Revisiting Alien Nation

I received a set of the “Alien Nation” movies for Christmas, so before I watched them, I refreshed my memory by rewatching the original series.  This TV show ran for one season on the Fox Network, from 1989-1990, and then was cancelled due to lower-than-expected advertising revenue.  But the show struck a chord with viewers, and four years later, the first movie, “Dark Horizon,” was made.  Its acceptance led to four additional movies in the next three years.

The stories spring from an event that predates the series’ inception, when a space ship lands on Earth.  The aliens, known as Tenctonese, or Newcomers, disembark shortly before the ship explodes.  The series envisioned how Humans might adapt to the forced inclusion of a quarter of a million Newcomers on Earth.  We view this through the eyes of two Los Angeles Police Department detectives, the Human Matt Sykes, and Newcomer George Francisco.

Returning to the world of “Alien Nation” was a special treat, as I had loved the series when it aired.  Unfortunately, the stand-alone nature of the TV movies meant that several characters had to be simplified or excised.  Each movie therefore lacked the richness of the former series, but benefitted from more complex story ideas, and a more tightly honed plot. 

As a bonus feature, most of the actors reunite in director & executive producer Kenneth Johnson’s home in 2007 (ten years after the final movie aired) to discuss various aspects of the show, and its impact upon their world.  Gary Graham, who played Matt Sykes, mentioned how enthusiastically a group of stature-deprived people greeted him at a Hollywood function.  Eric Pierpoint, who played Newcomer George Francisco, told of entering a subway car in New York City, and not being able to leave for half an hour (long after the train reached his intended stop), because of all the people of different races who recognized him and wanted to tell him how much the show had meant to them.  As Kenneth Johnson summarized, every socio-ethnic group who has ever felt prejudice, or been marginalized, bonded with the Newcomers. 

On a personal level, watching the original series, and the TV movies, reminded me how easy it can seem to treat others equally, but how difficult it really is.  Take, for example, Albert, a Newcomer who works as the janitor in the police station.  At first, he seems mentally handicapped, but as the series progresses, we realize that Albert is just as smart as everyone else: he simply has different gifts and abilities.  Yet some characters never see past their initial impression.  Thus, they treat him poorly, and never realize how special he truly is. 

A high school instructor once told me, “Marriage is about bad smells.”  I think I understand what he meant.  When we go out in public, we do our best to make a favorable impression, visually as well as odor-wise.  Due to their different physiology, Newcomers eat and drink different foods than we do.  Imagine going into a restaurant and having dinner, while at the next table, the Newcomer family is eating small mammals such as weasel or beaver, or organs like the spleen or pancreas.  Their bodies cannot tolerate cooked food, so these choice morsels are served raw.  And instead of drinking alcoholic beverages, they drink sour milk.  Imagine working with such people, and having to smell their food (and their breath) all the time.  This goes beyond their other body odors we would have to learn to tolerate.  Maybe we could adapt to people who looked different.  But would we really choose to eat with them, or work with them, if the smell of their bodies and their food threatened to make us ill?

In “Harry Harrison’s Final Message,” I wrote about how tolerance is different from acceptance and love.  Ironically, those who preach the virtues of the former many times only succeed in further isolating and marginalizing their opponents.  I’m not sure if I really could adapt to Newcomers as Matt Sykes does throughout the course of “Alien Nation.”  I don’t know if I could put aside such huge differences, and come to regard Newcomers as close friends.  But the real test of whether one can accept the group is to first accept the individual.  And who better to start with than the Alberts of the world, who most need our acceptance, our friendship, and our love?

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Harry Harrison’s Final Message

My Amazing Life

If you’re like me, you find it easy to take the everyday for granted.  One of the reasons I don’t blog about my life, when I’m working at home, is that I’m stumped as to how to make it interesting.  I mean, what am I supposed to say?  Today, I ate such and such foods, I wrote on my novel or my blog, I went to the gym, I watched TV, etc?  Exciting stuff, right?  But it struck me the other day that, in many ways, my life is pretty amazing.  For example, in the last twenty-four hours, I’ve:

• Helped my dragon-friend prepare for his eventual introduction to the world, while sitting on my front porch and enjoying the day’s warmth after several weeks of unseasonably cool weather.
• Washed several days’ worth of dishes without getting dishpan hands (because I didn't actually have to wash and dry them).
• Watched two detectives, a human named Matt Sikes and a Newcomer named George Francisco, return a kidnapped and brainwashed child to parents who had thought he was dead (in “Alien Nation” a TV show I’ve loved for over twenty years now).
• Drank clean, warm water all day, without having to draw it from a well, or even light a stove.
• Saw some recent travel photos from family and friends who live hundreds or thousands of miles away.  One recently returned from a tour of Israel.  (Thank you, Facebook!)
• Reconnected with a friend from college, and a young man I’ve not seen in decades.  Of the latter, I worked with him in a church puppet ministry twenty years ago, when he dreamed of making his future in the comics industry.  Now he works for Marvel, doing his dream job.  (Thanks again, Facebook!)
• Enjoyed today’s painting on Facebook from an artist who accepted a challenge to complete thirty paintings in thirty days.  You go, girl!  
• Was inspired by how human ingenuity might eventually transform our solar system in Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312.
• Wrote a blog entry about Hungarian Fairy Tales that may end up being read today, tomorrow, or even a year from now, by people all over the world.  Additionally, I wrote this without using a pen or a single piece of paper.
• Traveled to Paris in 1931 with Hugo Cabret, thanks to Brian Selznick.
• Enjoyed the CD “Clockwork Angels” by Rush.  While I’ve heard the group's songs on the radio nearly all my life, I never really appreciated their music until author Kevin J. Anderson helped me understand how special they are.  (His novel, based on their album, proved equally enjoyable).
• Discovered where a church is that I first visited with LAPD Homicide detectives Rick “Hunter” & Dee Dee McCall last year.  It’s called the Wayfarer’s Chapel, an outdoor church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and operated by a denomination I’ve never previously heard of, the Swedenborgian Church.  Now, to plan a visit there!
• Enjoyed a delightful lunch with my wife at a local restaurant.
• Learned how one of my favorite authors, Steven Brust, is wrestling with the structure of his current novel Hawk, and even offered him a suggestion on what to do with all the scenes he’ll eventually cut.  (He replied "Interesting idea, but no."  Oh well...)

When I look over the past week, I realize how many more amazing things I’ve done or experienced, including traveling hundreds of miles in a single day to worship with my mother and share a meal with her, conversing with a man in England who gave me some welcome insight into author E. F. Benson, and after months of searching, finally finding the perfect coat to replace one I left behind in England last year because it was falling apart.  From out of the blue, I’ve even been offered a guest membership to a Science Fiction convention, and invited to speak on some of their panel discussions.  Needless to say, I regard this as an unexpected honor. 

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the most amazing fact of all, that my wife and I still love each other, after all our years together.  So many couples divorce after a few years, or suffer through marriages that are much less pleasant and rich than ours, that it’s easy to take something like that, a strong and nourishing relationship, for granted.  In today’s world, we live at such a fast pace, and have access to so many amenities, that it’s easy to take all that we have for granted.  It’s only when I sit down, and really think about my life, that I realize how much I have to be thankful for.  I’ll bet if you take a moment to sit down quietly, and clear your mind of all distractions, that you’ll realize how amazing your own life is too. 

Who knows?  You may discover that your life is even more amazing than mine.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Wayfarer's Chapel

Steven Brust: The Scythe in my Toolshed

Men in Black: Inspiring a Franchise

Imagine you’re driving along the highway with your friend, when he gives you an idea for a comic book series that will later become a multi-million dollar film franchise.  Well, that’s not exactly how it happened, but it was the start.  

Lowell Cunningham was driving through Tennessee with his friend.  When a large, black car passed, his friend quipped: that car could belong to the Men in Black.  “The Men in Black?” he asked.  “What are they?”

His friend went on to tell him stories about the Men in Black, people who investigate strange, “unearthly” occurrences.  They show up after a UFO sighting or a paranormal event, and after questioning the witnesses, make sure that “the truth” of what occurred never reaches the outside world.  As agent K would later tell his would-be protégé J in the first film, “A person is smart, but people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.  Fifteen hundred years ago, mankind saw Earth as the center of the universe.  Five hundred years ago, the human race believed that the Earth was flat.  Five minutes ago, you believed that we are alone on this planet.  Imagine, if you join us, what you might know tomorrow.”

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Back in the 1980s, Lowell Cunningham was an unpublished writer.  He couldn’t know that movies based upon his work would be made, or that they would prove extremely popular.  But he was inspired by his friend’s tales, and thought they might make a nice weekly TV show.  The only problem?  How could he, a man in Knoxville, Tennessee without a single writing credit, get the Hollywood studios to look at his work?  So he asked himself what might be more achievable, and eventually hit upon the idea of a comic book series.  He had never penned a comic book either, but he believed he could.  

Lowell Cunningham: Comic Book Hero

He not only believed in his capabilities and in his ideas: he did something about them.  He submitted proposals to all the comic book companies.  Although they aroused varying levels of interest, all were eventually rejected.  Then he happened to talk with someone who had worked for Aircel Comics out in California, and his friend suggested, “If they’ll print my work, why not yours?”  So he sent them his proposal, and found that they not only liked his idea, but were willing to commission him to write a three-issue miniseries.  His comics proved so successful that he was asked to write another, and the following year Aircel, now Malibu Comics, published another three issues.  

As we all know, change can be both good and bad.  The bad news was that Malibu Comics made a business decision to concentrate their efforts more on the superhero market.  Lowell’s series, while popular, simply didn’t fit in with the company’s new direction.  Still, they liked him, and hired him to write for several more of their comics, including a series related to the “Alien Nation” franchise and some superhero work.  But his brainchild, “The Men in Black,” was seemingly forgotten.  Until, that is, Malibu’s publisher, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, looked through what he had published and created several proposals of his own.  He sent them out to the Hollywood studios, and in 1992, Columbia Pictures purchased an option to make a Men in Black movie.

As the movie took shape, great names like Tommy Lee Jones, Wil Smith, Barry Sonnenfeld, and Steven Spielberg signed on to the project.  (In the case of Tommy Lee Jones, he committed to playing Agent K before any of the above, or even a script existed: he read the comics, and fell in love with the series).  Often star power isn’t enough, and the most promising projects falter before production can begin.  In this case, “Men in Black” was not only made, but proved so successful that it spawned a TV series and a sequel.  A third movie will arrive in theaters later this year.  And all because Lowell Cunningham believed in his idea, and persisted in submitting his proposals until someone finally agreed to publish his work.

Lowell Cunningham makes a little money in comparison to the above-mentioned Hollywood personalities.  He still lives in Tennessee.  He’s still a relatively unknown artist. “The Men in Black” miniseries never became a long-running, monthly comic.  But his brainchild has been used and shaped by others to bring pleasure to millions.  He has created something greater than himself.  His agents J and K have become cultural icons.  The “Men in Black” movies will surely influence future generations.  

Stories such as his inspire me to carry on with my own great work of writing fiction.  Whatever your interests, may his example lend you strength to keep pursuing your goals.

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True Vision  

When All Hope Seems Lost

Audrey, Richard, and the Unknown Constable

Ling’s Faith and Persistence