When the only Doctor in the sleepy town of Patience is found dead, seemingly murdered, the police turn to occasional visitor Dr Harry Vanderspeigle (Alan Tudyk) to examine the body.

Unfortunately Dr Vanderspeigle is not who he seems, and in fact is not really a doctor but a stranded alien who’s been living in isolation while he tries to find his crashed spacecraft, now buried in snow. Not that they know that of course, the alien being able to project a human form undetectable by all but one in a million humans (no prizes for guessing that doesn’t go quite as well as expected). Assisted, despite his resistance, by Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko) he comes to the conclusion the doctor took his own life. This raises more questions and he quickly finds himself involved with the town he’d previously intended to avoid.

Based, somewhat loosely, on the Dark Horse comic series by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, this plays with the stranded alien/fish out of water concept familiar from the likes of The Man Who Fell to Earth and E.T. the Extraterrestrial and has much fun doing so. Having learned all he knows about us from television and the internet his numerous social faux pas when he’s finally forced to spend time with us are joyfully funny, as is his enthusiasm for finally putting into practice everything he’s learned from crime procedural dramas. There’s almost an autistic element to his personality with his understandable tendency to take everything anyone says literally and his terrible small-talk skills. He’s no cool and charming Thomas Newton as played by Bowie, or kid-friendly E.T. In fact the nods to, and subversion, of the latter are clear as day (Amblin are one of the production companies involved) and it must be said this is not an alien you should lay out a trail of M&Ms for.

Alan Tudyk is a delight in this part, as he always is. His frequent inner monologue is especially hilarious and dry, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of his performance as the sarcastic but truth-telling robot K-2SO in Rogue One, possibly the highlight of that film. The supporting cast are also strong and at times equally as funny. I don’t want to delve any deeper into the story here, but it comes to a satisfying but open ended conclusion and I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Verdict: With more laughs per minute than many sitcoms, this should, despite a slightly dark edge, prove to be the feel-good telly we probably all need. 8/10

Andy Smith