If they take the same approach they did with the recently completed Battlestar Galactica this should be a success. I’m actually very excited about this, I always thought the original series was canceled to soon. It was on Fox so it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Sci Fi is developing a new take on “Alien Nation,” the 1988 feature that previously spawned a spin-off series on Fox.
“Angel” alum Tim Minear — no stranger to sci-fi tales, having worked on “The X-Files,” “Firefly” and “Strange World” — is penning the fresh take on the franchise. Fox 21, the alternative production arm of 20th Century Fox TV, will produce.
“Alien Nation” centers on the partnership between a veteran cop and his alien detective partner, set against the larger tale of alien “newcomers” who move to Earth and attempt to assimilate into society.
Fox 21 topper Chris Carlisle said he believed “Alien Nation” could rep the next franchise revival for Sci Fi, which found huge success in dusting off “Battlestar Galactica” and reworking it for today’s auds. Carlisle said “Alien Nation” works both as a sci-fi piece and a procedural drama.
“It’s absolute perfect timing for this type of show,” Carlisle said. “They’re looking for more grounded sci-fi and close-ended episodes, and at the heart of ‘Alien Nation,’ it’s a cop movie. It’s grounded. And it has a tremendous amount of dramatic possibilities and humor.”
The new “Alien Nation” would include a mythology that evolves over time and will also touch on some of the issues of the day, such as the immigrant experience and how society integrates an incoming culture.
Minear is currently busy outlining the “Alien Nation” script and mapping out the project’s mythology. The new “Alien Nation” will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens – who have been banished as slaves – crash lands into Earth.
By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the “newcomers” live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.
“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,” he said. “You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there’s room for satire.”
Sphere: Related ContentPosted under Television
This post was written by Lobo on July 2, 2009
Comments to this post























