To say it has been an interesting few years for the Alien franchise would be an understatement. After a brief period of relative silence, broken only by the occasional comic, novel or video game, the series has not only returned to the big screen with Alien: Romulus, but made its television debut with the FX series Alien: Earth. Set before the events of Alien (1979), …

To say it has been an interesting few years for the Alien franchise would be an understatement. After a brief period of relative silence, broken only by the occasional comic, novel or video game, the series has not only returned to the big screen with Alien: Romulus, but made its television debut with the FX series Alien: Earth. Set before the events of Alien (1979), Alien: Earth follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a hybrid synthetic with a human consciousness ported into a manufactured body. In this world, governments no longer exist, with corporations running it all. Wendy’s home corporation is known as Prodigy, a synthetic-focused company pioneering new technology in robotics and AI. Wendy’s life is thrown into upheaval when a research vessel from the rival Weyland-Yutani corporation crashes into her company’s territory, with an all too familiar threat on board.

I’ll be the first to admit I approached this series with a fair bit of skepticism. The Alien series has had a checkered, divisive history. Apart from the first two films, most will agree the franchise has been hit or miss with entries like Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus and Covenant. The disagreement comes over which are the hits and which are the misses. Still, Alien: Romulus, while derivative, still proved a fun enough sci-fi romp with some genuinely effective scares. So as the release date for Alien: Earth neared, I faced it with tentative interest. The episodes dropped a few days ago, and, given I had some free time available, I ended up pulling a double feature of Neverland and Mr. October. And? Well, I had a really good time. It can be hard to accept that a new entry in a beloved franchise will not be the same thing you grew up on, but accepting that and approaching something with an open mind has helped me gain greater appreciation for the recent trend of legacy sequels. And Alien: Earth is no exception.

The first episode, Neverland, is mostly based on world-building and establishing our lead characters. The title of the episode comes from the Peter Pan story, as the consciousness that Prodigy is loading into their experimental synthetic bodies comes from the minds of dying children, thereby granting them the ability to stay young forever. We follow Wendy as she navigates a new life under the umbrella of Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), CEO of the Prodigy Corporation, and Krish (Timothy Olyphant), one of the chief scientists of the corporation and Wendy’s mentor. Still, Wendy has a strong connection to her former life, keeping tabs on her brother Joe (Alex Lawther), who is unaware that his sister’s mind and soul have a new synthetic home, and with whom Wendy longs for a deeper connection.

On its own, this story of transcending consciousness and advancements in AI technology and robotics is actually pretty compelling. But this is Alien, and as always, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation is still after their favorite would-be asset. While this story is going on, a Weyland-Yutani research vessel, the Maginot, is returning to Earth with a precious cargo of specimens collected from deep space, and as expected, something goes terribly wrong. The Maginot crashes into Prodigy territory, and when Joe, a medic, is called to the scene to render aid, Wendy sees this as a perfect opportunity to reunite with her brother, unaware that this crashed ship has brought with it monsters.

When it comes to characters, Alien: Earth has a lot to offer. Sydney Chandler really shines as series star Wendy and really manages to capture a sense of childlike curiosity and wonder. The chemistry she has with her fellow hybrid synthetics is endearing to watch, seeing as, though they are in adult bodies, the characters still interact with each other as kids, throwing jabs, ruminating on their circumstances, and finding new ways to annoy each other. The series also looks excellent. Early scenes on the Maginot in space were as true to the look and feel of the original Alien as I’ve ever seen put to film, at least in terms of design. And when it comes to monsters, the series has no shortage. Strange blood sucking creatures will attach themselves to an unwitting victim and gorge themselves until the victim dies of blood loss, and strange bulbous things grow from the ceiling, sending out tendrils to investigate anything moving. And in the middle of all this is the Beast itself.

Admittedly one of the show’s weak points is the practical Alien effects. While the movies always prided themselves on marvellous animatronics to bring the creatures to life, the monster here doesn’t look quite as organic and real as those that came in the past. Still, the monster is very well shot. An early reveal as a crewmember watches from the Maginot’s MU-TH-UR module is incredibly eerie, and sent a fair bit of shivers down the spine of this long-time fan. While the first episode is focused largely on setting the stage and building the world, the second episode of a chaotic Xenomorph bloodbath.

Now, the creature in this series so far isn’t stealthy or cautious like the monster in the first movie, instead acting as a more hyper-aggressive kill-on-site monster, as we saw in Alien 3. Once the ship crashes, the series sets the monster loose in an unsuspecting apartment complex as Joe and his team go to render aid for crash survivors. For me, this is when the series really started getting fun. Does it have the same atmosphere as the first two movies? No. The industrial settings of the first two films, with their metal scaffoldings, mazes of pipes and steam, have been traded out for a cozy high-rise, and yet setting the alien loose here does result in some very enjoyable set pieces. A posh dinner party is interrupted by the rampaging monster. Security forces navigate the hallways, unaware they are being hunted. And Wendy’s brother Joe is at the center of it all. trying desperately to stay alive as the bodies pile up around him. The second episode ends with no resolution, the monster still on the loose, and throws Wendy’s intended reunion with her brother into question. One can’t help but get the feeling that this crash is only the beginning of something far worse, with the alien threat sure to spread to the city beyond, and perhaps the entire world.

A lot of interesting seeds have been planted here. Weyland-Yutani employee as cyborg Morrow (Babeau Ceesay) is a definite standout as one of the potential villains of the series, echoing the cold, calculated actions of Ash (Ian Holm) from the original film. The budding relationship between Wendy and Joe has a lot of real emotion to it, offset by the playful jabs of one of Wendy’s own fellow hybrid synthetics. And the budding feud between Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy is ripe with dramatic and thematic possibilities, all of which will play out as the aliens spread beyond the crashed ship and into the outside world.

It’s true, Alien: Earth isn’t exactly what I typically go to in an Alien story, but I can’t deny that I had a lot of fun with this series. The characters are rich with possibilities, the world is fleshed out and real, and once the monster is set loose, it brings those same wild card antics that have made me a fan since a 12-year-old boy watched Alien for the first time. Whether the series will maintain this in the long run remains to be seen, but this is a promising start, and when the next episodes drop, I’ll be eager to see who wins in this upcoming battle between Wendy and my favorite beast from the stars.

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