SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from episode 5 of Alien: Earth on FX.
Something might feel wildly familiar about episode 5 of FX’s Alien prequel.
That’s because the spacecraft that ultimately crashes on earth is a virtual carbon copy of the Nostromo, the ship flown by Ridley (Sigourney Weaver) and her crew in the 1979 film from Ridley Scott. The episode’s name — “in Space, No One…” — is even inspired by Alien‘s old tagline “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
Here, creator Noah Hawley reflects on the episode he wrote and directed. He calls it a mini-movie, which is actually a flashback to the events that lead up to what happens in the Aug. 12 pilot.
DEADLINE This whole episode is like a homage to the Nostromo.
NOAH HAWLEY It’s literally the same thing. We used the original blueprints. Most of the rooms, the bridge, the mess hall, hallways, they’re literally copied from the Nostromo. The cryo-chamber is bigger, though, and the comms room is bigger. The first thing that you need to establish in translating something from film to television is authenticity. And so it has to feel like Alien. We have to show the audience, not only is this Alien, but it’s Ridley Scott’s Alien. It’s James Cameron’s. It’s like that early, retro futurism. So everyone’s very oriented as to what this is. Using the iconic ship was really important.
DEADLINE One thing I really appreciated is how you included some hanging chains. And you had someone use a chain! I could never understand what purpose they served on the Nostromo.
NOAH HAWLEY We have a lot of chains. I think on set, they weren’t attached to anything. There was no ceiling there. They were just hanging from whatever. There are three main science fiction brands. There’s Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien, and you would never confuse them aesthetically for the other. And so that’s what Alien is. If things are a little rusty, if they’re dripping, or there’s humidity … all that stuff is super important to the feeling of it.
DEADLINE Do You have a nickname for the crawling eyeball?
NOAH HAWLEY I’ve been calling it the eye midge for some reason.
DEADLINE He’s definitely a different species from the aliens, right? Will the midge remain a prominent fixture in the series?
NOAH HAWLEY Yeah. All these creatures are here to stay. The reason there are new creatures is because you can’t [give viewers today] the newness of the Xenomorph … you know, the egg, the face hugger, it being the worst thing you’ve ever seen. Now it falls off. Okay we’re good. Now, something bursts out of your chest and then it’s 10 feet tall. So the only way to create that awful burgeoning discovery is with these new creatures. There’s still so much to learn about all of them.
DEADLINE Something fishy showed up in those water bottles in episode 5.
NOAH HAWLEY You see what we call the ticks and they don’t just drink your blood. They lay their eggs in your drinking water. You’ve seen all the creatures and now we’ll just sort of explore them more over the season.
DEADLINE So the character of Petrovich. He just wanted to end the mission and get back home, right? Was it that simple? Is that why he negotiated with Boy Kavalier?
NOAH HAWLEY One of the great things about that first movie is how much these guys bitched about how little they were being paid working for this corporation. Petrovich gave up 65 years of his life to go on this mission. He says something about bugs laid eggs in his woman’s eyes and he’s clearly pissed. He doesn’t think he’s getting paid enough so Boy Kavalier reaches out and makes him an offer. He thinks, great. I’ll go home. I’ll be a rich man. What do I care who has these creatures? So there’s definitely a greed element to this that is not inconsistent with the way that people acted in Alien.
DEADLINE Morrow is a synthetic, right? Because he’s got those Wolverine knife hands.
NOAH HAWLEY He’s a cyborg, so he’s human with some prosthetic appendages and maybe a neural link in there as well. He describes himself earlier in the season as the worst parts of a man.
DEADLINE Is Morrow a friend to the aliens?
NOAH HAWLEY No. I mean, he gave up 65 years of his life. They’re his life’s work. He’s not a friend to them. He has a mission to complete, which is to bring them back to his bosses. So that’s what he’s going to do.
DEADLINE So in the final scene, we see the building for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Is there an Emperor Palpatine-like figure working there?
NOAH HAWLEY No. What’s amazing after seven Alien movies is how little mythology there is about how humanity is organized, life on earth, all of it. So I had a lot of leeway to play with. All we really know is that there was this corporation Weyland-Yutani, and they wanted these creatures pretty badly. And so I made the choice to focus my story on a competing company. But I do think that this idea of Weyland-Yutani is so critical to the identity of Alien, and I want to give the audience that satisfaction of feeling like you’re seeing some of who is running that place.
DEADLINE You just touched upon the burning question of how you make a series about the Alien franchise. You build a mythology.
NOAH HAWLEY Yeah, I think so. I mean, it’s a real gift to have this franchise that’s so storied. What you do you need to know is that the first movie is all about space truckers. They’re driving some iron ore home across the galaxy, and they’re not being paid enough and the hours are too long and whatever, and then they get sent to this planet to do something. They don’t understand what it is, and all these terrible things happen. And then over the course of the movies, you get a little more exposure to who is pulling the strings, but it is still left pretty oblique. So yeah, that was part of why I took the assignment. There was so much for me to invent.
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