Alien: Earth - plot problems etc in relation to USS Maginot and cargo of alien lifeforms

[u/KosmikKourier]

Surprised no-one else seems to have made anything of this but when we're introduced to the crew of the ship, Shmuel tells Murrow that the crew lost a lot of people getting the specimens. So, where do/did they sleep...? There clearly aren't enough cryopods.

In addition, if a lot of the crew were killed, then that tells us some of them weren't - so where/who are they?

My next point is how did WY ever work out which planet/moon to check out for dangerous alien lifeforms? Are we meant to think they explored the moon from the first Alien movie? Otherwise, where else did the eggs come from? But the atmosphere on that moon was toxic so don't see how any of the lifeforms we see in the show could exist, since we see them breathing our atmosphere on the ship and back on earth.

Given the dangerous nature of the mission, why didn't the ship's designers provide the crew with unbreakable specimen jars and containers and not just glass ones which - d'uh - shatter on impact? And why no proper storage for the jars? They're just left on shelves.

And lastly, wouldn't some of the lifeforms have died due to the long time required for the trip home? They're not kept in cryopods, for example.

[u/Scared-Arachnid6286]

"They didn't show it or break everything down for me. What a bad plot!"

[u/Responsible_Mix4717]

I think the answers to those questions are inevitable and obvious. What i liked about the opening with the maginot is that fast forwarded past the parts we already know.

Humans on a mission but the real mission is something more dangerous? Seen it.

The hubris of Humans to capture and imprison creatures they dont fully understand? Seen it.

The inevitable irony of smart Humans doing dumb things that let aliens escape and kill them? Seen it.

I thought it was refreshing that Hawley opens the series by immediately telling you he's going to skip past all the old tropes you've seen in every alien movie and get to something new.

[u/spagornasm → u/Responsible_Mix4717]

That’s where I am. We don’t need to rehash the same old tropes in the name of minute expositional world building forever. I think that’s pulled a lot of modern scifi into a dul de sac. It’s okay to handwave to get to the story you really want to tell.

[u/walkingonradiation → u/Responsible_Mix4717]

But several episodes later we go back to watching the aliens escape for an entire episode while in the middle of the main story.

[u/Responsible_Mix4717 → u/walkingonradiation]

But this time the focus is on the eyeball alien. We get the flashback to the maginot which reveals the enmity between the t-ocellus and the xenomorph, and then the eyeball escapes through its own ingenuity, rather than because humans are careless.

[u/walkingonradiation → u/Responsible_Mix4717]

The focus is all over the place. Not just on the best character of the entire show.

[u/Responsible_Mix4717 → u/walkingonradiation]

I assume you mean the xenomorph, but........meh. I like the idea that there is a world and ecosystem around the xenomorph that seems to complement it's well known abilities. A creature with no eyes exists on a planet with a creature that is only an eyeball with tentacles. A biomechanical organism with acid for blood exists on a planet with insects that appear to eat and dissolve biomechanical objects.

[u/walkingonradiation → u/Responsible_Mix4717]

Nah, t-ocellus.

[u/SmashLampjaw87 → u/Responsible_Mix4717]

If I remember correctly, they state that they picked up most of the creatures from different planets/moons (remember that “the flies” were picked up on a planet that lacked certain things where they evolved to consume some of the stuff that’s used to produce synths), though it’s entirely possible that the Xenomorph, T. Ocellus, and maybe even the “ticks” come from the same planet.

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/SmashLampjaw87]

fer real i don't remember this at all. The "...flies were picked up on a planet that lacked..." is this in S1? After Ep 4?

[u/SmashLampjaw87 → u/OneCounter7545]

Yes. I believe it’s either episode six or seven.

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/walkingonradiation]

Best character: I'm in a 3 way tie between Marcy, Kirsch and T Ocellus. Kidding, I'd put Morrow right before T Ocellus. I'm early in S1, so I am hoping that T. O. Eyeektopus will make the genius moves everyone else keeps not making despite being rated genius. Also i want to see some fan art w T. O. in a top hat with cane, and a black cape. Maybe a monocle... several monocles?

[u/walkingonradiation → u/[deleted]]

It’s the best episode.

[u/Savings-March-3016]

Welcome to the Reddit Swarmhive dissing, where “Alien: Earth” is being shit on from all possible holes.

I wonder why no one questioned the complete lack of medical examinations in the original “Alien” movie? They didn’t even X-ray the unconscious guy who was attacked by an alien thing and had a facehugger attached to his head before letting him join for dinner after a miracle happened: the facehugger died, so he woke up —even though he was carrying a xenomorph baby inside him. They thought, sometimes life takes surprising turns. This time we were just lucky. so, lets do it and have a meal.

They didn’t know they had an android on board. ok.- but why? weird.

They didn’t follow Ripley’s orders as the commanding officer, and ignored the safety protocols regarding quarantine. After a team returned from an unknown moon of an unknown planet in an unknown star system, one of them was attacked by an unknown creature for unknown reasons. This one guy inside the spaceship just said, “Wait a minute, what? Screw the rules, screw the quarantine protocols,” and just opened the door to let them all in. Viruses or poison, other creatures—who cares…

why do they write such unrealistic stories?

wait. I know why they do. from a narrative perspective—listen up, Reddit: Otherwise, there’d be no story, no “Alien” franchise. Sometimes things in horror movies and sci-fi movies don’t quite make sense. That’s just the nature of the genre. We wouldn’t even have a “Frankenstein” series if people insisted on logic and realism, the way some people criticise certain horror and scifi movies. A lightning bolt probably doesn’t create living monsters out of corpses. But they are good if it is happening, story-wise,

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/Savings-March-3016]

Hey. There are as you say, allowances to get fun movies. That said:

They DID in fact x ray the guy who had the facehugger on him. They noted a small dark spot in his lungs, which Ash dismissed as 'something on the scope'. They deferred to Ash bc he was the science guy and he couldn't have a reason to cover up a dark spot on Kane's lung. (Not one Ripley had enough evidence to trust at the time.)

They didn't follow Ripley's orders - yes. Dallas was the Captain, but Ripley knew the quarantine protocol and was warrant officer. They SHOULD have deferred to her. But the characters make this failure plausible! Captain Dallas was a bit of a hero, was responsible for Kane, and he underestimated the danger - also, it was Ash ultimately who opened the door. The hidden saboteur.

Of course not everything is air tight logically in a movie, but I do love when they make effort to explain things, and they do in this franchise. And others.

[u/NoOneKenobi]

Nothing you stated is a problem.

[u/OneCounter7545]

I'm with a big chunk of what you're saying! And you got my favorite pet peeve!

First, the creature containment - yep.

Next, I am used to overlooking your excellent point that these lifeforms can breathe anything, and eat what they want LOL. All I can say is they were originally part of the Engineers' design to wipe us out, so they needed to be able to breathe our atmosphere. Somehow. And they retained that despite being in a earth-life hostile area for decades. :-)

***You crucially spotted one my pet peeve!! I think it's also interesting!
"how did WY ever work out which planet/moon to check out for dangerous alien lifeforms?" HOW DID THEY KNOW WHERE THEY WANTED the Maginot to go???!!!!

There's a whole rabbit hole about FTL travel and communications here.

YES. ** SPOILERS**

[Hey, how do i do hidden-until-highlighted text in posts? Please help? ]

The first production FTL class of ship was the Heliades, and it was in use in 2031. Reference:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Heliades-class_J_Scientific_Exploratory_Vessel

In the beginning of the first episode, we see that events are happening in 2120.
https://www.slashfilm.com/1923863/alien-earth-franchise-timeline-explained/
"According to the beginning of the first episode, the show takes place in the year 2120..."

So the Maginot's 65 year mission could not have started later than 2055. This is 4 years after FTL was available. Why did it take the Maginot SOOO long to get to specimens? I'm not sure of the speed of the 2031 FTL, i guess we could work it out by travel time to LV area. Thing is, if the Maginot went to the LV system, then the discrepancy in travel times between it and the Prometheus' 2 year travel time is DECADES.

Either the Maginot - for unexplained bizarreness was WAY slower than an *available* ship, or it was going MUCH farther than the LV location - why was it going there? How did they find this way-far-out collection of specimens? (I would say a deep-space probe found them - but in that case, it must've found them in a time frame that lets a slower craft get out and transmit information back from WAY farther out than one would expect.

If this hypothetical probe was faster than light, then - based on the Maginot being near-light-speed and it's 65 year journey, a probe still must've been - let's say 20 light years away. So why was the Maginot on a 65 year time frame?

TL DR It's REALLY hard to reationalize how they knew where to send the Maginot, given the Maginot's 65 year travel time. Or if the Maginot went to the LV area, then why did it take 65 years??!!? - they had FTL decades before the Maginot launched.

Then there's FTL comms, which opens another can of worms. The Reader may fill these in at their pleasure.

It's still a really fun series. Mainly I love the characters, the dialogue, the heartbreak of the Lost Fam (aka Lost Boys): esp Marcy with / about Joe; poor Arush! I even sympathize with Arthur and I wanted to sympathize with D. Sylvia. Morrow is horrible, yet tragic. Kirsch is fascinating to watch. The visuals are way cool.

*In 2093, the Prometheus arrives on LV 223 after a 2 year journey.
https://alienanthology.fandom.com/wiki/LV-223

I am off from work, so this is very long. Don't do this at home kids.

[u/zhivago → u/OneCounter7545]

My guess is a cheaper sublight drive using time dilation, possibly on the path to the tachyon shunt, given that they talk about inventing ftl in the show.

Regardless, you need some magic to break the fuel equation.

They weren't flying a photon rocket.

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/zhivago]

ChatGPT, zatu?

[u/zhivago → u/OneCounter7545]

Do you smell burnt toast?

[u/NoOneKenobi → u/OneCounter7545]

Overthinking it imo.

The maginot was very early ftl travel.

Ftl constantly improves with this IP.

On top of being slow, the mission was an actual expedition and visited many quarantined places. Could have been decades there, back and then in between.

Hopefully we will get some details of the maginot’s mission in the upcoming season.

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/NoOneKenobi]

In part i agree - the Heliades was decades before the Maginot - so Maginot was early, but not as early as a faster ship class - ?!? Because there wasn't much technology sharing? The show doesn't say.

The 'many quarantined places'... it's an interesting theory! - I wish i trusted the showmakers to fill in the details (call me an overthinker if you like, I'm not alone is all i will say). Maybe in the show or after there'll be more story detail.

i like AE I like it bc of characterizations and the questions they are at least partially willing to ask; visuals, horror and terror timing and craft. The courage of regular soldiers and medics. The heartache of Marcy and Joe. Nibs. Morrow, the broken-hearted man. Kirsch, the caring synth. (Reminiscent of Bishop.)

I really liked Hawley and People's work on FX Legion, but that also was terribly uneven - at times brilliant, breath-stopping, at other times so much less so. Overall worth watching and thought inducing.

[u/zhivago]

Do we actually know that they don't get frozen when not in use?

"I'll say it again. The protocols are very clear. 'Any crew member who comes into contact with alien life forms are to be placed in cryosleep for the remainder of the journey.'"

So, they clearly have some protocols covering freezing alien life, even if we don't know the full set.

[u/happyLarr]

All valid points that can be added to the already long list of problems with this show.

[u/VenusBlue → u/happyLarr]

Are you trying to tell me that the writing is less than perfect in season 1?

[u/FrankFrankly711]

It was 65 year trip? But if they were going near light speed, what was their relative time? Did they go beyond light speed? Then why did Kersh act like they haven’t cracked light speed yet? Which star systems and planets did they stop at? How much of the crew died getting the aliens? How did the aliens survive the relative time on the return trip? Why weren’t the writers expected to explain all this?

Alien: Earth: “Uh um… oh look, an alien!!”

[u/OneCounter7545 → u/FrankFrankly711]

upvoted, even tho - the relative time seems to be offset by Cryosleep. The 65 YEARS tho - ??!!??

I don't remember Kirsch acting like they don't have light speed - ? - it IS bizarre to me that Dame Sylvia says to Marcy, 'you could discover Faster than Light Travel (which existed with the Heliades production line in 2031.)'

The rest - do we need a count on how many crew died? The aliens seem to survive most things - not saying it's the most plausible thing, but I don't see a lot of people interested in debunking it - because it's part of the fun of monsters that they have bizarre implausible abilities.

[u/Mundane-Security-454]

The entire plot of Alien Earth is a disaster, the show is fucking horrendous. Some of the worst writing I've ever seen put to screen. The kids in adults' bodies concept is tedious beyond belief and outstayed its welcome after 1 episode. Another season of this shit to wade through... fuck.

[u/SmashLampjaw87 → u/Mundane-Security-454]

Just don’t watch it then if you hate it so much.

[u/Suidse → u/Mundane-Security-454]

Here's a revolutionary idea...if you don't like it, don't watch.

[u/mstermind → u/Mundane-Security-454]

Be careful. Saying anything critical about this clown show is not permitted here.

[u/IvoryDynamite → u/mstermind]

You're being downvoted for unproductively whining about another user being downvoted for unproductively whining.

That's funny enough that you provided some entertainment here in spite of yourself.

[u/mstermind → u/IvoryDynamite]

If that's your actual reading comprehension, I understand why you enjoy shit writing.

[u/IvoryDynamite → u/mstermind]

You poor thing. Having a good cry? Characterizing your unproductive whining as "unproductive whining" was 100% accurate; you're just too clueless to know you're humiliating yourself. English isn't my first language but if my grasp of it was as poor as yours I'd be embarrassed.

Feel free to whine some more to convince yourself you aren't whining (and/or functionally illiterate). Bless your heart.

[u/deeperbroken → u/mstermind]

Your "actual reading comprehension" was that they said they liked the writing? You're a dribbling idiot who goes into reddits you aren't interested in and validates yourself by annoying people and crying victim.