Alien: Earth

[battlewraith]

 

Anyone watching this?

 

I'm actually not a big fan of the franchise, but the primary creative behind this is Noah Hawley who did Legion, among other things. 

I watched the first episode, which was promising. The main points of interest for me were:

 

1. The Earth is under the control of a handful of large corporations. A Weyland-Yutani ship bringing back alien specimens crash lands on a city controlled by another corporation that is developing technology for mind-swapped synthetic people. It's unclear how much of the narrative will involve conflict between the two corporations but it has already led to some deaths in the first episode.

 

2. A bunch of specimens were brought back, not just some face-huggers and a xenomorph.

[InvaderStych]

7 hours ago, battlewraith said:

Anyone watching this?

 

Yes. I was waiting for this since I first heard Hawley was showrunning. Love the way he's wrapped his signature onto the show while blending the feel of the first two movies. The art team knocked it out of the park as well. Everything looks exactly like it belongs in the original story-lines. Vehicles look like precursors to the ones we know and love, etc, etc.

 

Interestingly, the second episode (and three others) were directed by Dana Gonzales, who was the cinematographer for about half of the episodes of Legion.

 

Scoring is great as well, and very reminiscent of the score from Legion.

 

also ...

 

The Eye-Ball-Squid-Monster is as terrifying as I thought it would be when it was first shown.

[Voltor]

As I recall in the first movie, the corporation already knew about the Xenomorphs. Now we will know how they learned of them. 

 

 

 

Also the people being ported/copied/transferred into the new synth bodies,  this was how the original cyborg hero 8-man was created.  A dead/dying person's brainwaves transferred into the cybernetic brain of the robotic 8-man body.  Total body prosthesis, no original organic parts.

Edited August 16 by Voltor

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Spoilery stuff ahoy:

Spoiler

There were five species they said they brought back.

• Classic Xenomorph
• Ocellus (Eye jellyfish)
• Leech/Tick creature
• Giant Venus Flytrap (I initially thought this was a Half-Life Barnacle-y thing)
• ...?

Any idea what the fifth one is - given the sixth episode is called Fly...?

Are there any more horrors they're saving for the reveal - or other kinds of hybrids?

 

[battlewraith]

4 hours ago, Voltor said:

Also the people being ported/copied/transferred into the new synth bodies,  this was how the original cyborg hero 8-man was created.  A dead/dying person's brainwaves transferred into the cybernetic brain of the robotic 8-man body.  Total body prosthesis, no original organic parts.

Edited 4 hours ago by Voltor

 

This is actually the most horrific aspect of the show for me. The conceit is that the hybrid synths have been mind swapped--as if the mind were something akin to a soul that could be moved from one housing to another. The kids were sacrificed in order to create synthetic replica minds with immortal bodies.

 

This suggests a scenario where the deluded, vulnerable, or talented, if not the whole human race, could be enticed to commit suicide in favor of the creation of synthetic dopplegangers.

[battlewraith]

The third episode ended on a gruesome note. 

[InvaderStych]

... odd song choice for the closing titles though ...

 

 

... I wonder if there is a payoff later ...

 

 

... or if it will make more sense to me upon a second viewing ...

 

 

 

[El D]

The creative choices in this series feel very much like a double-edged sword. Some of them cleave very close to the tones and concepts of the original films in very interesting new ways that still feel like they make sense, while others are... let's say bold expansions in much less expected directions. The inclusions and references to Disney and Fox's library of IPs, along with the needle drops, feel almost like it's trying too hard to say 'This is our Earth, just in a weird alternate future!' but at least they're trying to work them in diegetically which I appreciate. The tone jumps are a bit jarring at times too, with some scenes coming across more like the Fifth Element than a standard Alien entry. It's almost like the show saw how close to the chest(burster) Alien: Romulus played things and opted to make much bigger swings.

 

TL;DR - When it's on-beat it's very on-beat and when it's off-beat it's very off-beat. Which, to be fair, so were the comics and video games at times, so maybe it'll tie together better in the rest of the episodes.

Edited August 21 by El D

[Octogoat]

On 8/16/2025 at 8:40 AM, battlewraith said:

 

This is actually the most horrific aspect of the show for me. The conceit is that the hybrid synths have been mind swapped--as if the mind were something akin to a soul that could be moved from one housing to another. The kids were sacrificed in order to create synthetic replica minds with immortal bodies.

 

This suggests a scenario where the deluded, vulnerable, or talented, if not the whole human race, could be enticed to commit suicide in favor of the creation of synthetic dopplegangers.

Since they show the engineers literally euthanizing the kids after the swap I'm thinking it was more of a xerox than a swap.

[battlewraith]

So, episode 4....

 

The cutest depiction of a chestburster ever?

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

On 8/21/2025 at 1:21 PM, Octogoat said:

Since they show the engineers literally euthanizing the kids after the swap I'm thinking it was more of a xerox than a swap.

Side note: there's a short film (that probably deserves a full version if they didn't mess it up), about a traveller taking a Transporter off-world.

 

The Transporter apparently fails, and a small, discreet chime goes off. He's led into an ante-room, given a glass of water while he waits, then shown a video of himself... arriving at his destination with his wife. At which point, the sedative in the water kicks in, and he drifts gently off to... sleep.

 

Horror doesn't need to be bloody or even scary to mess with your mind.

[El D]

2 hours ago, battlewraith said:

So, episode 4....

 

The cutest depiction of a chestburster ever?

 

It was almost like a pet snake more than a critter that evolves into a violent murder machine. Also, immediately being able to establish that kind of connection has some extremely disturbing implications (in-particular as a synth and not something a xenomorph might view as a host/prey). Doubly so when combined with the 'I'm going to be a mother' scene and the constant through-line of familial bonds... though, it's not like motherhood is an unexplored concept in this series. Hell, that's practically the strongest constant theme from the initial run of films. There's also growing parallels between the xenomorphs as 'evolved new life adapted from the original host' and the 'new synths given better forms adapted from the dying' along with the whole creation process for both, which I certainly hope they explore further.

 

This fourth episode really crystalized a lot of the dynamics and weaved the plot points together in ways that thoroughly vanquished my prior skepticism.