ALIEN NATION {PILOT/TV MOVIE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot film for a television series about a race of extraterrestrials living in Los Angeles as a minority group.
Five years have passed since an alien spacecraft landed in the Mojave desert without warning, carrying a race of aliens engineered to be slaves, possessing enhanced strength and senses. Since then, the aliens, called “Newcomers,” have been released from their long government quarantine and have partially integrated into the greater Los Angeles area, gaining American citizenship and some legal rights. However, they are still treated as second-class citizens in many ways and are treated with suspicion and racism by many of the city’s human inhabitants. The story opens as a homeless man suffering from mysterious skin sores spontaneously commits suicide.
In the upscale Los Angeles suburbs, Newcomer police detective George Francisco and his family move into their new house, greeted with scorn from many of their neighbors. George has just been partnered with human detective Matthew Sykes, who harbors resentment for the Newcomers because his partner, Bill “Tuggs” Tuggle, was killed by a Newcomer gang member in a firefight. Despite his resentment, he is also appalled by the racist attitudes exhibited by his fellow humans. As George and Sykes investigate the homeless man’s suicide, they receive a call from dispatch that alerts them to a disturbance taking place outside the school where Emily, George’s young daughter, is just starting.
At the school, a group of angry human supremacists, calling themselves “Purists,” have blocked Newcomers from entering and voice their opposition to “Proposition 16,” a bill that, if passed, would allow Newcomers the right to vote. An argument breaks out between the Purists and Newcomer supporters about the Purists’ desire to forcibly move the Newcomers back to their ghetto, “Slagtown.” Before violence can erupt, Sykes arrives and defuses the situation by comparing the Purists to hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Defeated, the Purist group disperses and allows Emily to enter the school. Sykes returns to his apartment and finds he now has a Newcomer neighbor named Cathy, but he goes out of his way to avoid her. He has received a package from Lyddie, Tuggs’s wife, containing a large number of files on the Newcomers that Tuggs wrote. He goes in to work the next day to find that the body of the dead homeless man was somehow stolen from the morgue. He and George investigate the matter and discover that Albert, the bumbling Newcomer police janitor, allowed a sensationalist newspaper photographer named Burns into the morgue the previous night.
Emily finds herself ostracized at school by her fellow students, but Jill, a girl who lives on her street, befriends her. Sykes stops by an abandoned warehouse mentioned in Tuggs’s files and George notes that it smells similar to the Newcomers’ ship. Sykes explains that Tuggs was fascinated with slavery and was planning to write a book on the Newcomers’ perspective as a slave race. Sykes and George interrogate Burns and he confesses that he sneaked into the morgue to take pictures of the body, but that he was knocked out from behind and is not responsible for stealing it. During their investigation, George invites Sykes over to his house for dinner as thanks for protecting Emily. Sykes is reluctant at first, but accepts the invitation.
Back at his apartment, Cathy helps Sykes carry his groceries, and the two get to know each other better. Cathy explains that she works as a biochemist. They part on better terms, but Cathy notes the smell of cigar smoke in Sykes’s apartment, which piques his suspicion. Later, Sykes arrives at the Francisco’s home and is greeted warmly by George, Emily and George’s wife Susan. Their pleasant dinner is interrupted by Buck, George’s teenage son, who expresses his disgust at seeing a human at the dinner table. Buck detests humans and believes that the Newcomers will never be welcomed into human society. He is part of a Newcomer gang that fights with human gangs. George tries to change his son’s opinion, but to no avail.
The next day, George and Sykes spot an individual that a witness identified as being at the morgue. They apprehend him and discover that the man was hired by a Newcomer to steal the corpse for an unknown purpose. Under duress, the man reveals the location of the corpse. Afterwards, Sykes musters up a compliment to George on their growing synergy. George and Sykes arrive at the location of the human corpse, but instead find the hollowed-out remains of a Newcomers’ arm.
That night, Cathy arrives home from work and is accosted by a trio of drunken human men emerging from a bar. Sykes is nearby and helps her escape. They return to her apartment and he asks her about the strange smell George picked up at the warehouse, but gains nothing useful. Meanwhile, the man George and Sykes picked up is in jail making a phone call to his partner. A strange rash is developing on his arm. The next day, Sykes explains to George how Tuggs died. Sykes reveals that there was no autopsy done on Tuggs, which prompts inquiry from George as to the exact circumstances of the death. Later they arrive on a crime scene and find a dead body that appears to have been corroded to death by formic acid. Witnesses claim to have seen a gigantic insect-like creature at the scene of the crime.
At school Jill gives Emily a wig to help her fit in, but other children make fun of her, leading her to believe that Jill deliberately set her up to be insulted. Emily runs away, disheartened. Meanwhile, George and Sykes find a hollowed-out Newcomer corpse near the crime scene. Sykes believes a Newcomer might have undergone a metamorphosis and transformed into the insect creature, but George denies it. Sykes, angry with George, storms off. George returns home and finds out from Susan that Buck has been skipping school. George angrily disciplines Buck. Meanwhile, Burns receives a call from a man claiming to have seen the insect creature. When Burns arrives, the creature appears, spraying acid on Burns and dragging the witness away. Burns manages to capture a few photos of the creature. Cathy arrives at her apartment and receives a call from a Newcomer named Ramna asking her for help in some mysterious enterprise, but she flatly refuses. Sykes visits her to ask her about some files that Tuggs made concerning mysterious slave masters of the Newcomers, called “overseers.”
Despite Sykes and Georges’ objections, Burns runs the photos in the paper. The existence of the creatures and their possible connection to the Newcomers sways public opinion further against the Newcomers. George inspects the car that Tuggs was using for cover just before his death, and discovers that a bullet also shot at Tuggs from the opposite direction, implicating someone else as his killer. Buck and his gang get in a fight with a rival gang. During the fracas, Buck grabs one of the humans’ guns and shoots a human member of the opposing gang, possibly fatally injuring him. Meanwhile, Ramna goes to visit Cathy personally. At their home, the Francisco family finds Purists outside their door, tossing a brick through their window and erecting a burning effigy on their front lawn. Susan angrily declares that she cannot live in the neighborhood anymore and will be taking Emily out of human school. Susan goes to the school to withdraw her daughter, but in the bathroom she has an encounter with a black woman who recounts the era of segregation and assures her that times can change. Susan has a change of heart and decides not to take Emily out of school.
Cathy takes Sykes to see Ramna and the dead body of the homeless man he’s been searching for. They explain that the man contracted a Newcomer disease roughly analogous to smallpox and that they have brought him to their secret base to research a vaccination. Sykes suggests calling in help from the CDC, which they reluctantly accept. Cathy and Ramna assert that the insect creature is not related to the Newcomers or the disease. Emily is in bed reading when Jill appears outside her window to apologize for the wig incident. Jill says her mother won’t allow her to interact with Newcomers, but she wants to be friends with Emily regardless. Emily forgives her and maintains her friendship. Meanwhile, George and Sykes are undercover, disguised as vagrants, looking for the insect creature. They stumble across one and subdue it, only to discover it is in fact a human in an elaborate costume. The insect creature turns out to be part of a Purist plot to turn the public against the Newcomers; Sykes and George apprehend the conspirators and expose the hoax.
Sykes and George discover that Tuggs was not killed by a Newcomer, but by a fellow police officer. They interrogate a man that Tuggs saved from the car the night he was killed, and he identifies Sykes’ friend, officer Puente, as the killer. The cigar smoke coming from her desk also implicates her as the person snooping around in Sykes’ apartment. Puente reveals that she discovered that the alien “overseers” used a special gas to keep the Newcomers submissive. She discovered that criminals were manufacturing the gas as a means of control and they blackmailed her into keeping quiet. Tuggs discovered this and tried to get her to expose her misconduct, so she murdered him during the gunfight to keep him from exposing the truth. Upon realizing she’s been discovered, she attempts to kill herself, but Sykes prevents it. Buck overhears on the radio that the kid he shot is in critical condition and may not live. Meanwhile, George and Sykes visit Tuggs’ grave. The story ends as they reconcile some of their differences. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: September 18, 1989 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:35:33
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:83695
- GENRE: Fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy /science fiction
- SERIES RUN: Fox- TV series- 1989-1990
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kenneth Johnson … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Arthur Seidel … Producer
- Rockne S. O'Bannon … Based on the characters by
- Joe Harnell … Music by
- Gary Graham … Cast, Detective Matthew Sykes
- Eric Pierpoint … Cast, Detective George Francisco
- Michele Scarabelli … Cast, Susan Francisco
- Lauren Woodland … Cast, Emily Francisco
- Sean Six … Cast, Buck Francisco
- Terri Treas … Cast, Cathy Frankel
- Molly Morgan … Cast, Jill
- Jeff Marcus … Cast, Albert Einstein
- Jeff Doucette … Cast, Burns
- Ron Fassler … Cast, Captain Brian Grazer
- Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs … Cast, Sergeant Dobbs
- L. Scott Caldwell … Cast, Lyddie
- Diane Civita … Cast, Jill's Mother
- William Frankfather … Cast, Purist Leader
- Ketty Lester … Cast, Teacher
- Loyda Ramos … Cast, Puente
- Tim Russ … Cast, Ketnes
- Brian Smiar … Cast, Priest
- Evan Kim … Cast, Dr. Lee
- Tony Acierto … Cast, Marcos
- Jeff Austin … Cast, Randall
- Terry Beaver … Cast, Newcomer Cop
- Lisa Donaldson Bowman … Cast, Miranda
- Jade Calegory … Cast, Mark
- George Cheung … Cast, Rowdy #2
- Gus Corrado … Cast, Linen Manager
- Robert Allan Curtis … Cast, Salvage Manager
- Trevor Edmond … Cast, Blentu
- John William Evans … Cast, Vagrant
- Brooks Anne Hayes … Cast, Receptionist
- Marco Hernandez … Cast, Tito
- Kevin Hurley … Cast, Second Streetperson
- John Kirby … Cast, Supporter
- Aaron Lustig … Cast, Amos N. Andy
- Melora Marshall … Cast, Woman Purist
- Joe Mays … Cast, Informant
- Richard Mehana … Cast, Dr. Hurwitz
- Martha Melinda … Cast, First Streetperson
- Catherine Paolone … Cast, Diane
- John Patrick Reger … Cast, Ramna
- Bert Rosario … Cast, Bernardo
- Andrea Stein … Cast, Homeowner
- Tiere Turner … Cast, Black Kid
- Steve Vandeman … Cast, Rowdy #1
- Ed Williams … Cast, Newcomer
- Biff Yeager … Cast, The Man