''Alien Nation'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eit ...

television series in the ''

Alien Nation ''Alien Nation'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Rockne S. O'Bannon (later known for ''Farscape''), comprising film, television, and other media productions about alien refugees living on Earth. The series began with th ...

'' franchise. Adapted from the 1988 ''

'' movie, it stars

Gary Graham Gary Graham (born June 6, 1950) is an American actor, musician, and author. He may be best known for his starring role as Detective Matthew Sikes in the television series '' Alien Nation'' (1989–1990) and five subsequent ''Alien Nation'' televi ...

as Detective Matthew Sikes, a Los Angeles police officer reluctantly working with "Newcomer" alien Sam "George" Francisco, played by

Eric Pierpoint Eric Pierpoint (born November 18, 1950) is an American actor and author. He is perhaps best known for his role as George Francisco on Fox Network's '' Alien Nation''. He has also notably appeared on each of the first four ''Star Trek'' televisi ...

. Sikes also has an on again-off again flirtation with a female Newcomer, Cathy Frankel, played by Terri Treas. ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...

'' included the series in their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon".

Plot

The series is set in the near future in the United States. In 1990, a

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has ...

crashes in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

containing a race of

extraterrestrials Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...

, the Tenctonese, escaping from slavery under a cruel Overseer race. They are humanoid but have certain anatomical differences and have been bred with greater physical strength and intelligence. These Newcomers, as they are called, are accepted as the latest immigrants to the US. The series explores issues around their integration into the multicultural society of the US. The storylines often are

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

s on the evils of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagoni ...

and

bigotry Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, rel ...

, using Newcomers as the discriminated minority. As fictional extraterrestrial immigrants, the Newcomers could stand in for

social issues A social issue is a problem that affects many people within a society. It is a group of common problems in present-day society and ones that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's cont ...

about various races, as well as sexual minorities such as gays and lesbians, and would invert the usual expectations. For instance, during the run of the series, George becomes pregnant (the male of his species carrying the fetus for part of its gestation), and during much of the episode, dialog included lines like, "If you females had to feel the pain we males feel during pregnancy, there wouldn't be any babies." The series offers

social commentary Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace ab ...

by illustrating what it means to be human and the often bizarre rituals we observe.

Cast

Production

Development

In an April 2, 2008 episode of '' Fanboy Radio'' (#463), creator Johnson explains: Having been responsible for science-fiction television series such as ''

The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin ...

'', '' V'' and ''

The Incredible Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of '' The Incredible Hulk'' (May 1962). In his comic book a ...

'', was approached for the television adaptation of the 1988 film ''

''. He had no interest in the project and agreed to watch the film which left him unimpressed except for one scene when a Newcomer, George, leaves his suburban wife and child and goes to work. Johnson returned to the network, which envisioned a weekly science-fiction version of ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, D ...

'', and sold them on a different concept of social commentary about what happens when a new minority appears overnight. He intended his version to be more akin to the film '' In the Heat of the Night'' than a traditional action film.

Changes from the movie

* In the movie version, human detective "Matthew Sykes" is played by

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Suppo ...

. In the TV series, actor

plays the role of "Matthew Sikes". * Detective George Francisco, (originally named "Sam Francisco" by the Human immigration authorities) the Newcomer detective, is played by

Mandy Patinkin Mandel Bruce Patinkin (; born November 30, 1952) is an American actor and singer, known for his work in musical theatre, television and film. He is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received three Tony Award nominations, winning ...

in the movie. Eric Pierpoint plays the character in the TV series. * Many aspects of Newcomer culture are explored in the TV series, including childbirth, religion, family, history and longing for their home planet. In the movie, Newcomer culture is hinted at but never fully explored or rounded out. * In the movie, Francisco has a wife named Susan (played by Kendall Conrad) and a son (called "George Jr." in the credits, although Mandy Patinkin states that within the film, he was named "Richard" after

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

), played by Brian Lando. In the TV series, his wife is still named Susan (

Michele Scarabelli Michele Scarabelli (born April 11, 1955) is a Canadian actress. She is probably best known for her role as Tenctonese Newcomer Susan Francisco on the Fox Network science fiction series '' Alien Nation'' and the five television movies that follow ...

), but his son is named Buck ( Sean Six). He also has a daughter, Emily (

Lauren Woodland Lauren Woodland (born October 28, 1977) is an American attorney and semi-retired actress. Before entering the field of law, she appeared in more than 50 commercials, guest starred in more than 20 television programs and starred as a series regula ...

) and gives birth to an additional daughter, Vessna. * In the movie, Sykes's daughter is married. In the TV series, she is unmarried and is of college age with a boyfriend. * Matt and George both work for Captain Warner ( Francis X. McCarthy) in the movie. In the TV series, it is Captain Bryon Grazer (

Ron Fassler Ron Fassler (born March 4, 1957 in New York City) is an American film and television actor and author. He is best known for his role as Bryan Grazer, the LAPD captain in the Fox Network cult science fiction TV series ''Alien Nation''. The serie ...

Cancellation

The weekly series ran for one season, from 1989 through 1990, and was one of the few successes the fledgling

Fox Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

had at the time. However, the network suffered from financial shortage caused by lower-than-expected advertising income. As a result, Fox executives cancelled all of their dramatic series for the 1990–1991 season. A second season of ''Alien Nation'' was clearly expected by the producers, as the season ended with a

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

. The show built a strong fan base, and popular demand led to "Dark Horizon", the episode that would have begun the second season, being novelized and adapted as a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

as well as spawning a series of

novels A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

. Four years later, after a change of management at Fox, the story of ''Alien Nation'' continued with five television movies (including all the original cast), picking up with the cliffhanger.

Episodes

A spaceship transporting slaves from an alien planet, crash landed on earth. While trying to integrate into human society, the “Newcomers” are accepted by some and hated by others.

Television movies

Home media

The series was released on DVD by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

on January 3, 2006. The five telefilms that followed after the series was cancelled were released in Region 1 by Best Buy exclusively on September 11, 2007, and worldwide on April 15, 2008.

Revival

In June 2009,

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. La ...

(formerly Sci-Fi Channel) announced that they were developing a new take on the series. Tim Minear (''

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...

'', ''

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

'') was announced to pen the series. But later in 2014, it was reported that the series was cancelled by the network in favor of paranormal reality shows and professional wrestling. In 2015, it was reported that a remake of the series was again in the works, with Art Marcum and Matt Holloway writing the script.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alien Nation (1989 Tv Series) 1980s American science fiction television series 1990s American science fiction television series Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Live action television shows based on films Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Alien Nation Television shows set in Los Angeles Television series set in 1995 Television series set in 1996 Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department 1989 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings Television series about extraterrestrial life