'Alien: Earth' episode 5 was its own 'Alien' movie. Here's how they made it.

We see a lot of the ship in episode five, which is almost its own alien movie

It's almost like a small, like an hour alien movie. What made you want to make this almost detective Poirot Columbo moment? Yeah

Well, I mean, some of it was the unanswered question, right, of what happened on the ship that made it crash

We kind of cliffhanger this moment in episode four, and then, you know, the tension for the audience of not seeing for two weeks what's going to happen next there

But some of it is just selfishly, you know, I wanted to make an alien movie

One of you is trying to destroy my ship. and that's why I directed it

I didn't give it to another filmmaker because, you know, it was really exciting to go

all right, well, I think I can do a trapped in a spaceship

what happened, and then adding the mystery element to it. I think you innovate within the story

and I think that that... It's the same thing with the number of creatures, right

I'm used to, in Fargo, it starts as five movies, and then it becomes one movie, right

And for me, it's the confluence of all the pieces so that by the last 10 minutes, you're like, oh my God

All of it is now colliding in this way that gives you a feeling that maybe you've never had before in an alien movie

It's not just like there's a xenomorph run away. It's like, where could you run? Exactly

And the beauty of this moment is that there's a seamless fluidity to the season

but certainly what was so daunting to look at as Noah was embarking upon this and episode five I think is a great example there a lot in here that really shouldn work

You shouldn't be able to stop the story in the way that he does, and yet, as you identified, in some ways it brings a different kind of thrill

to the narrative experience because you are getting so much information that you were sort of exposed to from that sort of initial prologue

and you would never anticipate that you'd then dive headlong entirely in this

and meet a whole new crew, but that it would have such meaning to the overall story he's telling

Mauro is, he's a cyborg, but he almost acts like a synth

He's so cold. But then in episode five, we get Mauro as Poirot

Like, can you take me through this? Mauro as Poirot, I love that

This detective sort of miniature alien film. What did that mean for your character

Look, it's incredible to even have the opportunity to be on the ship for that whole time

And of course, you know, a whole new cast of characters appeared who are just phenomenal

I remember when Noah was telling me about the episode, because at that time it hadn't been written and there was a strike

so he had to sit down and pitch it to me. And he sat down and basically walked me through it

And I love the description that you gave, because that's exactly how I felt. Although I'd go for Columbo more. Yeah

I mean, I'm a Columbo person myself, yeah. This ship collected five different life forms

from the darkest corners of the universe. Monsters