In Space, Nobody Cares If You Scream

As a naive youth, watching the unique truckers-in-space horror Alien, I remember finding it strange that the opening hour was filled with dialogue about shares, payloads, and overtime. This was a horror film about a space monster. So why was Yaphet Kotto bothering Ripley about his paycheck?

Years later I realised the genius of Alien’s script. It’s a science fiction film stripped of the usual escapist wonder, instead presenting a bare-bones story of blue-collar workers rendered expendable by the greed of their corporate employers. 

These themes expand in the sequels, which add the meat grinder of military service and flawed penal systems, all ruled by bureaucratic suits and the ever-watchful eye of Weyland Yutani.

Now we have Alien Earth, a series that doubles down on the frighteningly real prospect of warring corporate giants creating a chaotic future where dangerous biological specimens run amok and post-humanism becomes a financial dice roll. 

In Noah Hawley’s world, the obvious parallels with our current reality are far scarier than the blood-sucking ticks, eyeball monsters, or even the iconic Xenomorph. In fact, much like when Burke meet's a satisfying end on Hadley's Hope, we are rooting for ol' penis head to mulch as many foppish aristocrats as he can get his KY Jelly-covered claws on. After all, you don't see them fucking each other over for a percentage.

We live in a present day where 99% of global media is owned by a handful of capitalist giants. The world we see, the world that teaches our children and drives our waking awareness, is shaped by the whims of the richest lizard in the conference room. 

Commercialised space travel is already here, and it’s entirely feasible that mankind will be hauling cargo from distant celestial bodies within a generation. Who will control this new enterprise? The severely broken governments of our global superpowers, or the corporations whose leaders care only about the bottom line? It is nightmarish to imagine the current roster of billionaires wrestling for control of space exploration on the scale depicted in the Alien franchise.

Boy Kavalier, the real villain of the series, is another queasy look at the future elite. He is a self-proclaimed boy genius who attributes the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote about the perception of magic and science to Isaac Asimov, exposing that he may not be as smart as he has convinced people he is. Imagine a world where dead eyed social media millionaires like Mr. Beast decide to enter the corporate sphere. Imagine living in a world where the only qualification to run a trillion-dollar corporation is follower count.

Schmuel, the grease monkey aboard the Maginot, Alien Earth’s monster-filled research vessel, delivers a bleak monologue in Episode 5 about the indentured servitude and loss of life that come with long-haul missions for the corps. Like the Xenomorph, the money men don’t care about your desires, aspirations, or family. They just want your body. They want to use you to fuel their expansion across the galaxy. You are expendable.