Roswell High

In the book series, the teen aliens come from an unnamed planet and are stranded on Earth when their parents' ship crashes. In the television series, the teen aliens are reincarnations of the Royal Family of Antar. After a battle, their essences were mixed with human DNA, and the teen aliens are actually hybrids who were sent to Earth to survive the war.

Roswell High by Melinda Metz
The home planet, which is never called by name, is home to a race of beings that exist within a collective consciousness. At adolescence, each alien must go through an akino, a painful experience that only ends when they join the collective. Since the collective consciousness takes away an alien's privacy and individuality, a rebellion has formed on the home planet called the Kindred. Members of the Kindred, led by Elsevan DuPris want to destroy the collective and outlaw unfair laws, such as only being allowed to have one child. When DuPris is taken prisoner by the collective consciousness, he is placed on a spaceship for transport. The ship crashes on Earth in the human year 1947, in a town called Roswell. DuPris escapes, but he stays on Earth hoping to find the Stone of Midnight, an energy source that was misplaced during the crash. The only other adult survivor of the crash, Ray Iburg, manages to hide four incubation pods in the desert. He tries to go back for the fifth pod, but the ship and pod are already in the custody of Project Clean Slate. On the run from being captured himself, Ray is not around when the pods open--allowing Michael, Isabel, Max, and Nikolas--who look like regular human children--to wander out into the desert. Nikolas and Michael are placed in foster care, but Nikolas grows up outside of Roswell. Max and Isabel are adopted by the Evans, and grow up in Roswell with Michael as one of their best friends. The last pod, in the hands of Clean Slate, hatches a boy named Adam, who grows up underground in the Clean Slate compound.

Jason Katims' Roswell
On planet 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. Two protectors of the "Royal Four", who would take the names Nasedo and Langley, survived. On the run from the government, Langley was forced to run and Nasedo just barely managed to put the incubation pods of the "Royal Four" in a safe cave before being captured himself. Years later, after escaping from the FBI Special Unit, Nasedo came back to the pods, but only found Ava, who he would later give the name Tess. The other three had hatched earlier and, with no memories of their past lives, took on the names Max, Isabel, and Michael. The three aliens grew up, living semi-normal human lives in Roswell, New Mexico, with no idea where they were from or why they were on Earth.

In the book series, the powers are very much based on psychic and emotional connections between the aliens and those around them. While they can manipulate molecular structure, most of their powers deal directly with connecting to others, combining emotional energy, and manifesting that energy into physical power. In the television series, the powers are more unique to each individual alien, and while the aliens can still connect with one another, their powers are more physical than emotional.

Roswell High by Melinda Metz

Roswell High by Melinda Metz - Earth
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 ship and the incubation pod of Adam from the '47 crash, Clean Slate studied and experimented on Adam all his life. When alien Michael Guerin is captured by Clean Slate, the teens help Michael and Adam to escape. During the rescue, the Clean Slate compound is burned to the ground and Sheriff Valenti is killed.

Jason Katims' Roswell - Earth
In the television series, the government has an "FBI Special Unit" dedicated to hunting aliens. Over the years this organization has many different leaders, many of whom are killed by Nasedo, one of the alien adult survivors of the crash. Eventually, the current leader, Agent Pierce, captures Max and studies him in a white room. Sheriff Valenti, who suspects Max to be an alien, decides to help save Max and his friends from being tortured by the Special Unit. After his escape, Max asks Nasedo to shut down the unit for good by shapeshifting into the now dead Agent Pierce and dismantling the unit from within. 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.

Roswell High by Melinda Metz - Home Planet
In the book series, the home planet is governed by the collective consciousness, a "psychic internet" of all its members, both alive and dead. When an alien reaches maturity, he enters an akino, a painful sickness that only ends when one joins the collective. The Kindred, a rebellion led by Elsevan DuPris, has formed against the collective consciousness because some of the aliens feel that it takes away their individuality and that it is too controlling. Also, under the collective's rule, parents are only allowed to have one birthing cycle, so siblings are extremely rare.

Jason Katims' Roswell - Planet Antar
In a system of five planets, Zan and Ava, King and Queen of Antar, ruled over the rest. When Zan's sister, Vilandra, betrayed him for her love for Kivar, a war broke out between the Skins and the Antarians. The leaders of the five planets are interested in finding the Royal Four, who were sent to Earth and made into alien-human hybrids along with a powerful energy source called the Granilith.

• Sheriff Valenti, head of Project Clean Slate, is intent on tracking down and studying the aliens.


• Elsevan DuPris, an evil alien rebel from the home planet will do anything to steal the Stones of Midnight and destroy the collective consciousness.


• The collective consciousness turns out to be an authoritative entity that denies the aliens their individuality and privacy. It also imposes a deadly sickness to force its members to join and denies couples from having more than one child.

• Agent Pierce, head of the FBI Special Unit, is intent on tracking down and studying the aliens. Sheriff Valenti, along with Agent Topolsky, turn out to be on the teen aliens' side and help battle Agent Pierce.


• Isabel's boyfriend Grant turns out to be possessed by a "ridiculous alien jelly-fish thing", which arose from complications with mixing human and alien DNA together to create the hybrids back in 1947.


• The Skins are an alien race that are at war with the Antarians. Congresswoman Whittaker is a Skin, who attacks Isabel on her birthday. Before her death, Whittaker reveals that Isabel's former self, Vilandra, fell in love with Skin leader Kivar and betrayed her family. Nasedo and Tess Harding turn out to have been working with the Skins all along, havng made a deal with their leader Kivar in 1947.


• The US Air Force continues to hunt down alien life, even after the FBI Special Unit is shut down.


• Meris, a rich heiress, tracks down Max because she believes him to be a healer. She forces Max to restore her old man Clayton to youth.

Melinda Metz and Laura Burns, who are the masterminds behind the books, also helped with writing some episodes of Roswell.

In the United States, the television show was merely called Roswell. In the UK and other countries, it was known as Roswell High.