SF fans have plenty of reasons to be pissed at Fox Network right now. the cancellation of Sarah Connor Chronicles, the futzing they did with the first few episodes of Dollhouse, and there will always be Firefly. What some people may not realize is that Fox has a long history of canceling excellent SF shows for dubious reasons (including their own incompetence in promotion and marketing). Remember Alien Nation? Like Buffy, which debuted many years later, this series was based on a B movie that didn’t enjoy huge success. Also like Buffy, the TV series was heaps better. The background/mythos was pretty deep, the show explored social issues, and the producers essentially made the concept work.
Alien Nation combined two genres — science fiction and buddy cop shows. Matthew Sykes was a hardened LA cop with an attitude. George Francisco was a somewhat naive alien. The perfect pair!
The show only got one season and that ended on a cliffhanger, which was a real shame. Despite a setup that could have been completely cheesy, the show explored some really deep issues (race, class, immigration, assimilation, prejudice) without being constantly morose or patronizing. It also featured an alien race that had a well thought out culture, society, and physiology. (One of the best things about the Newcomers was that they ate things humans considered rancid like sour milk and weasel.) It was an intelligent SF show — and everyone knows how well those go over on network television.
Back when the show was first canceled there were a few media tie-in titles that finished up the story started in the season/series ender and novelized some scripts that were meant for the second season. (I read them all — yes!) A few years after that some made-for-TV movies came out based on those books/scripts, but this was still before the advent of DVRs and mass torrenting, so anyone who didn’t know they were coming on (like me) probably missed them. This was also before TV specials aired 20 million times in one week to ensure everyone had a chance to see it. I was bummed.
Recently I was poking at Hulu and discovered that they have all the Alien Nation movies available online – score! I finally got to see “Dark Horizon” on screen, got to see Matt and Cathy having hot interspecies sex in “Body and Soul”, and caught up on the movies not based on released books.
Even after all this time Alien Nation still stands up, and the movies are of the same caliber. Sure, there are occasional cheesy moments, but who doesn’t like a bit of cheese? If you’re a fan you can now buy the complete series and then watch the continuing adventures of Matt, George, and all their spotty-headed pals on Hulu.
Dark Horizon
Other Alien Nation Movies:
If you’re not a Hulu fan, you can buy all five movies on DVD, too.
1 • BlaqueSaber said:
April 21st, 2009 at 9:58 am, permalink
I always thought that having the aliens “soul” wander while each alien slept was an interesting concept.
There was plenty to work with here for years and years of AN goodness…
2 • greybon said:
April 21st, 2009 at 11:09 am, permalink
I love this show! I just rewatched the series and all the movies via Netflix. I didn’t even think to look for them in Hulu. Awesome that they are there! I haven’t read the novelizations (didn’t even know about them) but now I’m thinking I want to do that too.
3 • Randy Henderson said:
April 21st, 2009 at 3:49 pm, permalink
Intelligent AND socially conscious? How did it even last a full season on FOX?
But yeah, great show. It tackled big issues without beating the audience over the head with them.
Also add to your Fox death list “Wonderfalls.” This was a hecka-funny show with a fantasy element (inanimate objects talk to the snarky female lead), kind of an Arrested Development meets, um, some show where inanimate objects talk to people. Granted, it starts off a bit slow perhaps (and with a questionable opening) but really starts rolling by the first half of the first episode and keeps going strong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8_bmzRhfag
4 • Cat Rambo said:
April 21st, 2009 at 3:55 pm, permalink
I loved Alien Nation, it was great, and one of the smarter shows of its time.
I’ll also second the Wonderfalls thumbsup. My spouse bought me the DVDs last year and I was very very happy to find they contained a half dozen episodes that had never made it to the air.
5 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
April 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm, permalink
Greybon, Wikipedia has a list of all the books. I read all but the last one — I think I never knew it existed. Slag Like Me was a particular favorite, as was Extreme Prejudice. I have a fondness for Body and Soul because it was written by Peter David, who is one of the best media tie-in writers of all time.
And it looks like you can buy copies of the books from Abe Books, though you may want to be more specific in your search if you want to find them all.
6 • Fantasy Magazine » Dollhouse Season 1, Episode 12: “Omega” said:
May 20th, 2009 at 8:01 am, permalink
[...] FOX seems afraid to cancel FG for fear of making another stupid mistake. Perhaps they are also afraid of making the mistake of not giving a Whedon show enough time to become the most groundbreaking thing evar. What they are overlooking is that this show has an ick factor of 11 and problematic elements it shows no inclination to fix. If FOX is so eager to be giving shows a second chance, why don’t they bring back Alien Nation? [...]
7 • Caoimhe Snow said:
May 20th, 2009 at 2:47 pm, permalink
I loved that show. So awesome.
8 • Kaolin Fire said:
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:18 pm, permalink
District 9 keeps making me think of Alien Nation. Will have to check out Hulu to see if I can get my wife interested in watching through them!