Socotra Island has been called the most alien-looking place on Earth, and with good reason. Sitting off the coast of Yemen in the Arabian Sea, it’s home to plants and landscapes found nowhere else.

I don’t know which is sloppier – the crew of the USCSS Maginot or the writing on Alien: Earth. At long last, in Episode 5, we get to see what happened aboard the Weyland-Yutani research vessel. We ...