Television: Season One of Alien: Earth Exceeded Expectations

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: FX

I already miss the weekly episodes of Alien: Earth. The acting, story line, and overall energy far surpassed anything I expected going into this series. And while it was gory in the typical Alien way, it had more to say than some of the earlier movies. Fortunately, with a cliff-hanger like the last episode, we still have plenty more story to come in a second season.

[Spoiler Alert: Do not read any further if you have yet to complete the first season.]

Will there be a second season? I certainly hope so, though showrunner Noah Hawley did not specifically confirm it in a recent interview:

So for me, I never hedged my bets. This is not a closed-ended season. This chapter is closed, but Yutani troops are landing. The balance of power has shifted. These children have no idea what’s coming. The last line of, ‘Now we rule’ is triumphant and uplifting. But cut to 10 minutes later, what is going to be happening? So I like that it has that real-time urgency to it.”

The series could not have been more timely as the daily news discusses the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in our future. Fortunately, we have yet to face a battle between (1) Synths (fully artificial beings with AI), (2) Cyborgs (biological humans enhanced with technology), and (3) Hybrids (synthetic bodies containing uploaded human consciousness).

Even so, we have plenty of corporate weirdos (some role-playing with Roman fashions) who can still do plenty of damage. Our growing dependence on social media, crypto-currency, and other forms of electronic assets and infrastructure (slowly soaking up more and more of our energy supply) has primed us for some real and permanent damage in the wrong hands.

While the theme running through the series was Peter Pan, I think the larger theme was Frankenstein’s monster learning the truth about his creation and his future (or “her” in this case). It did not end well for the monster, and the new kid-monsters in Alien: Earth are unlikely to find a more receptive world.

We can only hope that AI holds off on its reform of the world as we know it until after the last season of Alien: Earth drops.

Sci-Fi Quote: Shaking the Foundation

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Apple TV+.

“Audiences are sophisticated these days, and you have to tell a good story — you don’t do this merely to surprise the audience — but one of the reasons why “Breaking Bad” or “Game of Thrones” is so exciting is they broke some of the conventions of storytelling by killing off lead characters. So I said, “What would be the most exciting thing?” And the most exciting thing would be if we end the season at a place where you think, “How can the show even survive after this? How can the Foundation prevail?”

-Statement by David S. Goyer, the executive producer of Apple TV+’s Foundation in an interview with The Wrap. Mr. Goyer discusses the third season final episode (with plenty of spoilers) while also noting that he will be leaving the show. The episode is mind-blowing as it destroys worlds (with a black hole Death Star) and key characters. It is a must see episode that turns the series upside down. I doubt even Hari Seldon could predict all of this mayhem.

Television: The New Series Alien: Earth is Coming

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: FX Productions.

Given that Hollywood has apparently given up on summer blockbusters about space aliens and similar science fiction, we need to look to television. The summer has already been a lot of fun given the new series Murderbot, as well as the new seasons of Foundation and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

But wait, there’s more.

Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise is coming to a television near you. That’s right, some things cannot be contained to the screen.

The new series Alien: Earth will premiere on FX, Hulu, and Disney+ on August 12th. The latest trailer will show you that the screaming and running has just started. But instead of a two hour movie, you now have eight hours of terror spread over eight episodes.

So what is the spin this time? It’s in the title. Hell has come to our planet.

It is basically a tale of childlike super soldiers taking on the Xenomorph, or Alien creature. This future Earth is more advanced and nothing like ours, but it does not seem advanced enough to understand what just crash-landed onto the planet.

Here is the plot summary from FX:

When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.

In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness). The first hybrid prototype named “Wendy” marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides into Prodigy City, “Wendy” and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.

The Alien story was always about the hubris of humanity, corporate greed, and scary technological “improvements”. It is all here again in this television series.

We seem to be slow learners, even with our technology.

Television: A Look at the New Series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A scene from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. (Startrek.com)

Now that the Comic Con 2025 events are over, all we can do now is await the showing of the new Star Trek series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, slated to premiere early next year. We can also rewatch the first look teaser trailer a few times.

So what can be shared about the new series? Startrek.com provided a helpful summary of the new crew members of the U.S.S. Athena, which will be the location of much of the action. You might also remember a few actors rejoining the series, including Robert Picardo as The Doctor and Tig Notaro as Jett Reno. Finally, Holly Hunter will be playing captain of the U.S.S. Athena while a new half-Klingon villian will be played by Paul Giamatti.

Another familiar face behind the series is Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who is the executive producer on other familiar Star Trek series, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

And what is the setting for this new series? While earlier discussions about a Starfleet Academy series looked to an earlier era, this version is set in the 32nd century after some rough times for the Federation (see the Star Trek: Discovery series to understand that mess). Co-creator of the series Alex Kurtzman explained it in this way to the Los Angeles Times:

As the father of a 17-year-old boy, I see what my son is feeling as he looks at the world and to his future. I see the uncertainty; I see all the things we took for granted as given are not certainties for him. I see him recognizing he’s inheriting an enormous mess to clean up and it’s going to be on his generation to figure out how to do that, and that’s a lot to ask of a kid. My thinking was, if we set “Starfleet Academy” in the halcyon days of the Federation where everything was fine, it’s not going to speak to what kids are going through right now.

So this is really a show for the Gen Z viewers out there who need to put this world back on track. I can understand the desire to be relevant to a new generation, as Star Trek was when it came out in the confusing and troubling 1960s. Though whether or not one is part of Gen Z, I believe we can all take something away from the new series, as we have with all of those that preceded it.

Credit: Startrek.com.