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 area where the

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