For the fifth -- and apparently final -- time, those refugees from the planet Tencton are back in prime-time.
Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint return as detectives Sikes and Francisco in "Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45), trying to figure why a bunch of seemingly normal newcomers (including a police officer) are turning into kamikaze assassins.
The film -- like the series it succeeded -- is hardly subtle, as it asks questions about why people can't simply get along with one another (the newcomers are exiles from their home planet regarded with suspicion by some native Earthlings).
But it also takes up the issues of trust and single-minded devotion to causes: Udara is the the name of a terrorist resistance group back on Tencton, and when someone close to Francisco turns out to be a Udara, his whole concept of what makes a people civilized -- not to mention right and wrong -- is challenged.
"The Udara Legacy" is filled with witty asides and intriguing -- if hardly keen -- insights into the inanity of prejudice. Add to that an engrossing story that maintains a brisk pace, and you've got a winner, even if things do get wrapped up a little too tidily in the end.
Pub Date: 7/29/97
