Simon and Jim return to The Xenopod for a special episode discussing the new Alien franchise TV series, ALIEN: EARTH created by Noah Hawley. They discuss how well the worldbuilding works, the production design, the creature design before ultimately descending into discussion of why the series as a whole doesn't work: pacing issues including the pacing issues with US prestige TV in general, themes that don't fit the Alien franchise, narrative threads that taper off unresolved, and the never-ending Peter Pan references.

The Impossipod will return later this month for an episode discussing MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE.

Content warnings: body horror; mutilation and violent death; biological experimentation; child slavery; transhumanism and biological augmentation; pregnancy; eyeball stuff.

Our theme song is Alien Remix by Leslie Wai available on SoundCloud: ⁠⁠https://soundcloud.com/lesliewai/alien-remix⁠

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's second Mission: Impossible film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT, a very highly-regarded entry in the franchise that frankly Simon and Jim are a bit meh about. They discuss how Henry Cavill (and his $3 million moustache) is a great addition to the film, the shift in Ethan's character towards mythologising messianic tropes, McQuarrie's obsession with continuity in the franchise, the franchise's continuing approach to femininity in action films, and the script's lazy misunderstanding of political anarchism.

Content warnings: nuclear explosions and mass death; violent deaths including murder and assassination; destruction of religious sites; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; flying including parachuting and helicopter crashes.

Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop (https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/RQWZD7BU

Simon and Jim discuss Christopher McQuarrie's first Mission: Impossible film of many, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION. They discuss how this film both subverts the tropes of this franchise and simultaneously develops the 'house style' for the rest of the franchise, the continuing themes around government accountability and 'Deep State' conspiracy theories, how the character of Ilsa Faust represents a new expression of femininity for this franchise and action films in general, the expression of neuroqueerness through Mission: Impossible and Ethan Hunt, and Zhang Jingchu's extremely small but top-billed part pandering to the Chinese market.

Content warnings: violent death including murder and assassination; US-backed violent coups in Latin America; cult leadership and the Church of Scientology; "terrorist" actions against arms manufacturers and major financial institutions; drowning and suffocation.

Our theme song is Star - X - Impossible Mission (Mission Impossible Theme PsyTrance Remix) by EDM Non-Stop (https://soundcloud.com/edm-non-stop/star-x-impossible-mission) licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.

Full references for this episode available in Zotero at https://www.zotero.org/groups/5642177/take_one/collections/I3SDJBUL