'80-'90s sci-fi movie about a prison spaceship orbiting the Earth

Question

Sci-fi movie was made in the '80s-'90s or earlier. It's about a prison spaceship orbiting the Earth, which includes one very large and dangerous alien behind huge metal doors. All kinds of neat tech things for a sci-fi film made 40-50 years ago.

One tidbit was that intimacy between people was now a finger touch. Of course, the giant alien breaks out and we have ship problems, space walks... and eventually perhaps an eEarth landing? You get the drift...

Does anyone remember this title? I remember renting it from a local video rental place just before they completely shut the doors.

Answer 1

Sounds like the TV miniseries, Something is Out There, which received a VHS release.

Jack Breslin (Joseph Cortese) is a police officer investigating brutal murders in which organs have been removed from the victims. He learns that the crimes are being committed by a monstrous alien insectoid prisoner known as a xenomorph, possessing shape-shifting and physical possession abilities, who has escaped from an alien prison starship passing by the solar system, and he teams up with a beautiful medical officer from that ship, Ta'Ra (Maryam d'Abo), to track down the villain. Ta'Ra has assorted superhuman abilities, including telepathy and superhuman agility, which come in handy during the mission.

Definitely has a prison ship passing near the Earth, and a dangerous alien locked up behind these doors.

There's also a scene with two of the humanoid aliens joining their fingertips as an apparent form of intimacy.

The whole series/film is up on YouTube.

Answer 2

To me that sounds like Fortress 2: Re-Entry. I remember this being on TV several times during the 90s.

John is then knocked out and captured. He wakes up in a room with a disembodied voice telling him that he is in prison again and has been sentenced to death. He has been implanted with a behavior modification device which causes headaches of various intensity when prisoners enter prohibited areas. He also finds one of the men who visited him, a former Men-Tel vice president, who is now brain-damaged because of an improperly planted device. Another of John's visitors, a former soldier, is also in the jail and friends with one of the guards.