Special Features
I wasn’t able to find a complete history detailing the entire series’ timeline, so I’m not sure when each made-for-TV movie was formatted for DVD. As far as I know, though, this is the first time any of the movies have been released on DVD, which makes the presentation of the set a bit puzzling, as both the DVD setups and the special features appear to be those of mid-‘90s DVDs. To be clear, there are plenty of special features, but, unfortunately, the quality of these features is so substandard that they might only be valuable to extreme fans of the series.
Here is the complete list of all the special features included in the set:
Dark Horizon features commentary by Executive Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, a making-of feature, a gag reel, and still galleries.
Body and Soul features commentary by Executive Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, a making-of feature, a gag reel, and still galleries.
Millennium features commentary by Executive Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, a making-of feature, a gag reel, still galleries, and storyboards.
The Enemy Within features commentary by Executive Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, a making-of feature covering both The Enemy Within and The Udara Legacy, and still galleries.
Finally, The Udara Legacy features commentary by Executive Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, the retrospective reunion feature ‘A Family Gathering: The Director and Actors Look Back on Alien Nation’, and still galleries.
While the making-of feature is generally the most insightful and enlightening feature on a DVD, usually including explorations of the main characters, their motivations, and the overarching themes of the movie, the Alien Nation making-of features are essentially behind-the-scenes footage with explanatory commentary by Kenneth Johnson. I’m not sure if that was the style of making-of features in the mid-‘90s, but, by contemporary standards, these are perhaps the worst making-of features I’ve ever seen.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but while I can excuse the somewhat outdated production quality of the movies because the movies cannot be feasibly altered, a DVD released in 2008 should have special features consistent with its release date, as the special features can always be updated and amended with relative ease. To their credit, the making-of features do include an extensive amount of production-centered footage, including the construction of sets, the staging of shots, and explanations of various other production techniques. While the making-of features do not include traditional analysis of the movie’s characters or themes and are therefore not likely to be of interest to the average viewer, the features may be intriguing to those with an interest in the film industry.
Like the making-of features, the still galleries feature more behind-the-scenes footage, with various galleries of photos taken by Johnson, the actors, and the crew, and even some galleries documenting cast reunions that have occurred since the final movie was completed. Overall, these galleries may have some interesting photos, but it is a bit boring to scroll through each picture one-by-one, especially when there isn’t even any audio playing in the background. The storyboards are presented in the same manor, so they may not hold the attention of all viewers, but, again, they may be valuable to viewers interested in the production side of the film industry.
The gag reels are pretty standard. As might be expected, they are moderately amusing, but you’re not likely to end up on the floor rolling with laughter.
Finally, although it is one of the final features, the retrospective reunion feature ‘A Family Gathering’ may be the only feature worthwhile to the casual viewer. The feature finally simulates the content of a contemporary making-of feature, although with a slightly different format, as it contains footage from a 2007 cast reunion, with a roundtable discussion of the series being the primary feature. The discussion is moderated by Johnson, who essentially leads the retrospective discussion of the series, prompting the primary cast-members to contribute their memories and insights.
Again, the feature emphasizes behind-the-scenes, production aspects, but it does at least provide the actors’ perspectives on the series and its characters. Toward the end of the feature, there is even some discussion of the series’ themes and relevance in contemporary culture, which I found to be the most valuable segment of any special feature included in the set. Again, there’s nothing extraordinary about the reunion feature, but the outdated quality of the other features and the slightly insightful discussion of the series’ themes make ‘A Family Gathering’ stand out among the set’s special features.
(As a side-note, I did find it odd that Sean Six was the only member of the primary cast not present at the 2007 reunion. I also don’t recall seeing him in the photos from previous reunions. Moreover, he hasn’t been credited in any film roles since The Udara Legacy, and there is very little information about him available on the Internet. This peculiarity is simply quite puzzling and makes me very curious about the actor and his life after Alien Nation.)
Presentation
Like the special features, the set’s presentation is unacceptably outdated considering the ease with which the DVD setups could have been modernized (although, to be fair, I have seen some contemporary DVDs with less sophisticated designs). In a DVD set, continuity and consistency throughout should be of paramount importance in order to make the individual items appear as part of a whole. Unfortunately, such continuity is absent from this set, with Dark Horizon featured in its own case while the other four movies are all included in a second case. In this way, it seems as it the first movie is separate from the final four.
To their credit, Fox has appropriately packaged the final four movies as a unit, laudably using two double-sided discs, with one movie and the corresponding special features on each side. Unfortunately, even in this success there is failure, as the second double-sided disc (the third disc in the set) is labeled incorrectly (that is, the side labeled as The Enemy Within actually contains The Udara Legacy, while the side labeled as The Udara Legacy actually contains The Enemy Within).
As for the actual DVD setups, again, that of the first disc is markedly inferior to that of the other two discs. The graphics of the Dark Horizon menus are noticeably poorer and audio is only featured on the main menu of this disc. There is some improvement to the menus of the final four movies, with higher-quality graphics and more audio. Again, though, there is failure even in these improvements, as the perceptible difference in the setup quality only further makes the first disc seem separate from the other two, whose setups are of a consistent (and better) quality. Moreover, even with the improved graphics and increased audio, there is still no moving video, no transitions among menus, and audio is only featured sporadically on some of the menus rather than consistently on all menus.
Overall, this somewhat inconsistent and, at times, erroneous presentation is disappointing, but it probably won’t ruin the viewing experience. At least the exterior packaging is sleek and polished, even if it does hide a few flaws underneath its glossy surface.
Overall
It’s a little difficult for me to evaluate Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection as a whole because the series is the product of an era just slightly before my time. As I’ve mentioned, the series is notable for presenting moderately exciting and intricate science fiction action/drama stories infused with insightful and thorough social commentary that explores important social issues revolving around tolerance, open communication, and understanding. Moreover, and perhaps most laudably, much of the social commentary is so poignant and universal that it still maintains its relevance even more than a decade after the movies’ original airings.
Most of the shortcomings of the series are likely the result of the stylistic and technical restrictions of its context. Such restrictions include both the less-sophisticated special effects and computer animation available in the mid-‘90s and the constraints of made-for-TV movies, which must be made with lower production budgets than major motion pictures and must maintain constant excitement in viewers lest they lose interest and change the channel. As such, the Alien Nation movies have rather poor special effects by contemporary standards, although their quality does improve over the course of the five movies, becoming less of a weakness as the series progresses.
Even considering these constraints, though, the stories and acting could have been a bit better (although, again, I am evaluating the series by contemporary TV standards). Overall, the acting isn’t terrible, it just doesn’t stand out as particularly extraordinary (although it may be a bit telling that no member of the primary cast has since been featured in a major role, except Lauren Woodland, who was a regular cast-member on The Young and the Restless from 2000 through 2005).
Primarily, though, I think the acting is restricted by the overly archetypal nature of the series, which required similarly archetypal and unremarkable characters. While the series’ heavy blend of poignant social commentary is far from conventional, its stories and action plots are extraordinarily predictable. Although the first two movies have archetypal but tolerably intricate and complex plots, the third and fourth movies are predictable to the point that much of the excitement and intrigue is removed from the stories. This predictability is likely the result of revealing too much information about the antagonists to the audience, such that viewers are already well-aware of solutions before the characters have even discovered the entirety of their problems. The final movie restores some intricacy to the story, but this predictability remains intact, making the latter three movies extraordinarily anticlimactic.
Another shortcoming that is not necessarily the result of stylistic or technical constraints is the disconnected nature of the series. Evaluated as a whole, the movies do not really function as a unit. The movies don’t so much build upon one another as they present ‘one-off’ adventures that feature the same cast of characters but don’t contribute to a greater story. I understand that it is naïve to assume that all viewers would be followers of the entire series, but greater continuity throughout the series could have still been developed.
Even what little continuity is developed throughout the series is not thoroughly resolved by the end of The Udara Legacy. It almost seems as if this movie was not necessarily intended to be the final Alien Nation movie. Although the conflicts particular to this final movie are all resolved within the story, the movie does not provide any resolution for story-arcs that have been developed throughout the entire series. This isn’t a major flaw, for, as I mentioned, there aren’t a large number of such story-arcs, and, to their credit, the creators do resolve the ongoing storyline involving Buck’s quest for personal identity.
I suppose I was primarily disappointed that the story-arc revolving around the relationship between Matt and Cathy is not more thoroughly resolved. Their relationship is not addressed much in the final movie; thus, the series ends with the assumption that their relationship is on good terms. But I would have preferred an explicit acknowledgement of their relationship. Considering the archetypal nature of the series, I expected them to get married, or at least engaged. Without this validation and lacking an implicit acknowledgement that these and other characters’ adventures were coming to an end, the series, as a whole, ends a bit anticlimactically, without closure or resolution.
Overall, though, Alien Nation is certainly notable, and, although the stories are not as timeless as those of the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, the spirit of balancing action with social commentary should definitely be (and, in many ways, has been) continued in contemporary film. I’m not sure that Alien Nation will be or deserves to be a classic, but its exemplary social consciousness certainly makes it still-relevant, with a message as significant in 2008 as it was in the mid-‘90s.