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Alien Nation
The TV Movie recaps the Newcomers arrival in voiceover before opening with a bunch of homeless people - one with strange blue sores on his face... who runs away and commits suicide when a Newcomer priest turns up to help him. Then we meet Susan and daughter Emily Francisco, along with son Buck, moving in to a new home. Husband George is a detective, and his partner, Matthew Sykes, is missing his previous partner who died a month earlier (killed by a Newcomer). There's clearly a lot of racial tension here. A disturbance at Emily's school (the usual bigots and racists whipping up a mob) shows the warmer side of Matthew when he breaks up the crowd. But he's clearly still not comfortable - there's a Newcomer moving in to the apartment across the hall from his who he snubs. Fortunately, he gets a second chance to make a better impression when she helps him to carry his groceries in - Cathy also manages to detect the cigar smoke from whoever broke in to his apartment. Buck's resisting fitting in, feeling superior to the humans around him. The homeless guy who died at the start, and whose body was stolen from the morgue, is autopsied by a bunch of Newcomers, who are clearly worried by what they find. Cathy gets attacked outside the apartment building and Sykes ends up saving her (cue an excuse for naked skin as she gets changed where there's a convenient mirror reflection for Sykes to watch in). Another body turns up - this time with formic acid burns, and eye witnesses report some creature in the shadows. And then they find a Newcomer skin, with something having burst out from inside. Buck gets in to a gang fight and has to kill someone. A bunch of racists burn something on the Francisco's lawn, and Susan considers pulling Emily out of school. So - a dead cop (Matt's former partner) possibly killed due to his research into the Newcomers, slaves that never revolt and are unusually submissive, strange insect creatures that might be an "overseer", an infectious disease that is much more virulent in humans than newcomers, and a cigar smoking cop involved in the break in at Matt's (and his partner's death)... and a very odd and rapid wrap-up of the episode... "Fountain Of Youth" opens with a police officer saving George during a shootout. Matt's feeling his age. Uncle Moodri comes to visit the Franciscos. Buck seems to be struggling with his killing of the gang member. The Doctor at the newcomer-only hospital is someone Matt went to school with. The Detective does some snooping at the hospital, and discovers they've got some human patients there. George goes to visit the Detective, but he died during surgery... that's not at all suspicious is it? After calling Cathy in to go over the medical records of a number of patients, they find the hospital has had quite a few deaths during surgery recently - and an autopsy discovers the spartiary gland has been removed. They seem to have upped the tension and bigotry between Matt and George this episode. Susan tries to get a job, but everyone thinks she's too old (newcomers age at half the speed of humans, so Susan's 68). George discovers that every time a newcomer has died during surgery, Matt's been operating on a human in the adjacent operating theatre. Matt goes to a party at his Doctor friend's but passes out after a couple of glasses of champagne. But when Matt wakes up, he's got a strange bandage on his side. The Doctor offers Matt a security job at the hospital. George recognizes the dressing based on the nurse's description, and finds out another newcomer died the previous night - and Cathy recognizes that Matt has indeed had surgery, and Doctor Trenner is implanting the newcomer spartiary gland into humans (as it acts something like the fountain of youth). "Little Lost Lamb" sees a newcomer posing as a movie agent using young female newcomers as escorts and prostitutes. When one of them tries to get out of the business, Matt tries to help, but she's killed in his apartment. Fortunately, they can use one of the other actresses to get a confession and arrest those responsible - including the agent, who's got an overseer tattoo. Uncle Moodri seems to be immune to salt water! And he knows about Buck's actions in the gang fight - and gets a confession out of him, telling him to face up to the crime and confess. Which is probably a good thing, as the police know he was responsible. "Fifteen With Wanda" sees a young newcomer witness a shooting, and George and Matt have to keep him in protective custody until the trial - but he's supposed to be getting married and he's due to bond in eternal monogamy with his future wife (the titular Wanda). Matt's daughter has moved in with him, and the boyfriend Thor has come along. Buck gets in to a fight at school when he tries to save Lori Petty from a couple of guys attacking her - and then he has to decide whether he wants to stay in the gang or get out (which involved confronting them all). The bad guys manage to discover the location of the witness and try to kill him. Matt gives his daughter the choice of whether to go to college or run away with Thor. "The Takeover" sees rioting in the streets, and all the officers out leaves the station unprotected so some criminals use the time to raid the evidence locker. George and Albert get shot, and Susan gets taken hostage during the firefight. Matt deals with a girlfriend getting stalked by an ex-boyfriend. The evidence locker includes a canister of the holy gas used on the ship to keep the newcomers submissive... and one of the criminals uses it to brainwash Susan into attempting to kill George. "The First Cigar" sees George in trouble with the IRS - needing to find 2400 dollars to pay off back taxes. Buck gets a job in phone sales for what is obviously a con job, but he's taken in and thinks it's a great deal! Matt tries to fix Cathy's sink and ends up making the problem worse. And a local Tenctonese businesswoman seems to want to help the police out with some drug dealers in Slagtown. Of course, it's all too good to be true - the businesswoman is an overseer, and wants to use the police to put her drug dealing rivals out of business so she owns the streets. Buck loses his own and some of Emily's money on the con job. Matt at least gets a bottle of wine out of his misadventure with Cathy's plumbing. "Night Of The Screams" sees a number of mutilated newcomers turning up dead with their hands cut off. Uncle Moodri is back (watching TV through binoculars), and warning Emily about Tagdot - evilness, consumed by madness, and filling the night with screams... and he apparently severed people's hands when he killed them. "Contact" opens with an astronomer having discovered something and wanting to go public with it, but his bosses wanting him to cancel the announcement. Fortunately for them, he dies very shortly afterwards. Cathy and Matt are doing laundry together! And then he receives an inheritance from his uncle - a large wooden chest arrives at work from Alaska. When Matt and George go to the murder scene, the coroner on the scene is a Purist and refuses to talk to George. The dead Professor has a missing starmap (as evidenced by a void in the blood pool), but his assistant doesn't know what he was working on - just the co-ordinates that the telescope was set to. And then they drop the subterfuge - an overseer killed the Professor and stole his map as he discovered another ship and they want to send a signal to it. Cathy's having a party and wants Matt to come. The head of the JPL who was funding the Professor's work belongs to a restricted club - no newcomers allowed. The assistant manages to recreate the research and discover a communications probe around the edge of the solar system that came from the direction the newcomer ship was originally headed - and they want to try and make contact in the interests of research. Matt makes an impression at Cathy's party. The Professor was killed by a punch from a newcomer. Cathy drops round to apologize for using Matt at the party - especially as she didn't like the others she invited and practically set him up for the fight. Meanwhile, they discover the message the overseer wants to send to the probe - telling them the cargo survived, as well as 4 billion more slaves. Matt and George manage to stop him, but the message is sent - it was just sent before the probe managed to clear the sun, so it was most likely lost. George and Susan decide to have another baby on Earth. Matt gives Cathy a telescope. "Three To Tango" sees a murder of a couple of newcomers in bed. Matt's teaching Cathy to dance (and she's studying comparative biology), but the small of the back is an erogenous zone in a newcomer. Matt isn't studying - he's asking George instead. George wants Albert's help with a personal matter (and won't tell Matt what it is). The dead guy from the start is a Binnaum - a catalyst needed to catalyse the birth canal before the father can fertilise the egg. Albert is also a Binnaum - he was the one who acted as a catalyst for Emily's conception (which is why George is asking for his help again for their next child) - but Albert has renounced his vows and left the order... Binnaums are basically a bunch of monks. But the percentage of Binnaums to the regular population mean each one has to serve 6 or 7 hundred women a year! But those numbers also make them vulnerable to the Purists - exterminate the Binnaums and the Tenctonese cannot reproduce. While there, Albert meets a friend (Isaac Newton) who's planning to leave the order shortly. Albert makes a decision to quit his job and return to the monastery - he's decided he can't have the life of a regular guy on the outside, he can't even talk to women without blushing. They get a lead on the murderer, and find a note there leading them to save Isaac Newton from him. Unfortunately, Isaac still turns up dead 24 hours later. George and Susan have a party presenting the Binnaum, and the police captain has to wash his feet! Albert is missing his friends and wishes to leave the order and go back to his life. The leader of the order, the Drevni, seems determined that if he leaves he must not act as a catalyst, but he's determined to fulfill his promise to George. According to Matt, the evidence linking the murders leads back to someone at the monastery (possibly the Drevni). Albert gets a date with the tea girl - but he might not make the date as he's the next target... Fortunately George makes it home in time to arrest the Drevni. That sour milk Cathy is drinking looks suspiciously like pureed banana! "The Game" opens with a limo chasing a newcomer and abducting him. George and Cathy are at a party at George and Susan's (celebrating the day of descent). Matt gets picked as the holiday Dork (which is apparently Tenctonese for revered one!). A familiar face turns up as one of George's friends from the ship, Sam Anderson (Holland Manners from Angel, Dr Kayson from ER). When a body turns up with a hole burned right through his chest, apparently by a stream of salt water, it brings back memories for George of a game played on the ship. Okay, it's a game of Russian Roulette - a device spins around on the table with a bunch of nozzles on it and it alternates stopping in front of each player. Then they push the button to fire it - most of them are harmless gas but one is hooked up to the salt water. And then we get to see the current champion - it's Sam Anderson... and finally, the guy running the game is revealed - Andreas Katsulas. George and Matt get thrown off the case, and Matt tries to console George, but he's got other plans. He decks Matt and goes after Andreas - and forces him to play the game. Matt gets there just as Andreas loses and George forces him to push the button to kill himself... but he's swapped the salt canister for sand, and Andreas goes to gaol. "Chains Of Love" sees George having decorator problems. But there's also a murderer on the loose involving a dating agency, and when Matt and George visit it for information, Tim Raimi is their Tenctonese contact. George seems to be smitten with the probably suspect based on her picture, but she's disappeared. George also doesn't appear to be trusting his wife around one of the decorators. They find another newcomer who was intending to meet with the suspect, but he's been exposed to Sardonac, a newcomer pheromone substance that makes newcomers bond with another... and he ends up bonding with Matt! "The Red Room" sees Cathy's lab broken in to, and Sykes happens to be in her apartment when she gets the call (so blunders in to the police investigation of it). The detectives are required to take a personality profile - and although George is fascinated by the science of psychology, Matt just wants to give them the right answers so they don't have him committed or something. The break in at the lab is blamed on animal rights activists, but Matt won't leave it alone... and then he finds out that the detective he met at the scene isn't a real detective. And then George starts having flashbacks to some suppressed memory about a red room, and a guy who was murdered that he thinks he knows. When another body shows up, he's sure he knows that one as well. The police psychologist suggests George be hypnotised to find out what he's suppressing. The Detective turns up and claims the murders are a matter of national security and the case is closed. Fortunately, the second body has tissue from the killer, and they track it to a newcomer George was in quarantine with - a Silas Marner, who's apparently dead... but there's sawdust in the oil drum where his body is supposed to be. George gets hypnotised, and remembers the Red Room, and the brainwashing they were attempting - George couldn't go through with the assassination, but Silas could, so they returned George to the general population. George remembers who was running the brainwashing experiments - the guy running Cathy's lab. But Silas has beaten them to it and kidnapped the head of the lab to kill him. George managed to get through to Silas and deprogramme him - at least enough to stop him killing the scientist, and not letting the national security guy take him either. Matt was worried about the psychological test as he's got feelings for Cathy and is reluctant to take the next step in their relationship for some reason. "The Spirit Of '95" sees the newcomers pushing for the right to vote, and Susan and Buck are volunteering to help with the campaign. But a bomb threats causes them to evacuate the campaign office... and although they expect it's another hoax, the building explodes before the bomb squad get there, and the Purists are blamed. The head of the Purists butts in to the investigation claiming his organisation are innocent. Susan decides to let the campaign use her house for their operation. Buck goes out canvassing, but gets a frosty reception - and then two guys kidnap the guy he's canvassing with and try to run Buck down. Matt gets in to a little trouble over being head of his residents association in his apartment building - he clearly doesn't want to be in the position, and the other residents are a suitable bunch of argumentative nitpickers and lawyers. The kidnapped newcomer turns up heavily beaten outside the police station... and this episode is really obvious... it's all a set up by the campaign to get good publicity to win the vote isn't it? It's nothing to do with the Purists... George and Matt question the head of the Purists again, and he agrees with me that it's all a big hoax. The campaign did indeed set up the kidnapping, but the Purists tapped their phones, and they know where the head of the campaign is being held... and they're involved when he turns up dead. The constitutional amendment is ratified in California and 31 other states... which isn't enough to pass the amendment. Meanwhile, the head of the Purists tries to plead the fifth to a congressional investigation, and they seize all records of the organization. "Generation To Generation" sees two kids out in the woods discover the body of a long-dead newcomer. George discovers that he was protecting some ceremonial object from the ship that has been recently stolen. When a box turns up at auction, Uncle Moodri wants to buy it, as it represents their heritage, but there's a determined buyer in the mix - and when it sells for 25 thousand, Moodri becomes frantic, claiming everyone will die if they open the box. Matt manages to get coerced into being a Big Brother. The guy who bought the box opened it, and was incinerated for his trouble. Fortunately, it burnt letters into the desk, and stopped the nearby clock at the time of death. And the box has been stolen (by a crazy hippy artist). Matt sucks as a Big Brother, taking his assigned boy to a hardware store. Moodri takes the box from the artist, but the original buyers want it back. Moodri opens it and is bathed in white light, but the buyers break through the door and take it. Moodri dies shortly after the attack, just after George and Matt make it to the scene. The buyers try to scan and then cut into the box, but Matt and George have a lead on them, getting there, saving the box, and the bad guy gets zapped by the box... but when George looks in it, it's empty. When Matt and George take the box back to the elders, one of the remaining ones declares she wants to build a temple on Earth, for future generations, and then shows them how to really open the box, giving the detectives a vision of Tencton... the memory of their home planet, preserved for them all. Matt takes his little brother camping in the woods, even though Matt hates the woods. And wow are these episodes dragging... hopefully the next one will be a little better paced, but the past few have been really slow! "Eyewitness News" sees the news following up on an anniversary programme where they catch up with George Francisco. Apparently they interviewed him a year previously on the anniversary of the landing, so they're following him for a week this year. Angela Bassett plays the reporter following our detectives around, and they end up investigating a phone sex girl getting murdered while on a crossed call to a meeting room full of executives. However, at the scene, there's stage blood, no bullet holes, and no body. And then the dead girl turns up and gives them her card. It was all staged for a fantasy sequence. The news programme is cut together to make George look brilliant and Matt look like a dope. The FCC Emergency Broadcast test signal uses a tone that is sexually stimulating to newcomers, as Matt finds out when Cathy comes in just before it starts playing. The phone sex girl's fake show to her clients turns up with an actual attack the following night when she gets her real client on the line. The human in the picture ends up in intensive care, and the newcomer girl disappears. The girl turns up at the police station and agrees to set up the client from the previous night (who clearly knew that the attack was going to take place). Ms Bassett wants Emily to celebrate her birthday a couple of days early so they can catch it on video. And Matt receives a video tape of newcomer porn that Cathy has to sign for - and she seems interested to know if he's going to watch it (which he claims he doesn't want to). The client calls again, and they set up the sting operation on short notice. But the microphone from the film crew interferes with the bug and allows a guy to enter the set and attack the girl - and allows him to get away before George and Matt get in there. Emily's party is a disaster - she doesn't want to perform for the camera. And the guy paying for the phone sex turns up at the house of the star... but his son is the one responsible for the attacks. Cathy gives Matt a university produced video on newcomer female sexuality (after a will-they-won't-they discussion in the laundry room. "Partners" sees Susan preparing to eject her pod, and her and George are concerned about having Matt as Godfather after reading the book (there'll be no horses heads in this show). Matt's former mentor makes an appearance. When seven pounds of drugs go missing between a crime scene and the evidence locker, George is the prime suspect, and he's confined to desk duty until the investigation is resolved. Of course, it's all a big set up by Matt's mentor - something to do with his retirement and lack of money - and George gets reinstated (even after they find drugs in his house). And then George and Susan transfer the pod... and why does the thing that emerges from the pod look like a mail Centauri's genetalia? Are the Tenctonese and Centauri related? Susan looked very pregnant considering the size of the pod! Ah, it's an umbilical cord that attaches to the male's nipple. "Real Men" opens in a gym, with a weightlifter on free weights. When a newcomer comes in and lifts a lot more weight than the guy, he ducks into the restroom and injects himself with some green stuff. Then he comes back and lifts as much as the newcomer... but when he walks away, he collapses to the floor. George is suffering through his pregnancy, and although he's allowed six weeks of paternity leave, we doesn't want to leave Matt with all the work. Matt gets Cathy to look at the steroid the bodybuilder was using - it's male newcomer hormone, and although it might be synthesised, it's easier to get it from newcomer blood. Matt's visiting friend asks Cathy out to dinner. George is getting emotional, and when his pregnancy enters phase 2, he's determined to continue trying to work, but a suspect gets away because he's unable to chase him. Matt fantasises that his friend's date with Cathy ends with him trying to force himself on her, and Matt having to come to the rescue. Albert throws George a baby shower, but Susan has to leave halfway through to work. Matt admits to knowing how to knit, but his present to George (a t-shirt with "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant" on it) doesn't go down too well! The case leads them back to the gym and a bodybuilder amped up on newcomer steroids... and in a fistfight wtih a heavily pregnant George. But the fight brings on premature labour, and Matt has to deliver the baby. Except the baby is breached and he has to turn the baby while George passes out... and then he has to cuddle George and the baby after birth as she needs the warmth of two bodies. And Matt admits to liking Cathy while he's teaching her to knit! "Crossing The Line" sees Matt going on holiday, and George partnered with a newly minted detective. The Franciscos are organising some ceremony for the newborn. However, a string of murders point to a serial killer Matt failed to catch years earlier - The Doctor - and that killer appears to be trying to get press coverage for his murders. Emily neglects her requirement to put something that expresses her love for the baby in to the conch shell by sundown. When the reporter is tipped off before the murder, he's there to watch it and get photos, and clearly Matt isn't happy with his actions, especially for not calling the police... so he arrests him for accessory to murder. Unfortunately, lawyers to the paper complain to the Commissioner, and the reporter's released. George has to escort Matt to the airport and make sure he gets on the plane for his holiday... but Matt skips out and returns home - tapping the reporter's phone to get a lead on the Doctor. "Rebirth" sees George asked to coach Emily's little-league baseball team, and as he knows nothing about baseball, he asks Matt for help. After attempting to teach George baseball, they are called to a robbery - but the newcomer criminal kills Matt during the struggle. Matt has a strange vision during his time at the hospital - the newcomer drops some crystals on him and he comes back to life. "Gimmee, Gimmee" sees a new fabric coming on to the market, based on tenctonese technology that can't be stained or torn - and the Franciscos decide to invest in the project, but Buck is clearly against the company as they exploit their workers. The newcomers on the board include Armin Shimerman. Matt introduces Albert to scratch-off lottery tickets. When a criminal attacks George (wearing his new "Nu-Knit" waistcoat) with a pair of scissors, they fail to penetrate and he's unharmed. When George goes to the company to thank them, Buck and his teacher are there agitating for a union. When George looks around the factory floor, Matt passes out due to a gas leak that doesn't affect newcomers. When Matt sells Albert one of his daily three lottery tickets, Albert goes and wins 25 thousand dollars. The chief scientist on the Nu-Knit project dies when someone adds salt to his swimming pool. Albert buys Matt his dream car with his winnings. Matt's car isn't the dream investment he hoped it would be, costing him far more in repairs and insurance than he can afford. A leak of the toxic chemical leads to deaths, and the police wanting to shut down Nu-Knit's factory, but Armin decides he wants to steal all the trade secrets and leak the chemicals there as well - leaving George unconscious inside the building and Matt having to go in to get him out. Matt sells his car and buys Albert a whole bunch of trees to brighten up the city with. "The Touch" sees a young newcomer run away from initiation in the overseers, and run in to Cathy at the hospital. When George and Matt go down to the hospital to respond to her call, a number of questions remain unanswered. Matt shows an interest in the child welfare woman called to help the boy. Cathy is determined to help the boy, but his mother wants no assistance from her. Flashback and the boy was assigned to the "upper level" on the ship - clearly to be groomed as Overseer. Vesna needs the titular "touch" every hour, and no-one's available to give it to her - the Franciscos are struggling to keep babysitters. Okay, the touch to the temple is soothing to newcomers, and part of the overseer training involves putting metal bands around their heads so they can't be touched there. Cathy kidnaps the boy, but the overseers track her down and take back her and the boy. Fortunately, Matt and George ride to the rescue before the boy is forced to kill Cathy. The police Captain gives in to George's request for a daycare centre in the police station. "Green Eyes" opens with a newcomer judge dropping dead at his desk. Cathy and Matt are stargazing together on the roof, waiting for the test of a laser communications system on the space station... and then they kiss. At work, he confides in the female detective that he can't stop thinking about Cathy in a sexual way, so she suggests he date a human. George is attempting to get a promotion, and gets it, making him Matt's boss! We have a Tenctonese doctor as the next victim, and both have in common that they've received juggling ball type objects filled with tencton-nip (a bit like catnip to newcomers). Clearly the balls are drugged in some way. Cathy intrudes on his date, inviting him up to the roof for another communications test. The autopsy turns up a genetically engineered bacterium specifically designed to kill newcomers. Buck's having special lessons with his teacher, but one of his fellow students is feeling threatened by the newcomer's reading speed. Cathy tries to give Matt a normal date - she cooks lasagna (which she can't eat as it's cooked food and animal fat in the cheese), and ends up sick because of it. Buck's teacher gets threatened with sexual impropriety (the upset human student claimed she and Buck were french kissing). George and Matt get a lead - at the docks - but the guy's boat is sailing out when they get there. Then they get into a fistfight over chasing him in a small motor boat - Matt clearly doesn't want George to go due to the salt water risk. And then the suspect's boat explodes. Buck's teacher stops the private lessons because she wants the relationship with Buck, and knows that if she keeps teaching him then they will end up together (cue kiss). Cathy tries to go on a date with another newcomer - but Matt walks in at the start and they have a heart to heart about how their relationship won't work. Upset, Matt invites Lorraine (she of the candy bars and unhealthy food) over. Flowers get delivered to the Fransiscos, and Susan and Emily have smelled them before reading the card (from "an admirer"), clueing George in to the fact that they're infected. Matt has his shirt off (due to spilling wine on it) when Cathy comes to his door to tell him the Franciscos are in emergency. And the bad guys have two weeks until they have enough bacteria to spray all of L.A. County...
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