"That was the scene in California's Mojave Desert five years ago - our historic first view of the Newcomers' ship. Theirs was a slave ship, carrying a quarter million beings bred to adapt and labour in any environment. But they'd washed ashore on Earth, with no way to get back to where they came from. And in the last five years, the Newcomers have become the latest addition to the population of Los Angeles ... "
Alien Nation was an SF television series based on the movie of the same name. Gary Graham starred as Detective Matthew Sikes, a Los Angeles policeman reluctantly working with Newcomer alien George Francisco, played by Eric Pierpoint.
Sikes also has an on-again-off again flirtation with female Newcomer Cathy Frankel played by Terri Treas. The show ran for just one season, from 1989 through 1990.
Although popular, a financial crunch at the fledgling Fox Network (it was one of the network's first dramatic series) forced the show's cancellation.
A second season was clearly expected by the producers, as the season ended with a cliffhanger. The show built a strong fan base, and popular demand led to Dark Horizon, the episode that would have begun the second season, being novelized and adapted as a comic book.
Several years later, the story of Alien Nation was continued with several television movies reuniting the original cast. The first of these was the long-delayed Dark Horizon (1994), followed by:
- Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995)
- Alien Nation: Millennium (1996)
- Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996)
- Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997)
The complete series of Alien Nation was released on DVD in January 2006. The television movies have yet to be released.