The Alien franchise has been a cornerstone of the sci-fi genre since Ridley Scott unleashed the xenomorph on the world in 1979. Now, as the decades have passed, the franchise has had highs and lows and delivered some divisive ideas, like its most recent series, Alien: Earth.
Alien: Earth is set before the first Alien movie and introduces the idea of other corporations, aside from Weyland-Yutani, vying for power. From there, the series makes a controversial choice to avoid xenomorphs for most of the show, instead focusing on other species and corporate and ethical conundrums. While many may say this breaks a decades-old sci-fi rule, it’s a necessary shift for a series that was never about the xenomorph.
Alien: Earth Didn’t Focus on Xenomorphs or Their Chaotic Nature
Image via Patrick Brown / ©FX on Hulu / Courtesy of FX on Hulu via Everett Collection
One of the main themes of Alien: Earth was less about creating life, as in Prometheus, and more about what the definition of life is. With children’s consciousness being put into synthetic bodies, Prodigy became a corporation on the cutting edge of an ethical nightmare. They also managed to take a collection of alien creatures from a crashed Weyland-Yutani ship that happened to include the ovomorph eggs that hold the facehuggers.
The idea that synthetics and the larger Alien world would be the focus of Alien: Earth is no doubt an ambitious idea, as it introduced the eyeball monster and the creepy plant alien that just waits to strike. However, a major point of contention was that between the aliens, corporate espionage, and synthetic plotlines, there was no space for a tried-and-true xenomorph story.
Many past Alien movies thrived on the buildup of a facehugger planting a xenomorph in a human and watching it burst out of a human and wreak havoc. These moments always led to some iconic Alien scenes, and not having much of that in Alien: Earth had an effect on much of the fanbase.
While the xenomorph has always been the face of the Alien franchise, Alien: Earth proved that they were never the true villains or the main focus from the start. Granted, there’s nothing bad about an Alien story being all about xenomorphs, but for a story like this to thrive even farther into the future, shows like Alien: Earth have to exist; choices and all.
Alien: Earth Proves the Franchise Has to Be More Than Xenomorphs
Xenomorphs have always been the backbone of Alien. Even the Deacon of Prometheus looked and acted like a prehistoric version of a xenomorph. But one of the most important lessons that Alien: Earth told its viewers by breaking an unspoken rule of not forgetting the xenos is that these aliens can’t thrive if the franchise doesn’t give more content for viewers to play with.
Seeing other alien creatures in the series that are even scarier than the xenomorph, as well as corporations that lose their humanity by the second, brings about themes of survival of the fittest, as it’s more about the species that thrives rather than the company that wins. As a result, these companies serve to push people into situations where they face these themes head-on.
Alien and Aliens were all about Ripley being used by megacorporations so that she could attain some semblance of comfort in her life. The xenomorphs were just a by-product of those same corporations also wanting for themselves. But themes aside, there’s also the fact that, as of now, the canon timeline may or may not extend beyond Aliens.
With Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection being so controversial, it’s important that the Alien franchise sets itself up for a unique future that could feature other aliens that could someday spearhead their own story. The Alien franchise isn’t broken, and it’s still celebrating xenomorphs in the best way. That said, to continue, controversial shows like Alien: Earth remind audiences that the series has to be more than the xenomorph.
Alien Earth
Systems
Released
July 21, 1998
Developer(s)
Beam Software
Publisher(s)
Playmates Interactive Entertainment, Funsoft
