I always figured this years crop of Alien shows had more to do with the success of Lost last year. Afterall, the alien shows aren't really ships flying around, people with laser guns, etc. They are sort of like "ooh, there is some mystery out there. It's weird, what's it going to be?" ala Lost's island, aren't they? I must admit, I only watched the premiere of surface and 1 and 1/2 episodes of invasion and about a minute and a half of Threshold, so I'm not certain on that, but it sure seems like they are trying to keep everything on the unknown mystery side from the few ads I've seen. I would think that if they were trying to mimic the success of SG or BSG (which we know that's about all they can really do anymore, it seems, is mimic) then you would have shows with space ships, lasers, etc.