With the Alien: Earth prequel miniseries underway (dialed up on my viewing queue for tomorrow), here’s a musical reminder where the franchise started, on the spools of Jerry Goldsmith’s otherworldly opening to the 1979 original, Alien.

I was age nine when Alien came out, no hope of getting to see it as a rated R flick. Sure, they sold Alien trading cards at our local 7-11 and I bought a handful of packs to satiate my curiosity about the horror-sci-fi classic. There was that impossibly huge 18-inch Xenomorph action figure in our local Mammoth Mart that I never could save my allowance up to get, since it flew off the shelves in the same week of its release. I was later handed the same toy, sans the creature’s back tubing, in my 20s, and it was still a joy to have.

Suffice it to say, once I got to see Alien then Aliens and so forth, it became one of my favorite franchises ever. Landing a copy of Goldsmith’s iconic score became a treasure in my late forties, and I’m still immersed and enthralled by the entire soundtrack. There was a reason Goldsmith was entrusted with Alien, coming right off the heels of his heroic score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In space, they might not be able to hear you scream, but there’s plenty other clang and clatter in the furthest reaches of Andromeda.

Bring on Alien: Earth!