Simon Fernandes

Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 6 – The Fly

“Are we people, or something else? Because I don’t want to be ‘people’ any more, if this is what people are.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It’s back to the main story in Alien: Earth this week, after last week’s well-crafted (but sort of pointless) prequel-to-a-prequel remake of Alien. This is a thoughtful, contemplative ep that focuses mainly on the characters and concepts, but laced with dread throughout. And it’s clearly the calm before the storm that will presumably be unleashed in the final two episodes.

The Professionals: Series 1, Episode 13 – When the Heat Cools Off

“I helped put away a man for a crime he didn’t do!”

The one where…

An old police case comes back to haunt Doyle, when the daughter of a man he put away for murder presents a case for her father’s innocence.

Most crime shows have done one of these from time to time – the episode where the hero has to struggle with the realisation that, perhaps, one of his previous collars was actually an innocent man who’s been rotting away in jail all this time. This time, it’s former copper Doyle who’s presented with enough doubt by the pretty daughter of an imprisoned crime lord to make him reopen an investigation he thought finished in 1971.

The Professionals: Series 1, Episode 12 – Stake Out

“How many stake outs you been on, Bodie?”

The one where…

The stakes escalate dramatically when Bodie and Doyle’s stakeout of a bowling alley reveals a plan to nuke Central London.

After the rather overambitious attempt at spectacle in the previous episode, this one goes completely the opposite way by having an entire episode mostly set in one location. And you know what? It’s much, much better. Unfolding over the course of about four hours, as Bodie and Doyle stake out a bowling alley after a CI5 agent is killed with a scorecard in his pocket, the episode is both tense and, surprisingly, funny.

Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 5 – In Space, No One…

“They want their monsters. Here they come.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Quite a change in format for Alien: Earth this week, as the show takes a break from its ongoing plotlines (and last week’s cliffhanger ending) for a flashback ep to the events on the USCSS Maginot before its crash on Earth. Well, having so meticulously recreated the original sets from the first Alien, it would be a shame for Noah Hawley not to get as much use out of them as possible, and they’re showcased this week in what is, essentially, a beefed up remake of that film. Hence the episode title.

The Professionals: Series 1, Episode 11 – Look After Annie

“You never married then?”
“You didn’t have to ask that, Annie. You know that as far as I’m concerned, you were always…”

The one where…

Bodie and Doyle are assigned to watch over a controversial evangelist/politician, only to discover that she’s an old flame of Cowley’s…

After two episodes focusing mostly on Bodie and Doyle, respectively, it’s now time for one that’s all about Cowley. As Bodie remarks at one point, besides being the standard firm-but-fair boss from all shows like this, we (and they) know very little about him. Look After Annie redresses that balance, delving into the dry, dour Scotsman’s past and giving Gordon Jackson a chance to be the standout cast member for once.

Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 4 – Observation

“I think they picked me. They’re talking to me. I want to hear them.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It was a much more character-driven, intrigue filled episode of Alien: Earth this week, with barely a terrifying beastie in sight most of the time. That’s definitely a good thing, as (besides advancing the plot) a breather in the action allows us to get to know these characters, and the world they inhabit, rather better.

Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 3 – Metamorphosis

“Trillions of dollars of research and development just landed in our laps!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Looks like my initial impression of what Alien: Earth was going to be was wrong. I’d assumed, based on the first two episodes, that what we were going to get was one of those stories that takes place over a short timeline, entirely set around the “search and rescue” operation of the crashed spaceship and the apartment block it had crashed into. Instead, it became clear this week that the story is wider and more ambitious than that, moving to new settings and later days.

The Professionals: Series 1, Episode 10 – Klansmen

“I’ve seen and fought prejudice of one kind or another all my life, and I intend to keep on fighting it.”

The one where…

Doyle infiltrates a white supremacist group bringing the Ku Klux Klan’s brutal methods to Britain. But all is not what it seems…

Uh oh – it’s the racism one. Or the ‘racist’ one, depending on your point of view. In 1977, with race riots and the National Front very much on the rise, this was a very sensitive topic for an action-oriented thriller series to take on. Too sensitive, as it turned out, for ITV to feel comfortable showing the episode, which remained unbroadcast in the UK until satellite TV reruns of the show in the late 80s.

The Professionals: Series 1, Episode 9 – Close Quarters

“The Myer Helmut group. Anarchists, fanatics, they’ve bombed, killed and maimed at least a hundred people in the last two years. Now they’re here, in Britain – and I want them.”

The one where…

Bodie, on medical leave with a broken hand and a girlfriend, stumbles over the leader of a German terrorist gang while out rowing.

It’s back to the countryside this week for a tense siege thriller (you’ll read that phrase a lot) which puts the focus squarely on hardman Bodie. It is, in fact, almost a Bodie solo episode; there are occasional cuts to Doyle and Cowley searching for him, but for the most part, Lewis Collins carries this one by himself.

Alien: Earth Season 1, Episode 1 – Neverland / Episode 2 – Mr October

“You used to be food, you know. Humanity. Your lives were short. Then your brains grew. You built tools and used them to conquer nature. Built impossible machines. Went to space. You stopped being food. Or, I should say, you told yourself you weren’t food anymore.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It was inevitable, really. Once Disney got its hands on the Alien franchise, it was only a matter of time before we got a TV show from it. That’s how Disney work with successful film franchises – they milk them to death by overproducing content, both film and TV until nobody wants to watch them anymore. They’ve done it with Star Wars, they’ve done it with Marvel – is this the first step to doing it with Alien?