Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995)

The post-series run of TV movies continues with an above-average episode. By now, the formula has settled – half-and-half sci-fi cop show and sci-fi soap, with a soupcon of satire. Here, the upfront story is about an evil quasi-government conspiracy using former overseers from the Tenctonese slave ship in weapons experiments (like Nazi scientists after the war), and the hero cops get on the case after a couple of murders are linked to some alien anomalies (a giant and a child who turn out to be halves of the same organism) and find an alien philanthropist (Pamela Gordon) trying to live down her wicked past like Anthony Hopkins in QB VII.

There's a sub-plot about the human cop (Gary Graham) and his alien girlfriend (Terri Treas) having trouble becoming sexually compatible, and taking a touchy-feely class to learn the techniques, which leads into a thread about humans and aliens protesting at this mingling of the races and the possibility of an alien-human hybrid being bred. The finale boils down to the usual suspended-cops-infiltrate-the-baddies'-base bit, with a human villain revealed as a plastic surgery-augmented alien and a cheap explosion to wipe away the problem. The original cast, even those in potatohead alien make-up, are all looking a bit more weathered than they were at the outset. Directed, as usual, by Kenneth Johnson.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

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