On the Streets With Sam Francisco... (Alien Nation)

Member Name: shroud

Product:	Alien Nation
Date:	04/12/07 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: biting social satire, timely subjects and plots, great cast

Disadvantages: ended too soon, rarely reaired in its entirety

I am usually quite wary of big screen movie adaptations to TV series. Most seem opportunistic and end up badly executed. This cane be because of miscasting for the TV version, bad scripts, cheap effects and sets, you name it, but the fact remains, a lot of these things tank for very good reason. This is of course, not always the case, so if I like the movie, I try to give the TV series a fair shake to see if it is any good.

In 1988, Alien Nation came to the big screen, and I saw it at the base cinema with several of my Army buddies. I was impressed by the unusual take on the alien comes to earth story, and so when a year later, the re-cast TV spin off series began on the then new US network FOX, I tuned in to see if it was as entertaining as the film had been. I was not disappointed, as the quality of acting, integrity of the scripts, and detail of the sets was all spot on. I have to give a good bit of the credit here to the two main actors, who managed to catch the same on screen chemistry between the two characters as we had experienced in the feature film. The director here, too, gets kudos for the quality of the work. This quality was from no novice, director, however, as Kenneth Johnson had previously done the well received sci fi mini series "V".

The premise of the series is the same as the film: An alien ship crash lands in the desert in the US, and a slave ship crash lands. The resulting refugees are put in a camp, then released once it is ascertained they are benign, and programmes put into place to help them assimilate into society. people call them the newcomers, and the series focuses on one such Newcomer, or Tectonese as they call themselves. His name is George Francisco, and like all the other Tectonese, his name was given to him as a whim by whatever Immigration officer processed him (actually, the officer had an odd sense of humour and named him Sam Francisco, but Sykes renames him George as he just can't bring himself to call him Sam Francisco). He is a newly minted detective on the force and is paired with Det. Sykes. Sykes is less than pleased, as he just lost his partner during a face off with a Newcomer Working with George, and meeting his beautiful new female newcomer neighbour, forces Sykes to face himself and the ideals he believes in, with a reckoning due over his own short comings.

Lasting only a single series, we watch Sykes experience the inherent racism his partner faces from different parts of society and it makes an uncomfortable mirror. Accepting that his views were unjustly coloured by personal tragedy, we see the friendship deepen and even a romance blossom with said neighbour, Cathy Frankel. Along the way we watch the Tectonese struggle for equal civil rights, in echoes of our own all too recent past, and their struggle too maintain a sense of cultural identity while also attempting to fully assimilate into our modern Western culture, something many of our current immigrants no doubt can understand. It gave us a unique glimpse into what it might be like, to be the alien living here and now, and as such, not only providing viewers with entertainment, but a social commentary on our own society.

Sadly, the Fox network had just launched itself and found it had a cash shortage, so many original shows they financed met with the axe , including this one. It had been entirely unexpected, and Fox was at the time deeply regretful. Luckily for fans though, the cliffhanger that ended the series was NOT the end, and as money allowed, five original TV movies continued the storylines to conclusion, with the last being screened in 1997. This series can occasionally be viewed on reruns on such stations as the Sci Fi channel, and it is also available on DVD. It is definitely worth a watch, being full of humour and fully developed characters that are well portrayed. The storylines and the style of the show are also bound to appeal to a much larger pool of viewers outside the science fiction fan base as well, to include those who like crime drama, especially with a touch of social satire, as the science fiction is a plot device to enable us to get the outsider's view, with the thrust of the stories being cops catching criminals and going after racists who hurt people. Recommended.

Summary: Alien slaves crashand on earth and one joins the police to help keep the streeets safe