A heavy, sturdy black case arrives at my door. On it, a logo well known to sci-fi fans: Weyland-Yutani, the company from the Alien franchise. A company whose desperate attempts to secure a Xenomorph have resulted in thousands of deaths, maybe more. So, when you receive a package from them, you know something important is about to happen.
What’s about to happen is the debut of Alien: Earth, FX’s upcoming show set years before any of the Alien films. It follows a team of soldiers who investigate a ship that has crashed on Earth and are forced to deal with what it contains. We assume, of course, that it contains something that will eventually create an alien, but what exactly? The package that arrived at my door had some clues.
Along with the package was a note from a company called Prodigy Corp. It explained that the case was “recovered from a recently crashed Weyland-Yutani vessel.”
“We suspect there is important information pertaining to Weyland-Yutani’s Deep Space Programs that could be of use to the corporation,” the note reads. “Please inspect all elements and report your findings.” Happy to oblige.
The in-world crossover is mostly disconnected from the actual contents of the package. A hat, mug, and deck of cards are the biggest items. Each has the logo for the USCSS Maginot, the name of the crashed ship. The key items, however, are a cat collar and a USB drive with five videos on it.
The collar is key because the videos are all from the POV of the cat aboard the ship. They show him basically just being a cat. But in his explorations, he stumbles upon a few very curious things that you can watch on the videos included in the drive. Here’s video one.
So here you get to see the cat get the camera put on him and walk around a bit. The key takeaway is the end where we see a computer—much like Mother in the first Alien—with a very similar “Priority One” message: “Acquisition and safe return of all organisms for analysis. All other considerations secondary.” So, this ship was sent out to find something. And find something, it did. Here’s video two.
This one is less about the visuals and more about the banter. The main pullout is the mention of the planet Arcturus, a place that has been mentioned in Alien lore before, but only very tangentially. Here it’s said to be “gross” to want to go there. Is that where they find the specimen on the show? Let’s check video three.
Here, our hero cat catches two crew members playing cards and discussing something they’ve found. “Flora or fauna?” one asks. “Maybe both,” she responds. “We’re still running tests.” The idea that they can’t tell if what they found is a plant or an animal strongly suggests it’s a face-hugger egg. Or something new we haven’t seen. On to video four.
This time our curious cat finds what we think are the samples the ship has discovered. We can’t exactly see what’s in there but there are at least four of them. Could it be four eggs? Finally, the last clip.
We see one of the crew members in hypersleep when something goes wrong. A fire. Is this the incident that started the crash back to Earth? What caused the fire? We don’t know.
All of this is a very cool way to tease the show and it’s culminating later this week in Austin, Texas. That’s where FX has recreated the crash site of the Maginot for fans to check out at SXSW. Learn more about that here.
Alien: Earth is coming to FX this summer. Thanks to the streamer for sending us the package.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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