Sony’s Watchman Inspired Alien’s Iconic Sci-Fi Tech

The Alien franchise has always woven advanced technology into its terrifying narratives, but the new FX series Alien: Earth takes a deeper look at the corporations behind the sci-fi horror. This chapter explores how entities like Weyland-Yutani and their rivals see the xenomorph threat not just as a catastrophe, but as a chance to create revolutionary products and drive their stock prices into the stratosphere. To illustrate the immense power these companies already wield, the show highlights the sophisticated hardware that built their empires, everything from advanced firearms and starships to synthetic androids and specialized computer tablets.

Tasked with visualizing parts of the Alien universe never before seen on screen, production designer Andy Nicholson faced the creative challenge of building a believable world from the ground up. Drawing on experience from films like Gravity and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nicholson understands how subtle artistic choices can make a fictional reality feel tangible. While the original Alien film served as a key reference point, Nicholson aimed to capture the aesthetic of the future as it was imagined back in 1979, when Ridley Scott’s classic first premiered.

“The original Alien remains a landmark achievement for science fiction production design,” Nicholson explained. “It fundamentally raised the bar for the genre by presenting a grounded, industrial vision of space travel focused on blue-collar workers, something that hadn’t been done with that level of detail before.”

Set two years prior to the events of Alien, the series follows the catastrophic crash landing of the Weyland-Yutani vessel USCSS Maginot on Earth, specifically in Prodigy City. For most residents, the event is a tragedy that destroys their homes. For the city’s ambitious owner, Boy Kavalier, CEO of the Prodigy Corporation, the ship and its alien cargo represent a tremendous business opportunity, one he is sure his competitor, Yutani, does not want him to seize.

Through flashbacks to life aboard the Maginot before its destruction, Alien: Earth forges a strong visual link to the first film. The design of the hypersleep chambers, common areas, and the Mother AI control room deliberately echo the interiors of the Nostromo. These similarities function as rewarding easter eggs for fans, but Nicholson also used them to underscore the direct narrative connection between the two stories.

“I immersed myself in the original Alien to design a ship that could logically belong to the same fleet,” Nicholson said. “The Maginot is a Yutani vessel, and just like naval ships from the same manufacturer share common layouts and equipment, this ship had to feel like a sibling to the Nostromo.”

While Weyland-Yutani is a major presence, the series spends significant time with Kavalier and his team of “synths”, humanoid robots implanted with the consciousnesses of terminally ill children. These synths are marketed as Prodigy’s next luxury innovation. To develop a unique visual identity for Prodigy’s technology, Nicholson again looked to the late 1970s conception of the future, which led him to study European automotive design from that period.

“Industrial design, furniture, and especially French and Italian car interiors from that era project a very specific vision of tomorrow,” Nicholson noted. “It was the dawn of digital dashboards in cars from makers like Citroën, and steering wheels with a single spoke, all of which felt futuristic then.”

This design philosophy is most evident in the chunky, distinctive tablets featured prominently throughout the season. Nicholson was determined to avoid generic, translucent CGI screens or the gesture-based interfaces seen in films like Minority Report. He wanted something tangible, slightly retro, yet undeniably strange. The solution arrived when the show’s props master, Morritz Heinlein, presented a functioning Sony Watchman, a portable pocket television from the 1980s.

“He found an original black-and-white Sony Watchman with a 4-inch screen,” Nicholson recalled. “It used a CRT tube that projected an image onto a diagonal screen. We loved the aesthetic and thought, what if we turned this into a tablet? We took that design language, enlarged the screen, and gave it a substantial thickness.”

This approach allowed Nicholson to visually differentiate between the tech produced by rival corporations. He decided that Weyland-Yutani devices would feature classic 4:3 aspect ratio displays, while Prodigy’s products would use the wider 16:9 screens that became popular shortly after Alien was released, a trend visible in the sequel, Aliens.

“The monitors in Aliens are largely 16:9 because that was the new, futuristic standard at the time,” Nicholson said. “So for our timeline, Prodigy’s tech adopts that wider format, signaling it as more advanced compared to Weyland-Yutani’s.”

The tactile quality of the Watchman’s lenticular screen, which distorted when pressed, inspired further design elements for Prodigy’s user interfaces. This single concept became a foundational element for all Prodigy screens, creating a cohesive and recognizable design language.

“That idea became the baseline,” Nicholson said. “The tablets are immediately identifiable, slightly bulkier than what we use today, but their design feels believable because it’s rooted in real, vintage technology. They are familiar, yet intriguingly novel.”

The first season of Alien: Earth concludes with its finale airing on FX.

(Source: The Verge)