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rocketdave β Alien Nation Fanart Lineart
Published: 2009-09-12 04:01:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 2726; Favourites: 19; Downloads: 106
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There seems to be criminally little Alien Nation art out there, so I thought I'd do something about that. It was a pretty good show, even if the social commentary was often about as subtle as a bulldozer. Now "District 9" (which I thoroughly enjoyed) is out, which kind of covers the same themes. Also, I understand the scifi channel (oops, I mean syfy) has a new version in the works. This has been sitting in my sketch pad for a couple months. I intend to eventually color it and give it a snazzy background, at which point this'll probably get relocated to my scraps, but I felt like submitting it now.Related content
Comments: 29
I meant to series. rather than " sees ". Damn typos.
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This is a nice surprise. I hate the way that Fox has historically treated some of their better shows like Alien Nation - They kick them to the curb, & show sees that are sub - par. Maybe that's a generalization.
Anyway, LOVE the work.
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Thanks. I still need to color this in.
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It still looks great as a B & W sketch or line drawing.
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I guess for a TV show, it was a very provocative show, focusing on several issues that stem from segregation and discrimination. However, there are 2 points I feel that could've made Alien Nation better. First, it should actually try and go places with its universe beyond simple racism and segregation (like, how their arrival has affected other areas of the world). Second, it should think up a more original design than green people with pimples for hair.
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I like to think they probably would have further explored how the alien presence affected the world if the show had gone beyond just one season and a handful of TV movies. As for the makeup, budgetary and time constraints kind of limited how much they could do. Personally, I thought the alien look for the show was simple and effective.
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Well, think of it this way: if they didn't explore the alien effect in the rest of the world right off of the bat, the story was most likely limited to its setting (largely in Los Angeles, it seems).
The alien look was unrealistic. Plain and simple.
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Unfortunately, due to the lack of available extraterrestrial actors here on Earth, I'm afraid the show was stuck using humans with rubber heads, just like every other science fiction series.
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It's not that hard to make puppets. Look at Star Wars: that film was made before Alien Nation, yet they still had a few non-humanoid aliens.
And not every scifi series used rubberheads. A lot of them actually ended up opting for some pretty original creatures. Like, the Daleks in Doctor Who.
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Right, puppetry and animatronics work pretty well if you want a couple exotic looking, non-humanoid aliens, like in Farscape, for example. But it's unreasonable to expect something like that when you're talking about creating an entire population of aliens, to be used on a weekly basis on a TV budget.
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Well, now we can.
If it's unreasonable in a TV budget for puppets, how did Alf work so well?
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βAlfβ was a sitcom, and the puppet was only slightly more convincing than Miss Piggy. I did not say puppets are too expensive for TV; I specifically gave βFarscapeβ as an example of a show that used puppets very well. Also, there was only one Alf. βAlien Nationβ had like six alien cast members, not to mention numerous alien guest stars every episode, including background characters. To try to dupicate all that with lifelike puppets is what would have been too costly.
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I can understand why they couldn't use non-humanoid puppetry, but did they really have to stoop to a man in a Halloween mask, more or less? And on the subject of puppetry, unless each and every alien was each a different species, I could see them being able to, say, have a few puppets, but make some small modification (clothing, bulk a piece up, remove a piece, etc.) to give the illusion of a different alien.
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That does explain why I don't like Star Trek all too much.
:/
My point is, "Alien Nation" has a lot of creative potential, like that new film "Avatar". But, both didn't put that potential into their respective alien things, and it comes off as something less than what it could've been.
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What you're describing is basically what they did for "Dinosaurs," but I don't think it would have worked as well for what was supposed to be a relatively serious science fiction show. It would have still been fairly limiting, plus I suspect using puppets probably would have alienated a sizable portion of their potential audience. The makeup couldn't be too complicated because of the number of aliens they needed to have per episode.
No offense, but it I imagine it must be difficult to enjoy any science fiction series featuring alien life if you can't get past the human actors wearing prosthetics.
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Man, I miss that show. I actually hated the movie, though. Probably because I saw the TV show first and then the movie.
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That's pretty much my experience as well.
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Great fanart of a great show, keep it up! Do some pictures of Buck and the other Francisco family members too.
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coool!!!
i love alien nation,
did i understand that right,they do a new alien nation?
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Yes, that's correct, a new Alien Nation TV series is being made, although I think itβs still just in the early planning stages right now.
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thank you for the answer,
that are good news,let us hope they dont change their mind and cancel it before it really starts,
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I hit send before I finished "Like Battlestar Galactica"
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While I wholeheartedly feel that the new Battlestar Galactica was amazing, I'm hoping the new Alien Nation will be more of a sequel or continuation than a total reboot, just because I don't think there was much of anything about the original show's premise that needs to be drastically altered to make it relevent for today.
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I agree with that. I just meant that it falls in the category of I've to see it. I just can not miss it.
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I thought that Alien Nation series and its TV Sequels were amazing and deep. I am waiting and hoping the remake is as good as the original, like
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I loved that show, especially the movie starring James Caan. And I definately love this sketch. It's like something you'd see on the front cover of a comic book.
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Thanks, that's pretty much the feeling I was going for.
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I certainly wasn't expecting fanart of this show! Nice idea!
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