'Falling Skies' Producer Interview

I stumbled across this interview this morning. Mark Verheiden talks about Falling Skies and gives some insights into the alien invasion show.

A little taste:

Do you think that the show will appeal to people who aren't necessarily sci-fi fans?


"I hope so. I have a theory when I work on science-fiction, and I've done quite a bit of it in the past. It's that if the story doesn't work on an emotional level, then all the bells and whistles won't matter anyway. So my hope is that if you tune into the show looking for really heartfelt, emotional relationships, you're going to find a lot of that. You're going to find a family man trying to protect his sons, and trying to find one of his sons who's been taken captive by the aliens. But for people who enjoy the trappings of science-fiction, which I love, you're going to also have aliens, creatures, robots and all the fun stuff. I think it's an emotional story about people under great stress, and that could be a police story. You could do that in a lot of genres. But in this one, we also have the added mystery of who the aliens are, why they're here and what we can do to try and stop them."

I always get worried when producers talk about "emotional relationships," because it usually means they've went way over the top and made the show silly. Also, when they talk about science fiction as "trappings" it means they don't understand science fiction or worst hate it. And mentioning cop shows while a science fiction fan is listening is a kiss of death.

Still, I hope the show does well and I'll be checking it out.

Read the entire interview:
'Falling Skies' Q&A: A chat with Mark Verheiden