Alien Nation

by Philip Chien

Susan and George Francisco and Mathew Sikes.

“Alien Nation" is one of the rare cases of a movie that had greater success as a television series. It was originally a 1988 theatrical movie staring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin. In 1989 the brand-new Fox network picked up the concept as a prime time weekly television show. Obviously major movie actors would want too much money for a television series so their roles were taken over by Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint. Other stars included Michele Scarabelli, Sean Six, Terri Treas, Ron Fassler, and a very young Lauren Woodland. Also hired was Kenneth Johnson, a television producer very familiar with doing science fiction on a television budget. Among other projects Johnson was responsible for the original “Bionic Woman" and “V." Some of the jokes had to be toned down in the transition from an R-rated movie to a television series, but the concept remained intact. What’s significant is the television series had far more depth in its stories and characters.

Michele Scarabelli and Eric Pierpoint meet fans at the Creation 'Star Trek' convention in Las Vegas.

The “Alien Nation" television series was a critical hit, extremely popular with science fiction fans, and had reasonable ratings. While it was primarily a science fiction show it was also an hour-long police drama, a family drama, a look at racism and social values, and overall excellent entertainment. The aliens were used as a metaphor for racism and immigrants; permitting many stories that would be too controversial if they were just ordinary humans. Naturally this was too good for television and the Fox network cancelled it after a single season, primarily due to its high production costs. The final episode ended with a cliffhanger –the aliens are dying from an artificial virus designed to harm them but not humans.

Fortunately there was enough interest to make a made-for-TV movie to clean up the loose ends. In 1994 “Dark Horizon" was released wrapping up the cliffhanger along with its own story. It had good ratings and four additional “Alien Nation" TV movies followed over the next three years - Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) and Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997).

The original cast members reprised their roles, although some of the minor supporting characters didn’t appear in the movies. “Dark Horizon" was filmed four years after the series causing one very noticeable problem. Actress Lauren Woodland, now sixteen, looks significantly older than how she looked during the show, even though the events in “Dark Horizon" are supposed to occur right after the end of the series.

The solution to the cliffhanger in “Dark Horizon" wasn’t much of a surprise since the story was published as a novel a year earlier. Eight authorized novels were published - a novelization of the pilot, some novelizations of TV movies, and also some excellent original stories. It’s regrettable those stories weren’t also made into movies.

In 2006 the 22 episode “Alien Nation" TV series was released on DVD, but not the follow-on movies. The movies have finally been released as a three DVD collection. The DVD collection of the movies has several excellent bonus features. Each of the movies has a commentary track by director/producer Kenneth Johnson and extra features like blooper reels and still photos.

“Alien Nation" is a timeless TV show. The makeup was done under a TV budget but it’s believable. The special effects were done using 1980s techniques - no computer generated images or other fancy techniques. Amateur filmmakers now have access to CGI software which runs on home computers that can create far better looking special effects. Some of “Alien Nation"’s references are a bit dated or anachronistic (for example Puerto Rico is the 51st state). But none of that matters because what shines are the stories and characters - the series and follow-on movies hold up very well over time.

The “Alien Nation" movie collection retails for $49.98 U.S. / $69.98 Canada.

Links

Order the Alien Nation DVDs from Amazon.com.
Order the Alien Nation novels from Amazon.com.
Creator Kenneth Johnson’s website.
Michelle Scarapelli’s official website.
Eric Pierpoint’s official website.
Internet Movie Database Alien Nation television series.

About the author

Philip Chien has been a science fiction fan for most of his life.

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