The Alien franchise started in 1979 with a low-budget script by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett who envisioned a simple horror story set in space. Ridley Scott came on board as director and used H.R. Giger artwork as inspiration for the Xenomorph.
Giger was hired to design the creature’s life cycle and the derelict spacecraft, giving the film its distinctive and deeply disturbing bio-mechanical look.
The rest, as they say, is history and Alien has terrorized audiences over the last 45 years. I first saw Alien in a Kansas City hotel during a family vacation, I’ve been a fan ever since.
With a legacy spanning 45 years, 9 movies, over a dozen video games, comic books and more Alien is firmly entrenched in pop culture. Expanding the Alien universe is a tall order, so when I heard about a new TV series set in the Alien universe I was intrigued.
The new series, Alien: Earth, promises to bring the horror to a fresh setting, planet Earth. After watching the first three episodes there’s good news and bad news… The good news? Alien: Earth isn’t a total disaster. The bad news? It’s not the next masterpiece either. So far, it’s just… OK.
In various interviews showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) and several producers extol their love for the Alien franchise, how they grew up with it and want to stay true to the lore. Will they stick to the canon or will they go off the rails? Let’s find out.
Alien: Earth, set two years before the events of Ridley Scott’s original Alien, follows a group of kids (young adults?) and a scientist, Kirsh, played by Timothy Olyphant. The group is sent into Prodigy City to explore a crashed Weyland-Yutani space ship, USCSS Maginot, filled with several Alien specimens.
From a technical standpoint, the show delivers and doesn’t skimp on its $250 million budget. The visual effects, Alien design and the retro-futuristic tech are top-notch. The scene on the USCSS Maginot when the crew wakes from hypersleep is almost shot for shot of the same scene on the USCSS Nostromo in the original Alien movie. The dialogue was similar too. It was a great callback to the original movie and it looked great.
The sound design, a hallmark of the franchise, is a character in itself, creating dread and tension throughout the series. Part of the sound budget must include the great songs they’ve featured at the end of each episode. In the first three episodes they’ve closed out with Black Sabbath’s “The Mob Rules,” Tool’s “Stinkfist” and Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam.” All fitting in perfectly with the storylines.
I do have a few gripes with the show though. First is the strange and overarching Peter Pan theme. The head of the Prodigy Corporation (a Weyland-Yutani competitor), Boy Kavalier, is making hybrids out of sick little kids to give them immortal life. He calls the group the Lost Boys, even though there are more girls than boys…
Kavalier is Peter Pan in this case, the first hybrid he created is named Wendy and the others are named after the Lost Boys. Marrow, the cyborg security officer from Weyland-Yutani is Captain Hook in this scenario. Which makes the Xenomorph the crocodile?
I found it annoying when the Lost Boys were on a mission and act like 8 year olds. I would have preferred they created the hybrids from adults, not children. It doesn’t make sense. Maybe it will in the later episodes.
The iconic shot of the Xenomorph slowing moving into view, teeth gleaming and drool dripping from its mouth is awesome the first time. It’s still good the second time too. After the 6th time (yes, six, maybe more I lost count) they used the shot it was played out. Less is more people!
Alien: Earth falls into the same trap as most prequels, introducing an array of advanced technology that isn’t in the future movies. There are different weapons used to subdue and capture the Xenomorph that would have help the crew on the Nostromo. Will the new weapons be retconned and explained away?
I have the same question for the new synthetics introduced in the series. There are the regular synthetics we know and love (or hate) like Ash and Bishop. Alien: Earth introduces Cyborgs, humans with synthetic parts and Hybrids, synthetics with human consciences downloaded into them. Wendy and the Lost Boys are all hybrids.
What happens to the Cyborgs and Hybrids? They don’t appear in any other future movie. Do they all grow up and forget they are hybrids? In Alien: Romulus, which takes place 20 years after Alien: Earth, introduced hybrids as a human-Xenomorph mix called the Offspring. Do Wendy and the Lost Boys mate with the Xenomorphs to create the new hybrids? Or more retcon?
The new alien species introduced are interesting. I wonder what will happen to them after this series? Will they remain for future movies? Or will they all be destroyed in an attempt to eradicate Earth of the Aliens?
Now, it’s not all bad and there’s a connection to the original movie (albeit a small one) that fuels my optimism. Fans of the Alien franchise may know the original Aliens movie takes place in the year 2122. While the events on the Nostromo occurred in 2122, the mission started earlier, two years earlier in 2120.
The crew was assigned to the Nostromo in 2120 and the ship left Earth in 2120 on an 8-month mission to the mining planet of Thedus, arriving in mid-2121. Prior to leaving Thedus, the Nostormo received new orders sending them to LV-426. The flight plan lists the departure date as 12 Jun 2121, arriving on LV-426 on 22 Apr 2122.
Nostromo could have left Earth prior to the Maginot crashing in Prodigy City. Or it could have left shortly after the crash. Either way, as long as Boy Kavalier controls the Alien specimens, Weyland-Yutani wouldn’t know about the Xenomorph until after Nostromo was en route to Thedus.
Did Weyland-Yutani find out about the Xenomorphs and deliberately send Nostromo to capture one? I’m hoping the series ties in the Nostromo mission at some point. There will still be continuity issues to resolve but it might not be too bad.
Showrunner Noah Hawley says he has 3-4 season planned out for Alien: Earth. We’ll see if it can make it that long.
Overall it’s not a horrible series, it’s just not great either. I’ll keep watching and see how the story progresses.
Are you watching Alien: Earth? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. You can share your thoughts on X too. The main Retro Network channel is @TRNSocial and I’m @MileHighSamurai You can also find me on Bluesky @MileHighSamurai
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