"its a Bug Hunt!"

I've just come away from watching the latest iteration of one of my all time favourite franchises, 'Alien'. The original film set the bar for science fiction films to come for many years, possibly only surpassed or at least extended, by its sequel 'Aliens'. Unfortunately, things got a little weird after that, with a host of sequels, revamps, cross overs and prequels, until the essential core theme - xenophobia at its most literal - became lost and diluted.

H.G Wells classic 'War of the Worlds' introduced us to an early interpretation of an otherworldly lifeform with the martian. Essentially a motile brain with tentacles and large globular eyes, seeing these creatures realised in a serialisation for Tell Me Why magazine in the mid sixties, with beautiful painted artwork, cemented my love of the exotic and strange, which had largely begun with the appearance of rubber monsters or Teachers Pets, which were sold in abundance in Woolworths.

The Alien franchise and to a lesser extent, Star Wars, brought alien lifeforms back into the public conciousness, where they had been visible on the sidelines with shows like Star Trek and Dr Who and my other great love the Quatermass series.

Due to the popularity of  Alien, spin offs and sequels were always going to be on the horizon, but as we have seen, they have not always been as successful as the original. The Predator series has also recently undergone a bit of a reboot, with an animated feature on Disney+ 'Killer of Killers' and the upcoming 'Badlands' live action (which promises a cross over into Alien lore). The problem with sequels and reboots is that they often get further and further from the original idea, changing the concept into something unrecognisable. Given that the central protagonist is a metamorphic entity, which not only goes through various changes in form and shape in its gestation, but also changes to its essential nature with the introduction of a mystical 'black goo' in the later films - it seems like a natural evolution for the franchise. However, the recent films in the series 'Prometheus', 'Covenant' and 'Romulus' seem to have muddied the water somewhat in the desire to explain the presence of the titular Xenomorph.

Which brings me right back to Earth, once more with the latest venture 'Alien: Earth', a new TV series penned by 'Fargo' writer Noah Hawley. Having seen the Predator releases and been seriously disappointed with Alien Romulus - which despite its promising start and clear call backs to Ridley Scotts original vision, was let down by teenage actors and a goofy halloween mutant, I was cautious in my approach to the new series, which like the lower decks of the Nostromo, could easily be fraught with pitfalls and dangers at every turn.

However, from the opening moments, it was abundantly clear that this series was going to be a very different beast. The shows strength, along with the excellent writing and production values, is that it knows its roots and builds directly onto the first two groundbreaking films, but also adds a few embellishments of its own. I wont go into plot details or reveal any spoilers, as the internet is already busy enough with information on the series to inform the casual browser that Alien: Earth does not just include the standard Giger Alien - but also introduces other different and equally inimical lifeforms to the mix. Not just mutations or changes to the basic Xenomorph or Facehugger as we have seen in earlier films, or radically different and questionable creatures such as the Trilobite or Deacon from Prometheus, but alien creatures "from the darkest corners of the universe", specifically collected by a secret Weyland-Yutani mission. 

With its direct callbacks - both aesthetic and cultural, Alien : Earth puts you in familar territory straight away - the sets could easily have been lifted from the first films (and also reference Prometheus and Covenant very nicely too), but the storyline and pacing takes you right back to the dirty, claustrophobic confines of the spaceship corridors very swiftly and introduces the deep seated and very real fear of the unknown and the unknowable. 

Alien: Earth is a must watch. Even if you have never been a fan of the original series, its a brilliantly paced thriller, with no schmalzty human drama and talking heads to fill out the airtime, which so often dogs modern TV. It is pure science fiction and great storytelling which will very quickly have you reaching for the lightswitch and checking behind the couch before you retire. We are quite literally on an express elevator to hell - but rather than going down, expectations and pulse rates are guaranteed to be going up. Straight up. Two episodes of the 8 are already available on Disney+ now, so sit back and prepare to be afraid, very afraid. (whoops, sorry, wrong franchise!).