In Resident Alien, Alan Tudyk plays Harry Vanderspeigle, an alien whose spacecraft crash-landed on Earth. Based on the Dark Horse Comic of the same name, the TV series takes place in the small mountain town of Patience, Colorado. Harry’s original mission is simple — kill all humans. From creator Chris Sheridan, the series also stars Corey Reynolds, Sara Tomko, and Alice Wetterlund. Resident Alien airs original episodes Wednesdays at 10pm on Syfy, and streams on Peacock.
Following his crash-landing, Harry goes undercover as a doctor in Patience, beginning his stay on Earth with hostility towards humanity. However, that mission is quickly thwarted by the revelation that a small boy in town can see through Harry’s human disguise to the alien beneath. When Harry somehow gets roped into a murder investigation, he begins to assimilate into the surrounding community, which leads to a struggle with his murderous mission. By the end of its second season, Harry has begun to care about the human friends he’s made during his time on Earth, and his true identity is revealed.
While promoting the third season of Resident Alien at NBC’s recent TCA Winter Tour, Sheridan revealed that his writing is informed by his deep belief that we have indeed been visited by extraterrestrials. “I do believe that this stuff is happening,” he admitted when discussing the process of writing the series over the years. He clarified that he chose to focus first on developing the human characters of Patience before turning the toward the alien storylines. Sheridan elaborated:
“I do believe that there are people that have been abducted by these aliens. And even if you don’t believe it out there, there’s thousands and tens of thousands of people who do believe this is happening to them. So, we really wanted to lean in on that and that’s separate from the Harry story. Harry happens to be another element of that, but there’s a lot going on in the alien world, in our world and in America, that has nothing to do with this sort of story thing about the alien coming down. And we really wanted to explore some of those true stories, so that’s part of it, too.”
In response, Tudyk quipped, “My people do not abduct. That is not our thing.”
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Alan Tudyk and Corey Reynolds Shares Sheridan’s Thoughts
Release Date January 27, 2021
Seasons 3
Creator Chris Sheridan
To prep for their story of aliens among us, Sheridan requested that his cast read the book Communion by Whitley Streiber, the bestselling author of horror novelsThe Wolfen and The Hunger. Released in 1988, Communion is a memoir featuring Streiber’s own tale of alien abduction. According to Streiber, on the night of December 26, 1985, he went to sleep in a secluded cabin in upstate New York and woke up six hours later to an experience one must read to believe. He claims to have been approached by “visitors from elsewhere” and shares the story of how they found him, why, and where they took him.
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“This book is very unsettling,” says Tudyk. “I recommend you read it if you want to be unsettled. Or you can go on YouTube and Roddy McDowell reads it. It’s even creepier because [of] that guy’s voice. Roddy McDowell, actually […] he had a lot of sci-fi stuff. I think he did Twilight Zone, at least [once]. Him reading that book is even creepier.” Tudyk shared his own feelings on alien abduction:
“They exist. There’s so much now that’s just out. It’s weird how it’s come out. The government’s like, ‘Oh yeah, aliens, yeah, sure. We’ve known about it, whatever, whatever, whatever. Anyway, coming up next.’ It’s like, wait, no! […] Can we get more into this? So it’s tough to know what is true and what isn’t true. But it seems like the reality of aliens is there. And that so many people have similar experiences.”
“I’m not one of the people who’s waiting for them to come and save us all. I don’t think it’s altruistic. I think it’s too hard to understand who they would be,” clarifies Tudyk. In the end, the actor summarizes his feelings by stating that he thinks alien visitors to Earth might occasionally snatch a human here or there, but in the end:
They just kick back and watch the show.
Resident Alien and the Drake Equation
Actor Corey Reynolds has a far more scientific approach to the question, bringing up the Drake Equation. “[This] is the scientific equation that was created many years ago that took into consideration […] how many stars are there, how many of those stars have exoplanets orbiting them, how many of those exoplanets would be orbiting in a habitable zone. I think that they determined, for our galaxy alone there has to be, at least statistically speaking, about 25,000 advanced civilizations.”
But does Reynolds think they’ve visited Earth? Not necessarily:
“Now the problem is, you sprinkle 25,000 advanced civilizations over a galaxy that has billions of stars, you still may never ever, ever, ever find them. But we might have civilizations out there that are billions of years older than our own. There’s no way in hell that they don’t know a lot more sh*t than we do. I mean, let’s just use a little common sense.”
Well, at least Resident Alien visits us. The sci-fi dramedy.airs new episodes Wednesdays on Syfy, and streams new episodes Thursdays on Peacock. The series is also streaming on Netflix here. You can watch it on Peacock through the link below:
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