n the 1988 film Alien Nation, 250,000 aliens, genetically engineered for slave labor, were marooned in Los Angeles. The city quickly integrated them (dubbing them "Newcomers"), and they became L.A.'s newest minority. This essential concept didn't end with the film; it launched a television series, television movies, novels and comic books.
Alien Nation: The Unofficial Companion is an unassuming assembly of Alien Nation information, from films and films-never-made to a glossary and a listing of Web sites. This guide also serves up pages on the genesis of the Newcomer concept, how creator Rockne S. O'Bannon liked its treatment in the film versus the television series, how Barry Diller at Fox "didn't get it," and how this short-lived series had a phoenix-like afterlife in made-for-television films. The episode-by-episode entries for the television series and TV movies are further broken down into plot synopsis, commentary, author's rating, and behind-the-scenes flashes. This last is a hodgepodge of insights from the cast, producers and writers, notable for its forthright voices, positive and negative.
The commentary is frequently of goodly length, for, aside from rendering a general critique, the author attempts to place each episode in context of the series as a whole. Character development is especially monitored, as one of the series' hallmarks is its success in using its characters in a consistent manner to explore the vagaries of racism. And if the commentary is of notable length and thoroughness, the behind-the-scenes is even more so. The principals take note of how a particular writer or director shaped the episode, the pressures from the network executives, and how the episode measured up to expectations. And of course, there are the anecdotes, like how Gary Graham (Detective Matt Sikes) saw his future wife for the first time when she was in her alien mien, and asked her out on the spot (pun intended).
By a fan, for the fans
As has been stated, this is an unassuming volume: visually, it has the same design values as '40s-era communist apparatchik tailors. But it is a sincere--and successful--attempt to professionally record a devotee's-eye-view of the disparate and venerable media of the Alien Nation milieu.
Since the book relies so heavily on interviews, it must be justly lauded or derided for the cast of interviewees, the quality of the responses (often, but not always, the result of thoughtfully-prepared questions), and the assembling of the chaotic, organic flowering of response into something cognitively digestible and compelling. So, while the book must be given strident accolades for corralling the thoughts of so many of the wonderful artisans who conceived and battled for this stellar contribution to SF, it must take some (small) whacks for its chapter on the cancellation of the series. Not too many voices from Fox or its affiliates were quoted; this section needed more of the corporate perspective to fill in the gaps.
Musings from corporate nudnicks aside, the volume does an extremely good job at snagging most of the big players, as well as a suite of supporting team members. The quality of the interviews, the focus of the interviewees on the work, and the weaving of it all together in a cohesive manner loom large. Also estimable is the author's episodic analysis. Here is maturity and skill; clearly, the author is an ardent fan, but he yields not to the temptations of gushing encomiums, but instead metes out lucid criticism. This moderation means that, although the subject matter is for the more serious fan (remember, there is no slick dustjacket and no pretty pictures to entertain), this volume might also serve as a model for others wishing to add to the multitudinous (but usually not especially well-done) rabble of episode guides in SF.
