For centuries, humankind has been fascinated by the possibility of alien life. That fascination has manifested itself as hope, longing, and, in many cases, fear. Our fear of extraterrestrial threats is a natural consequence of our fear of the unknown and, while it is something that we must overcome in our personal lives if we are to get ahead, it has led to some killer works of art.

Netflix’s upcoming sci-fi series ‘Another Life’ taps into this fear in its highly claustrophobic trailer. The show tells the story of a group of astronauts who are tasked with discovering the origins of a mysterious alien artifact. We know from the trailer that the stakes are quite high and the mission’s failure could spell doom for planet Earth.

The idea of a team of astronauts discovering malevolent alien life that threatens to destroy us all is something that movies and shows have played with for years. If you really think about it, the entirety of H.P. Lovecraft’s works is built on this premise. This trope was most prominently used by a certain hit horror franchise that ‘Another Life’ clearly takes inspiration from: ‘Alien’.

2019 marks the 40 year anniversary of the release of the first ‘Alien’ movie. The gruesome monsters of the franchise have seeped down into the bedrock of pop culture and are one of the most easily recognizable movie characters in the present day. ‘Alien’ kicked off the trend of portraying aliens as irredeemably evil creatures that threaten to wipe out humanity as a species and ‘Another Life’ is just the latest work following in that trend.

A poster for Alien (1979). (IMDb)

Of course, this trope does come with its own issues. It’s only far too easy to see a fear of extraterrestrials as a metaphor for a fear of immigrants and foreigners. Xenophobia is built into the trope. After all, there’s a reason why the monsters from ‘Alien’ are called “Xenomorphs”.

That said, however, we can’t deny that movies and shows like ‘Alien’ and ‘Another Life’ tap into one of humanity’s darkest fears: the fear of uncovering something so destructive it ends us all.

‘Another Life’ promises to use that fear to tell a potentially great story. Judging from the trailer and the plot synopsis, it feels like an unholy union between ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Alien’. Unlike the latter, the fact that ‘Another Life’ is a series suggests that we might get to really dive deep into the depths of the unknown and uncover more horrors than a simple facehugger.

The first season of ‘Another Life’ will land on Netflix on July 25, 2019.





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