1. Film (1988). Twentieth Century Fox. Directed by Graham Baker, starring James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Richard Kobritz. Screenplay Rockne S O'Bannon. 90 minutes. Colour.
Los Angeles (> California), 1991. The Newcomers, or "Slags", are 300,000 humanoid Aliens, genetically engineered for hard labour, survivors of a crashlanded slave ship, grudgingly accepted but disliked by humans (> Race in SF), and ghettoized in the inner city. Working in partnership with a human (Caan), Sam Francisco (Patinkin) becomes the first alien police detective in LA. There are murders related to the use of alien Drugs. A stereotyped buddy-cop story follows (uneasy relationship between races deepens as tolerance is learned). This is an efficient, unambitious adventure film whose observations of racial bigotry towards cultural strangers – effectively "boat people" – are good-humoured but seldom rise above cliché. The novelization is Alien Nation (1988) by Alan Dean Foster. A much darker rendering of the structure of this film is {DISTRICT 9} (2009), set in urban South Africa. [PN]
2. US tv series (1989-1990). Kenneth Johnson Productions for Fox Television. Starring Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint. 100 minutes pilot episode directed and written by Johnson, plus 21 50-minute episodes.
The short-lived television series that followed the film combined routine crime stories with mild Satire of Near-Future Los Angeles and lessons about civil rights. The bizarre-looking but adaptable Newcomers act and talk exactly like humans, portraying housewives, teenagers, used-car salesmen, criminals, police and other stereotypes. The exception is George (no longer Sam) Francisco, whose earnest, humourless approach and precise speech recall Spock of Star Trek. A few episodes involve the pregnancy of the male Newcomer hero. Johnson also produced the much harder-edged ""V"". The cliffhanger ending of the series was not resolved until October 1994, when a well-made two-hour television movie, "Alien Nation: Dark Horizon" was broadcast on Fox TV, scripted by Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider. [MK]
Previous versions of this entry