Contact! SYFY’s Resident Alien shows off 10-minute sneak peek at New York Comic Con

Resident Alien, SYFY's upcoming adaptation of the Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse Dark Horse comic, has an all-star cast and a killer premise: Alan Tudyk, an alien, crash-lands on Earth and impersonates a doctor in a small town. Along the way he runs into a lot of nice regular people ... and also an alien hunter played by Sarah Connor herself, Linda Hamilton.

Fans have already seen a snippet of the series, but the show's New York Comic Con panel — which featured actors Tudyk, Sara Tomko ("Asta Twelvetrees"), Corey Reynolds ("Sheriff Mike Thompson"), Alice Wetterlund ("D'Arcy Bloom"), and Levi Fiehler ("Mayor Ben Hawthorne") alongside showrunner/executive producer Chris Sheridan — did them one better. Those looking for a fully fleshed-out sneak peek at Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle's antics have come to the right place: The panel kicked off with the pilot's first 10 minutes. Check it out:

Out in the middle of Colorado, a town's doctor has been murdered. Who will help examine the body? Enter an alien. Well, an alien disguised as the only other doctor nearby.

Fans then get a nice flashback explaining how this weird situation came about. It all started four months ago when lightning struck an alien's ship, causing a crash landing in the middle of nowhere. The only place to go is a small cabin. Getting a good look at the full alien design during this scene is a lot of fun, especially as it beats the tar out of poor human Alan Tudyk before assuming his life. Relatable.

A few more clips, back in the present, showed off the over-the-top, fish-out-of-water humor, as when Vanderspeigle lifts a casket to see a dead body ... at a funeral. There was also the reveal that the very real alien is headed to an alien convention.

After the sneak peek, the cast explained what it was like being in production under COVID-19 safety measures. "We were very close when we stopped," Tudyk said. "We only had, one episode? One and a half?" So while there wasn't too much left to pick up, there was still some work to be done — though the cast joked that they hadn't seen the lower half of each others' faces in a while.

Reynolds noted the characters' shared "outsider" status, but it's much more literal for some. "Everything is new to him, so as an acting challenge, it's a lot of fun," said Tudyk. "Just walking. Using the body that he's now occupying — he's not very coordinated in the beginning. He doesn't have emotions. He doesn't care like other people care, and so it comes off very strange."

Resident Alien also stars Mandell Maughan, Alex Barima, Liz Bowen, and Judah Prehn, and is set to premiere in January 2021.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of New York Comic Con Metaverse 2020.