FX’s new series Alien: Earth opens with a scene familiar to any fans of the storied science fiction horror film franchise: A crew of dysfunctional, blue-collar workers waking from extended hibernation in a sprawling spaceship.

In this case, it’s the year 2120 — two years before the events of Ridley Scott’s classic 1979 film Alien and about 60 years before the time depicted in James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens . The crew of the USCSS Maginot is working for Weyland-Yutani, the same corporation that ran everything in those earlier films.

And it becomes obvious that showrunner Noah Hawley — who also masterminded FX’s TV adaptation of Fargo — has crafted a program that is, at least in part, a loving callback to the best elements of the original two films, especially Alien .

The ar

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