ALIEN NATION: DARK HORIZON (TV)
Summary
One in a series of television films following the television series of the same name, about a race of extraterrestrials living in Los Angeles as a minority group. The story begins in deep space as the Tenctonese overseers intercept a signal from earth alerting them to the location of the Newcomers. They resolve to retrieve their missing slaves and send an overseer named Ahpossno to reconnoiter the planet Earth. Susan and Emily are given a bouquet sprayed with a mysterious substance. Upon smelling it, they fall unconscious into a state of sickness. George rushes them to the hospital, where it is discovered that they were infected with a virus that appears to have been engineered specifically to target Newcomers. Meanwhile, Matt is having his new girlfriend Lorraine over when Cathy arrives to give him the news about the Francisco family. He rushes to the hospital, canceling his date. Matt still has unresolved issues with Cathy concerning their strained relationship. The virus is part of a Purist plot to wipe out all the Newcomers, but the Franciscos were exposed to it early due to a Purist member with a grudge against George. Susan and Emily remain in the hospital, alive but in critical condition. Meanhwile, Ahpossno lands in the California desert and kills the lone witness to his landing, making his way towards Los Angeles. Matt interrogates captured Purists to try and determine the origin of the virus. Ahpossno makes his way to the hospital where Susan and Emily are being kept and follows Cathy. At the police station, Albert has fallen in love with May, the stations’ Newcomer coffee girl. When Matt goes to the hospital to try to resolve his issues with Cathy, they are approached by Ahpossno. Ahpossno pretends to be a doctor from the Newcomer’s ship’s infirmary, wandering the desert for the past five years and thus unknown to the others. He offers to help cure Susan and Emily; his ulterior motive being that he was assigned to retrieve the slaves and cannot do so if they are dead. Matt is immediately suspicious of him, but Cathy is thankful for his help. Matt delivers objects of spiritual importance to Newcomers, known as “serdsos,” to Susan and Emily as their condition worsens. Matt is on a date with Lorraine when he discovers her bigotry towards Newcomers. Realizing he has made a mistake, he leaves her. At the hospital Emily spontaneously recovers from the disease, mystifying the doctors. Ahpossno offers his help to Cathy, who seems to be warming up to him. Meanwhile, Matt and George determine that the Purists are planning the cover the entire city with the virus by using pesticide-spraying helicopters. Matt and George rush to stop the Purists, but Ahpossno insists on accompanying them revealing himself as an “udara” (a secret group of elite warriors among the Tenctonese). The three of them arrive just as the Purists are taking off and a fight ensues. In the mayhem, George is sprayed with viral agents. The Purists nearly get away but Ahpossno takes out a mysterious alien device and uses it to blow up the helicopter, foiling the Purists’ plot. Cathy and Ahpossno discover that a hormone released in Emily’s blood as a consequence of the Newcomer equivalent to puberty is what defeated the virus, and they harvest female Newcomer blood to counteract the virus’ effects. The treatment works and George and Susan make a full recovery. Ahpossno secretly signals his mothership and it sets course for Earth. The Franciscos invite Ahpossno to stay at their house for a while as thanks for saving their lives. At the station, Albert announces that he and May are getting married. George and Matt are assigned to investigate a homicide victim in the hospital parking lot, a Newcomer apparently killed by an unarmed blow to a vital area made with extreme precision. Matt goes over to the Francisco house for dinner. George finds that Susan has redecorated the entire house in a Tenctonese style at Ahpossno’s suggestion. She expresses a desire to return to traditional Tenctonese society, a marked change from her usual self. Cathy arrives and gives Ahpossno his registration card, indicating his citizenship. They have become attracted to one another, much to Matt’s displeasure. The next day, Ahpossno arrives at the police station; he wanted a tour of George’s office. While there, Ahpossno makes disparaging comments about Albert’s slave caste to him, upsetting him greatly. Later, at the Francisco household, George catches Ahpossno looking through files on his personal computer. Ahpossno fabricates a pretense and excuses himself, but George is suspicious. Meanwhile, Matt tries to set up a romantic evening between himself and Cathy to try and recover their relationship, but she admits her feelings for Ahpossno and leaves. Ahpossno rounds up former overseers among the Newcomers and organizes a mass retrieval of the Newcomers; he is also considering taking humans as slaves as well. One of the neighbors in Susan’s neighborhood is selling her house and asks that prospective buyers not catch sight of the Franciscos. This angers Susan so greatly that she plans to move away to an isolated Tenctonese community. George insists that their life is in Los Angeles and resists Susan’s plans. George questions Ahpossno’s cover story and orders him to leave his house the next day. At the station, Matt suggests that Captain Grazer do something to get Albert and May back together. Matt and George track a missing person down to the desert outside of Los Angeles and determine he was killed in the same manner as the Newcomer in the hospital parking lot. They deduce that Ahpossno was the one who landed in the desert. Meanwhile, the mothership passes Saturn, speeding ever-closer towards Earth. George convinces Susan not to leave Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Matt questions Cathy about Ahpossno in connection with the two murders, but she believes that Matt implicated him out of jealousy. They fight and Matt storms off. At the station, Captain Grazer awards an “M.V.P.” title to Albert and commends him for his hard work, reinvigorating Albert. Matt shows George an insignia found on one of the bodies and George realizes Ahpossno’s true identity and purpose. Ahpossno meets Cathy and she also discerns his true identity. He wants to take her with him, but she resists. Matt arrives and tries to apprehend Ahpossno, but he is defeated by Ahpossno’s martial arts. He takes Cathy away, but the device he used to detonate the helicopter falls out of his pocket in the scuffle, and Matt gets a hold of it. Out in the desert, Ahpossno readies his ship to intercept with the mothership, but George arrives and stops him, offering his life and his serdso as a wager in a duel. They fight and Ahpossno easily defeats him, taking his serdso but sparing his life. Matt arrives just as Ahpossno is taking off and tries to use the device to blow up the ship, but George stops him. George reveals that he filled his serdso with the virus to kill Ahpossno en route, in order to convince the overseers that Earth had killed all the slaves. Ahpossno arrives back on the mothership and, with his dying words, warns the overseers not to go to Earth. Albert and May get married, with Matt and the Franciscos in attendance. The story ends as Matt encounters Cathy and they kiss. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: October 25, 1994 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:48:17
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:83697
- GENRE: Fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Kenneth Johnson … Executive Producer, Director
- Diane Frolov … Producer, Writer
- Andrew Schneider … Producer, Writer
- Ron Mitchell … Line Producer
- Rockne S. O'Bannon … Based on characters created by
- David Kurtz … Music by
- Gary Graham … Cast, Detective Matthew Sykes
- Eric Pierpoint … Cast, Detective George Francisco
- Michele Scarabelli … Cast, Susan Francisco
- Terri Treas … Cast, Cathy Frankel
- Lauren Woodland … Cast, Emily Francisco
- Sean Six … Cast, Buck Francisco
- Jeff Marcus … Cast, Albert Einstein
- Ron Fassler … Cast, Captain Bryon Grazer
- Scott Patterson … Cast, Ahpossno
- Jenny Gago … Cast, Beatrice Zepeda
- Michele Lamar Richards … Cast, Dr. Lois Alan
- Dana Anderson … Cast, May O'Naize
- Lee Bryant … Cast, Phyllis Bryant
- David Purdham … Cast, Mark Guerin
- Diane Cary … Cast, Penny
- Susanna Thompson … Cast, Lorraine Clark
- Michael Durrell … Cast, Avid Fan
- Nina Foch … Cast, Burak
- Susan Appling … Cast, Priestess
- Patience Cleveland … Cast, Cashier
- James Cooper … Cast, Transient
- Sondra Currie … Cast, Teri Cloth
- Terrence Evans … Cast, Rancher
- Jim Fyfe … Cast, Elliot Riley
- Kevin Grevioux … Cast, Sam
- Don James … Cast, Mitch-Cop
- Mary Komatar … Cast, Ordnance Officer
- Diane Markoff … Cast, Comm. Officer
- Khin-Kyaw Maung … Cast, Reporter
- John Meyers … Cast, Tom
- Haunani Minn … Cast, Dr. Quinn
- Lew Palter … Cast, Store Owner/Florist
- Risa Schiffman … Cast, Jill
- Elizabeth Storm … Cast, Slave Mother
- Blumen Young … Cast, Kenny Bunkport
- Michael Zand … Cast, Supervisor
- Rick Zumwalt … Cast, Moe Goodluck