History Series / AlienNation

* RetCon: In the transition from Movie to TV Series, the actors were recast and the ages of relative ages of Matthew Sikes and his daughter were changed. George's family grew and his children were aged up with Matt's daughter was aged down to a teenager for the series. Events from the movie, however, were referenced several times in the two-hour Pilot Episode, and some footage was reshot and spliced with footage from the movie for flashbacks, now featuring the younger Matt Sikes of the series in place of James Caan, who played the character in the original movie. When the series was revived in the form of TV Movies, CanonDiscontinuity was again selective: Emily, George's young daughter, was aged up to a teenager while Buck, the older son, didn't seem to age between the series and the first TV movie, nor did Baby Vessna. Additionally, the "bacteria" of the series finale was recast as a virus for the first TV movie. These discrepancies can only be solved by the application of the LiteraryAgentHypothesis. Also, the color of Tenctonese blood was made pink in the TV show and the TV movies, probably to appease censors, whereas it was the same color as human blood in the original movie.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Was cancelled by Fox after its first season, despite being quite popular. At the time Fox was losing a lot of money and needed to cut production on numerous shows. They saw more profit in their comedy shows, so the dramas--like Alien Nation--were cut.

* 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 (they can eat it, but they don't get anything out of it), so they eat their food raw.

* AbusiveParents:
** Sikes' dad was more neglectful than physically abusive, but the effect was largely the same
** George is guilty of this. He throws Buck around and almost strikes him. Later, he's physically rough with Emily as well as yelling at her while he tries to wash off an Overseer mark she made on her wrist. Yelling at a child is usually non-abusive, but in the second case, Emily hadn't intentionally done anything wrong. It was akin to a human child realising that people are scared of/dislike the Nazi swastika or KKK hood and reasoning that it one of them would make a good Halloween costume.
*** But keep in mind the situation was also equivalent to a child dressing up as a Nazi and walking up to a parent who was a Holocaust survivor. Slavery wasn't something George had heard about on the news, it was something he'd ''lived through'' about a decade before. His anger is pretty understandable.
*** It should also be noted that he broke down in tears and apologized to her the instant he realized what he was doing.
*** Also in the situation with Buck George had [[BewareTheNiceOnes come to the end of his patience]] while his son had been a blatantly UngratefulBastard, openly insulting his Mother, Father, and his Father's partner and friend who had stood up to an angry mob the day before in defense of Buck's own sister.

** After hearing a "[[FantasticRacism Purist (Guys, who hate Tenctonese)]]" droning on, he said something really vulgar... In Tenctonese
* GeniusBonus: Part of the episode "Chains of Love" deals with Matt's attempt to get Cathy to appreciate Film/TheThreeStooges. That episode also has in it * 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 [where his wife and daughter are, due to said virus] with Moby Dick in his hand". [[DontExplainTheJoke Sikes doesn't need an explanation.]]

* ThreeStoogesShoutOut: Part of the episode "Chains of Love" deals with Matt trying (unsuccessfully) to get Cathy to appreciate the Stooges. In that episode is a Newcomer with the seemingly normal name Ted Healy. Anyone conversant with the history of the Stooges knows that Ted Healy is credited with creating them.

* 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 [where his wife and daughter are, due to said virus] with Moby Dick in his hand". [[DontExplainTheJoke Sikes doesn't need an explanation.]]

* EvilDetectingBaby: Vessna starts to cry when she's near Ahpossno, and she's right about that, since he's an Overseer scout send out to find the quarter-million wayward Tenctonese and wouldn't say no to a coupla millions of humans as slaves, either.

** George is guilty of this. He throws Buck around and almost strikes him. Later, he's physically rough with Emily as well as yelling at her while he tries to wash off an overseer mark she made on her wrist. Yelling at a child is usually non-abusive, but in the second case, Emily hadn't intentionally done anything wrong. It was akin to a human child realising that people are scared of/dislike the Nazi swastika or KKK hood and reasoning that it one of them would make a good Halloween costume.

* ButICantBePregnant: In the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Cross of Blood'', Tectonese Cathy Frankel turned out to be pregnant. This came as a shock to her human boyfriend Detective Matt Sikes, because among the Tectonese, pregnancy can only occur when the female is inseminated by a "third" gender or "catalyst." It is later discovered that, due to their genetic adaptability, a Human/Tectonese pairing can result in pregnancy. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, [[TearJerker Matt and Cathy's child was unable to survive after being born, due to her mixed genetics]].]]

** While uncommon, penitent Overseers do exist. In one episode, George speaks with a penitent former overseer who wears a headscarf to indicate her atoning status.

* EvilDetectingBaby: Vessna starts to cry, when she's near Ahpossno and she's right about that, since he's an overseer scout send out to find the ca quarter-million wayward Tenctonese and wouldn't say no to a coupla milliards of Humans as slaves, either.

** 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 refer to them ("slag") and to separate themselves from the "dregna" (Tenctonese for "cargo", an overseer slur referring to Tenctonese under their control).

* FantasticSlur: Human bigots (or overseers) refer to Newcomers as "slags" or "spongeheads". Humans, in return, are called "Terts."

* FiringInTheAirALot: In the series pilot, Sykes fires into the air multiple times to break up a Purist rally.
* ForeignCussWord: Inverted, in that in the Tenctonese language, "Sykes" roughly translates as "excrement cranium" ("shithead").

** "Gruza", the name of the slave ship (after the Russian word "gruz", meaning "cargo". "Cargo" is an overseer slur referring to Tenctonese under their control)

** "Ahpossno" (from the Russian word "opasno", meaning "dangerous"), a fitting name for the overseer scout, who came to earth to investigate the disappearance of a quarter-million of "cargo", although he saves the Tenctonese from a annihilation-attempt by bio-weapon from a Purist group ([[PragmaticVillainy out of self-interest, the overseers don't profit from dead "cargo"]]).

** The Tectonese aren't necessarily any better and [[NotSoDifferent the racism not only goes both ways, but exists within their own species.]]
** Many of the Tectonese, especially George, believe that HumansAreSpecial because they welcomed The Newcomers into their world, gave total freedom to a species bred to be perfect slaves, and asked no more of them then they would themselves. Racism aside that's pretty damn impressive.

* MakeAWish: Subverted in the first TV Movie, when Sikes, in the way to the hospital, where Emily and Susan are after a bio-weapon attack with poisoned 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 quarter-million Tenctonese back with superior military technology and won't be too sad about some milliards (human) slaves as a bonus.

-->'''Sykes:''' I hope they don't charge us for that table.

* StandardFemaleGrabArea: Not exactly a hit, but close, when used by overseer Rigac on Cathy... After seizing her by the throat.

* TitleDrop: When a Tenctonese stole an overseer mind control gas, she said that "With this I can control an ''alien nation''."
* 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 "shag the slag"; Emily, like all Newcomers, has superhuman hearing. 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''.

* UnusualEuphemism: The aliens use the term "sykes", which is later revealed to literally translate as "excrement cranium" ("shithead"). Coincidentally, the main human character is named [[InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike Sykes]]...

* 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 knowledgeable in his culture.

* BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: the cop who taught Matt in the force]] frames George for stealing drugs. And of course, RedemptionEqualsDeath.

* BizarreAlienSexes: Newcomers have a third sex 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.

* 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).

* 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).

The Newcomers had two personal names, the one that they were given by their parents or former masters, and an "Earth name" handed out by the immigration service. With 250,000 names to distribute, some of them are quite odd. George's name was originally "Sam Francisco", but he changed it at Matt's request. Other odd Newcomer names: "Dallas Fort-Worth", "Amos N. Andy", "Polly Wannacracker", "Thomas and Alva Edison".

* CloudCuckoolander: Albert Einstein

* StarfishLanguage: Tenctonese.

* InnocentInnuendo: Emily gives George a "hummer", which simply involves her making a humming noise over his back.

* Irony: Matthew Sikes lays this on with a trowel in his first speech as a rather heavy-handed but effective {{Aesop}} for the Purists.

** The word word 'miliciya' and means in Tenctonese, like in Russian, "police"

* RetCon: In the transition from Movie to TV Series, the actors were recast and the ages of relative ages of Matthew Sikes and his daughter were changed. George's family grew and his children were aged up with Matt's daughter was aged down to a teenager for the series. Events from the movie, however, were referenced several times in the two-hour Pilot Episode, and some footage was reshot and spliced with footage from the movie for flashbacks, now featuring the younger Matt Sikes of the series in place of James Caan, who played the character in the original movie. When the series was revived in the form of TV Movies, CanonDiscontinuity was again selective: Emily, George's young daughter, was aged up to a teenager while Buck, the older son, didn't seem to age between the series and the first TV movie, nor did Baby Vessna. These discrepancies can only be solved by the application of the LiteraryAgentHypothesis. Also, the color of Tenctonese blood was made pink in the TV show and the TV movies, probably to appease censors, whereas it was the same color as human blood in the original movie.
** The male Techtonese design was also changed (at least for George) from being much burlier than a typical human male, to being the same body form range as human males. They're still just as strong as ever.

* TeacherStudentRomance: Buck and his English teacher start making out near the end of the last episode of the series. This storyline is not continued in the TV-Movies.

* CoolShades: George frequently wore these.

** In the last few episodes of the series, Buck becomes close with a social activist teacher; in the series finale, they begin an affair. Not only is this never brought up again, in the second TV-movie, Buck is joining protests against against human/Newcomer mating. (The novelization of the first movie attempts to smooth this out with her telling Buck it wouldn't have lasted, and moving elsewhere)

** In the last few episodes of the series, Buck becomes close with a social activist teacher; in the series finale, they begin an affair. Not only is this never brought up again, in the second TV-movie, Buck is joining protests against against human/Newcomer mating.

** While uncommon, pentinent Overseers do exist. In one episode, George speaks with a pentinent former overseer who wears a headscarf to indicate her atoning status.

* AbusiveParents: Sikes' dad was more neglectful than physically abusive, but the effect was largely the same

* DomesticAbuse: George is guilty of this. He throws Buck around and almost strikes him. Later, he's physically rough with Emily as well as yelling at her while he tries to wash off an overseer mark she made on her wrist. Yelling at a child is usually non-abusive, but in the second case, Emily hadn't intentionally done anything wrong. It was akin to a human child realising that people are scared of/dislike the Nazi swastika or KKK hood and reasoning that it one of them would make a good Halloween costume.
** But keep in mind the situation was also equivalent to a child dressing up as a Nazi and walking up to a parent who was a Holocaust survivor. Slavery wasn't something George had heard about on the news, it was something he'd ''lived through'' about a decade before. His anger is pretty understandable.
** It should also be noted that he broke down in tears and apologized to her the instant he realized what he was doing.
** Also in the situation with Buck George had [[BewareTheNiceOnes come to the end of his patience]] while his son had been a blatantly UngratefulBastard, openly insulting his Mother, Father, and his Father's partner and friend who had stood up to an angry mob the day before in defense of Buck's own sister.

* MeaningfulName: Ahpossno, when he gets his "human name", gets called [[Anvilicious "Norman Conquest"]].