Was the Alien Nation TV series supposed to be in the same continuity as the original movie? I know the series is set about a month after the events of the movie but Sikes looks a lot younger and IIRC, certain details about Francisco's family don't match up. Can someone please elaborate?
shareAccording to Kenny Johnson Fox approached him to making a TV series pilot based on the film. He watched the film and didn't like it as it seemed to be "Lethal Weapon with aliens." However the scene where Francisco is picked up by Sykes and we see his family is the reason that Johnson agreed to make the series. He changed several parts to make it more like something he was interested in doing and I think it benefited a lot. The addition of the daughter and the son being a teenager were one of the best changes. I guess it could be said that it runs in the same continuity albeit it's a little skewiffy at times.
shareif we delete that tiny scene in the movie from our mind, then everything else works, right?
Even the *beep*ing Trees walked in those movies.
It has about the same continuity with the Caan/Patinkin film, as HIGHLANDER: THE SERIES had with the Christopher Lambert film. Which is, to say, not a heck of a lot. You would be better off imagining the original ALIEN NATION and its TV spin-off as occurring on separate-yet-parallel Earths.
On Earth-1, the mind-controlling substance was an addictive liquid drug called "ja'bro'ka." On Earth-2, it was an invisible gas. On Earth-1, too much of the drug resulted in the user mutagenically "Hulking out." On Earth-2, that aspect was explained away (in the series premier) as a Scooby Doo-like hoax being perpetrated by some blue-collar Purists who used to do special effects for movies.