Another old series looks like being resurrected in the wake of the success of the revamped Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica (I’m still pondering the ending of the latter), this time its Alien Nation, which came from the pen of Rockne S O’Bannon, later to endear himself even more to science fiction fans with his work on the brilliant Farscape. Tim Minnear, who has excellent SF credentials having worked on Angel, Firefly and the X-Files, will be developing the back history and myth for the new show.
Alien Nation originally appeared as a movie with James Caan and and Mandy Patinkin, before spawning a short-lived TV series, books and comics. It still has cult appeal to many SF fans and with the inclusion of the police procedural element to the science fiction of alien refugees living among us SciFi are hoping that it will have that ‘broader appeal’ that the channel is looking to as part of their rebranding. According to Variety its thought the new show will be set around twenty years after the original alien refugees landed, so there is now a much larger population of them and, as with the original film and series, this will lead into exploring (sadly) topical problems like racism:
“You can take (the original ‘Alien Nation’) a step forward and really do a show that encompasses the clash of civilizations, and the idea of a ghettoized minority. You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there’s room for satire,” Tim Minnear. (from Variety, via ICV2)
(Cover to Alien Nation: the Skin Trade, by Cunningham, Kirk and Pallot, published Adventure Comics)
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