Something is Out There is a 1988 American Science Fiction miniseries written by Frank Lupo. It spun off a shortlived series and aired from May 8 to December 9, 1988 on NBC.
Jack Breslin (Joe Cortese) is a police officer investigating brutal murders in which organs have been removed from the victims. He learns that the crimes are being committed by a monstrous alien insectoid prisoner known as a xenomorph (no, not that one), possessing shape-shifting and physical possession abilities, who has escaped from an alien prison starship passing by the solar system. He teams up with a beautiful medical officer from that ship, Ta'Ra (Maryam d'Abo), to track down the villain. Ta'Ra looks like a human and has assorted superhuman abilities, including telepathy and superhuman agility, which come in handy during the mission.
The show also stars George Dzundza, Gregory Sierra, Kim Delaney, John Putch, Robert Webber, Earl Billings, and Michael DeLuise.
Tropes for the miniseries:
- Alien Catnip: Caffeine is an inebriating beverage for Ta'ra's people.
- Always Know a Pilot: Breslin and Ta'Ra want to locate the Monster of the Week by flying over the city and scanning for him, so Jack tries to convince a friend who flies a police helicopter to give his 'cousin' a joyride. Naturally he refuses as he's accountable for fuel and such, until Ta'Ra reads his mind and finds out he's looking for someone to go to a particular concert with him. She pretends to be a fan and suddenly he's a lot more eager to do Favors for the Sexy when he can get a date out of it.
- Buddy Cop Show: Ta'ra uses her alien abilities to help Jack solve crimes and the occasional Paranormal Investigation.
- Dirty Mind-Reading: Ta'Ra is telepathic; unfortunately she's also a hot chick so she's constantly annoyed over how these Earth people want to "do that with her body" (her species has a somewhat different way of making love). She's equally puzzled when Brelin asks her to Please Put Some Clothes On because she knows perfectly well he wants to see her naked body.
- Drunk on Milk: Ta'Ra gets drunk on caffeine due to Bizarre Alien Biology. Later she's smart enough to ask for decaf, but on one occasion the coffee shop attendant has run out, so he secretly gives her the normal stuff, which causes problems as she's talking to a Serial Killer at the time.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The events of the miniseries, from the first murder until the crash of the prison ship, take place over three nights and two days. In that time, Jack only manages to get in one decent sleep.
- Handshake Refusal: Played for Laughs in the pilot. Ta'Ra is a Human Alien from a species that makes love by touching their palms. She ends up making love this way to Breslin that way and later on Jack tries to shake hands with her and she says, "Is that all you ever think about?"
- Human Aliens: Ta'Ra is an alien but looks like a perfectly normal human woman. Gets a nice Hand Wave. "God created human beings in his image, right? How many images do you think he has?"
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Ta'Ra is a Human Alien but has a number of physiological differences: caffeine is an inebriant, and hands are apparently primary erogenous zones.
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Subverted in "Night of the Visitors". The villains wear sunglasses all the time, which Ta'Ra thinks conceal extra epicanthal folds, the distinguishing mark of a hostile race of Human Aliens her species has encountered before. It turns out they're criminals who have undergone Magic Plastic Surgery including eye surgery, which makes them sensitive to bright light during post-op.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Ta'Ra doesn't understand Earth's nudity taboo and sees no problem sleeping naked in Breslin's apartment causing Breslin to beg her to put on a T-shirt (to her confusion as she knows he wants to see her naked). Things become even more awkward when Jack's girlfriend comes around to the house, suddenly looks over his shoulder and says: "And who is that?" Jack mutters "Oh God, let her be wearing the T-shirt" as he turns around...fortunately, Ta'Ra is wearing the shirt, but it's clear she's only thing she's wearing.
- Interspecies Romance: Though played for PG. Ta'Ra and Jack have Sex for Solace by touching palms, but it's never explained how Jack is supposed to get off this way.
- Klingons Love Shakespeare: Ta'Ra is a fan of Crime Story, which she and her boyfriend used to watch on the spaceship they were assigned to.
- Monster of the Week: Each episode has the duo tackling a new case with new one-shot villains.
- Not What It Looks Like: In the pilot, Breslin's girlfriend Manny suddenly visits him just as he's having Ta'Ra crash in his place for the night. And to make matters worse, all Ta'Ra is wearing when she finds her is his T-shirt (since Ta'Ra Sleeps in the Nude). Breslin does actually manage to defuse the situation by lying that Ta'Ra is his "weird" cousin.
- One Last Smoke: A variation in the pilot. Breslin finds his police partner dying, but he wants Jack to light up instead, as Jack's girlfriend has been harping on about him quitting. "I just want to see you do what you want...and then throw the damn things away before they kill ya."
- Pants-Positive Safety: In the pilot Ta'Ra has her Ray Gun tucked into the back of her jeans. As she's loading stuff into the trunk of a car, the woman she's with sees it, removes it, and while examining the gun inadvertently shoots several bystanders (fortunately the weapon is set to stun). Ta'Ra's shown to be a fan of at least one human cop show so she probably learned this bad habit there.
- The Paralyzer
- The protagonists are being chased, so Jack tells Ta'Ra to set her weapon on stun and shoot them. She demands to know where he gets these silly ideas.
- However this contradicts a scene in the pilot where Jack's girlfriend gets hold of a Ray Gun Ta'Ra is carrying and inadvertantly stuns several bystanders while examining it.
- Polly Wants a Microphone: In the pilot, Breslin goes back to his apartment where he left Ta'Ra and finds the place ransacked by the Monster of the Week and Ta'Ra missing. After the requisite Cat Scare involving Jack's pet parrot, Jack says out loud, "Where the hell could she be?" The parrot obligingly informs him (out shopping).
- Ransacked Room: In the pilot, Breslin goes back to his apartment to find the alien monster has not only searched the place but ripped huge holes in the walls.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Deconstructed. Breslin's plan for defeating the The Assimilator is to get Ta'Ra to activate the self-destruct mechanism on her spaceship. She asks a) why a spaceship would have a self-destruct system and b) even if it did, why would she know how to activate it, which would be like a naval seaman knowing how to destroy an aircraft carrier.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: When Ta'Ra strips down in front of Breslin, she's only seen from the shoulders up, with a few shots fearing her Toplessness from the Back.
- Sleeps in the Nude: Ta'Ra always sleeps unclothed, claiming that sleeping with clothes on is "uncomfortable and unnatural". And since she doesn't understand Earth's modesty, she doesn't see a problem in doing it while sleeping in Breslin's apartment in that manner, causing an awkward situation.
- Telepathic Spacemen: One of the abilities of Ta'Ra's alien nature is to communicate via telepathy.
- Toplessness from the Back: When Ta'Ra casually takes off her clothes in front of Breslin, the camera changes to focus on her bare back to illustrate she's indeed nude in front of him.
- Wax Museum Morgue: One episode had a woman finding her own brother's head as an exhibit in a wax museum.
