'Alien: Earth is the best the franchise has been in years - but it has one glaring issue'

Alien: Earth has finally arrived with two episodes dropping this week on Disney+ - FX on Hulu if you’re in the States - and countless fans of the franchise will be eager to find out how it stands up to the rest of the franchise.

Boasting incredible production values, an incredible cast of established stars and newcomers, and Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley leading the charge, everything is in place for the new prequel to become a monster success.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the Alien franchise, having watched the first two films multiple times, even once getting the chance to see Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece that started it all on the big screen.

I even enjoy the much-maligned prequel Prometheus, which I’ve watched maybe five times - that’s how much I love this gooey, grotesque and mystifying sci-fi epic.

Fellow Alien aficionados will be pleased to know that the critical response to the new series has been stellar so far, currently scoring 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

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I’m pretty much in agreement with the consensus - the first six episodes of the eight-part season I was able to watch are as propulsive and gory as any Alien instalment should be, while veering off into some eerie new directions I wasn’t expecting that have the makings of a stunning finale and, hopefully, multiple future outings.

However, there’s just one niggling problem I’m having with the series so far that I’m praying gets fixed by the finale, or else is tackled in a potential second season.

The iconic body horror saga has already had its fair share of ups and downs over the years, the first wobble occurring with the divisive Alien 3 in 1992, which was packed with interesting ideas and launched the career of auteur filmmaker David Fincher but was overall a bit of a mess.

This was followed by the increasingly woeful Alien: Resurrection and the two barely connected Alien vs. Predator films before Scott himself returned to the franchise for the divisive prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Both underrated, in my opinion, though again a little too overstuffed with existential ramblings and diversions from the original series that put off most casual audiences.

Then came last year’s Alien: Romulus, a sort of greatest hits of the Alien franchise which got things back on track but was ultimately far too beholden to Scott’s masterpiece to offer anything fresh and exciting.

With Hawley’s take on the franchise, you still get the mash-up of all the best the franchise has to offer, though with far less of Romulus’s nostalgic pandering and far more courage to remix and reinvent Alien’s most recognisable iconography.

Much like the original film, which is still the benchmark for the franchise, Earth is more concerned with ethical conundrums and biological dread than cheap kills. The grisly horror is still here in spades, but, after a cataclysmic opening two-parter, the pacing slows just enough to let Hawley’s skin-crawling exploration of biology and human psychology breathe.

Taking the series’ familiar themes of artificial intelligence one step further by questioning the legitimacy of transferring human consciousness, exemplified by Sydney Chandler’s literally child-like ‘Wendy’, this is far more compelling than Romulus’ heroic android Andy (played by David Jonsson), who was largely present to tell bad jokes and recycle old one-liners.

But fans are also coming for the ‘Alien’ itself, the iconic Xenomorph that has haunted spaceships for over four decades. And it’s my regret to inform you that this is the show’s biggest downfall.

Although the creature is as terrifying as ever, thankfully brought to life primarily with a practical costume and in-camera trickery, its role in the first season has been somewhat muted and it doesn’t quite feel like the unstoppable force from previous entries. Here, the Xenomorphs can be incapacitated more easily than ever before, by both humans and synthetics, rendering them some of the least threatening foes in the franchise yet.

To counter this, a number of brand new lifeforms never seen before in the Alien universe have been introduced, but these are also a little hit-or-miss. In contrast to the Xenomorph, they’re disappointingly reliant on CGI and their own methods of tearing humans apart from the inside aren’t nearly as memorable as the now iconic facehugger-to-chestburster lifecycle that has since become ubiquitous.

Hopefully Hawley has something up his sleeve to remedy this but, until we get to see those final two episodes, so far Alien: Earth is still a fantastic watch, even if it’s lacking a little bite.

Alien: Earth continues Wednesdays on Disney+.

For a limited time only, witness the first stage of the life cycle of the Xenomorph up close with a thrilling new display at London’s Natural History Museum.

Visitors can touch real pieces of the solar system at the Museum’s blockbuster exhibition, Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?, and discover more about one of pop culture’s most iconic and frightening creatures just by the entrance until Friday, 22nd August.