In its fifth episode, “In Space, No One…,” Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth returns via flashback to the action of its initial prologue, detailing how a contamination breach allowed facehuggers and a Xenomorph to roam freely on the ship.
On paper, I was fearful that this could lead to an overly familiar kind of story, especially considering how distinct the series had been from prior Alien material up to this point. Fortunately, the new episode of Alien: Earth proved these initial concerns completely unfounded, as “In Space, No One…” is not simply a great episode of this series, but a fantastic slice of red-blooded science-fiction horror cinema in its own right.
After spending several episodes away from the camera, Hawley steps back into the role of director for this episode and is also the sole credited writer of the script. This is notable in that the first four episodes of Alien: Earth each saw the series pushing up against the perceived boundaries of prior Alien media in interesting ways, all under Hawley’s creative guidance.
The previous episode, “Observation,” moved entirely away from established norms and felt like it had become something new entirely, utilizing the bones of the storied franchise as building blocks to reach new creative ends. This made the fact that the subsequent episode would instead move backwards rather than further forward perplexing to me initially.
However, with “In Space, No One...,” Hawley returns to a familiar setting and story, as if for the purpose of illustrating just how wide the chasm of difference has become between this series and other installments of the franchise. For as much of the basic beats of this story, of a space vessel overrun by creatures and the doomed crew struggling to survive, are quintessentially Alien-esque, the way in which Hawley and his team tackle them is entirely singular.
One of the real strengths of the episode comes in the form of Hawley’s utilization of suspense. This is, frankly, an ingenious way to tackle a flashback episode, given that the knowledge that the audience has is already an inherent prerequisite for generating classical suspense.
Revered horror filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock once described that the critical difference between shock and suspense was simply knowledge. If something occurs suddenly and without warning to one of the characters, it creates shock that has an impact on the audience for a matter of seconds at most. However, by revealing to the audience the nature of this threat and then keeping the characters that they are watching deliberately in the dark as to the danger they are in, you can mine several minutes of suspense, if not longer.
In this episode, Hawley and editor Regis Kimble go above and beyond to weaponize the presence of all of these various deadly creatures onboard the Maginot and have each of them generate their own separate threads of suspense.
In many ways, this is reminiscent of the kinds of symphonic suspense-structuring techniques that a filmmaker such as John Carpenter employed frequently in his strongest films; having multiple threads of suspense mounting simultaneously, so that the audience can still be shocked as to which way everything actually plays out.
Moments such as the one where Chibuzo (as played by Karen Aldridge) is in the lab and attempting to feed the Leech while the Eye observes her doing so are so masterfully staged and captured by Hawley, turning this entire sequence into one that is excruciating to witness.
The script tackles and incorporates suspense into the very fabric of the episode on a core level, right down to the fact that the audience knows that everyone on board who isn’t Morrow (as played by Babou Ceesay) is going to die. In this way, what could have felt like a formality of an episode, in which the series retreads nostalgic ground and just showcases some more traditional Xenomorph-centric action, is instead revitalized and turned into a showcase of phenomenal craft, performances, and daring story additions.
The way in which Morrow’s character is explored in a more in-depth fashion is fascinating and continues to give Ceesay a runway upon which to deliver a fantastic performance. The way in which the actor has imbued this predominantly stoic figure with so much emotionality, down to the smallest of gestures, is genuinely impressive and deserving of acclaim in its own right.
Elsewhere, this episode gives production designer Andy Nicholson and cinematographer Colin Watkinson a chance to really strut their stuff and deliver some true-blue Alien stuff. The sets of the Maginot feel vast, articulate, and phenomenally well-sculpted, while Watkinson’s lighting brings them to vibrant life in ways that feel true to the work of Ridley Scott and cinematographer Derek Vanlint on the original film, while charting new paths.
I especially adored Hawley’s choice to utilize occasionally voyeuristic camera angles throughout, which forces the audience to question the point-of-view from which we are seeing the action: is this just a camera, or is this the POV of the Xenomorph, stalking its prey?
The choice pays off in spades in the culminating third act of the episode, where it literally cuts between multiple of these angles on different characters, getting to mine the scene for both suspense and shock when it finally reveals the truth and Teng meets his grisly end.
“In Space, No One…” is such a phenomenal episode of television that manages to further the story and deepen the themes of Alien: Earth, all while showcasing the most horror and suspense-driven filmmaking of the series thus far.
In addition to recontextualizing earlier episodes in ways that will pay off even greater dividends on rewatch, it also manages to push the overarching story forward with tremendous momentum. The final beat of the episode tees up the final three episodes of the series with sky-high stakes and cements Ceesay as one of the best performers on television right now. This is fantastic stuff, and makes it seem as if Alien: Earth is truly only getting better as it goes.
Grade: A
In this era of legacy sequels and nostalgia-soaked quasi-reboots, there’s this inherent fear that comes with any new adaptation of a storied property: is this going to be anything more than a glossier, repackaged version of what I’ve seen before?
While some iteration of the legacy sequel has been kicking around Hollywood for decades, with notable early entries such as Nimród Antal’s Predators or Joseph Kosinski’s Tron: Legacy both released back in 2010, it wasn’t until 2015 that the current cultural conception of them really took hold in the zeitgeist.
That was the year that both Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World and J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens lit up multiplexes around the globe, becoming the two highest-grossing films of the year. These two films preyed explicitly on audiences’ affinity for the original installments of their respective franchises, and largely ignored the installments that were less favorably viewed. Instead, these legacy sequels positioned themselves as “returns to basics,” and heavily embraced everything from narrative to locations to aesthetics to characters from the original installments. However, in doing so, the films themselves ultimately became little more than retreads of extremely familiar ground.
In the decade since, many films have followed in the legacy sequel footsteps of these massive blockbusters, to steadily worsening results. The Alien franchise even got one of its own in 2024, with the release of Alien: Romulus, a film whose entire marketing campaign centered around its “back to basics” take on the franchise.
I say all of this to say, I have grown incredibly weary of legacy sequel-esque continuations of beloved franchises that do little more than offer a short-term dopamine hit and leave you with little substance to actually latch onto. Fortunately, Alien: Earth has continued to deliver week after week, proving its value in the franchise.
New episodes are released every Tuesday night on FX and Hulu.