ten in the evening and he use to feel sick he said. But the allegory to immigration is so true, because I noticed In England seen the joining of Eastern European countires to the E.U there has been a rise in anti immigrant behaviour. I hate it My family were immigrants in the 1960s and I do not like to see predijuice behaviour

 

[Cycodave]

Never watched a lot of the series but the original movie with James Caan was the dogs bollox

 

[Dave]

I never saw all of these and they were always shown late at night (before I had 240 hours of hard-drive to record on), so I have just ordered the boxed set for £10.98. I look forward to discussing them in more detail if anyone else can remember them or wants to buy them (the boxed set was £40 last year and talk of a remake will put up the price again.)

Never watched a lot of the series but the original movie with James Caan was the dogs bollox

I already have the film, and it is more violent and pulls a harder punch, but it was not nearly as funny.

 

[Dave]

I'm about half-way through them now. This is even better than I remember it and 22 episodes for £11 is only 50p per episode!

I forgot that it actually had story arcs through the season. Apart from the obvious 'redshirt' policeman in the second episode I didn't have many complaints. Too many story-lines rely too much on the weirdness of the Tenctonese spirituality and physiology, when most other times they don't seem that different. The elaborately detailed alien reproduction is far too complicated to follow, never mind to actually work. Also, way too many unusual things happened to Sam while he was on the ship and in quarantine.

Edit: I've finished the box set.

Some of the future predictions were not far off - Rambo 9, Back to the Future 5, a sequel to 'Gone With the Wind' (that actually did happen.) They were still using a lot of VHS video tape though.

The main reason for editing this comment was the final episode. The last 10 minutes has some of the biggest cliffhangers that must have ever been left hanging!