Patience, Colorado will again take rise on the streets of Ladysmith, as production crews film a second season of Resident Alien beginning Sunday, Feb. 27. (James Dittinger/SYFY)

By Alex Rawnsley

LIGHTS. CAMERA. ACTION.

Second season of ‘Resident Alien’ returns to Ladysmith streets

Feb 26, 2022 | 10:06 AM

LADYSMITH — While it causes some disruption in the community, the return of a sizeable television production continues to be a big win.

Filming of eight, season two episodes of Resident Alien will take place in the community, beginning Sunday, Feb. 27 through to early March.

Chris Sheridan, the show’s creator and show runner, told NanaimoNewsNOW crews are excited to return to Ladysmith and transform the town back into Patience, Colorado.

“There are crew members who are so excited to go back to shoot but excited to go to their favourite bakery, all these wonderful places in town they love going to, buying merchandise from. It’s really a nice place to shoot.”

Sheridan admitted the production doesn’t make life easy for local residents but they make every effort to be as respectful as possible.

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Equipment began being loaded onto downtown Ladysmith streets on Thursday, Feb. 24 with additional parking lot and road closures beginning Sunday.

Closures include shutting down a section of 1st Ave. on Sunday evening between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. for a night scene.

Many of the crew travel with the show to a variety of shooting locations, including Vancouver and Delta. Additional help, including background performers, tend to be more local.

Sheridan estimated a couple of hundred people are part of their production in a variety of roles at any one time.

“These crews are pretty big on any television show. When you’re watching on TV and you see a couple of people on camera at a time, what you don’t realize is…there’s 30 people around them with cameras, microphones and equipment.”

Resident Alien star Alan Tudyk (right) in a scene from the show’s first season. The town of Patience, Colorado serves as backdrop to the series, with scenes filmed in Ladysmith. (James Dittinger/SYFY)

Unsurprisingly, the production draws a lot of attention.

Onlookers will observe happenings from afar in a bid to capture details of upcoming episodes. Sheridan, however, isn’t concerned about spoiling major plot points with scenes shot out of order.

“In the first season if people were up late at night and standing on a street corner on the locked-off street they would have seen Ben and Darcy kissing, which would have been a bit of a spoiler. But we shot it late at night and no one saw it so we got away with that one.”

Sheridan added Ladysmith is a key part of the show, so much so they left a little nod to it in the first season as thanks to the town for affording them space to shoot.

“There’s a building in town that says ‘Ladysmith’ on it in large letters and there was a point in post-production where I was asked if I wanted to erase the letters because it would give up this was Ladysmith, B.C. and not Patience, Colorado and I said no.”

Resident Alien airs weekly on Syfy and follows the story of an alien who crash lands on Earth and assumes the identify of a doctor in a small-town.

The alien must navigate humanity while searching for his wrecked ship and completing his mission of destroying the people of Earth.

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alex@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley