Arriving this week is the penultimate episode of FX’s Alien: Earth, an eight-part series from Fargo and Legion’s Noah Hawley that makes history as the first-ever small screen instalment in the Alien franchise.
With early access to the first six episodes, we were honestly less enamoured with the prequel series than a lot of other reviewers. However, among the show highlights are certain characters and performances.
These include Into the Badlands’ Babou Ceesay as Morrow, a cybernetically-enhanced, and fiercely loyal, Weyland Yutani security officer. Morally complex, Morrow receives a starring role in Alien: Earth’s best episode “In Space, No One…”, which takes the extra-terrestrial, and human driven, horror back to space in the way that Alien is known for.
Then there’s actor Samuel Blenkin – probably best known for his lead role in the Loch Henry true crime episode of Black Mirror – who pops up in Alien: Earth as the shoe-adverse, arrogant and Peter Pan-obsessed Boy Kavalier. Filling the series’ overt villain role, Boy Kavalier is a young tech genius who has invested trillions in the creation of hybrids (human consciousnesses transplanted into synthetic bodies). Having shaken up the power status quo, he also heads up Prodigy, one of the five corporations that have divvied up the world in the aftermath of nation states and governments.
Thanks to Disney+, we received the opportunity to chat to Ceesay and Blenkin together. You can watch the interview below or read the transcription, depending on your preference. In it you’ll find discussion with the “bad guy” duo about their personal experiences of the Alien franchise, dissections of their characters, their spoiler-free favourite moments in the show, and why home viewers should tune in.
Alien is such an iconic, established franchise, approaching fifty years of existence. Coming into this series, did you have any familiarity with it, such as strong memories or favourite films?
Babou Ceesay: Well, I saw it way too early. I grew up in Africa and we had a terrestrial television and it was showing at the worst possible time. I stayed up to watch it and it just messed me up completely, that chest burster moment with John Hurt. For me that first film is visceral and of course the moment I could, I saw the second one, yeah.
Samuel Blenkin: I think it was similar for me. I saw the first film far too young. And what was interesting is that when I got the part and rewatched that first film, what I remembered from being 13 or 14, was the kind of visceral terror and the darkness of that spaceship; not the xenomorph itself, but like not seeing it and wondering where it was, and then me walking around my house after, going, “Where is it?”
Rewatching the film, there’s a kind of political, social class message underneath, and I appreciated the set design so much more. It’s a very rewarding watch, and rewatching it for kind of research for this series was really exciting as well.
Samuel, given we’re living in an age of tech bros, was there anything or anyone you drew inspiration from in our reality for your portrayal?
Samuel Blenkin: No, no, there was nobody who I drew inspiration from… I’m only joking, but I think that it’s pretty clear what the connections are between what’s happening in our world right now.
What was great for me is that Noah [Hawley] had written a character who was actually very specific; who has his own obsessions and has built his own little universe and that kind of thing. So that’s what I relied on. I can walk onto set and do that without thinking too much about how it correlates with the real world. Noah gave me such a strong, vivid character that I just kind of rolled with that, and you let the other connections kind of draw themselves.
Babou, Morrow is such an interesting character – a bad guy but also not actually a bad guy. While the Boy Kavalier’s motivations are clearly established, that’s not the case with Morrow, so what would you say drives him?
Babou Ceesay: Early on, I tried to think back to when Morrow would have had the cyborg enhancements. And I figured at that time, that would have been what, several hundred million dollars’ worth of tech to be added to someone’s body? You have to be quite a useful person for them to pick you and say well we’re gonna put that investment in you.
So I went down the path of Morrow wants to be useful. It’s for that reason that he’s gone to space for 65 years. He’s, you know, given up his life essentially to have some value specifically to Yutani Senior, and so that’s for me what I felt drives him –that he wants to make sure his life’s work is worth something.
But, of course, you have messy people like Boy Kavalier and the rest of the gang deciding to do whatever they wanna do and it’s like, well, “I’m not gonna go out like that.
Samuel Blenkin: Sorry you were gone for 65 years and came back.
Babou Ceesay: You weren’t even born when I left here.
A question for both of you: without getting into spoiler territory, do you have a favourite moment or episode relating to your character?
Samuel Blenkin: Well, I feel like I’m not a really at liberty to say, and I don’t want to give too many details, but there’s an episode where my character gets very enamoured with a, uh, animal of a specific variety. And that was really fun to film. It’s like a classic kind of Noah Hawley: off-kilter, absurd, but also a very sinister kind of a moment. So I’m really excited for the audience to see that. That was very cryptic, I’m sorry.
Babou Ceesay: I love so many of the episodes; so many moments from all the different cast members actually, but thinking back now I think in Episode 4 there’s a couple of scenes between different characters – you know, there’s some of these nine-page scenes – and they’re phenomenal. To watch, you feel like you’re sinking into a different existence. It’s quite something, yeah.
There’s so much entertainment on streaming. Why should audiences watch Alien: Earth? What’s your elevator pitch?
Babou Ceesay: It’s exciting.
Samuel Blenkin: It’s mental; it’s absolutely mental. Noah has taken every possible storyline and every possible creature horror. Just that the dread comes from so many different places in this show.
Babou Ceesay: There’s moral dread, yeah, and creature dread. And the scale… It’s the scale, you know. A spaceship is crashing into Earth; it’s quite something to behold.
Samuel Blenkin: And it only gets worse from there if you want to feel some dread.
Babou Ceesay: Yeah, and I think it’s very immersive. When I watched, I mean I watched it and I’m a fan, I felt just completely immersed in the experience. Before I knew it, six episodes had just flown by, and I thought, this is something, you know; to be this lost in this. Not picking up my phone for a quick doom scroll.
One more question. What’s your kneejerk answer to a hypothetical: A hundred years from now, what will the dominant technology be, out of synthetics, cyborgs or hybrids?
Babou Ceesay: Wow, that’s a good question. I think all three will probably exist, and in a very powerful way. In the same way that we’re arguing about whether we should all be on a paleo diet or a vegan diet – I mean that’s the most low level comparison I could possibly make – but I think those sorts of arguments will be happening. Which one will be the dominant one? I’m gonna go with cyborgs.
Samuel Blenkin: I’m hoping it’ll be humans, you know, I’m hoping it’ll all cabins in the woods. That’s what I’m hoping now.
Babou Ceesay: The world would have devolved back to cabins in the woods. That would be lovely.
Samuel Blenkin: Let’s see what happens.
Babou Ceesay: I’m with him. I changed my mind.
Depending on your territory, you can watch the eight-episode Alien: Earth on FX, Hulu or Disney+. Season 1 wraps next week on 23 September (24 September in South Africa) if you want to wait to binge it.
