Another Life is a new sci-fi series on Netflix. It’s about a relatively young space crew that’s charged with exploring the origins of a substantial alien artifact that landed on Earth. It’s a difficult journey, fraught with danger that is both unpredictable and horrific, led by Commander Niko Breckinridge.
Many facets of this show appeal to me. First of all, the lead character is a strong, take no shit commander who, at the same time, is broken due to various traumatic events in her life. She’s played spectacularly by Katee Sackhoff, a veteran actress of Longmire, Battlestar Galactica, and more.
Relationships among the crew are fairly unsurprising but filled with sex, drama and scandal. Hooks me every time.
My one issue with the show Is this: it seems to reach into the sci-fi bag of tricks and pulls out monsters and issues from a long line of successful classic shows instead of trying to innovate. For example, “woman versus alien that grows in human hosts” from Alien, musical communication with extraterrestrials a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind, inadvertent intoxication of the crew courtesy of Star Trek, and “oh, crap, I’m stuck in a sleep pod and I don’t want to wake up” from Stargate Atlantis.
As a fiction writer, I know all too well there really aren’t any new themes/plots/tropes, so this isn’t a fatal flaw. But it was so overt and frequent it occasionally took me out of the story.
All in all, if you’re looking for a binge-worthy space ride, Another Life is worth checking out. I’m looking forward to Season 2.
Rating: 4/5 stars
