American network The CW are announcing they are set to produce a new sci-fi series, Oxygen.
The show claims to be in a similar vein to District 9 – a fact that suggests the show won’t be laden with originality from the offset, if the first thing they do to intrigue viewers is to name a popular influence.
But it gets worse than that.
[quote]Oxygen follows a high school pilot program, the first attempt to integrate a group of humanoid aliens stranded on earth who until now have been living in forced segregation. The program is complicated by the prejudices and competing agendas on all sides, and could be saved or destroyed by a burgeoning romance between a human girl and alien boy.[/quote] [ deadline.com ]
Sounds familiar, somehow.
Anyone remember this?
That’s right, it sounds extremely like Roswell, which aired – incidentally – on WB and then UPN, both of whom merged to form The CW.
[quote]Living among the citizens of the infamous New Mexico city of Roswell are some who are not there by choice. They are there to follow a destiny given to them by the members of their dying race, a race that they are someday destined to save. Max Evans, Isabel Evans and Michael Guerin are teenage humans with extraordinary gifts – gifts that are “not-of-this-earth”. They are human/alien hybrids, sent here to complete their destiny. Thus one day, they will return to their home planet and save their race.[/quote] [ imdb.com ]
Okay, so we do have a case that Roswell featured aliens who lived in a society who didn’t know of the existence of aliens, whereas Oxygen will be the opposite. Yet it seems like a Roswell/District 9 hybrid with not a huge deal of thought made to disguise the splicing together of the two.
Who knows, it might be good, but I don’t hold high hopes.
If the alien kids look like giant prawns, we’ll know District 9 was the primary influence. If they look like unusually good-looking humans, we’ll know they’re keying off Roswell. BTW, don’t forget the most popular alien-in-high-school show of all: Smallville!