‘Alien: Earth' Season 1, Episode 3 Recap: Weird Science
The 'Alien' franchise explores two overlapping nightmares. The first is the Alien, a cold and implacable force against which humanity is defenseless. The second is humanity itself, which through technological hubris and old-fashioned greed might well invite its own destruction. Against the first we are helpless; with the second, we are all too eager to help.
Where, then, does this leave a man like Morrow? The cyborg science officer aboard the doomed deep-space research vessel the Maginot may or may not have the freedom to make his own decisions regarding his mission to preserve the hostile alien life forms the ship was carrying. It seems highly possibile that his paymasters at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation have hacked his brain and forced him to comply.
He also speaks of those awful aliens as his life's work, however, the mission to which he gave up 65 years of his life, in frozen slumber, in order to see it through. Everyone he knew in his old life, from his daughter to his crew, is now dead. The eyeball octopus, the bloodsucker, the dangling tentacle plant, the barfing bug and xenomporph are all he has left. Even when Ms. Yutani waves him off, he tells her that he will get those specimens back.
Whether motivation or compulsion drove him to seal himself inside a safe room and allow the monsters to slaughter his fellow voyagers, the decision clearly weighs on Morrow. While downloading the ship's data into his computer-augmented brain — a process that involves a set of light-up tubes and, evidently, a good deal of pain — Morrow tries to explain his plight to Slightly and Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), the childlike human-synthetic hybrids left behind to guard a cache of Alien eggs.
'There's a feeling you get,' he says, 'when the monsters come, and you can't — you don't — help.' The dilemma leaves him wishing he were the robot the hybrids suspect him to be, since being fully mechanical would relieve him of the moral burden of what he has done. But when he is interrupted by Kirsh, the hybrids' synthetic guardian, and he sees one of the Alien eggs beginning to hatch, he makes a leap into the chasm created by his crashed ship and disappears.
For a time, at least, it seems as if Morrow's mission is a failure. Kirsh and the hybrids secure the alien specimens and bring them back to the island headquarters of the genius inventor Boy Kavalier and his upstart mega-corporation, Prodigy. (The company's teddy-bear logo is particularly noxious considering its conduct.) Kavalier is especially smitten with the xenomorph corpse, seeing an ocean of potential in that hunk of obsidian exoskeleton and acidic blood.
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CNET
38 minutes ago
- CNET
This is the Ultimate '90s Cyberpunk Movie (No, It's Not 'The Matrix')
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Yahoo
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‘Alien: Earth' composer and music supervisor on Wendy's ‘whimsical' music-box theme and the ‘cathartic' way of ending episodes with Black Sabbath, Tool, Metallica
In space, as the famous Alien tagline goes, no one can hear you scream. So that's where the music comes in. For FX's hit new prequel series Alien: Earth, the job falls to composer Jeff Russo and music supervisor Maggie Phillips. The two artists spoke with Gold Derby following the third episode, "Metamorphosis," which aired Tuesday on FX. The hour-long installment features Wendy (Sydney Chandler) and Hermit (Alex Lawther) barely surviving their battle with a monstrous Xenomorph, and Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) dissecting a facehugger to see what really makes it squirm. 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Gold Derby: How big of a fan were you both of the film franchise? Jeff Russo: I saw the second movie in theaters, but I was far too young to see the first movie. I might have actually even been slightly too young to see the second one, too. It's a pretty intense, intense movie, but I would say, it had a profound impact on my connection to filmmaking and my connection to loving movies. It was the very first time that I'd ever gone to a movie and felt my heart pounding and felt nervous and truly on the edge of my seat — not just the proverbial edge of my seat, but actually on the edge of my theater seat. So, I would say that I'm a pretty big fan of the first string of movies, loving the first one, the second one, the third one ... and then I just started to fall away from it. But I've now found my way back to the franchise. Maggie Phillips: My parents were very strict about what we saw. I remember hearing about it for years before I even actually saw it. It was such a pop-culture moment, the alien coming out of the stomach. My dad was a huge fan, so he would talk about it, but I didn't see the first one or second one until I was an adult, or maybe late in my teens, and I loved them. When I found out five years ago that we were going to be doing this, I went back and watched them all in succession, and Jeff and I would talk about different aspects of each. Noah specifically was focusing on the first and second Aliens, so those two I went back and watched a few times. is finally airing on FX after all these years. What is it like to see the audience's reaction? Phillips: It's fun! Jeff and I lose perspective when you work on something for so long. And also, we watched this without the music, without the visual effects, without the sound effects, so we're working on it as a work in progress. Jeff and I were in London for the premiere and watched it together in a theater, with the reaction all around us. There were moments where we were poking each other with sheer excitement. The vibes were the best I've ever felt at a premiere, because it was palpable how cool this is, and how cool it's gonna be, and how exciting it is. It was as thrilling as the show. Russo: With this kind of IP, you always run the risk of, for lack of a better way to put it, alienating the audience. I wrote my very first piece of music for this about five years ago. Noah sent me an early version of the script and a VFX mock-up that he wanted me to start sketching ideas to. When you've been on something for so long, you really do lose complete perspective. There have been moments where I was like, "Oh my God, we're doing it, we're making it happen." Maggie's right, we sat and watched the first episode in a theater with an audience, and it really did feel like nobody knew what was going to happen. And you hear the Black Sabbath song at the end of it, the really big release at the end of the episode. It was really incredible to experience that feeling of, "Holy f--k, we actually pulled it off." So, hearing the feedback, and seeing people enjoying it and drawing those correlations to the first and second films, that's exactly what we set out to do. Jeff, talk about how you pay homage to the original 1979 score by Jerry Goldsmith, while still creating your own thing. Russo: The idea of staying in that lane was a big part of it. The score needed to feel and sound familiar, but it needed to be unique. The way I can make it unique is to write new thematic melodies and material, while still utilizing the same sort of orchestra and the same feelings that Jerry was evoking in that first film. A lot of it was also looking to the second film and listening to James Horner's score [for James Cameron's 1986 sequel, Aliens], which is a little more militaristic. 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Taking a child who is dying and putting their consciousness into a synthetic body, there's something so dark about that. And what's behind it is this evil trillionaire wanting to take over the world with this idea of immortality. Black Sabbath, Tool, Metallica, oh my! I don't remember a TV show having such a hard rock/metal feel to its music supervision. Phillips: I certainly have never done it before. Look, there are no songs in any of the Alien movies, not a single one. Jeff and I got on a call, and we're like, there's gonna be some songs, because it's a Noah Hawley show. No one knew at first what we were gonna do. Noah put together a playlist of initial inspiration, but it was very eclectic. Black Sabbath at the end of the pilot was so satisfying and so fun and worked so well, that the end songs just grew out of that. We just wanted more. It's cathartic. It's this release. It feels like big emotions and big fun. Arena hard rock/metal are big enough for the show. It's just, how do we punctuate each episode with a moment that's big enough for what we just watched? You're both Emmy nominees for , and Jeff, you won for that show. What would it mean to you for Emmy voters to recognize your work for ? Russo: Just to be in that conversation is pretty spectacular. It's special to be involved in the creation of art that is inside that conversation. Noah has put together a team of artists that he trusts, that has come together to make these really great things. He has a way to tell stories that I'm not sure I've ever experienced. Phillips: We really support each other, but we also all demand excellence from ourselves and each other. There's such a strong level of commitment to the craft, and I think just to be considered is always great, but to be considered amongst this family of people that we've been working together with for over a decade, that makes it just special. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Best of Gold Derby 'Australian Survivor vs. The World' premiere date and cast photos: 'King' George Mladenov, Cirie Fields, Parvati Shallow … 'Five new life forms from distant planets': Everything to know about 'Alien: Earth' as new trailer drops Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2, including the departure of Tracy Ifeachor's Dr. Collins Click here to read the full article. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
4 hours ago
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Celia Rose Gooding embraces "Star Trek" icon Uhura: "It's just fun to play a recognizable, playful version of this character"
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