Lower Decks

Variety.com is reporting that SCI FI Channel (soon to become Sy Fy Channel) is working on a new version of the 1988 movie Alien Nation, which spawned a television series that ran on FOX for one season from 1989-1990. Both the movie and the television series involved a race of aliens attempting to integrate into Los Angeles society and the racism directed towards them.

Tim Minear (Dollhouse, Angel, Wonderfalls, Drive) is writing the script for what may or may not begin as a miniseries much like SCI FI’s Battlestar Galactica.

I’ve never seen the movie or the television series (or its five made-for-TV movie follow-ups) but frankly I’m tired off all these remakes/reinterpretations. Battlestar Galactica may have worked quite well for SCI FI, but both Bionic Woman and Knight Rider failed spectacularly for NBC.

From the article, Minear’s vision for the potential franchise:

Minear is currently busy outlining the “Alien Nation” script and mapping out the project’s mythology. The new “Alien Nation” will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens – who have been banished as slaves – crash lands into Earth.

By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the “newcomers” live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.

“You can take (the original ‘Alien Nation’) a step forward and really do a show that encompasses the clash of civilizations, and the idea of a ghettoized minority,” he said. “You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there’s room for satire.”

Also, doesn’t this sound just a little like the upcoming movie District 9? I’m not suggesting District 9 is a copy of Alien Nation but the two appear to share many of the same themes. Can the marketplace handle more than one story about alien ghettos and alien racism?