Page 8 of 12

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Thu 11 Sep 2025, 14:14
by Boneguard
Somewhat unrelated (and likely not new), I was thinking yesterday about the apparent disconnect with Prometheus/Covenant with the Maginot, a Weyland-Yutani ship, having left 65 years prior (and roughly 10 year before Prometheus) and seeing a parallel with the current merger of two units in my workplace.

What if the Maginot was a legacy Yutani ship/mission? Granted Yutani was more into cybernetic R&D than Space exploration (which was more in Weyland Corp wheelhouse), but doesn't mean they were monolithic and did not do any space exploration. Part way throuigh their mission the merger happen, the crew get informed and the have 40 years or so to get used to the Weyland-Yutani (after all who care who signs the check).

The reasons I go with Yutani Corp over Weyland Corp are twofold: 1) Morrow was Tasked by (the elder) Yutani herself with his mission and 2) Cyborg would fit well with Yutani main business-line.

The marking on the ship and the uniform a bit more problematic to explain out though. Maybe the Maginot was leased to Yutani Corp by Wayland?

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Thu 11 Sep 2025, 14:18
by Boneguard
I wonder if Kursh is not a WY plant?

He's aware about Morrow's plan and action and episode 6 almost make it seem like he wants WY or Morrow to succeed.
I wonder if Kirsch has a similar anti-human sentiment that David ended up having
...

Nolnah93 and Boneguard, you bring up a really important point, and I think Kirsch does indeed have anti-human sentiments, like David. He may even be a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 (like Ash) manufactured by Hyperdyne Systems Corporation (but perhaps purchased by Prodigy).

He definitely seems to be a sleeper agent... by Weyland-Yutani... or some other corporation... Has his behavior chip been removed?

Arthur.
I'm not sure.

At this point both of these theories (older model or a tampered chip) are plausible and would explain his detachment and behavior. The same way in episode 1 (or was it 2) with his view regarding the hybrid's emotions.

Well, unless they plan a season 2, we should get some answer in the last 2 episodes.

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Thu 11 Sep 2025, 16:12
by _ArthurDallas_

That's an excellent point, AWSaber, Alien RPG core rulebook PDF P.150. FTL travel is established in 2034 by Weyland. Alien Earth takes place in 2120. Alien 1979 takes place in 2122. FTL has therefore been established for 86 years. Excellent point, AWSaber.

P.S. Regarding the conversation between Kirsch and Hermit, I think Kirsch was talking about the progress of the FTL work, not the invention. Wendy might improve FTL in the future. At least, that's how I understood the scene.

Arthur.
Kirsh said invent, it's in the subtitles.

Honestly not having FTL would be the only thing that would explain the Maginot mission taking so stupidly long. Of course with out FTL they don't have the time to get to LV-426 so the face huggers would have to be from somewhere else. Hell the Prometheus would still be in transit to LV-223 when Ripley blows up the Nostromo.
...

Sometimes we say things without saying them. Personally, I think we can interpret Kirsch as talking about the possibility of improving FTL in the future (in his sentence when he talks about what Wendy could do). You're right, he never says the word "improve," but it's implied, you understand. At least, that's what I want to believe.

I read, however, that Noah Hawley doesn't take into account the events of Prometheus and Covenant. I still need to double-check this, but I'm sure I read that somewhere. These directors are always changing the known facts, hahahahaha!

P.S. Thinking about it. They definitely have FTL, but it's less developed. They have hypersleep pods on board the Maginot. We don't need hypersleep if there's no FTL; the two inventions go together. And, the Nostromo's adventures are in 2122 (in 2 years), so there's definitely FTL with the Nostromo. It doesn't make sense if they don't have FTL at that time.

Arthur.

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Fri 12 Sep 2025, 00:40
by AWSaber
...

Sometimes we say things without saying them. Personally, I think we can interpret Kirsch as talking about the possibility of improving FTL in the future (in his sentence when he talks about what Wendy could do). You're right, he never says the word "improve," but it's implied, you understand. At least, that's what I want to believe.

I read, however, that Noah Hawley doesn't take into account the events of Prometheus and Covenant. I still need to double-check this, but I'm sure I read that somewhere. These directors are always changing the known facts, hahahahaha!

P.S. Thinking about it. They definitely have FTL, but it's less developed. They have hypersleep pods on board the Maginot. We don't need hypersleep if there's no FTL; the two inventions go together. And, the Nostromo's adventures are in 2122 (in 2 years), so there's definitely FTL with the Nostromo. It doesn't make sense if they don't have FTL at that time.

Arthur.
The RPG has Hypersleep invented before FTL.

"The ability to slow a life-form’s biological processes to a
near standstill was beneficial to both the medical industry
and deep space missions at sublight speeds. When FTL
became a reality, stasis was adapted as a solution to
resource management on space flights." Alien RPG Evolved Edition page 109

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Fri 12 Sep 2025, 04:38
by _ArthurDallas_
...

Sometimes we say things without saying them. Personally, I think we can interpret Kirsch as talking about the possibility of improving FTL in the future (in his sentence when he talks about what Wendy could do). You're right, he never says the word "improve," but it's implied, you understand. At least, that's what I want to believe.

I read, however, that Noah Hawley doesn't take into account the events of Prometheus and Covenant. I still need to double-check this, but I'm sure I read that somewhere. These directors are always changing the known facts, hahahahaha!

P.S. Thinking about it. They definitely have FTL, but it's less developed. They have hypersleep pods on board the Maginot. We don't need hypersleep if there's no FTL; the two inventions go together. And, the Nostromo's adventures are in 2122 (in 2 years), so there's definitely FTL with the Nostromo. It doesn't make sense if they don't have FTL at that time.

Arthur.
The RPG has Hypersleep invented before FTL.

"The ability to slow a life-form’s biological processes to a
near standstill was beneficial to both the medical industry
and deep space missions at sublight speeds. When FTL
became a reality, stasis was adapted as a solution to
resource management on space flights." Alien RPG Evolved Edition page 109
...

(Core Rulebook, First Edition, PDF, p. 150) The Weyland Corporation introduced three things that ensured humanity's dominance over the stars—the ability to travel at faster-than-light speeds, the introduction of the hypersleep chamber, and the ability to terraform entire worlds.

The exact date isn't written in the core rulebook, but the creation date of FTL is around 2034 by Weyland. A few years after Hypersleep, indeed.

The creation date of Hypersleep is 2020 (Core Rulebook, First Edition, PDF, p. 151), again by Weyland.

The first terraforming machines (Automated Terraforming Processors) were created around 2029 by Weyland again. Weyland-Yutaki returned several years later with new processor models in the 2130s (after the merger of Weyland and Yutaki in around 2099). Hadley's Hope was equipped with this new processor model when it was created in 2157.

In my book, all three of Weyland's creations (FTL, Hypersleep, and Terraforming) arrived in almost the same decade. But you're technically right, hypersleep came a few years before FTL.

Enjoy your games, my friend,
Arthur.

___
P.S. Finally, with the Weyland-Yutani merge, in the Alien Earth timeline, it's only been 20 years since the merge was done. That's not a very long period of time...

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Mon 15 Sep 2025, 09:38
by Zazeron
The presence of Xenomorph’s before Prometheus is easy to explain

David was simply mistaken about “creating them”

Yutani is a tough nut to crack

Morrow worked for Yutani directly

That means that Weyland COULDN’T have owned the maginot when morrow left

And Weyland Yutani evidently did

Perhaps this was a joint mission before they merged?

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Tue 16 Sep 2025, 03:43
by ExileInParadise
Six out of eight episodes in, and well ... I guess its about time for me to weigh in, even if "season 1" isn't quite done.

I tried to go in without expectations, having only seen the first teaser trailer.

The acting and production values are decent.

The casting is weird in a good way, and all of the people cast have their various "vibes" that bring a LOT of extra subtext to their characters.

But here's where I start falling off the path: I don't *care* about these characters or their story.

A big complaint about ALIEN 3 (theatrical) applies to ALIEN: Earth: there's no on"root" for - which is fine for a cinematic and disaster for a long-running series.

I can't even tell who I am supposed to be "for" the only two remotely "good guys" are the victims of the story so far - not the protagonists.

Everyone shown so far:
An evil obnoxious oligarch and an evil well dressed oligarch who I only want to see facehugged.

A bunch of robots who do not evoke any sense of sympathy if they get trashed - no more so than any dented toaster would.

I don't feel they are kids - just copies of kids the evil oligarch bought (from parents who sold them into slavery) and slaughtered in the name of a product launch.

Morrow and Kirsh are maybe the most interesting of the characters (and both well acted) - but fundamentally they are just tools of their evil oligarchs growling at each other like a microwave upset at the rising popularity of air fryers.

I mean, the murderers and rapists in Alien 3 at least seemed sorrowful at a funeral compared to these guys.

I mean - really - the entire subtext of the lung - its source - its use. Just ... well ... okay? why? gratuitous evil science? whatever - maybe these gives the xeno Hermit DNA in a Reverse Ripley-8 move. Yawn.

The androids / synths / cyborgs / hybrids story arc conflict - I don't care

This is the same problem we got with Prometheus and Covenant - they made better Blade Runner stories than Alien stories.

Kirsh vs. Morrow in the elevator echoes David-8 vs. Holloway in the same way.

So yeah, without characters to relate to or root for and the themes and conflicts misplaced from an alternate universe into Alien, the only reason to watch is to enjoy the special effects which are at least not obnoxious.

The Maginot. The crash of the Maginot. The Xenomorph. The Ocellus (especially the reveal with the cat...): great stuff.

I have not watch/listened to the extras podcasts so there may be commentary that informs and changes my view over time.

Potentially many rewatches may create or uncover other connections that change my appreciation of what is being tried.

But going by what has been put to the screen so far: I can cut the entire series so far down to just Episode 5 and walk away.

And the primary disconnect I've had with ALIEN: Earth?

I came to see a TV series about ALIEN on Earth, and got a Peter Pan fan-fic possibly originally titled Alien In Neverland instead.

I mean - when Alien 3 was pitched as Alien meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - heads rolled ... but now we're millions of dollars and many hours into Alien Meets Peter Pan and they are running with it?

The entire sequence of events so far is just an an incoherent mess that somehow tries to distract you with Peter Pan fan service to hide it.

The Maginot's "65 year mission" makes no sense to me ending in 2120 rather than starting then.

How does the Maginot make it all the way to Earth without hail or challenge, even after running over the threshold accelerator at the Moon?

And ... not ... one ... orbital ... interceptor?

These Five Warring Corporation Names also have no military or air defense or anything else for their territories either.

The best way to develop your new revolutionary product is to hijack goofy kids brains to program your gazillion dollar robots?

The Search and Rescue folks didn't even pack a band-aid? Because when I think of Search and Rescue, I think of Guns. Lots of Guns.

It just goes on and on as the "why? Why? WHY?" questions just keep piling up into a greater mountain of mish mash nonsense.

I have to keep telling myself "it's just season 1" - if it lasts long enough to figure itself out then maybe there's a chance it goes somewhere or says something I will care about later.

Episode 5 is the only one where things seemed to hang together well enough as they fell apart to make some sense.

And I have to keep telling myself this series wasn't made for me to begin with - it was made for "todays views of the Alien franchise" - not my particular brand of Alien purist head-canon.

As far as mining for the RPG - as mentioned elsewhere: the creatures on the ship (and wherever they found them) are definite wins.

I can't even see mining the "Earth" presented for use as Earth in the RPG.

Free League's Blade Runner makes a better Earth setting for ALIEN RPG than the TV ideas seem to.

And the timeline mess does need to be squared / fixed or the canonicity cleared up to do a proper keep/sort/toss on the technology and event history etc.

Sorry folks, but I think ALIEN: Earth has not been as strong a contender for Alien-ness as, say, the 40th anniversary short films.

And there's two episodes left to convince me otherwise or try to make the sale for another season to fix this stuff in ... and I remain skeptical.

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Tue 16 Sep 2025, 16:55
by MutantFromMars
not my particular brand of Alien purist head-canon.

I'm not even sure what MY personal Alien head-canon is anymore - I'm old enough to have bought the first Dark Horse Comic on its first print and to have started reading the books at Earth Hive (which was based on it), and a lot of stuff has changed/been ignored/retconned over the last thirty years or so. Out Of The Shadows was sort of a reboot point, I guess, but we have novels, Dark Horse stuff, games, Marvel stuff, the not-prequels, Romulus, Alien:Earth.....none of it sits together that comfortably without a bit of lifting and handwaving (and if you throw Phalanx into the mix....) :lol:

I guess that's why I'm not too fussed about any discrepancies.

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Tue 16 Sep 2025, 17:18
by _ArthurDallas_
Six out of eight episodes in, and well ... I guess its about time for me to weigh in, even if "season 1" isn't quite done.

I tried to go in without expectations, having only seen the first teaser trailer.

The acting and production values are decent.

The casting is weird in a good way, and all of the people cast have their various "vibes" that bring a LOT of extra subtext to their characters.

But here's where I start falling off the path: I don't *care* about these characters or their story.

A big complaint about ALIEN 3 (theatrical) applies to ALIEN: Earth: there's no on"root" for - which is fine for a cinematic and disaster for a long-running series.

I can't even tell who I am supposed to be "for" the only two remotely "good guys" are the victims of the story so far - not the protagonists.

Everyone shown so far:
An evil obnoxious oligarch and an evil well dressed oligarch who I only want to see facehugged.

A bunch of robots who do not evoke any sense of sympathy if they get trashed - no more so than any dented toaster would.

I don't feel they are kids - just copies of kids the evil oligarch bought (from parents who sold them into slavery) and slaughtered in the name of a product launch.

Morrow and Kirsh are maybe the most interesting of the characters (and both well acted) - but fundamentally they are just tools of their evil oligarchs growling at each other like a microwave upset at the rising popularity of air fryers.

I mean, the murderers and rapists in Alien 3 at least seemed sorrowful at a funeral compared to these guys.

I mean - really - the entire subtext of the lung - its source - its use. Just ... well ... okay? why? gratuitous evil science? whatever - maybe these gives the xeno Hermit DNA in a Reverse Ripley-8 move. Yawn.

The androids / synths / cyborgs / hybrids story arc conflict - I don't care

This is the same problem we got with Prometheus and Covenant - they made better Blade Runner stories than Alien stories.

Kirsh vs. Morrow in the elevator echoes David-8 vs. Holloway in the same way.

So yeah, without characters to relate to or root for and the themes and conflicts misplaced from an alternate universe into Alien, the only reason to watch is to enjoy the special effects which are at least not obnoxious.

The Maginot. The crash of the Maginot. The Xenomorph. The Ocellus (especially the reveal with the cat...): great stuff.

I have not watch/listened to the extras podcasts so there may be commentary that informs and changes my view over time.

Potentially many rewatches may create or uncover other connections that change my appreciation of what is being tried.

But going by what has been put to the screen so far: I can cut the entire series so far down to just Episode 5 and walk away.

And the primary disconnect I've had with ALIEN: Earth?

I came to see a TV series about ALIEN on Earth, and got a Peter Pan fan-fic possibly originally titled Alien In Neverland instead.

I mean - when Alien 3 was pitched as Alien meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - heads rolled ... but now we're millions of dollars and many hours into Alien Meets Peter Pan and they are running with it?

The entire sequence of events so far is just an an incoherent mess that somehow tries to distract you with Peter Pan fan service to hide it.

The Maginot's "65 year mission" makes no sense to me ending in 2120 rather than starting then.

How does the Maginot make it all the way to Earth without hail or challenge, even after running over the threshold accelerator at the Moon?

And ... not ... one ... orbital ... interceptor?

These Five Warring Corporation Names also have no military or air defense or anything else for their territories either.

The best way to develop your new revolutionary product is to hijack goofy kids brains to program your gazillion dollar robots?

The Search and Rescue folks didn't even pack a band-aid? Because when I think of Search and Rescue, I think of Guns. Lots of Guns.

It just goes on and on as the "why? Why? WHY?" questions just keep piling up into a greater mountain of mish mash nonsense.

I have to keep telling myself "it's just season 1" - if it lasts long enough to figure itself out then maybe there's a chance it goes somewhere or says something I will care about later.

Episode 5 is the only one where things seemed to hang together well enough as they fell apart to make some sense.

And I have to keep telling myself this series wasn't made for me to begin with - it was made for "todays views of the Alien franchise" - not my particular brand of Alien purist head-canon.

As far as mining for the RPG - as mentioned elsewhere: the creatures on the ship (and wherever they found them) are definite wins.

I can't even see mining the "Earth" presented for use as Earth in the RPG.

Free League's Blade Runner makes a better Earth setting for ALIEN RPG than the TV ideas seem to.

And the timeline mess does need to be squared / fixed or the canonicity cleared up to do a proper keep/sort/toss on the technology and event history etc.

Sorry folks, but I think ALIEN: Earth has not been as strong a contender for Alien-ness as, say, the 40th anniversary short films.

And there's two episodes left to convince me otherwise or try to make the sale for another season to fix this stuff in ... and I remain skeptical.
...

Hey my friend ExileInParadise, it's been a while since we've heard from you. I'm taking the time to write to you, but I don't have much time because I'm at work. Once again, you're our chief scientist and a great connoisseur of timelines and the Alien universe. You should write to us more often, my friend. It's nice to hear from you.

I agree with a lot of what you say. I don't have time to reply to everything, but here are some of my thoughts.

The sense of attachment to the characters in Noah Hawley's productions is quite bizarre. You're probably familiar with it too. There are often TOO many characters in his productions, and Noah Hawley often gives everyone a lot of screen time. Sydney Chandler (Wendy) + Alex Lawther (Hermit) + Babou Ceesay (Morrow) + Timothy Olyphant (Kirsh) are certainly interesting and even intriguing. The concept of children doesn't appeal to me either, and we don't need to think about it that much since the adventure began.

You also have to understand Noah Hawley to like him. He loves BLADE RUNNER. I think he would have wanted to do the BLADE RUNNER series instead of ALIEN EARTH if he had the choice between the two. That's good, Ridley Scott (executive producer) likes robots too. So, I actually think like you, it's more about robots than xenomorphs. But Alien 1979 was also very much about robot stories (ASH), and we often forget that.

My feeling is that Morrow will be the big villain of the series, a bit like Billy Bob Thornton in FARGO. Don't forget, Noah Hawley tends to change his actors every season. There's a good chance other characters will arrive in season 2 of ALIEN EARTH. I have a feeling Wendy, Hermit, Morrow, and Kirsh will be staying, though.

I'm going back to work.
It was nice to hear from you, ExileInParadise.
Arthur.

Re: Alien: Earth and the rpg (Spoilers for the series)

Posted: Tue 16 Sep 2025, 20:16
by Zazeron
I wonder if the maginot picked up those eggs from Lethe

Given that 65 year timeline