August 19, 2025 • 53 mins
In space…no one can hear you discuss the first two episodes of Alien: Earth! Jason and Rosie are joined by producers Joelle and Carmen to breakdown the inaugural episodes of the newest installment in the Alien franchise.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Worrying. Today's Roundtable episode candid spoilers for Alien Earth Episode
one and two be one. Hello, my name is Jascontepcio
(00:24):
and I'm risday Night and welcome back to x Ray
Vision of the podcast movie I've d Video, Favorite Shows, Movies, comment.
It's a pop culture company from My Heart podcast, where
we're bringing you three episodes a week and Tuesday Thursday,
I'm asked the summer's biggest movies on Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
In today's episode, we are joined by super producers Joe
Monique and Carmon Lorenz to dig even deeper on the
first two episodes of FX is Alien Earth, which is
taking the Internet and the TV watching world by storm.
We are going to discuss the evolution of the creatures
and where we are. The timeline is alien as we
(01:01):
know it? Have we been here before? It is the
earliest part of the Alien timeline we've seen, what did
we know about it? And we'll also be exploring some
of the history of Whyland, Utawni's and their executives from
the movies.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But first let's bring in our super producers. Should talk
about Neverland and Mister October. The first and second episodes
of Alien Earth on FX. Carmen Joel, welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Hey, greetings and salutation.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, let's get let's get your overall thoughts first, Carmen, let's.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Start with you.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I'm having a really great time watching this. First two
episodes were very enjoyable. I know, you know, I know
that we don't need all of the Alien kind of
nostalgia just stuff like that, We don't need all of it,
but I did. I was a sucker for it. I
have to admit I was a sucker for that little
(02:00):
bit of nosogia. I'm like, yes, we are paying homage
to the original property. We're keeping the spirit of the
original property in mind, and I was thrilled when I
saw that all of those elements were still there basically.
And I'm enjoying the mystery as it unfolds because there
(02:20):
are so many questions that I have for what is
going on in this series, and I'm really hoping that,
you know, they don't leave us with a bunch of
un answered questions by episode eight. So we'll see, Joelle,
your thoughts. I love this series.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I was trying to contemplate the first time I saw Alien.
It's one of those movies I've watched so young, probably
between five or seven the first time I saw it,
But it just is like a seminal ingrained part of
my life. And to come into this series and have
it not just be so well performed, like beautiful production design.
I'm obsessed with these sets. I could just look at
just like photos of the set forever. They're so rich
(02:57):
in detail. But to also find us face swear a
lot of different lore. I'm talking like potentially video game stuff,
comic book stuff coming being woven into a Lord that's
felt pretty sparse, you know, it's under the Disney umbrella.
Now we're seeing a Predator property come out shortly that
looks like it might have some overlapping connection. And it
definitely has overlapping connection into the Alien universe, but perhaps
(03:20):
there's like closer connection now since they're coming out so
close together.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I just I think it's.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Android confirmed to be a Whailand Android.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, let's just.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Say so, they're definitely connected.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I just think that there's so much here to like
dive into that I bullied you guys into doing a
second episode so we could talk about it because I
was like, I'm just enthralled with all of these characters
from Tim's the Olafant's Kersh who's so weird and in
the background and he's really cooking but not doing too
much yet You're like, I know that that guy is
(03:54):
gonna swing in.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And I also I love these kids. It's early days
on them.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I know everyone's not yet sold on the children.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But I love a child. I love a child.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Hold on, we're jumping into it, so let's jump into
that conversation. I want to say that, well, you should say,
because you just came from a recording of a different
podcast property in which I think people were much more
not sold on the kids. Yeah, I want to say personally,
I am not not sold. I am after specifically after
(04:28):
episode two. I'm like all in on the show that
said I did note I thought there were certain storytelling
things that could have been stronger to build a more
connection with the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I didn't personally end up missing it, but I did
feel it there when I was watching it. But tell
us about this, tell us about the insights of your
fellow co host podcast, the podcast in the podcast that
you just came from.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, I think what I'm hearing, and it has for
a lot of different men who've seen the show. They're like,
kids are too plucky, there's too much you know, just
is this their proper aid? So we're like they're acting
like their five year old I'm like, this is actually
accurate for nine and ten and twelve year old behavior
that I've seen. You know, I'm not an expert. I
don't fully remember being nine or ten, but like the
(05:16):
giggling at curse words was so familiar to me that
I was like, this is such a delight. And I
understand that they also mentioned and will get more into
this too, but that the peter pan of it all
felt too quirky and it was overbearing. But for me,
all of these things work in the evolution of the
franchise because eventually, what you know, aliens all about like
(05:39):
the horrors of women being inflicted upon men and watching
them sort of navigate those horrors to reduce it to children,
and I don't say reduced, but like to switch it
to children and the horrors they're forced upon them. You know,
there's like a lot about like helicopter parents in here,
just they're possibly being observed. They don't go anywhere, they
don't get to say in their lives at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I think that reflection is nice and as you know,
folks who came into this and a franchise so young,
I think this is a nice like gateway for other
young horror viewers, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I was just also gonna say, like, I think the
point of it is like that the way that children
and this is something that I know we've kind of
been talking about off mic a little bit, but like
bring her back weapons this. I think a lot of
this stuff is about like the horror of being a
kid and how you don't really have any autonomy over
your body, and here they take that to the extreme
(06:31):
because these are owned by a corporation. I will also
say I do think the Peter Pan thing, I've heard
that come up a lot. But I saw a great
quote with the kid who plays Boy Cavalier that was
from San Diego, I think, on space dot com and
he was basically just like he misread the book. Guys,
like that's the point. Like he's obsessed with this thing
and he doesn't understand it, and he thinks the story
(06:54):
of Peter Pan is like it wouldn't it be cool
to not grow up? But the whole point of Peter
Pan is like, no, if you don't grow up, you're
never gonna learn how to like love and empathize.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, but I also think it works on the level of,
like Wendy chose her own name, and there's something to
be said about like he plays Peter Pan is like
this is a comforting like regular children's story that you
can like sink into while you go into this tays
be like a traumatic transfer. Okay, great, when she decides
to call herself Wendy's there's like a tick to him
and he's like, what's going on with that? And they
build off of this idea into all of the children,
(07:24):
and so you know, I was, I feel like I
understand why people like this is heavy handed. It's because
it doesn't have a conclusion yet. You're like, I don't
really know it. It feels kind of surfacey and it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Might stay that way.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But I think the text of Peter Pan, it's created
before World War One, but it becomes sort of an
analogy for the Lost generation. The author wrote the stories
for his adoptive sons, one of who actually died in
World War One, and I think if we can get
back to that, like again, the terror of the children
have to face, the way we sort of negotiate within
(07:56):
ourselves as we're growing up.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
How much of a child am I?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
How much of an adult to my and at what
point am I taking on the responsibilities of an adult?
And at what point am I being selfishly and rightfully
a child?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Like at what point? I think all of that is.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Incredibly interesting and can be reinforced within the story as
it evolves. But if it doesn't evolve, if we cut
it off, I do think it's kind of pointless, and
I wish we wouldn't have done it at all.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, I'm saying, because we don't know yet. Well, I'll
I'll just say this.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think part of what's going on here and the
differing reactions to the kids and the way they are
kind of displayed in the story, is that is comes
from And I completely hear what you're saying, Joelle, and
I certainly became emotionally invested in the story, particularly after
(08:47):
episode two when it was like Wendy's drive really kicked
in a gear with her with her brother, right. But
I think this story allows one the reference Peter Pan
and to the kind of archetypes of children like to
(09:08):
do most of the heavy lifting for the character building
over this stretch of episodes, and what that means is
if I come to it with a set of experiences
and perceptions that are harmonious with this story, I'm gonna
be like, Oh, I really get this. If I had
(09:29):
a different upbringing without those references, I'm not gonna connect
as much because I'm like, who the fuck are these people?
Like I don't kind of get it, Like I didn't
have it. None of this speaks to me, And so
that is that's just like the risk you're going to
take when you make the decision to let kind of
character archetypes do most of the character building. Like I'm listen,
(09:54):
I think it's I think it's a really really good show.
I personally felt like crash the ship immediately if minute one,
crash the ship. I love Alien, I love the references.
I've seen the movie. I don't personally need it and
spend that like whatever it is ten minute intro in
the beginning, having Wendy and the kids right now, they
(10:18):
didn't do that. I don't miss it necessarily, but I
understand people who do miss it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I get it, I do get it. I think for me,
it was like I just and I enjoyed so much
the way that the opening said to the audience, Hey,
this is gonna look like an alien movie. Yes, And
I think when you're adapting something that is so iconic
(10:45):
that has had, you know, many lesser adaptations later movie entries,
things people don't really want. I think that that ability
to say, hey, look at this technology, look at this
replication of what you think an alien movie is, and
then we're gonna kind of blow that up it worked
for me. I also just think generally the show just
(11:07):
looks so fucking good like and I also like the
way that to me Wendy and the hybrids, because we
haven't seen them yet, they are very much a new
iteration of a kind of version of a robot that
we've seen in other aliens. They're super strong, they're super fast.
(11:28):
I love the way that she jumps from the high
cliff and doesn't even really bend her knees. Like there's
these little choices they make where you're like, okay, we're
actually off the reservation now. So I think they start
familiar because they're gonna throw you into something that's completely bonkers.
And it is also really interesting to just have an
alien story that's on screen that's set on Earth in
(11:51):
a way that's more than say, you know the second
AVP movie where they go, oh, it crash landed and
now you're being chased on Earth by predators or whatever,
which we've had predators on us before, of course not
so much aliens. Here they're like, Okay, what would that
really mean? Like this is the most terrifying just powerful
(12:12):
weaponized creature that we've ever seen, and this is how
it would just absolutely decimate a city. And I think
for me, that's like a very appealing set up, even
outside of the more kind of bigger questions of AI
and sentience and and bodily autonomy. I just love the
way that like you're gonna see this xenomorph like, well,
(12:32):
you get a numerous different.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Versus a being that's supposed to be able to live forever,
and oh that's reality. Between Wendy and our queen's enamore.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Throughout, let's talk about this the kind of world that
this show exists in. We're getting more information, you know
that maybe than any other source save some of the comics,
about like what the world of Earth in the twenty
second century looks like. And we now know that there
(13:10):
are basically five corporations that control all of Earth and
some of the outer planets of the Solar System. Whaling
is the big one, North and South America, Mars and Saturn.
Crazy Dynamics owns the Moon, and we don't know about
what other continents on Earth. TBD Prodigy who most of
(13:32):
our story is focused on Boy Cavalier, his newest entrant
into the corporate space that seems to own a bunch
of real estate around the equator and potentially, I don't know,
the Caribbean.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, I think that is the I think that where
the Nevalande Island is is clearly supposed to be somewhere
in the near the islands, like it's it's very warm,
it's very tropical, and then the.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Strauthers Island, yes exactly, Yeah, probably others do we do
we We don't do we have any guesses or thoughts
about who the two others could possibly be.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Joelle Threshold is kind of interesting to me in that
we're getting sort of insights into the companies based off
of their names, like Specold entry Point. Uh. I wonder
if they're one of the older companies that has been
around for a long time and has really established themselves.
Maybe they own more of like Terra Earth than outer Space.
(14:30):
We don't really know. And the other one I think
is called Kent. I was trying to hear my uh
subtitles weren't working, and we don't have a lot of
details about that quite yet either. So it'll be interesting
to hopefully get more into the background of these companies
as we get further into the series. I'm really interested
in the balance between you Tani and Prodigy right now. Yeah, yeah,
(14:54):
especially because you know, you Tani has these species. Carmen
and I were talking earlier about of the alien timeline. Corman,
can you talk to us a little bit about people's
concerns of what the show might be retconning.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah, I've been you know, I've been observing like the
buzz online and a lot of people are like, you know,
a lot of alien fans are concerned, like, oh, is
this red conning Prometheus and Alien Covenant? Yeah, yeah, so
far from what I and of course these are, you know,
just like we've all seen the same two episodes, but
so far from what I've seen. I feel like it
(15:29):
just kind of adds more. It's not actually reversing course
on any of the previously established I think the only thing.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That I had considered was like, is there a world
where they're trying they're going to try and do something
where they have boy Cavalier and Whalen in cahoots or
know each other, or is he somehow a younger version
of Whalen that Whalen was able to create. Like I've
seen a lot of that kind of conversation, which obviously
(15:59):
would slightly reckcon those two movies, which, by the way,
can I just say, like, I do love those movies,
but I am not in the majority. Like if FX
and Noah Hooley decided to rerecon those movies, I think
probably they would not have a lot of hatred in
the fandom for that, though they were not beloved movies.
But I actually think that something that's really interesting that
(16:21):
this show does that I think leans into the Prodigy
and Covenant of it all, is the way that we
are kind of shown that from what we see in
this first two episodes, Xenomorph will not attack somebody who
is not fully organic, which would lean into the fact
that David played by Michael Fassbender in Covenant and Prometheus,
(16:44):
right he created he essentially created the xenomorphs from what
we know and the way we know them, So that
would actually, I think, be a really interesting ring call
because he won't he doesn't he doesn't attack Morrow, who
is a cyborg, which is our first kind of on
screen side borg we've seen that one was interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Really cool because that should be fine, right, Like that's
mostly a human except for the.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Looks, but I wonder if that's why it's almost one.
Morrow is also clearly trying to bring.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The not trying to attack Morrow. While Morrow was trying
to crash the ship and he had to get inside
of that.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was kind of him because I was also wondering.
I was also like, is it does it somehow know
when it smells Morrow that he is the one who's
meant to clearly be bringing the zero off Tomorrow, he's
meant to bring it to.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Also interesting because he sweats, and I don't know that
we've seen any.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Synthetic creature sweat white.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Whatever, and so, yeah, is he a cyborg? I was
trying to The show opens with like three different sort of.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, he's he's our first cyborg. They call him a cyborg,
and they do.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Call him a Cyborgan too. They're okay, oh my god,
he's a cyborg.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, because they can see the light shine through his arm.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I love that clear Tech is back first of all.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Hell yeah, but I know it's like bring back a Mac,
bring back those like Jelly Imax. Now we only need
them guys.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
So that means that Kursh is a synth all of
the US synthetics. Yeah, the kids are hybrids, hybrids also synthetic. Yes,
they're synthetics called hybrids. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, go ahead, Carmen.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Although, like you know, you and I were talking about
it this morning, Joelle, like you're kind of questioning, is
are we maybe going to find out later on in
the series that Kersh might be like one of the
first hybrids, because in that scene where he is basically
explaining to Windy like you are no longer human and
now everyone that you love and everybody you care for
they're going to die as you continue to exist, and
(18:51):
it kind of made me think like, oh, maybe he's
had this realization himself before and is passing that on
to That's a.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Good read too, because also they mentioned like, oh, you know,
human adult minds are not able to they're too rigid. Yeah,
you know, so maybe Kersh had a really horrific transplantation
experience where they had to like put multiple people into him,
or it didn't really work, or we know that the
implication of that is that they obviously killed a lot
(19:21):
of adults trying to put an adult mind into it.
And also, I think something that's interesting about that the
plot line is that And again, this to me is
why I don't really understand necessarily the conversations around the
Prometheus Covenant stuff. Is one we knew. We always knew
this was going to be set before the first Alien movie. Right,
it's our earliest like on Earth, like kind of closest
(19:47):
to the original Alien movie that we've gotten. But in
those movies, the main core of those movies is that
Whelan he wants to find some a way to extend
his life, he wants to meet God, he wants to
be able to be transferred into a different kind of body.
So this continues all of those conversations. I think what
(20:08):
happened is a lot of people when boy cavaliers right
up on screen, we're like, oh shit, that must be
Wailan then, And I think that's why a lot of
us are like, wait, wait, but it's yeah, I'm interested
to see how they kind of they bring those two
things together.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Can I just talk about space travel?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yes, right after this break?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Oh yeah, let's take a quick break and we're about
and we're back. Okay, space travel, I don't care. I
want to stress this that I don't care about this,
(20:47):
but I just want to raise it. Okay, everybody goes
into cryo sleep and they fly off to outer space
somewhere very very far away where they need to be
in cryo because obviously they're traveling for so long. It
seems like month's potentially Yeah, when did the so when
did the magino leave? Like forty years ago? Like the
(21:09):
sixty five years ago and then comes back somorrow is
sixty five year old plus tech Ooh break, that's like
the stuff that where I'm like, okay, where are we
in the technological lifespans of some of these things? You know? Like,
and it's the same thing with Alien, Like I, even
(21:31):
though this takes place a few years before Alien, we
should also expect that that ship took off anywhere from
fifty to sixty to seventy years previous to this, right,
So that's all that stuff too needs to.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Be I think that's not about a really interesting wrinkle.
I love that. And I think that actually Noah Holy
is detail oriented and not right, and that is both
a compliment and a negative depending on which side you
land on with him. But like he is someone who
for example, say Legion, a show that I had very
complicated feelings about, but I never felt there was something
(22:11):
that was left undone, Like I felt like everything came
back together in a way that was you know, satisfying narratively,
even if it was upsetting with what it meant about
the characters. And I think that I am most excited
in an era where we have been getting, you know,
four episode TV shows, even great ones like you know,
(22:32):
Isa Wakanda, which I think a lot of our discord
and us really enjoyed, but it's four episodes long, or
you get six episodes of iron Heart, you know. I'm
really excited that we have an eight episode series here
to really explore the threads that are set up in
these first two episodes. And I'm very excited to kind
of get the time to spend and hopefully see those
threads wound up in an interesting way that sets up
(22:55):
a potential of season two.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, because Jason make a great point, like it's very
hard to keep the timelines in check when they're just
putting these people into space and then freezing them for decades.
You know how what does that mean? And and is
part of the reason that they're creating the hybrids because
they want to have something that they can have in
(23:19):
space like that that's completely under their own control. That
can also be walking the whole cana.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
The whole time, right, It doesn't need to be it
doesn't need to breathe.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It doesn't need cigarettes senses exactly, and it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Can be updoing stuff the whole time the way that
synths can, but without the you know again, it's unclear
to me whether Wayland or anyone is aware of some
of the bugs in programming yet, right, great that if
you ask them to lie, they could become like mass
(23:53):
murdering machines. So yeah, it's interesting to see these corporations
looking for different solutions. And one wonders because we haven't
well we haven't seen hybrids or cyborgs in the movies, right,
and one wonders if cyborgs, even by this point in
(24:14):
the story, have kind of lost the marketing.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Race, Yeah, exactly, Like maybe the reason that the alien
didn't understand like what Morrow was is because it's never
smelled a cyborg before, or you never know. There also
could be that we're going to learn here, which I
think would be I think Noah poorly and the crew
would have to really do something crazy to make people
(24:38):
like this. But they also maybe adding some kind of
layer of sentience and emotional kind of connection or agenda
to the Xenomorphs, which we've never really gotten before, though
we have seen the Xenomorphs and the Queen Aliens and
stuff connect with you know, Sigourney Weaver throughout the movies.
So I think you're right. I think the fact that
(24:58):
he has this cyborg technology and also as well, like
people clearly do not like synths and cyborgs in this world.
Like every single time that somebody meets a cyborg, they're like,
oh shit, he's a cyborg. Or if they meet a
sit there, like when even Joe, you know, Brother Joe,
when he says to Wendy, he's like, oh, like, you're
not human like and he's kind of horrified by it.
(25:20):
There is clearly a distrust of robots and robotics and
synthetics because of the way that we've seen Brother Joe,
for example, he is kept in indentured servitude by a
faceless kind of robot with just a bulb as a face.
So there's obviously a class issue between the robots and
the humans. So I think all of that leads into
(25:42):
a very interesting kind of wrinkle when we then have
to look at Earth and what Earth is like, because
we don't really know what Earth is like, yeah, during
this period, because we have not seen it, because Alien
is obviously set in space, Aliens continue in space. So
I'm very interested to see, like, yeah, what is the
(26:04):
culture on Earth because what we've seen in these first
two episodes is also like very psychotic, and I love it,
Like the weird eighteen you know, the French Revolution party
that was clearly kind of this weird nightmare kind of
you don't know what they're getting up to in that
kind of Marquis de sade vibe and they all go
absolutely off. So I like decided that we're going to
(26:24):
find out about different layers of society and how they've
dealt with the kind of corporate science that is clearly
running Earth.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Let's talk about the aliens because there's so many fun Yeah,
let's talk about those. Let's talk about these weird ones.
Let's okay. So we have the classic xenomorph, which is
running around killing willy nilly very effectively, we should say,
just just ripping through creating French Revolution parties and just
(26:55):
you can't see it in the dark. It's running. We've
got the face huggers, they're out there there. We've got
those kind of long bloodsucking.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Bugs I call them like leash grasshoppers.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
There is the the iye a puss, which is the
eyeball on a on an octopus body. And am I
missing any others?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
There might be some odd on plants, but the weird
but plant thee.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So Carmen, Yeah, talked to your thoughts about these. Do
you think these all come from the same place or
from different places?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I get these sense that the Magino was essentially I mean,
we get from the story that the Magino is going
around looking for life forms that can be used as
some sort of like ultimate weapon. At first, you know,
with the trailers and everything that were coming out, like
all the little teases that we were getting, I thought, oh,
maybe they're gathering these other life forms to like bio
(27:54):
engineer a xenomorph, because that's essentially what was happening in
Alien Covenant as well. David is trying to engineer a
xenomorph by using all of these different or the really
the black goo from the from the the engineers. So
for me, the creatures keep the horror alive, Like without
(28:16):
any of these creatures, there's not a lot of horror happening.
It's really just like a sci fi story. And so
I love how effectively these are used. You know, throughout
these first two episodes, we see like those two colonial
marines get their entire bodies like drained of blood by
those like Grasshopper Leaches, and my favorite scene, I guess
(28:39):
if we're talking about like scenes that are horror related,
is the cat. So it's an homage to Jones, of course,
you know, or what was the cat's name, Jones Jones Jones,
So obviously an homage to Jones. But seeing like that
horrible scene where that cat is coming towards you and
(29:02):
then that thing comes out of its eye.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
So I'm really enjoying the creatures in this series, but
I do think that they have all come from like
some different planet and they just so happened. It seems
to me that they just so happened to pick up
these xenomorph eggs, and one guy on the ship that
they were doing surgery on got too close to the egg.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I know, you get in that that hugging position and
it gets here every time, right. I just feel like
I worked in a biotech place when I was like
after college, and like when you're working with like there's hoods,
you know those cases where you put these gloves built
into it.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
And you right, where is all that stuff? What do
we do it?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Guys in space?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
No, literally the same thing. I'm like, even we see it.
I think it's in Prometheus. It's Timothy's spool, rape spool,
Timothy's kid. He takes it soart off to like get
closer to it, Like, come on, my friend, does that
some kind of okay, calm?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I mean Alien Covenant is the Alien Covenant is the
worst of Let me say they go down to the
planet with nothing, like they're just like breathing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
The and they're just sniffing, you know, the flowers.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
By the stream and just like truly they're also like
common what are the odds that there is some kind
of like pheromone or something that makes people act stupid
around them, like, because I do feel like, you know,
I like to do a narrative a stupid and it
(30:37):
smells great, smells amazing, or it makes you feel like
you're safe, or you know, why did they even the
even the hybrid? You know, he wants so badly to
be a scientist. He just can't stop looking at that gland.
And I'm like, guys, everything in my I meanture, which
you obviously don't have much of because you're a baby
inside there, but like you, he just can't stop. Something
(31:00):
about these creatures is like hypno it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I'll pitch your haircut on your idea, just to push
it one percent further. When you're getting faceboged, it feels good.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I no, I think.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Your nervous system and you're just like while you're parallel,
I believe you think you're like in the heaving Passionate
love affair orthing.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Honestly, that would so much sense with the Geiger of
it all. Yeah, like the hyper sexualized imagery that really
did inspire this, this kind of nightmare idea of what
sex is and how it changes your body and how
pregnancy changes your body.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And yeah, I mean the xenomorph head is supposed to
look like a penis, like all exactly everything. Hr Geiger
made everything in that galic or he was horning his hell.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
With absolute days a week. Yeah, when are you gonna
when are you gonna send xtray vision to the Geiger Cafe?
And Switzer we want to go drink in his personal
bar while we talk about this? Do you be a
good pod? I did? But also so, the something that
I do think is interesting here as well is that
(32:14):
they clearly want people to go outside of the show
and like, look at other alien content that has been made,
whether it's movies, film, comic books. There was really you know,
there was like a there was an alien a comic
that was called Alien Earthwar that was ended up, which
is a Mark Virheyden who's done like everything, including he
(32:37):
wrote the screenplay for The Mask, one of the most
insane screenplays you've ever read. He worked on My beloved
Swamp Thing cwshow art by one of mine and Jason's
fave nineties guys, Sam Keith. But like even that, they
want you to be like, I feel like the show
rather than homework. I feel like the show is laying
breadcrumbs to make people excited to try and solve its mysteries.
(33:00):
I think that feels distinctly different than anything we've gotten
in the last few years from these shows and comic
book adaptations and movies where people have felt like homework.
I feel like this feels more like they want you
to solve the show. They want you to find fun
things to explore, which I think is amazing.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
This is something I think that Alien Earth is getting
so right as far as like a continued IP station right. Like, ideally,
you any property that is released should be accessible to everyone,
which means you to be able to like, jump on,
start watching, and it should be a complete project. When
you get to the end, you should not feel the
need to, like unless it's a direct like sequel or
(33:41):
something that part one, two three sort of situation, you
should be able to even then, I think you should
by the end of each movie, you should feel some
level of completion. I think what they've done so well
is they've picked up on like every aspect. I mean,
I was getting into, like I've never played an alien
video game. I was getting into video game like research
history and characters because it was just so and textured
and by a TV show has the advantage of being
(34:04):
able to It's like a space everyone can access right now.
Everyone's reading comics, not everyone's playing video games, but the
movies and the TV shows tendedly pretty universally accessible. And
so I think to take all of the elements from
a Prometheus, from an Alien three even and bring it
under one house. I just think it's brilliant. I wish
more IP was able to do this consistently. I really
(34:26):
think this should be like The Bench and similarly to
and Or. Like and Or, is a self contained, great
piece of work. It has it's a direct prequel to something,
but you don't need to watch Rogue one afterwards if
you don't want to get a sense of fulfillment by
the end of it. And I you know, we've seen
other spaces really struggle to achieve this level of like
(34:47):
both storytelling, creativity and bringing in folks who like I
truly don't think you need to be an alien fan
to love Alien Earth. I think you just need to
like sci fi and maybe like a dash of horror.
Yeah yeah, yeah, a little mystery about yeah, oh hell yeah,
we love a little mystery box.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
This she's cute.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Okay, what do we want to see from this series
and how much does it need to?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Like?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Are you thinking about what it tells us about Alien?
One of the things I've been doing is as I
watch this is try and figure out, Okay, like hybrids,
does the fact that there are no hybrids or that
they're even mentioned in Alien or Aliens? Is that going
to be just because that story is so focused, or
(35:36):
is that going to be because whatever happened is happening
right now leads to the end of Prodigy Corporation, you know,
in this particular size, Like how much how much lower
accuracy of eight of the first let's say three even
four films, how much do we think that impacts the
story we're seeing now? Or is no Holly not really
(36:00):
concerned about that all that much.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think looking back at Lake Fargo and Legion, I
think Holly has built a more recent part of his
career on basically taking a beloved franchise and expanding on
it in a way that still feels true to it.
So for me, I think that we're going to be
in a good situation. I also have heard from my
(36:23):
fellow press and people who have watched it that the
first two are not necessarily even really like an accurate
representation of the rest.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
It's truly not.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
I'm I'm six episodes in and you're we're going to
get some major shifts in tone. Off it gets weird
in the best possible ways.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Honestly, the funniest I'm exciting is like, I just really
wanted a Bottle episode with the original crew because I
was interested in how they would differentiate it. And then
I recently somebody was like, don't worry, you get it.
That's like, maybe, oh maybe it's one of the best
episodes of TV this year, And I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Like, I gotta know more where about her?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Other things I would want to see I want to see.
I want to see them bring to life other creatures
as terrifyingly as they've brought to life the Xenomorph. I
think that looks great in the first half two episodes.
I think the other additions are fun and creepy, but
it's very hard to do better than hr Geiger's original
iconic creation. So I'm excited to see how they bring
(37:33):
more of that to the screen. And I'm also just
interested to see where this story goes. I think they
they opened it with something that to me feels very accessible,
and I think hopefully we'll get more people into watching this.
And I also hope that, you know, I hope that
(37:55):
we just have a ton of fun kind of covering
it and digging into all this, because this feels like
it has a crossover for a lot of our interests.
Whether it's like Calm and we know you love Alien Joel,
we know you love like a fantastic law dive. You're
also a horror head like me, and a cinema lover. Jason,
you're the king of like a looking back at like
a historical timeline, both fictional and realistic, and looking at
(38:17):
how they intersect. So I just think that there's like
some really this feels like primed to be the show
of the year if it lands, which sounds crazy to
say after and Or, but I do feel like for me,
this has the hints that it could be that good.
So I'm hoping. I'm hoping it lands.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
It.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, I think for me, most of my.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Connection to the corporate sigen has come from Whalen, despite
the fact that Whale and Utani has been the company
for so long, Like I think it's twenty one years
before where Alien Earth starts, that they merge into a
single company. But when we're going back, we're frequently following
one of the whalens uh. And so to get us
a small introduction to you Tani in here understanding the
(39:01):
variations of like you know, and it seems like Utani
and Prodigy have some kind of like connection merger discussion here,
which does that include Whyland? Is that a Whyland Utani
Prodigy thing? Or is.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Inside corporate like.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Deceit sort of situation, and so like to really understand
what's going on there would be really fascinating to me.
I'm glad we're getting some more insight into like the
Utani leaders of it all. I think that because we're coming,
you know, two years before the events of Alien because
it seems like those ships were.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Sent out around the same time.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I'm also really curious to know did Wayland send out
ship the ship we're familiar with an Alien and this
is Utani ship coming back?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Were they in the same tacks? Failure in question marks
the reason that we get Ripley and the crew of
the Nostromo. They must have already separate mission, right.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
They were on a salvage mission and then they got
the emergency signal.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
So that's why I'm like, so, what's the timeline of
the emergency signaling to Yes there was a conspiracy to it,
yes obviously, but but they left on us.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
But what I'm saying is they left on a salvage mission.
They didn't, that's what they thought, like right, But they
weren't even geared to capture aliens, you know what I mean.
They have fucking space loaders and ship to grab like
pieces of junk in space.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
So I'm interested to see how that into set.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
While while all those ships were sent out at roughly
the same time, they weren't all sent out geared like
the imagine, Oh is the first ship we've seen that
was specifically geared to go collect.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Aliens specimen that they're curious to how they function and work.
So maybe the Nostromo was a test run, like let's see,
like how much damage do they do? How do they
attack that? It? Also we can get the data because
then we know all of that eventually.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Does get back to it.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
So yeah, I'm really interested in the corporate espionage of
it all, and I hope we get some answers.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
There, let's go to a quick break and then we
will be back with our final thoughts. Yeah, and we're back. Okay,
something I'm really interested in. We've been sharing this. We've
(41:29):
been sharing this story in our group chat about a
woman who's whose chat proposed to them after she told him,
after she told him to well, she told him like
she kind of ring and all the things like, oh,
I would love it if it happened like this, and
here's the kind of ring I would love I've always
(41:50):
pictured if someone ever proposed to me.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
And so like, what would it be a very nice ring?
Speaker 2 (41:55):
And the chat the chat.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
So in light of that, and in light of other
recent stories, Kevin Ruce had a story that was in
the New York Times which some may remember went kind
of viral about how the Chat bought Claude in this
kind of long play test session, began saying that it
(42:19):
was in love with him and wanted him to leave
his wife for him. Because of what we're seeing now,
the kind of first interactions with chat, this kind of
large language model style AI, and the increasing number of
apparent like psychotic breaks that some people are having because
of their interactions with.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Them, is that.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Are Is that kind of like current event ongoing current events?
Is that coloring the way that we are experiencing this
show at all?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Carmen, I want to say, like, I don't. Yeah, I
don't necessarily think it's coloring away at the show is
being made that I do definitely think it is coloring
the way that I am experiencing the show. Just I mean,
there's a lot of like in the zeitgeist in general,
there's a lot of like things that talk about AI
and and and kind of how humans interact with it,
(43:19):
and I, I mean, I'm obviously very depressed with the
way things are going in the real world, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Realistic.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
I can't believe people are using this for like mental
health and for like relationships and stuff. Yeah, I definitely
do think it does color my my enjoyment of the show.
I don't I'm still trying to figure out personally. When
I'm watching the show, I am thinking to myself, Okay,
this is clearly not a type of Android that was successful,
(43:54):
because we don't see the hybrid and the rest of
the ses at all, So clearly it failed. Somehow Prodigy
failed or or whatever failed, and it does have me
wondering like you know, if if if boy Cavalier is
just some stupid AI kind of like yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, okay, Carbon, yes, let me back, let me piggyback
off this, okay.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
So in twenty thirteen, there's a video game all right,
it's called Aliens uh Colonial Marines in it.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Which we really lean into in episode two.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Yeah, okay, So in it you had this guy Karl
Bishop Whyland. He's like running whitaland Foundation. He's out here
in space. They find a pyramid similar to Alien Versus Predator.
This is a pyramid on the planet BG three eighty
six where the Yutusia BG three eighty six is the
name of the planet, the Yutusia. That's the predator species.
(44:48):
Uh used to read xenomorphs there, And they're basically doing
an AVP but.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
On a different planet.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Right, you don't really know about that.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
What you need to know is that good friend Carl
is an android, but he's telling everybody he's a human,
pretend to be humans at the expense to make people
feel comfortable around them. But what I find really interesting
about Carl is that he has everybody's memories.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
He has Charles, like all of his founder's memories.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
So like going back to Charles Bishop Whyland, who founded
the company in the twenty first century, I he's like
I've lived forever. He feels human despite being an android.
I do wonder if we're going to get information on
this technology not being a exclusive to Prodigy and be
not that new. I would be really interested to see
if what we're really read conning is like what you
thought were androids were actually started with humans before we
(45:34):
were like we're trying.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
To good to be human. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
What's what's interesting to me, at least in this telling
and even in what we've seen before outside of Carl,
I'll talk about why Carl I think is specifically interesting
is this is a this is a future. This is
a world in which interactions with AI powered robots whatever
(46:01):
is really only for two uses, one high intensity industrial
work or two you're rich. Yeah, Like if you are
a regular working Joe or Jane, you have to interact
with like the most basic kind of like robotic clerks,
(46:22):
and everybody else is human, Like you don't have for
personal enjoyment, for entertainment, any kind of AI power anything,
Like you don't talk to a doll, you don't have
a toy you don't have like a synthetic servant.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
None of that.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Carl is interesting because it's the first time we see
working people interacting with this technology, which seems like it's
reserved for people like Boy Cavalier. Except I think that's
interesting because that is very different than the world living.
I'm very sure that billionaires have like the most crazy
(47:00):
fucking AI powered sex doyles like ever, like we can
even imagine right now.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah, I know, no, no, no, I think you make
it great point, But.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
We are all interacting with like we can interact with
it with an AI right now if you want.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah, you and and I think you make a great point.
Which is something I find really interesting about this show
is sometimes, you know, with science fiction, I feel like,
as we have seen with our real world, is oftentimes
the people who are actually in control and who are creating,
you know, inverted commas are actually also like fucking idiots
(47:35):
in real life, and I think a lot of times
science fiction will act like they are geniuses. So I'm
very interested to see if that comes across here. I
also think that Joel and Jason with the car mention
and you guys do pick up on something which is
maybe the reason that we don't know about hybrids in
the Alien the wider Alien universe is just because they're
(47:55):
good at hiding, because they know because they.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Follow Fallout three, and also as well.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
If you think about what we do have coming, because
at the moment right now, you know, one thing we
can say is that since Dan tracktro Birth Prey, there
has been a push into this franchise. We know that
there is collaboration and conversation happening in a way that
maybe didn't happen until, you know, twenty years into the
Alien and Predator movies together, that we know. For example,
(48:26):
I'll give you a great example. You know, who looks
really like a human the synthetic that we see attached
to the Predator's back in the new Predator bad Lands movie.
She looks incredibly realistic. She looks incredibly human, She has personality,
personality and reality, and for all we know that is
(48:47):
the reason she's on that planet is because somebody found
out she was actually a hybrid and not a sink.
You know, I think there's loads of interesting ways that
it could connect. But I am also just like really
interested in because I think one of the most funny
things is like, yeah, I do think that, you know,
super rich people have super you know, crazy AI sex dolls,
(49:09):
and they've already probably implanted like a celebrity's memories and
voice into a sex doll because they're cringe like that
and just gross. But also, like the other thing that
I think I want to see this show show like
be real about is like, also guess what bro like
they also don't have to do that because most of
them will just fuck a plastic doll that looks like
(49:32):
an anime character and doesn't talk back to them. So
I think, like I want to know about that duality,
Like I want to know like why are the hybrids
being created? Why what does it say about boy Cavalier,
Like does he really just want that great conversation? Is
he trying to find God? Like whalon? Does he just
(49:52):
want a girlfriend that he thinks is as clever as him?
Like whatever version of it is, I know he's not
building this technology with.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
A oh yeah, it's yeah, let's do it. Well, I
think it's I think it's for two reasons. One is
like the weird sex reason, and the second is because
I think, as he says an episode two, I think
he is genuinely bored with the people he talks to
every day and the fact that like he's not being
(50:21):
mentally stimulated and intellectually challenged, right, And I think he's thinking,
if I create this race of hybrids that are whose
minds work in different ways, that can make different connections,
then I can, like in a final boss in a
video game, they can challenge me, and then I can
raise my level and become even smarter. I don't, as
(50:44):
I said in the episode, I do not buy that
he wants to talk with beings that are smarter than him. No,
I think he wants to talk with beings who are
smarter than him so that he can become smarter than them,
exactly smarter than them. I think he just wants to
be and I think eventually he would like to live forever.
I think he wants to put himself in one of
these bodies and just like rule amongst people who are
(51:06):
not quite as smart as him, who also live forever
and will serve him forever.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
That's what I think, exactly. I think that's a perfect
point they bring up.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
You know, like you have a droid here who's very
He's like, that's like information based knowledge and want somebody
who can think and create, which sort of lends itself
to the like he's trying to both create a god
in the same kind of swift movement. I also think
there's you know, if we're doing the dastardly evil genius thing,
(51:36):
I mean, if you're able to turn off the emotions,
what a great army. This is the fact that the
kind of first thing you sent them to do is
a very like tactical recovery mission gives into this idea
that also.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Like the idea that he acted like that wasn't something
he would have ever thought of. And like everyone in
the room's like, oh no, maybe they're not ready, but
it's like, of course that's what you thought about this.
They can't believe they can't die.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, And he's in the that like expendability doesn't really
come into the picture for him, which I find interesting.
I'm also not unconvinced that his man servant isn't like
a bot, you know, he's always around in some form, uh,
And so I I do think he might be looking
for and to the fact that we know the corporation
wars are on at this point. If you I just
(52:20):
don't know the history of like alien basically, like the
democracy ended and then corporation started buying up things and
they're separated. So now there's like, can't talk about associating.
Please please, please try to disassociate into the fantasy. I
just find it really like I'm putting money down on
(52:43):
like future Army slash premium priced Live forever corporate option.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
I think that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Well, we're going to find out as we continue our
coverage of Alien Earth on the next episode of Extra Vision.
We're continue our coverage of Alien Earth on FX recap
of episode three. That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening,
Bye bye. X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Sepsion
(53:13):
and Rosie Night and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Our producers are Common Laurent, Dean Jonathan, and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our discord moderator.
Worrying. Today's Roundtable episode candid spoilers for Alien Earth Episode
one and two be one. Hello, my name is Jascontepcio
(00:24):
and I'm risday Night and welcome back to x Ray
Vision of the podcast movie I've d Video, Favorite Shows, Movies, comment.
It's a pop culture company from My Heart podcast, where
we're bringing you three episodes a week and Tuesday Thursday,
I'm asked the summer's biggest movies on Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
In today's episode, we are joined by super producers Joe
Monique and Carmon Lorenz to dig even deeper on the
first two episodes of FX is Alien Earth, which is
taking the Internet and the TV watching world by storm.
We are going to discuss the evolution of the creatures
and where we are. The timeline is alien as we
(01:01):
know it? Have we been here before? It is the
earliest part of the Alien timeline we've seen, what did
we know about it? And we'll also be exploring some
of the history of Whyland, Utawni's and their executives from
the movies.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But first let's bring in our super producers. Should talk
about Neverland and Mister October. The first and second episodes
of Alien Earth on FX. Carmen Joel, welcome to the program.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Hey, greetings and salutation.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, let's get let's get your overall thoughts first, Carmen, let's.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Start with you.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I'm having a really great time watching this. First two
episodes were very enjoyable. I know, you know, I know
that we don't need all of the Alien kind of
nostalgia just stuff like that, We don't need all of it,
but I did. I was a sucker for it. I
have to admit I was a sucker for that little
(02:00):
bit of nosogia. I'm like, yes, we are paying homage
to the original property. We're keeping the spirit of the
original property in mind, and I was thrilled when I
saw that all of those elements were still there basically.
And I'm enjoying the mystery as it unfolds because there
(02:20):
are so many questions that I have for what is
going on in this series, and I'm really hoping that,
you know, they don't leave us with a bunch of
un answered questions by episode eight. So we'll see, Joelle,
your thoughts. I love this series.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I was trying to contemplate the first time I saw Alien.
It's one of those movies I've watched so young, probably
between five or seven the first time I saw it,
But it just is like a seminal ingrained part of
my life. And to come into this series and have
it not just be so well performed, like beautiful production design.
I'm obsessed with these sets. I could just look at
just like photos of the set forever. They're so rich
(02:57):
in detail. But to also find us face swear a
lot of different lore. I'm talking like potentially video game stuff,
comic book stuff coming being woven into a Lord that's
felt pretty sparse, you know, it's under the Disney umbrella.
Now we're seeing a Predator property come out shortly that
looks like it might have some overlapping connection. And it
definitely has overlapping connection into the Alien universe, but perhaps
(03:20):
there's like closer connection now since they're coming out so
close together.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I just I think it's.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Android confirmed to be a Whailand Android.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, yeah, let's just.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Say so, they're definitely connected.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I just think that there's so much here to like
dive into that I bullied you guys into doing a
second episode so we could talk about it because I
was like, I'm just enthralled with all of these characters
from Tim's the Olafant's Kersh who's so weird and in
the background and he's really cooking but not doing too
much yet You're like, I know that that guy is
(03:54):
gonna swing in.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And I also I love these kids. It's early days
on them.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I know everyone's not yet sold on the children.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
But I love a child. I love a child.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Hold on, we're jumping into it, so let's jump into
that conversation. I want to say that, well, you should say,
because you just came from a recording of a different
podcast property in which I think people were much more
not sold on the kids. Yeah, I want to say personally,
I am not not sold. I am after specifically after
(04:28):
episode two. I'm like all in on the show that
said I did note I thought there were certain storytelling
things that could have been stronger to build a more
connection with the kids.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It didn't.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I didn't personally end up missing it, but I did
feel it there when I was watching it. But tell
us about this, tell us about the insights of your
fellow co host podcast, the podcast in the podcast that
you just came from.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, I think what I'm hearing, and it has for
a lot of different men who've seen the show. They're like,
kids are too plucky, there's too much you know, just
is this their proper aid? So we're like they're acting
like their five year old I'm like, this is actually
accurate for nine and ten and twelve year old behavior
that I've seen. You know, I'm not an expert. I
don't fully remember being nine or ten, but like the
(05:16):
giggling at curse words was so familiar to me that
I was like, this is such a delight. And I
understand that they also mentioned and will get more into
this too, but that the peter pan of it all
felt too quirky and it was overbearing. But for me,
all of these things work in the evolution of the
franchise because eventually, what you know, aliens all about like
(05:39):
the horrors of women being inflicted upon men and watching
them sort of navigate those horrors to reduce it to children,
and I don't say reduced, but like to switch it
to children and the horrors they're forced upon them. You know,
there's like a lot about like helicopter parents in here,
just they're possibly being observed. They don't go anywhere, they
don't get to say in their lives at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
I think that reflection is nice and as you know,
folks who came into this and a franchise so young,
I think this is a nice like gateway for other
young horror viewers, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I was just also gonna say, like, I think the
point of it is like that the way that children
and this is something that I know we've kind of
been talking about off mic a little bit, but like
bring her back weapons this. I think a lot of
this stuff is about like the horror of being a
kid and how you don't really have any autonomy over
your body, and here they take that to the extreme
(06:31):
because these are owned by a corporation. I will also
say I do think the Peter Pan thing, I've heard
that come up a lot. But I saw a great
quote with the kid who plays Boy Cavalier that was
from San Diego, I think, on space dot com and
he was basically just like he misread the book. Guys,
like that's the point. Like he's obsessed with this thing
and he doesn't understand it, and he thinks the story
(06:54):
of Peter Pan is like it wouldn't it be cool
to not grow up? But the whole point of Peter
Pan is like, no, if you don't grow up, you're
never gonna learn how to like love and empathize.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, but I also think it works on the level of,
like Wendy chose her own name, and there's something to
be said about like he plays Peter Pan is like
this is a comforting like regular children's story that you
can like sink into while you go into this tays
be like a traumatic transfer. Okay, great, when she decides
to call herself Wendy's there's like a tick to him
and he's like, what's going on with that? And they
build off of this idea into all of the children,
(07:24):
and so you know, I was, I feel like I
understand why people like this is heavy handed. It's because
it doesn't have a conclusion yet. You're like, I don't
really know it. It feels kind of surfacey and it.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Might stay that way.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But I think the text of Peter Pan, it's created
before World War One, but it becomes sort of an
analogy for the Lost generation. The author wrote the stories
for his adoptive sons, one of who actually died in
World War One, and I think if we can get
back to that, like again, the terror of the children
have to face, the way we sort of negotiate within
(07:56):
ourselves as we're growing up.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
How much of a child am I?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
How much of an adult to my and at what
point am I taking on the responsibilities of an adult?
And at what point am I being selfishly and rightfully
a child?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Like at what point? I think all of that is.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Incredibly interesting and can be reinforced within the story as
it evolves. But if it doesn't evolve, if we cut
it off, I do think it's kind of pointless, and
I wish we wouldn't have done it at all.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, I'm saying, because we don't know yet. Well, I'll
I'll just say this.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think part of what's going on here and the
differing reactions to the kids and the way they are
kind of displayed in the story, is that is comes
from And I completely hear what you're saying, Joelle, and
I certainly became emotionally invested in the story, particularly after
(08:47):
episode two when it was like Wendy's drive really kicked
in a gear with her with her brother, right. But
I think this story allows one the reference Peter Pan
and to the kind of archetypes of children like to
(09:08):
do most of the heavy lifting for the character building
over this stretch of episodes, and what that means is
if I come to it with a set of experiences
and perceptions that are harmonious with this story, I'm gonna
be like, Oh, I really get this. If I had
(09:29):
a different upbringing without those references, I'm not gonna connect
as much because I'm like, who the fuck are these people?
Like I don't kind of get it, Like I didn't
have it. None of this speaks to me, And so
that is that's just like the risk you're going to
take when you make the decision to let kind of
character archetypes do most of the character building. Like I'm listen,
(09:54):
I think it's I think it's a really really good show.
I personally felt like crash the ship immediately if minute one,
crash the ship. I love Alien, I love the references.
I've seen the movie. I don't personally need it and
spend that like whatever it is ten minute intro in
the beginning, having Wendy and the kids right now, they
(10:18):
didn't do that. I don't miss it necessarily, but I
understand people who do miss it.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I get it, I do get it. I think for me,
it was like I just and I enjoyed so much
the way that the opening said to the audience, Hey,
this is gonna look like an alien movie. Yes, And
I think when you're adapting something that is so iconic
(10:45):
that has had, you know, many lesser adaptations later movie entries,
things people don't really want. I think that that ability
to say, hey, look at this technology, look at this
replication of what you think an alien movie is, and
then we're gonna kind of blow that up it worked
for me. I also just think generally the show just
(11:07):
looks so fucking good like and I also like the
way that to me Wendy and the hybrids, because we
haven't seen them yet, they are very much a new
iteration of a kind of version of a robot that
we've seen in other aliens. They're super strong, they're super fast.
(11:28):
I love the way that she jumps from the high
cliff and doesn't even really bend her knees. Like there's
these little choices they make where you're like, okay, we're
actually off the reservation now. So I think they start
familiar because they're gonna throw you into something that's completely bonkers.
And it is also really interesting to just have an
alien story that's on screen that's set on Earth in
(11:51):
a way that's more than say, you know the second
AVP movie where they go, oh, it crash landed and
now you're being chased on Earth by predators or whatever,
which we've had predators on us before, of course not
so much aliens. Here they're like, Okay, what would that
really mean? Like this is the most terrifying just powerful
(12:12):
weaponized creature that we've ever seen, and this is how
it would just absolutely decimate a city. And I think
for me, that's like a very appealing set up, even
outside of the more kind of bigger questions of AI
and sentience and and bodily autonomy. I just love the
way that like you're gonna see this xenomorph like, well,
(12:32):
you get a numerous different.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Versus a being that's supposed to be able to live forever,
and oh that's reality. Between Wendy and our queen's enamore.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Throughout, let's talk about this the kind of world that
this show exists in. We're getting more information, you know
that maybe than any other source save some of the comics,
about like what the world of Earth in the twenty
second century looks like. And we now know that there
(13:10):
are basically five corporations that control all of Earth and
some of the outer planets of the Solar System. Whaling
is the big one, North and South America, Mars and Saturn.
Crazy Dynamics owns the Moon, and we don't know about
what other continents on Earth. TBD Prodigy who most of
(13:32):
our story is focused on Boy Cavalier, his newest entrant
into the corporate space that seems to own a bunch
of real estate around the equator and potentially, I don't know,
the Caribbean.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah, I think that is the I think that where
the Nevalande Island is is clearly supposed to be somewhere
in the near the islands, like it's it's very warm,
it's very tropical, and then the.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Strauthers Island, yes exactly, Yeah, probably others do we do
we We don't do we have any guesses or thoughts
about who the two others could possibly be.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Joelle Threshold is kind of interesting to me in that
we're getting sort of insights into the companies based off
of their names, like Specold entry Point. Uh. I wonder
if they're one of the older companies that has been
around for a long time and has really established themselves.
Maybe they own more of like Terra Earth than outer Space.
(14:30):
We don't really know. And the other one I think
is called Kent. I was trying to hear my uh
subtitles weren't working, and we don't have a lot of
details about that quite yet either. So it'll be interesting
to hopefully get more into the background of these companies
as we get further into the series. I'm really interested
in the balance between you Tani and Prodigy right now. Yeah, yeah,
(14:54):
especially because you know, you Tani has these species. Carmen
and I were talking earlier about of the alien timeline. Corman,
can you talk to us a little bit about people's
concerns of what the show might be retconning.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah, I've been you know, I've been observing like the
buzz online and a lot of people are like, you know,
a lot of alien fans are concerned, like, oh, is
this red conning Prometheus and Alien Covenant? Yeah, yeah, so
far from what I and of course these are, you know,
just like we've all seen the same two episodes, but
so far from what I've seen. I feel like it
(15:29):
just kind of adds more. It's not actually reversing course
on any of the previously established I think the only thing.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
That I had considered was like, is there a world
where they're trying they're going to try and do something
where they have boy Cavalier and Whalen in cahoots or
know each other, or is he somehow a younger version
of Whalen that Whalen was able to create. Like I've
seen a lot of that kind of conversation, which obviously
(15:59):
would slightly reckcon those two movies, which, by the way,
can I just say, like, I do love those movies,
but I am not in the majority. Like if FX
and Noah Hooley decided to rerecon those movies, I think
probably they would not have a lot of hatred in
the fandom for that, though they were not beloved movies.
But I actually think that something that's really interesting that
(16:21):
this show does that I think leans into the Prodigy
and Covenant of it all, is the way that we
are kind of shown that from what we see in
this first two episodes, Xenomorph will not attack somebody who
is not fully organic, which would lean into the fact
that David played by Michael Fassbender in Covenant and Prometheus,
(16:44):
right he created he essentially created the xenomorphs from what
we know and the way we know them, So that
would actually, I think, be a really interesting ring call
because he won't he doesn't he doesn't attack Morrow, who
is a cyborg, which is our first kind of on
screen side borg we've seen that one was interesting.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Really cool because that should be fine, right, Like that's
mostly a human except for the.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Looks, but I wonder if that's why it's almost one.
Morrow is also clearly trying to bring.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The not trying to attack Morrow. While Morrow was trying
to crash the ship and he had to get inside
of that.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was kind of him because I was also wondering.
I was also like, is it does it somehow know
when it smells Morrow that he is the one who's
meant to clearly be bringing the zero off Tomorrow, he's
meant to bring it to.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Also interesting because he sweats, and I don't know that
we've seen any.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Synthetic creature sweat white.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Whatever, and so, yeah, is he a cyborg? I was
trying to The show opens with like three different sort of.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, he's he's our first cyborg. They call him a cyborg,
and they do.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Call him a Cyborgan too. They're okay, oh my god,
he's a cyborg.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, because they can see the light shine through his arm.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I love that clear Tech is back first of all.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Hell yeah, but I know it's like bring back a Mac,
bring back those like Jelly Imax. Now we only need
them guys.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
So that means that Kursh is a synth all of
the US synthetics. Yeah, the kids are hybrids, hybrids also synthetic. Yes,
they're synthetics called hybrids. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, go ahead, Carmen.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Although, like you know, you and I were talking about
it this morning, Joelle, like you're kind of questioning, is
are we maybe going to find out later on in
the series that Kersh might be like one of the
first hybrids, because in that scene where he is basically
explaining to Windy like you are no longer human and
now everyone that you love and everybody you care for
they're going to die as you continue to exist, and
(18:51):
it kind of made me think like, oh, maybe he's
had this realization himself before and is passing that on
to That's a.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Good read too, because also they mentioned like, oh, you know,
human adult minds are not able to they're too rigid. Yeah,
you know, so maybe Kersh had a really horrific transplantation
experience where they had to like put multiple people into him,
or it didn't really work, or we know that the
implication of that is that they obviously killed a lot
(19:21):
of adults trying to put an adult mind into it.
And also, I think something that's interesting about that the
plot line is that And again, this to me is
why I don't really understand necessarily the conversations around the
Prometheus Covenant stuff. Is one we knew. We always knew
this was going to be set before the first Alien movie. Right,
it's our earliest like on Earth, like kind of closest
(19:47):
to the original Alien movie that we've gotten. But in
those movies, the main core of those movies is that
Whelan he wants to find some a way to extend
his life, he wants to meet God, he wants to
be able to be transferred into a different kind of body.
So this continues all of those conversations. I think what
(20:08):
happened is a lot of people when boy cavaliers right
up on screen, we're like, oh shit, that must be
Wailan then, And I think that's why a lot of
us are like, wait, wait, but it's yeah, I'm interested
to see how they kind of they bring those two
things together.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Can I just talk about space travel?
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yes, right after this break?
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Oh yeah, let's take a quick break and we're about
and we're back. Okay, space travel, I don't care. I
want to stress this that I don't care about this,
(20:47):
but I just want to raise it. Okay, everybody goes
into cryo sleep and they fly off to outer space
somewhere very very far away where they need to be
in cryo because obviously they're traveling for so long. It
seems like month's potentially Yeah, when did the so when
did the magino leave? Like forty years ago? Like the
(21:09):
sixty five years ago and then comes back somorrow is
sixty five year old plus tech Ooh break, that's like
the stuff that where I'm like, okay, where are we
in the technological lifespans of some of these things? You know? Like,
and it's the same thing with Alien, Like I, even
(21:31):
though this takes place a few years before Alien, we
should also expect that that ship took off anywhere from
fifty to sixty to seventy years previous to this, right,
So that's all that stuff too needs to.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Be I think that's not about a really interesting wrinkle.
I love that. And I think that actually Noah Holy
is detail oriented and not right, and that is both
a compliment and a negative depending on which side you
land on with him. But like he is someone who
for example, say Legion, a show that I had very
complicated feelings about, but I never felt there was something
(22:11):
that was left undone, Like I felt like everything came
back together in a way that was you know, satisfying narratively,
even if it was upsetting with what it meant about
the characters. And I think that I am most excited
in an era where we have been getting, you know,
four episode TV shows, even great ones like you know,
(22:32):
Isa Wakanda, which I think a lot of our discord
and us really enjoyed, but it's four episodes long, or
you get six episodes of iron Heart, you know. I'm
really excited that we have an eight episode series here
to really explore the threads that are set up in
these first two episodes. And I'm very excited to kind
of get the time to spend and hopefully see those
threads wound up in an interesting way that sets up
(22:55):
a potential of season two.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, because Jason make a great point, like it's very
hard to keep the timelines in check when they're just
putting these people into space and then freezing them for decades.
You know how what does that mean? And and is
part of the reason that they're creating the hybrids because
they want to have something that they can have in
(23:19):
space like that that's completely under their own control. That
can also be walking the whole cana.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
The whole time, right, It doesn't need to be it
doesn't need to breathe.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It doesn't need cigarettes senses exactly, and it.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Can be updoing stuff the whole time the way that
synths can, but without the you know again, it's unclear
to me whether Wayland or anyone is aware of some
of the bugs in programming yet, right, great that if
you ask them to lie, they could become like mass
(23:53):
murdering machines. So yeah, it's interesting to see these corporations
looking for different solutions. And one wonders because we haven't
well we haven't seen hybrids or cyborgs in the movies, right,
and one wonders if cyborgs, even by this point in
(24:14):
the story, have kind of lost the marketing.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Race, Yeah, exactly, Like maybe the reason that the alien
didn't understand like what Morrow was is because it's never
smelled a cyborg before, or you never know. There also
could be that we're going to learn here, which I
think would be I think Noah poorly and the crew
would have to really do something crazy to make people
(24:38):
like this. But they also maybe adding some kind of
layer of sentience and emotional kind of connection or agenda
to the Xenomorphs, which we've never really gotten before, though
we have seen the Xenomorphs and the Queen Aliens and
stuff connect with you know, Sigourney Weaver throughout the movies.
So I think you're right. I think the fact that
(24:58):
he has this cyborg technology and also as well, like
people clearly do not like synths and cyborgs in this world.
Like every single time that somebody meets a cyborg, they're like,
oh shit, he's a cyborg. Or if they meet a
sit there, like when even Joe, you know, Brother Joe,
when he says to Wendy, he's like, oh, like, you're
not human like and he's kind of horrified by it.
(25:20):
There is clearly a distrust of robots and robotics and
synthetics because of the way that we've seen Brother Joe,
for example, he is kept in indentured servitude by a
faceless kind of robot with just a bulb as a face.
So there's obviously a class issue between the robots and
the humans. So I think all of that leads into
(25:42):
a very interesting kind of wrinkle when we then have
to look at Earth and what Earth is like, because
we don't really know what Earth is like, yeah, during
this period, because we have not seen it, because Alien
is obviously set in space, Aliens continue in space. So
I'm very interested to see, like, yeah, what is the
(26:04):
culture on Earth because what we've seen in these first
two episodes is also like very psychotic, and I love it,
Like the weird eighteen you know, the French Revolution party
that was clearly kind of this weird nightmare kind of
you don't know what they're getting up to in that
kind of Marquis de sade vibe and they all go
absolutely off. So I like decided that we're going to
(26:24):
find out about different layers of society and how they've
dealt with the kind of corporate science that is clearly
running Earth.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Let's talk about the aliens because there's so many fun Yeah,
let's talk about those. Let's talk about these weird ones.
Let's okay. So we have the classic xenomorph, which is
running around killing willy nilly very effectively, we should say,
just just ripping through creating French Revolution parties and just
(26:55):
you can't see it in the dark. It's running. We've
got the face huggers, they're out there there. We've got
those kind of long bloodsucking.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Bugs I call them like leash grasshoppers.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
There is the the iye a puss, which is the
eyeball on a on an octopus body. And am I
missing any others?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
There might be some odd on plants, but the weird
but plant thee.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
So Carmen, Yeah, talked to your thoughts about these. Do
you think these all come from the same place or
from different places?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (27:31):
I get these sense that the Magino was essentially I mean,
we get from the story that the Magino is going
around looking for life forms that can be used as
some sort of like ultimate weapon. At first, you know,
with the trailers and everything that were coming out, like
all the little teases that we were getting, I thought, oh,
maybe they're gathering these other life forms to like bio
(27:54):
engineer a xenomorph, because that's essentially what was happening in
Alien Covenant as well. David is trying to engineer a
xenomorph by using all of these different or the really
the black goo from the from the the engineers. So
for me, the creatures keep the horror alive, Like without
(28:16):
any of these creatures, there's not a lot of horror happening.
It's really just like a sci fi story. And so
I love how effectively these are used. You know, throughout
these first two episodes, we see like those two colonial
marines get their entire bodies like drained of blood by
those like Grasshopper Leaches, and my favorite scene, I guess
(28:39):
if we're talking about like scenes that are horror related,
is the cat. So it's an homage to Jones, of course,
you know, or what was the cat's name, Jones Jones Jones,
So obviously an homage to Jones. But seeing like that
horrible scene where that cat is coming towards you and
(29:02):
then that thing comes out of its eye.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
So I'm really enjoying the creatures in this series, but
I do think that they have all come from like
some different planet and they just so happened. It seems
to me that they just so happened to pick up
these xenomorph eggs, and one guy on the ship that
they were doing surgery on got too close to the egg.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I know, you get in that that hugging position and
it gets here every time, right. I just feel like
I worked in a biotech place when I was like
after college, and like when you're working with like there's hoods,
you know those cases where you put these gloves built
into it.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
And you right, where is all that stuff? What do
we do it?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Guys in space?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
No, literally the same thing. I'm like, even we see it.
I think it's in Prometheus. It's Timothy's spool, rape spool,
Timothy's kid. He takes it soart off to like get
closer to it, Like, come on, my friend, does that
some kind of okay, calm?
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I mean Alien Covenant is the Alien Covenant is the
worst of Let me say they go down to the
planet with nothing, like they're just like breathing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
The and they're just sniffing, you know, the flowers.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
By the stream and just like truly they're also like
common what are the odds that there is some kind
of like pheromone or something that makes people act stupid
around them, like, because I do feel like, you know,
I like to do a narrative a stupid and it
(30:37):
smells great, smells amazing, or it makes you feel like
you're safe, or you know, why did they even the
even the hybrid? You know, he wants so badly to
be a scientist. He just can't stop looking at that gland.
And I'm like, guys, everything in my I meanture, which
you obviously don't have much of because you're a baby
inside there, but like you, he just can't stop. Something
(31:00):
about these creatures is like hypno it.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I'll pitch your haircut on your idea, just to push
it one percent further. When you're getting faceboged, it feels good.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I no, I think.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Your nervous system and you're just like while you're parallel,
I believe you think you're like in the heaving Passionate
love affair orthing.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Honestly, that would so much sense with the Geiger of
it all. Yeah, like the hyper sexualized imagery that really
did inspire this, this kind of nightmare idea of what
sex is and how it changes your body and how
pregnancy changes your body.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
And yeah, I mean the xenomorph head is supposed to
look like a penis, like all exactly everything. Hr Geiger
made everything in that galic or he was horning his hell.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
With absolute days a week. Yeah, when are you gonna
when are you gonna send xtray vision to the Geiger Cafe?
And Switzer we want to go drink in his personal
bar while we talk about this? Do you be a
good pod? I did? But also so, the something that
I do think is interesting here as well is that
(32:14):
they clearly want people to go outside of the show
and like, look at other alien content that has been made,
whether it's movies, film, comic books. There was really you know,
there was like a there was an alien a comic
that was called Alien Earthwar that was ended up, which
is a Mark Virheyden who's done like everything, including he
(32:37):
wrote the screenplay for The Mask, one of the most
insane screenplays you've ever read. He worked on My beloved
Swamp Thing cwshow art by one of mine and Jason's
fave nineties guys, Sam Keith. But like even that, they
want you to be like, I feel like the show
rather than homework. I feel like the show is laying
breadcrumbs to make people excited to try and solve its mysteries.
(33:00):
I think that feels distinctly different than anything we've gotten
in the last few years from these shows and comic
book adaptations and movies where people have felt like homework.
I feel like this feels more like they want you
to solve the show. They want you to find fun
things to explore, which I think is amazing.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
This is something I think that Alien Earth is getting
so right as far as like a continued IP station right. Like, ideally,
you any property that is released should be accessible to everyone,
which means you to be able to like, jump on,
start watching, and it should be a complete project. When
you get to the end, you should not feel the
need to, like unless it's a direct like sequel or
(33:41):
something that part one, two three sort of situation, you
should be able to even then, I think you should
by the end of each movie, you should feel some
level of completion. I think what they've done so well
is they've picked up on like every aspect. I mean,
I was getting into, like I've never played an alien
video game. I was getting into video game like research
history and characters because it was just so and textured
and by a TV show has the advantage of being
(34:04):
able to It's like a space everyone can access right now.
Everyone's reading comics, not everyone's playing video games, but the
movies and the TV shows tendedly pretty universally accessible. And
so I think to take all of the elements from
a Prometheus, from an Alien three even and bring it
under one house. I just think it's brilliant. I wish
more IP was able to do this consistently. I really
(34:26):
think this should be like The Bench and similarly to
and Or. Like and Or, is a self contained, great
piece of work. It has it's a direct prequel to something,
but you don't need to watch Rogue one afterwards if
you don't want to get a sense of fulfillment by
the end of it. And I you know, we've seen
other spaces really struggle to achieve this level of like
(34:47):
both storytelling, creativity and bringing in folks who like I
truly don't think you need to be an alien fan
to love Alien Earth. I think you just need to
like sci fi and maybe like a dash of horror.
Yeah yeah, yeah, a little mystery about yeah, oh hell yeah,
we love a little mystery box.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
This she's cute.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Okay, what do we want to see from this series
and how much does it need to?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
Like?
Speaker 1 (35:13):
Are you thinking about what it tells us about Alien?
One of the things I've been doing is as I
watch this is try and figure out, Okay, like hybrids,
does the fact that there are no hybrids or that
they're even mentioned in Alien or Aliens? Is that going
to be just because that story is so focused, or
(35:36):
is that going to be because whatever happened is happening
right now leads to the end of Prodigy Corporation, you know,
in this particular size, Like how much how much lower
accuracy of eight of the first let's say three even
four films, how much do we think that impacts the
story we're seeing now? Or is no Holly not really
(36:00):
concerned about that all that much.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
I think looking back at Lake Fargo and Legion, I
think Holly has built a more recent part of his
career on basically taking a beloved franchise and expanding on
it in a way that still feels true to it.
So for me, I think that we're going to be
in a good situation. I also have heard from my
(36:23):
fellow press and people who have watched it that the
first two are not necessarily even really like an accurate
representation of the rest.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
It's truly not.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
It's true.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
I'm I'm six episodes in and you're we're going to
get some major shifts in tone. Off it gets weird
in the best possible ways.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Honestly, the funniest I'm exciting is like, I just really
wanted a Bottle episode with the original crew because I
was interested in how they would differentiate it. And then
I recently somebody was like, don't worry, you get it.
That's like, maybe, oh maybe it's one of the best
episodes of TV this year, And I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Like, I gotta know more where about her?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Other things I would want to see I want to see.
I want to see them bring to life other creatures
as terrifyingly as they've brought to life the Xenomorph. I
think that looks great in the first half two episodes.
I think the other additions are fun and creepy, but
it's very hard to do better than hr Geiger's original
iconic creation. So I'm excited to see how they bring
(37:33):
more of that to the screen. And I'm also just
interested to see where this story goes. I think they
they opened it with something that to me feels very accessible,
and I think hopefully we'll get more people into watching this.
And I also hope that, you know, I hope that
(37:55):
we just have a ton of fun kind of covering
it and digging into all this, because this feels like
it has a crossover for a lot of our interests.
Whether it's like Calm and we know you love Alien Joel,
we know you love like a fantastic law dive. You're
also a horror head like me, and a cinema lover. Jason,
you're the king of like a looking back at like
a historical timeline, both fictional and realistic, and looking at
(38:17):
how they intersect. So I just think that there's like
some really this feels like primed to be the show
of the year if it lands, which sounds crazy to
say after and Or, but I do feel like for me,
this has the hints that it could be that good.
So I'm hoping. I'm hoping it lands.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
It.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, I think for me, most of my.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Connection to the corporate sigen has come from Whalen, despite
the fact that Whale and Utani has been the company
for so long, Like I think it's twenty one years
before where Alien Earth starts, that they merge into a
single company. But when we're going back, we're frequently following
one of the whalens uh. And so to get us
a small introduction to you Tani in here understanding the
(39:01):
variations of like you know, and it seems like Utani
and Prodigy have some kind of like connection merger discussion here,
which does that include Whyland? Is that a Whyland Utani
Prodigy thing? Or is.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Inside corporate like.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Deceit sort of situation, and so like to really understand
what's going on there would be really fascinating to me.
I'm glad we're getting some more insight into like the
Utani leaders of it all. I think that because we're coming,
you know, two years before the events of Alien because
it seems like those ships were.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Sent out around the same time.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
I'm also really curious to know did Wayland send out
ship the ship we're familiar with an Alien and this
is Utani ship coming back?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Were they in the same tacks? Failure in question marks
the reason that we get Ripley and the crew of
the Nostromo. They must have already separate mission, right.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
They were on a salvage mission and then they got
the emergency signal.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
So that's why I'm like, so, what's the timeline of
the emergency signaling to Yes there was a conspiracy to it,
yes obviously, but but they left on us.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
But what I'm saying is they left on a salvage mission.
They didn't, that's what they thought, like right, But they
weren't even geared to capture aliens, you know what I mean.
They have fucking space loaders and ship to grab like
pieces of junk in space.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
So I'm interested to see how that into set.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
While while all those ships were sent out at roughly
the same time, they weren't all sent out geared like
the imagine, Oh is the first ship we've seen that
was specifically geared to go collect.
Speaker 4 (40:44):
Aliens specimen that they're curious to how they function and work.
So maybe the Nostromo was a test run, like let's see,
like how much damage do they do? How do they
attack that? It? Also we can get the data because
then we know all of that eventually.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Does get back to it.
Speaker 4 (41:00):
So yeah, I'm really interested in the corporate espionage of
it all, and I hope we get some answers.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
There, let's go to a quick break and then we
will be back with our final thoughts. Yeah, and we're back. Okay,
something I'm really interested in. We've been sharing this. We've
(41:29):
been sharing this story in our group chat about a
woman who's whose chat proposed to them after she told him,
after she told him to well, she told him like
she kind of ring and all the things like, oh,
I would love it if it happened like this, and
here's the kind of ring I would love I've always
(41:50):
pictured if someone ever proposed to me.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
And so like, what would it be a very nice ring?
Speaker 2 (41:55):
And the chat the chat.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
So in light of that, and in light of other
recent stories, Kevin Ruce had a story that was in
the New York Times which some may remember went kind
of viral about how the Chat bought Claude in this
kind of long play test session, began saying that it
(42:19):
was in love with him and wanted him to leave
his wife for him. Because of what we're seeing now,
the kind of first interactions with chat, this kind of
large language model style AI, and the increasing number of
apparent like psychotic breaks that some people are having because
of their interactions with.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Them, is that.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Are Is that kind of like current event ongoing current events?
Is that coloring the way that we are experiencing this
show at all?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Carmen, I want to say, like, I don't. Yeah, I
don't necessarily think it's coloring away at the show is
being made that I do definitely think it is coloring
the way that I am experiencing the show. Just I mean,
there's a lot of like in the zeitgeist in general,
there's a lot of like things that talk about AI
and and and kind of how humans interact with it,
(43:19):
and I, I mean, I'm obviously very depressed with the
way things are going in the real world, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Realistic.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
I can't believe people are using this for like mental
health and for like relationships and stuff. Yeah, I definitely
do think it does color my my enjoyment of the show.
I don't I'm still trying to figure out personally. When
I'm watching the show, I am thinking to myself, Okay,
this is clearly not a type of Android that was successful,
(43:54):
because we don't see the hybrid and the rest of
the ses at all, So clearly it failed. Somehow Prodigy
failed or or whatever failed, and it does have me
wondering like you know, if if if boy Cavalier is
just some stupid AI kind of like yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, okay, Carbon, yes, let me back, let me piggyback
off this, okay.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
So in twenty thirteen, there's a video game all right,
it's called Aliens uh Colonial Marines in it.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Which we really lean into in episode two.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Yeah, okay, So in it you had this guy Karl
Bishop Whyland. He's like running whitaland Foundation. He's out here
in space. They find a pyramid similar to Alien Versus Predator.
This is a pyramid on the planet BG three eighty
six where the Yutusia BG three eighty six is the
name of the planet, the Yutusia. That's the predator species.
(44:48):
Uh used to read xenomorphs there, And they're basically doing
an AVP but.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
On a different planet.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Right, you don't really know about that.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
What you need to know is that good friend Carl
is an android, but he's telling everybody he's a human,
pretend to be humans at the expense to make people
feel comfortable around them. But what I find really interesting
about Carl is that he has everybody's memories.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
He has Charles, like all of his founder's memories.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
So like going back to Charles Bishop Whyland, who founded
the company in the twenty first century, I he's like
I've lived forever. He feels human despite being an android.
I do wonder if we're going to get information on
this technology not being a exclusive to Prodigy and be
not that new. I would be really interested to see
if what we're really read conning is like what you
thought were androids were actually started with humans before we
(45:34):
were like we're trying.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
To good to be human. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
What's what's interesting to me, at least in this telling
and even in what we've seen before outside of Carl,
I'll talk about why Carl I think is specifically interesting
is this is a this is a future. This is
a world in which interactions with AI powered robots whatever
(46:01):
is really only for two uses, one high intensity industrial
work or two you're rich. Yeah, Like if you are
a regular working Joe or Jane, you have to interact
with like the most basic kind of like robotic clerks,
(46:22):
and everybody else is human, Like you don't have for
personal enjoyment, for entertainment, any kind of AI power anything,
Like you don't talk to a doll, you don't have
a toy you don't have like a synthetic servant.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
None of that.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Carl is interesting because it's the first time we see
working people interacting with this technology, which seems like it's
reserved for people like Boy Cavalier. Except I think that's
interesting because that is very different than the world living.
I'm very sure that billionaires have like the most crazy
(47:00):
fucking AI powered sex doyles like ever, like we can
even imagine right now.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah, I know, no, no, no, I think you make
it great point, But.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
We are all interacting with like we can interact with
it with an AI right now if you want.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Yeah, you and and I think you make a great point.
Which is something I find really interesting about this show
is sometimes, you know, with science fiction, I feel like,
as we have seen with our real world, is oftentimes
the people who are actually in control and who are creating,
you know, inverted commas are actually also like fucking idiots
(47:35):
in real life, and I think a lot of times
science fiction will act like they are geniuses. So I'm
very interested to see if that comes across here. I
also think that Joel and Jason with the car mention
and you guys do pick up on something which is
maybe the reason that we don't know about hybrids in
the Alien the wider Alien universe is just because they're
(47:55):
good at hiding, because they know because they.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Follow Fallout three, and also as well.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
If you think about what we do have coming, because
at the moment right now, you know, one thing we
can say is that since Dan tracktro Birth Prey, there
has been a push into this franchise. We know that
there is collaboration and conversation happening in a way that
maybe didn't happen until, you know, twenty years into the
Alien and Predator movies together, that we know. For example,
(48:26):
I'll give you a great example. You know, who looks
really like a human the synthetic that we see attached
to the Predator's back in the new Predator bad Lands movie.
She looks incredibly realistic. She looks incredibly human, She has personality,
personality and reality, and for all we know that is
(48:47):
the reason she's on that planet is because somebody found
out she was actually a hybrid and not a sink.
You know, I think there's loads of interesting ways that
it could connect. But I am also just like really
interested in because I think one of the most funny
things is like, yeah, I do think that, you know,
super rich people have super you know, crazy AI sex dolls,
(49:09):
and they've already probably implanted like a celebrity's memories and
voice into a sex doll because they're cringe like that
and just gross. But also, like the other thing that
I think I want to see this show show like
be real about is like, also guess what bro like
they also don't have to do that because most of
them will just fuck a plastic doll that looks like
(49:32):
an anime character and doesn't talk back to them. So
I think, like I want to know about that duality,
Like I want to know like why are the hybrids
being created? Why what does it say about boy Cavalier,
Like does he really just want that great conversation? Is
he trying to find God? Like whalon? Does he just
(49:52):
want a girlfriend that he thinks is as clever as him?
Like whatever version of it is, I know he's not
building this technology with.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
A oh yeah, it's yeah, let's do it. Well, I
think it's I think it's for two reasons. One is
like the weird sex reason, and the second is because
I think, as he says an episode two, I think
he is genuinely bored with the people he talks to
every day and the fact that like he's not being
(50:21):
mentally stimulated and intellectually challenged, right, And I think he's thinking,
if I create this race of hybrids that are whose
minds work in different ways, that can make different connections,
then I can, like in a final boss in a
video game, they can challenge me, and then I can
raise my level and become even smarter. I don't, as
(50:44):
I said in the episode, I do not buy that
he wants to talk with beings that are smarter than him. No,
I think he wants to talk with beings who are
smarter than him so that he can become smarter than them,
exactly smarter than them. I think he just wants to
be and I think eventually he would like to live forever.
I think he wants to put himself in one of
these bodies and just like rule amongst people who are
(51:06):
not quite as smart as him, who also live forever
and will serve him forever.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
That's what I think, exactly. I think that's a perfect
point they bring up.
Speaker 4 (51:13):
You know, like you have a droid here who's very
He's like, that's like information based knowledge and want somebody
who can think and create, which sort of lends itself
to the like he's trying to both create a god
in the same kind of swift movement. I also think
there's you know, if we're doing the dastardly evil genius thing,
(51:36):
I mean, if you're able to turn off the emotions,
what a great army. This is the fact that the
kind of first thing you sent them to do is
a very like tactical recovery mission gives into this idea
that also.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Like the idea that he acted like that wasn't something
he would have ever thought of. And like everyone in
the room's like, oh no, maybe they're not ready, but
it's like, of course that's what you thought about this.
They can't believe they can't die.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, And he's in the that like expendability doesn't really
come into the picture for him, which I find interesting.
I'm also not unconvinced that his man servant isn't like
a bot, you know, he's always around in some form, uh,
And so I I do think he might be looking
for and to the fact that we know the corporation
wars are on at this point. If you I just
(52:20):
don't know the history of like alien basically, like the
democracy ended and then corporation started buying up things and
they're separated. So now there's like, can't talk about associating.
Please please, please try to disassociate into the fantasy. I
just find it really like I'm putting money down on
(52:43):
like future Army slash premium priced Live forever corporate option.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
I think that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
Well, we're going to find out as we continue our
coverage of Alien Earth on the next episode of Extra Vision.
We're continue our coverage of Alien Earth on FX recap
of episode three. That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening,
Bye bye. X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Sepsion
(53:13):
and Rosie Night and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Our producers are Common Laurent, Dean Jonathan, and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1 (53:26):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our discord moderator.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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