The questions of whether we are alone in the universe is one at the heart of sci-fi. The question of who we are if we are not solely God’s creatures... does that mean there’s no God? Only lonely beings adrift in the universe battling to survive, the victors destined to simply be the ones with the longest teeth. Space films are secular angst played out by dudes in monster costumes.
The original Alien film, one of the greatest films of all time, confronted such questions from a realist point of view. An even chillier view of the cosmos than Kubrick’s in 2001 (which after all, featured benevolent aliens willing us to evolve), it was all hostility: the vicious environment of the planet LV-426, parasitic ‘face-hugger’ bugs, bursting chests and a killer Xenomorph that was all function, teeth, nails, armour, acid for blood. The universe clearly didn’t want us out in space, except for use as improvised wombs.
But the most unnerving killer of all? The Company behind the ship, the Nostromo, who woke Ripley and her colleagues from cryo-sleep to investigate a ‘distress beacon’/warning on the planet. They, and their synthetic (psycho robot) representative on the ship, Ash, wanted the alien brought home at all costs, with the crew “expendable”, according to the ship’s computer Mother (ha!). Who was worse? The alien or the corporate power? The humans were at the mercy of both, and could only fight among themselves. The only thing approaching warmth that Ripley could find, was with Jones, the cat.
In the follow-up Aliens, the Company rep was a human this time, a particularly spineless snivelling one in the form of Burke, who worked against the marines sent to ‘destroy’ the xenomorphs to make sure they could be used as good fertile fodder for internal egg planting. The Company comes off as more evil than the Alien Queen protecting her young.
Alien Earth, the first venture into TV by the Alien franchise – sorry, IP, the marketing term now officially de rigueur – has showrunner Noah ‘TV’s Fargo’ Hawley making a number of wise decisions. Firstly, to set it just before the first film, which allows them to echo the original so closely in episode one (and also, no spoilers here, in a genius stand-alone flashback episode later on) that it feels like unreleased footage from Ridley Scott’s masterpiece.
Secondly, while this does deliver on the prospect of a Xenomorph arriving on Earth, the series successfully moves the Alien universe along by fully exploring the mysterious Company.
Or rather companies. For we learn that there in fact five companies now ruling the planet, who stepped in when they found the old democracies “didn’t work.” The two main corporate entities of most concern here though are Weyland-Yutani, the Company from the films, and the Prodigy Corporation, a firm built around a boy genius called, well, Boy Kavalier. Played by the excellent Samuel Blenkin, Kavalier is an arrogant shit, who walks around bare-footed, often in pyjamas, slouching over furniture like a stoner Roman Roy, and coming across as a less dim Elon Musk crossed with Timothy Chalamet’s Willy Wonka; although Kavalier thinks of himself as Peter Pan.
Weyland-Yutani makes synthetic humans and is interested in acquiring alien specimens for study and possible weapons division usage. Episode one opens on board the Maginot, a science vessel which closely resembles the Nostromo, which is arriving back to earth but is in deep trouble. A Xenomorph has already busted out of a chest and is busy decimating the crew. Along with some new alien species from the lab who we haven’t seen before (to avoid spoilers, we won’t give away exactly what they are, but each of them is absolute icky genius; not adjacent species to the Alien, but new beings capable of serious body horror mayhem).
The equivalent of Ash is Morrow (played by Babou Ceesay, who brings much of the heavyweight intensity that Ian Holm did), seems to have pulled a similar trick of betraying the crew to save the alien, and himself, as the ship crash-lands onto earth.
It hits a city, one in Prodigy territory, and Kavalier sends over his little pet project species to investigate the wreckage. He has managed to pioneer Hybrids, new beings created when human consciousnesses are transferred over to synthetic bodies. For his prototypes, he has taken dying children, and put their minds into new adult machine bodies. This saves their lives and also potentially gives them immortality, as well as super-strength abilities and powerful computer brains. Though, the transition is hard to take for some.
The first Hybrid is Wendy, played with phenomenal finesse by Sydney Chandler (a relative newcomer, last seen playing Chrissie Hynde in Pistol). She is very much a child in a woman’s body, impulsive, impatient, drawn to the truth but naïve, an innocent who takes things as they come but is willing to question everything. Vulnerable yet strong, with a burgeoning mind of her own, she makes for a worthy lead to follow in the footsteps of the mighty Ripley.
All these children now living forever in synthetic bodies are Kavalier’s Lost Boys, , and they all live on a Prodigy island complex which is their Never Land. Every night Kavalier reads from J M Barrie over the Tannoy. But this Eden is not going to last. The recovered aliens from the crashed ship are going to cause problems, as will the disgruntled Weyland-Yutani, who want their aliens back, with Morrow as their forceful leading edge. And then there is the rebellion of the lost boys (the girl hybrids have issues with that alone) against their creator, their new bodies, the very nature of their existence.
This is the set-up. Much more and we’re in danger of spoiling what is a viscerally thrilling series, full of plot twists and genuinely horrific moments (seeing the Xenomorph unleashed fully across an apartment block, is a splattercore jaw-dropper), and a thought-provoking consideration of today’s Big Themes about where humanity is now going. Increased corporate power, artificial intelligence, the prospect of humans and machines melding together, the ethics of extended life and potential immortality.
It is helped along the way by an excellent cast – also including Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh, the synthetic in charge of the Hybrids who fuels a view of humans as mere “animals”, and Alex Lawther from The End of the F*cking World as Wendy’s brother CJ – who manage to convincingly wrestle with these large questions (fair play to Hawley who scripts his exposition with restraint and character focus) whilst also running for their lives.
FX/Disney were taking a big risk with this one. After their mega-budget Shogun delivered immensely on its epic ambitions – Emmys, audience, acclaim – they’ve spent even bigger with this one ($250 million plus, apparently), placing all bets on Alien: Earth.
The Alien franchise may have two classic films at its heart, and an avid fanbase, but it’s hardly The Avengers is it? In fact, the Alien universe has mostly featured disappointments. As far back as Alien3 (which briefly looked better with age, but now doesn’t, especially with its attempts to bring religion into Ridley Scott’s godless environment, a case of David Fincher grasping for profundity rather than following the heart and soul(lessness) of the preceding films), the run of films, including the Predator cross-overs, have been awful. And that includes Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Covenant prequels, which served to merely confuse the lore and lose the scares.
Last year’s Alien: Romulus renewed some of the faith, which brought back the straight-up horror, with a wobbly but fun set-up, and a brilliantly grotesque final third. But that was a mere taster for Alien: Earth, which manages to finally deliver on the promise of this universe franchise (only fully grasped by some excellent comic book series), because it attaches itself face-hugger style to the original all-timer, then wriggles free to take on the biggest themes around tech and humanity of our era. This makes it a compulsive watch.
Not everything works. It suffers a little from The Bear’s mistaken belief that adding in cool music will make it cool. And not all the action sequences hold together; the xenomorph seems to be conveniently slower when it’s chasing core characters.
But in delivering thrills and spills with a brain, well it is an unexpected triumph. At last.
The Xenomorph hasn’t been this scary in a long time, it is rampant and electrifyingly brutal. And as for those new aliens, well... in your living room space, lots of people can hear you scream, so be warned.
