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 In the book series, the aliens come from an unnamed planet. Ray Iburg, Max and Isabel's parents, Michael and Isabel's parents, Adam's parents, Nikolas' parents, and perhaps many others are on a ship traveling through space. An evil alien--the leader of a rebellion on the home planet called the Kindred--has stowed away on the ship. In an attempt to take the ship over, the rebel, DuPris, causes the ship to crash in Roswell, New Mexico, on planet Earth. All of the adult aliens, except for the rebel and Ray Iburg, are killed in the crash. Ray Iburg manages to drag the incubation pods of these young parents' children to a cave in the desert. He goes back for the last pod, but is unable to retrieve it, leaving Adam to grow up in the hands of the government. Running from the government, Ray is forced to leave the pods where they are. By the time he is safe enough to help the alien children, he has lost connection with them. According to book mythology, the aliens that came out of the pods--Max, Isabel, Michael, Nikolas, and Adam--have the ability to adapt their bodies to match the highest form of intelligent life. As a result, these young alien children appear to be humans. The crash of '47 appears to have merely been the work of a rebel alien, but it's possible that Michael and Trevor's parents--members of the Kindred--helped DuPris succeed in crashing so as to form a safe rebel base on Earth. In the television series, the origins of the aliens is much different. A long time ago, on a planet called Antar, Zan and his wife Ava ruled over a system of five planets. Rath, Zan's second in command was betrothed to Zan's sister, Vilandra. As a group, they made the "Royal Four." An alien named Kivar fell in love with Vilandra, and she helped him to betray Zan. As a result, Kivar took over Antar and betrayed Vilandra (either accidently or on purpose) by killing the "Royal Four". Zan's people, unaware of Vilandra's part in Kivar's take-over, mixed the essences of Zan, Ava, Vilandra, and Rath with human DNA and sent the "Royal Four" to Earth where they would be safe until they could return home. As the ship neared Earth, something went wrong and the ship crashed. The protectors of the "Royal Four", who would take the names Nasedo and Langley, survived. Langley disappeared and Nasedo put the incubation pods of the "Royal Four" in a safe cave. Years later, he came back to get them, but only found Ava, who goes by the human name Tess. The other three had hatched earlier and, with no memories of their past lives, took on the names Max, Isabel, and Michael and began living semi-normal human lives in Roswell, New Mexico. In the books, all of the aliens share the same powers. They have the ability to feel each other's emotions and see auras. They can manipulate molecular structures by nudging molecules with their minds. They also have the ability to teleport and make psychic connection with others by "sharing" their bodies with another. In addition, each of the aliens have access to the dream plane--a place just outside of consciousness where they have the ability to view or enter people's dreams. In the television series, each alien has a unique power to themselves, while all of them have the power to manipulate molecular structures. Nasedo, a purebred alien, has the power to shapeshift. Tess Harding has the ability to mindwarp--or make people see something that isn't really there. Only Isabel has the ability to dreamwalk. Max has the power to heal and bring up a green shield. Michael has the power to exert great amounts of energy. In the book series, the government creates an agency called "Project Clean Slate." Sheriff Valenti, the head of this secret organization, studies and hunts aliens. Having captured the pod of Adam in the '47 crash, Clean Slate studied and experimented on him all his life. When alien Michael Guerin is captured by Clean Slate, Michael helps Adam to escape from Clean Slate. In the television series, the government has a "FBI Special Unit" dedicated to hunting aliens. Over the years this organization had many different leaders, many of which were killed by Nasedo. Eventually, the Special Unit captures Max and studies him in a white room. After his escape, Max asks Nasedo to shut down the Unit for good. Though the Special Unit is no longer around, a special branch of the United States Air Force still has a team of special agents investigating the '47 crash and the aliens living in Roswell. In the book series, the alien teens must deal with three major enemies. First, they must keep Sheriff Valenti and Project Clean Slate off their trails. They also must stop evil alien DuPris from killing them. Most of all, however, the teens must bring down the collective consciousness, their greatest enemy of all. The teens face many different enemies in the television series. After dealing with Sheriff Valenti and Agent Topolsky of the FBI Special Unit, the teens realize their real enemy is Agent Pierce. Once Michael kills him, they have a whole new set of problems with Nasedo and Tess secretely working for Kivar's army of alien Skins. Along the way, the teens must battle alien crystals, Air Force agents, and, even, their own adoptive parents.
The Crashdown uniforms in the show are light blue with alien-head aprons. In the books, they are Star-Trek themed. Liz and Maria eventually persuade Mr. Ortecho into changing the uniforms to a Men In Black theme of black pants and sunglasses. In the show, Liz lives above the Crashdown Cafe. In the books, she lives in a house down the street. |