“We were safer in space” is the ominous tagline of Alien Earth, a new chapter in a sci-fi saga that brings the iconic xenomorph back, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

In 1979 one of the most terrifying films ever made burst on to screens around the world.

Alien didn’t just subvert expectations but took a blowtorch to them.

Audiences were still riding a sci-fi high from Star Wars, which had been released two years earlier. 

Many had gone to the movies expecting a similar adventure but instead were given an experience that has since been called “Jaws in space”.

Cinema folklore says that some people even fainted during the movie’s most frightening scenes.

Combine all of that with Sigourney Weaver’s iconic performance as Ellen Ripley and Alien became a surefire classic.

Since then, Ridley Scott’s creepy and claustrophobic masterpiece has been reimagined in a string of sequels and spinoffs trying to cash in on its popularity.

Some have been bad, some have been okay, but none have ever lived up to the haunting genius of the original.

However, a new show now streaming on Disney Plus may finally change the game.

Alien Earth is a new chapter in the sci-fi saga that brings the iconic xenomorph back.

Rather than exploring the frightening depths of space, this new series turns its gaze inward to our home planet, exploring a dystopian future controlled by mega corporations and a society being transformed by rapidly evolving artificial intelligence.

“We were safer in space”, its ominous tagline tells us as a clever riff on the 1979 one that became a pop-culture staple, “In space no one can hear you scream”.

This new, more philosophical take on the Alien franchise comes from Noah Hawley, the creative lead behind the hit crime series Fargo.

That show was also inspired by an iconic older film, taking the fundamentals of its story and keeping it in a new way.

Fargo isn’t just a great television show, it’s one of the best out there, and if Hawley’s track record is anything to go by, Alien Earth could be the most exciting thing to happen to the franchise since the original.

Best of all, Hawley has written the show to be approachable for those who haven’t seen the million-and-one sequels and spinoffs that have created unnecessary and tedious amounts of backstory.

He’s calling it “moral horror” and said he wants to tap into some of the more existential ideas that defined the first one.

Like Jaws, the original Alien worked best when it kept the monster hidden from audiences, letting their own imaginations do the work.

As a concept, the xenomorph shines brightest when it’s left in the dark and where darker than planet Earth for it to stalk its prey?

I’m sure those parental controls Disney Plus offers will be coming in handy for this one; it ain’t no Monsters Inc.

ALSO stirring up talk in the streaming world this month is Bookish, a new British detective series with a fun twist that is streaming on Max.

Set in London post World War II, the show follows Gabriel Book, an idiosyncratic collector of antiquarian books that he sells in a cosy shop on Archangel Lane.

His fascination with these books turns into a powerful tool when police, and even Winston Churchill, call upon his help to solve baffling cases.

Sorting through the towers of knowledge he’s amassed over the years, Gabriel Book becomes an unlikely detective unearthing cases in the soot-stained streets of the Big Smoke.

Bookish comes from Mark Gatiss, one of the co-creators of the hit series Sherlock, which reimagined Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective cracking cases in the modern day. The inspiration from Holmes is all over this one.

Gatiss also plays the central character and channels the many portrayals of Sherlock Holmes over the years into a new sleuth that he makes his own.

Bookish is a fun, easy watch with some intriguing new ideas that are far from elementary.