History Series / AlienNation

(later)

** "jabluka" (after the Russian word "jabloko", meaning "apple"), the horrible Tenctonese drug from the pilot movie (It is spelled ''jabrokah'' in the novels)

** "jabluka" (after the Russian word "jabloko", meaning "apple"), the horrible Tenctonese drug from the pilot movie

* ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin: The newcomers get drunk on sour milk.

* ScienceIsBad: In episode 2, the criminal was a human scientist who was extracting a gland from his Newcomer patients in order to reverse aging in his human ones, which killed the Newcomers. At the end of the episode Matt burns his research, invoking this trope in combination with HumansAreTheRealMonsters, saying essentially that while a more ethical scientist could probably have done something good with it, he couldn't trust that someone couldn't have used it to do something worse

*** It is not necessarily an supernatural power of his. Somewhere in the show was mentioned, that all Newcomers (everyone younger, at least) was born on the ship and that they were genetically engineered, except elders like him, who were born on the home planet. So it can very well be, that this weakness to salt water was put into the genome of the slaves to keep them under control, since, probably, there was not much salt water on the ship, so they still could work efficiently as slaves.

* LysistraGambit: Tenctonese are implied to be [[PlanetOfHats culturally]] more rational about sex; it happens, it's enjoyable, it shouldn't be taken lightly (they find oversexualized things such as pornography silly), and it doesn't matter what gender ''both'' partners are. One of Susan's coworkers boasts about the effectiveness of this technique, just as a rather complicated issue pops up. Susan is curious, but by the end of the episode the woman is divorced: her husband just became sick and tired of being screwed with, to the point where he said "Take as much money as you want, just never come near me again!"

* WickedCultured: Ahpossno, the overseer scout, who wants to bring back the ca. quarter-million Tenctonese into slaver and also enslave all of humanity, likes music, nice house decoration and is is highly knowledgebale in his culture.

* MessianicArchetype: Peter Rabbit tries to depict himself as one of these [[spoiler: but it turns out to be a subversion, as he was jut using his claim of messianic abilities as a way to escape from Sikes]]

* MakeAWish: Subverted in the first TV Movie, when Sikes, in the way to the hospital, were Emily and Susan are after a bio-weapon attack with poisned flowers, sees a shooting star and thinks, it'll bring luck... It won't, it is a scout from the overseers, who want to bring the ca. quarter-million Tenctonese back with superior military technology and won't be too sad about some milliards (human) slaves as a bonus.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Sikes is killed by a Newcomer robbing a convenience store, but suddenly, after a vision of the robber touching his chest, Sikes comes back to life. George gives him an alternate medical explanation, but Sikes thinks the robber has some sort of mystical powers. When they catch the robber, he portrays himself as a combination Messianic figure/Robin Hood out to save the world, and offers to show Sikes his powers. Unusually for this trope, by the end of the episode one of the explanations is disproved [[spoiler: the robber had no mystical powers, he was just trying to get a chance to escape]] we aren't given any sort of conclusive answer, aside from the rather lacklustre medical explanation.

** Grazer has more of a focus on the "jerk" part of the equasion, but it's clear he cares about his officers (and Albert) very much.

** "bardok" (from the Russian word "bardak", meaning "disorder"), rosto (from the Russian word "rost", meaning "growth [in height]") and "yunost" (from the Russian word "yunost'", meaning "youth", probably a nod at the fact, that a certain Tenctonese organ has an rejuvinating effect, when implanted in humans), enzymes from the Tenctonese metabolism.

** "Karabla" (from the Russian word "karabl' ", meaning "ship") an religious object used in Tenctonese marriage ceremonies (they spouses place their "serdsos" (see above) in the karabla to symbolize their marriage as a journey of two souls together), shaped like a ship

** "serdso" (after the Russian word "serdcе", meaning "heart"), a religious object of the Tenctonese. Tenctonese believe, that their souls leave their bodies in their sleep and that a serdso guides them back.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During a crisis (Purists trying to annihilate the Tenctonese with a bio-weapon), George says, that he "can't sit around in the hospital [were his wife and daughter are, due to said virus] with Moby Dick in his hand". [[DontExplainTheJoke Sikes doen't need explenations.]]

** The "Kleezantsun<klick>" (Tenctonese for "Overseers", those who maintained order among the slaves on the ships) regard the other Tenctonese as inferior and even use Human anti-Tenctonese slurs to referr to them ("slag") and to seperate themselfes from the "dregna" (Tenctonese for "cargo", an overseer slur refering to Tenctonece under their control).

** "Chekkah" (from the Russian abbreviation "chekkah", a colloquial name for one of the forrrunner-organisations of the infamous KGB), an elite Overseer reconnaissance unit. Ahpossno is a memeber of this unit.

* BizarreAlienBiology: The basis for 1/4 of the show's humor. Newcomers can't get near saltwater, it's like taking a bath in battery acid for them. They blink when they sneeze. Partway through a pregnancy, the female transfers the natal pod to the male. Instead of getting headaches their feet swell when under stress. Their bodies cannot process cooked meat proteins (The can eat it, but they don't get anything out of it). They have a third gender called Binnaum, who are necessary for catalyzing a pregnancy. Binnaums offer a high-demand service, but make up a very small percentage of the population.

** In the series, Cathy can't understand how Matt can watch something as violent as ''TheThreeStooges'', and recommends a really great movie... ''TheLoveBug''.

* CardCarryingVillain: Many former Overseers were portrayed in the series as [[EatsBabies baby-eating]] [[CompleteMonster monsters]], and few have regrets about their past (or present) misdeeds.

* EasterEgg: Perps or witnesses in the background of the police station were usually [[Expy Expies]] for famous people. For instance, around minute 38 in the Udara Legacy, you see [[RayCharles a black man in a tuxedo wearing sunglasses, being lead by the hand to a chair.]]

** The name of the wife of Albert Einstein, the police precinct janitor, is "Okiana" (from the Russian word "okean", meaning "ocean").

** Susan once said, that she 'feels like an old screw' [[BluntMetaphorsTrauma (the right expression would be "like an old shoe")]].

* TooDumbToLive: The guy who tries to seduce Emily in the third TV movie. This is idiotic to begin with, given that sexually experienced inter-species couples need months of classes to have sex safely. But wait, it gets better, when after getting her to come to his house, he goes to the next room to have a phone conversation in which he brags about how he's going to "bag the slag"; Emily, like all Newcomers, has superhearing. Oops. But the kicker? After she finds out what he's up to, he assaults her, despite the fact that A: she has superstrength, and B: her ''father is a cop''.

* WickedCultured: Ahpossno, the overseer scout, likes music, nice house decoration and is is highly knowledgebale in his culture.