The only change that really annoyed me in Dark Horizon was when George talked about how he still remembered Tencton as a boy. On the series, it was an important part of the character of the Newcomers and several specific stories that, except for the elders, they were all born on the ship.
Alien Nation to be remade by TIM MINEAR on SyFy
- Thread starter Michael Chris
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Wasn'y the first telemovie that much of a reboot though? Basically it remade the series final and allow them to wrap it up by filming what would of been the first episode of the second season.
At the time the original series was cancelled there was a novelisation of that resolved the cliffhanger. One problem with novelisations is when they include stuff that might not make it to the screen for budgetary or time reasons. So I guess we'll never know how close what was in the novel was to what would be of been in next ep. There were some differences with the telemovie but I can't remember much becasue it's been a long time since I saw it.
I'd be looking forward to it if it was a remake of Manimal by Tim Minear.
I've read the scripts for both "Soul Trail" (which would have been the second season premiere) and the original Dark Horizon script written in 1990 (which would have been the first of two movies to wrap everything up airing in 1991).
"Soul Train" is basically Dark Horizon without Aphossno, but there are several b-stories that never made it to Dark Horizon. One is that a kind of telepathic depression begins to overwhelm all Newcomers as they face their exctinction.
Another is George coming to terms with what religion means to him in a time of crisis. A remnant of this story survives in one scene of Dark Horizon, when Matt tells George he should get a priest for Emily, and he tells Matt he doesn't believe priests determine where her soul will go. In the original script, Matt continues to press George, leading to a scene where George admits to Matt that his religion is only for cultural identity.
An unnecessary story is Matt meeting up with an old friend to help him with the case who turns out to be -- wait for it -- working with the purists! Making this yet another friend of Matt's who turns out to be either a criminal or a d*ck (Jim Trenner, Theo Miles, that guy who hit on Cathy in "Real Men," etc.)
The Buck story was originally resolved in one short scene where Buck tells principle Fischer what he thinks of him and storms off. That's it.
Instead of Aphossno bring down the chopper, Matt shoots the fuel tank and it explodes. The episode ends with the DH scene where Matt tells a sleeping Cathy how he feels.
After the series was was cancelled, Fox ordered two movie scripts in order to wrap up the series' loose ends, and the original Dark Horizon and Body and Soul scripts were written.
The original DH didn't differ too much from what we eventually saw. The main difference was that there were no offworld scenes at all in the first script. Although Ken Johnson indicated in interviews that the overseers were drawn to Earth by the signal sent in the episode "Contact," the script I read had the homeless overseer carrying a beacon, just as in the aired film.
Several b-stories from the first B&S script were saved for future movies. A variation of the Emily storyline from "Millennium" was in this script, as was the story of Albert and May wanting a baby that later showed up in "The Enemy Within.". Those stories were excised from the final film to make room for more conspiracy stuff Fox requested (because since conspiracies worked on X-Files, they should automatically be included in AN). Most of the final act of the aired film is totally different from the script. The original ending, too, was a bit of a downer. The giant and child go off into the desert. Matt says, "They don't have a chance." George adds grimly, "They never did." George's line in the final film is changed to something like, "The spirits of those who were lost -- they give them a chance."
There were other scripts, as well, written for a second season that never came. One was "On Seperate Ways," where George and Matt track down baby-knappers in France. The only things I remember from that was that Vessna was going to be used as bait, and there was a scene where George looks out of a plane at open ocean and says to Matt, "Do you know what this plane will go down in if it crashes?" Matt, his usual self, replies, "A buncha flames?"
Another script was "The Change," which was novelized. I never read the script for that one, though. Just the novel.
Oh, yeah, and there was one more movie script written called "City of Angels," but after the poor ratings of the last movie, "The Udara Legacy," it never saw the light of day.
I remember some complaints at the time the telemovies came out there was too much secret agenda stuff in the telemovies. I can't remember the exact complaint but I believe it probably ties back to conspirace guff that Fox wanted put in.
Have to admit the baby kidnapping episode from the synopsis sounds like it might of been a stinker
Any idea on what the story line would of been for the City of Angels?
Fox was always interfering one way or another. During the series, they balked every time science fiction elements were used. They especially hated the flashback scenes to the ship. Well, gee, Fox, why even do science fiction if you don't really want to do science fiction? That's why there were no offworld scenes in the first DH script. The threat from outside was reduced to a single Newcomer -- Ahpossno.
When they eventually did the movies, Fox went 180 degrees in the opposite direction. They wanted tons of weird SF stuff and digital FX, hence the added offworld scenes they requested for DH. DH found a good balance between SF elements and reality, but then we go off into the realm of the ridiculous for "Enemy Within." Fox was either too conservative with the SF elements or happy going in an extreme in the other direction.
With Body and Soul, they asked for multiple rewrites to get all the X-Files conspiracy stuff in there. I don't think it worked that well on AN. On X-Files, the conspiracy stuff is the heart of the show. AN fans don't really care all that much about the mystery. It's the character development and theme that matters to them, usually sparked by whatever the mystery is. The police case is almost a McGuffin for the real story.
The odd thing about that episode is Cathy and Matt acted like they did in the first season. It was like a reset button was hit after Green Eyes/Soul Train.
It would have been kind of a dark episode, I think. George wants to use Vessna as bait and Matt is completely taken aback. He says something like, "I pulled that thing out of you, and I'm not gonna let anything happen to her!" Come to think of it, I think it was all Newcomer babies being stolen and sold on the black market, or something. It's been close to 20 years since I read it so my memory's a little hazy.
One interesting thing about the episode was French people seeing Newcomers for the first time. We had only ever seen Newcomers in LA, so the reaction of these people who had likely never seen a Newcomer up close before would have been a first for the series.
I've no clue, unfortunately. I only remember Ken Johnson saying it had been written. Can't remember if he said he wrote it or someone else had written it. I can't imagine, though, that it could have been a worse final movie than "The Udara Legacy."
EDIT: I love Google. Check out these unfilmed scripts.
Soul Train
On Seperate Ways
The Change
Ultimatum
One Nation: Invisible
I've never even heard of Ulimatum or One Nation: Invisible, but the date on this draft of Unlimatum places it even before the pilot episode aired. Soul Train, Seperate Ways, and the Change were supposed to be second season episoded. No clue about One Nation: Invisible.
Movie scripts:
Dark Horizon -- original version
Body and Soul -- original version
Carrier
Never heard of Carrier, but I know the writer personally. Interesting. I'm guessing this was an unsolicited script she either did or hoped to submit to Ken Johnson. If you've seen Body and Soul, she appeared as a Newcomer at Matt and Cathy's sex class graduation. The nickname she gave herself, Gayle Warnings, was borrowed by Ken Johnson for the movie Enemy Within. This definitely isn't an early draft of "City of Angels." I know she didn't write that one. Someone in-house, either Ken Johnson or one of the regular series writers wrote CoA. Still, I haven't taked to Gayle in many a year, so I can't wait to read her script.
Here's an early version of the pilot that ends with a cliffhanger.
Pilot
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I have to ask, Hober Mallow, how have you managed to learn so much about this series?
There are no nonfiction books on it that I know of, the eight published (and now long out of print) novels have little background information in them, the DVD set to the series has only a commentary on the pilot, the movie is a bare bones release, and there are no dedicated websites to any incarnation of Alien Nation at all.
All I really have are the rather nice features on the TV Movies Collection.
What else can you share with us about this (sadly) short-lived series?
EDIT: Your Google skills are better than mine. Thanks for those links!
There are no nonfiction books on it that I know of, the eight published (and now long out of print) novels have little background information in them, the DVD set to the series has only a commentary on the pilot, the movie is a bare bones release, and there are no dedicated websites to any incarnation of Alien Nation at all.
All I really have are the rather nice features on the TV Movies Collection.
What else can you share with us about this (sadly) short-lived series?
EDIT: Your Google skills are better than mine. Thanks for those links!
I'm just a long-time fan who used to know people who knew people.
Sadly, my connections these days are lacking. There's a crappy one called "Newcomer Among Us" that came out in like 1991. I forget who wrote it, but it's really just a collection of Starlog interviews thrown together and discussions of the first season episodes with the writing staff.
And those are nice, especially after the disappointing series set. I liked the commentary on the pilot episode, but that was it. The transfer isn't even all that good. The movie set was a definite improvement.
Well...
When Dark Horizon intially aired, several scenes now on the DVD were not included. The part where the purist gets the flowers, for instance.
A year or so later, DH got a VHS release with promised extra footage. I rented it, and I swear I remember a scene where Susan actually drives to a secluded Newcomer community, then changes her mind and turns around. With the added scenes on the DVD, I was surprised that scene wasn't included. It's possible I'm just on crack and that scene was never on any version of DH. It's also possible I simply read a desciption of that scene. I'd email Ken Johnson and simply ask him about it, but I wouldn't want him to find out what a geeky fan boy I really am, particularly after the really nice email I got from him about our mutual friend Gayle (he had a picture of her on his website and I emailed him about it). I'd feel funny asking a dorky SF convention question now.
You bet. Can't wait to read them myself.
A year or so later, DH got a VHS release with promised extra footage. I rented it, and I swear I remember a scene where Susan actually drives to a secluded Newcomer community, then changes her mind and turns around. With the added scenes on the DVD, I was surprised that scene wasn't included. It's possible I'm just on crack and that scene was never on any version of DH. It's also possible I simply read a desciption of that scene. I'd email Ken Johnson and simply ask him about it, but I wouldn't want him to find out what a geeky fan boy I really am, particularly after the really nice email I got from him about our mutual friend Gayle (he had a picture of her on his website and I emailed him about it). I'd feel funny asking a dorky SF convention question now.
Had you read the novelisation of Dark Horizon by that time? Could be a bit like the Bigg's first appearance in Star Wars - everyone thought it was there cos they'd seen the stills in the Storybook etc etc.
I think you could be right. I'd read the novelization and the script a few years before that. If someone here had the VHS version we'd know for sure, but I don't think it was a big seller.
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