First Contact? More Like Worst Contact!: A Review of Season One of Another Life

Another Life (2019)
Released by: Netflix
Rating: TV-MA
Created by: Aaron Martin
Number of episodes: 10

Why I Chose It: Two words — Katee Sackhoff. Ever since the debut of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, I have been a huge fan of Sackhoff, both on- and off-screen. She and Tricia Helfer (Six) have remained great friends since BSG, and they’ve used their celeb capital to help a lot of people. Sackhoff also earned her Screen Actor’s Guild in the classic Lifetime movie Fifteen and Pregnant (starring Kirsten Dunst) and played a role in MTV’s underrated Undressed (2000). Not to mention her awesomeness as Deputy Vic Moretti in Longmire. Okay, I’m done. Long story short (too late!), I’m a big fan.

Two more words: first contact. I’m always fascinated by first contact stories, especially when they involve giant spaceships suddenly appearing in our skies. From the trailers, I was especially drawn to the idea of humanity taking a two-pronged approach to the arrival of a giant, silver Mobius strip that turns into a shiny, geodesic monolith — one group stays behind to study the sparkly thing, and another group ventures out into space, to meet the aliens on their home planet. Usually, humans in these situations just stay on Earth and deal with things from here. Humanity’s proactiveness is a refreshing change of pace.

Plus, it was clear Sackhoff’s character had been chosen to helm the mission into outer space. Yeah, I was all-in from the trailer.

Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer being gorgeous philanthropists.

The premise: After a massive alien artifact lands on Earth, Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff) leads an interstellar mission to track down its source and make first contact.

Minor spoilers ahead.

Discussion: As mentioned above, Another Life begins with a spaceship entering Earth’s atmosphere. It flies around for a while — showing-off, perhaps? — before landing in an empty field somewhere in the United States. America is an obvious choice due to the origins of the show and the casting, but I think it also makes sense in the larger scope of the narrative. Which, to avoid spoilers, I will not reveal here. Let’s just say that our current divisiveness makes us a prime target for a lot of things, including possible alien invasion.

At any rate, the aliens land and then…nothing. The aforementioned tower just kind of hangs out there, doing little more than sparkling. So, the powerhouse couple of Niko Breckenridge (Sackhoff) — astronaut extraordinaire — and Erik Wallace (Justin Chatwin) — a brilliant scientist who has spent his career trying to find intelligent life in the universe — are tapped to captain the separate missions. While Erik, and their daughter Jana (Lina Renna), are less than thrilled with the idea of Niko jetting out into space for a mission that’s projected to last at least seven months, Niko is already convinced that she’s the only person truly qualified to lead the mission.

Unfortunately, this forces her to take control of the Salvare away from one of her proteges, Ian Yerxia (Tyler Hoechlin). Unstoppable Force, meet Immovable Object.

Katee Sackhoff as Niko Breckenridge

The trip out to Pi Canis Majoris — the origination point of the Sparkly Tower (aka The Artifact) — is a shitshow from day one. For starters, they’re a fractured crew, with some people backing Yerxia, while others, including the ship’s AI William (Samuel Anderson), are willing to accede leadership to Niko. This lack of cohesion is illustrated by the lack of uniforms, which, as one character points out, the U.S. did away with about a decade earlier. Also, Yerxia and Niko are the only people above thirty on the ship. Everyone else is in their twenties, and, more often than not, they act like it.

Sometimes this is a bad thing. The arrogance of youth and a general impulsivity cause their fair share of issues early on, but they also prove to be helpful in other cases where confidence, fresh eyes, and a false sense of immortality save the day.

At any rate, with Yerxia’s crew still on-board, things get hella awkward hella quickly. But a little headbutting between Niko and Yerxia is truly the least of their problems, as the Salvare is almost immediately beset by every possible space nightmare you could possibly think of. Seriously, pick out a horrible space nightmare, any horrible space nightmare, and the crew probably encounters it. Ship malfunctions? Check. Freaky-ass space viruses? Check. Characters trapped in stasis (or, as it’s called in this series, “somatic sleep”/”soma”) and forced to escape their own subconscious? Check, check, and check.

Cas (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow) and Niko facing down a space nightmare.

Because of this, a lot of of reviewers have panned the series for simply remixing and/or rehashing previous space narratives. And I will admit, there was a point at which I was like, “Come on, people! What’s are the odds of everything going wrong on a single mission?” But, that got me thinking. What are the odds? In reality, they’re probably pretty high. Space is hostile, unforgivable place, and, even in this imagined near-future, we’re basically cavemen and women, bumbling around, discovering fire and then poking it to see if it’s hot. Sure, some of the conflict on the Salvare is simply for conflict’s sake, but should humanity ever make it out past our moon, chances are very, very good that a) we’re going to get ourselves into trouble, and b) the root of that trouble will come from our basic social need for community clashing with our individual and diverse desires.

And that is one thing that Another Life quietly celebrates: diversity. Aside from everyone’s ability to speak English, the cast is diverse is just about every way and shape possible. They cast a transgender actor to play a transgender character (Zayn, played by JayR Tinaco), and the good doctor — much like the rest of the cast — is even given the chance to hook-up. This is a wonderfully refreshing trend, and I look forward to a few years down the road when this is simply commonplace.

The Salvare crew on one of a few different death planets.

Anyway, while Niko and co. are out dealing with their metaphorical series of plagues, Erik is back at home, doing his best to get through to the Sparkly Tower. These scenes are reminiscent of the early parts of Contact or Arrival, except the gross, misogynistic Jeremy Renner isn’t around to ruin things. Fans of the U.S. version of Shameless will recognize Erik as the duplicitous Jimmy/Steve, but on display in AL is all of the actor’s intelligence and charm, minus the shadiness. This is helped a lot by the presence of his daughter, for whom he’s the sole caretaker during Niko’s absence.

The presence of Niko and Erik’s child is another thing that I found refreshing. Yes, Niko’s motherhood is called out as a “weakness,” but so is Erik’s. The truth is, both of them love their daughter, and their concern for her welfare impacts them both at different times. As well it should.

Harper Glass (Selma Blair)

The other key character among all this is actually the first character we’re introduced to, Harper Glass (Selma Blair). She’s a social-media influencer/journalist with — as she points out many, many times — 250 million followers. Her role in the bigger story takes a while to solidify. At first, it seems like she’s harassing Erik for all the hot gossip on his wife’s mission, but then she shifts into a more palatable role, convincing Erik that the best way to approach the Shiny Tower of Mystery is to put all of their information out there for public consumption. Basically, she wants to crowdsource the problem, a position with which I tend to agree. Information wanting to be free and all that. Selma Blair has also been through some rough stuff recently (a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis being the roughest), and her personal issues have given her a depth and gravitas that I previously believed she lacked as an actress.

To answer what might be your biggest question, do the human make contact with the aliens by the end of season one? Yes. As for the how, where, when, and why…well, you’ll just have to watch.

In conclusion: I will admit that this show takes more than a few episodes to find its footing. That said, while a lot of critics seem to have already written this series off, I think it shows some real potential. I binged the whole thing in two sittings, and when I reached the final episode, I definitely found myself wanting more. There’s no word yet on whether or not Netflix will give Another Life another chance (see what I did there?), but I really hope they do.