Alien Nation fans?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Hober Mallow, Dec 13, 2008.

  1. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Didn't SG-1 also imply, though, that the Stargate film still happened exactly as we saw it, though in a parallel reality (which they were aware of)? I think O'Neill once said something about another version of him that spelled his name with only one L and had no sense of humor. ;)
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^I'm not sure that particular in-joke had anything to do with alternate realities. But alternate realities are a sufficiently established part of the SG-verse on TV that it's easy enough to treat the movie as one.

    There's an SG-1 tie-in novel that tries to reconcile the portrayal of Ra in the movie with the portrayal of the Goa'uld in the series, but it didn't work for me.
     
  3. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Just like all humanoid aliens :rommie: And like the rest of them, except for Kes, their adult lifespan is twice as long, before puberty that is. The show also deals with some Newcomers concerns of losing their unique culture as their people assimilated
     
  4. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    On my slow rewatch and coming out of The Butler this summer I am getting a serious Forrest Gump vibe from George's elaborate back story as a slave and internee.
     
  5. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I have dark suspicions that one the posters upthread isn't returning Netflix's Udara Legacy disk. It's the last in the movie series and I've been waiting for three months to finish my second rewatch.

    You know who you are, curse you!:scream:







    ;)
     
  6. SiddFinch1

    SiddFinch1 Captain Captain

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    I always liked it. Flaws and all
     
  7. Forbin

    Forbin Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    The opening theme is fun to sing along with.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Especially if you include Matt's angry snarl just before the end. Lovely bit of editing, that.

    Trivia about the Alien Nation theme: The lyrics are the names of Kenneth Johnson's family members in reverse. "Ee take naz nahj" is an inversion of "Katie Johnson," his daughter's name, and "Na soos gah nil pah" is an inversion of "Susan Appling," his wife's name. "Na soos ka" is also Tenctonese for "I love you," implying that the theme is actually a Newcomer love song.
     
  9. Star Wolf

    Star Wolf Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I have been known to beat on the roof of my car.
     
  10. Ravenxau

    Ravenxau Ensign Newbie

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    Just about start watching this series on DVD..... I remember the original movie, and am a fan of Gary Graham's work in Star Trek and other things.... Hoping it will be good....
     
  11. Forbin

    Forbin Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I said out, dammit!
    It's good.

    Of course, good is relative and subjective.

    but I think it's good.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It's one of the best SF shows ever.
     
  13. Ravenxau

    Ravenxau Ensign Newbie

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    8 episodes in and very much enjoying so far....looking forward to seeing where the 5 TV movies take the story....and possibly even try the novels at some point
     
  14. Kilana2

    Kilana2 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I prefer Gary Graham over James Caan as Matthew Sykes. I will definitely re-watch the series when they are shown on TV.
     
  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    The second and third novels are novelizations of the original scripts of the first two TV movies, written at a point when it seemed unlikely that they'd actually get made. They were rewritten somewhat when they were made a year or two later. The fourth novel, similarly, is based on an unfilmed episode script that instituted a significant change in George that the later movies didn't use.

    I think most of the novels worked pretty well. I still own all but the last one.

    If you were really a completist about Alien Nation, you could try tracking down the black-and-white comics published by the now-defunct Adventure Comics. Oddly, they had a license to the concepts of the show but not to the specific characters, so they told stories about entirely different groups of people elsewhere in the show's world, in a succession of 4-issue miniseries. A bit odd, but I liked how it gave the sense of a larger reality. They were of inconsistent quality, but I kind of liked the first two miniseries, The Spartans and The Skin Trade. They even did a miniseries called Ape Nation, crossing AN over with Planet of the Apes, whose license they held at the time.
     
  16. Kilana2

    Kilana2 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Obviously the Alien Nation novels have never been translated into German. But they are available in English on Amazone.de. Good to know when I want to read something different from Star Trek.....
     
  17. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^Although the AN novels were from Pocket and edited by John Ordover, and five of the eight were by novelists who'd previously done Trek (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, K.W. Jeter, Peter David, L.A. Graf). So not entirely different from Trek.
     
  18. Kilana2

    Kilana2 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I guess it's because AN has no lobby in Germany like Star Trek. So the books have never been translated. Heck, they are currently even unable to sell TOS novels.....
     
  19. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    I loved this show. I really liked the first movie, I didn't think it was bad, although it was more of a cop movie with a strange setting, but the show did keep that to an extent and I enjoy the familiar mixed with the unusual. I thought the movie actors were good and the tv actors that replaced them weren't carbon copies of the characters but I liked their portrayals. I enjoyed the characters, they were really important and I remember them even though I barely remember the shows now, I haven't seen them since fox ran them. I missed most of the tv movies as well.

    Quite frankly, I hadn't thought about it in a long time and really want to see them again, I think I'll see if I can get the dvds.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2015