From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Do the Aliens come from EARTH?
Date: 20 Aug 92 12:05:55 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <rabjab.14.0@golem.ucsd.edu>, by rabjab@golem.ucsd.edu (Jeff Bytof):
>>> I think a good case can be made that long before the crew of 
>>> the Nostrono made contact with the derelict ship on LV-426, the 
>>> Company developed the Alien species and infected another civilization's 
>>> home planet.  

Why?
 
> During Ripley's debriefing, the Company never stated that it had
> sent the Nostromo to LV-426 to investigate a signal.

This is perfectly consistent with the idea that the whole shebang was
covered up when the Nostromo failed to return.  It is NOT if the
Nostromo was entrusted with what amounts to a war mission.  If the
Nostromo's mission had been part of a large plan they absolutely would
have had to check what went wrong - after all, the aliens who sent the
signal could have captured her and be en route to Earth with their
cargo, now on an Earth ship.

To be able to do that with any kind of effectiveness, the Company
would need a complete fleet of it's own, which means that this
argument does not fit - they couldn't keep that secret.  

> We can
> infer that the Company had interpreted the signal as a warning, 

If this was a suicide ship on a vengeance mission, why should it
broadcast a warning, especially one describing the cargo to the
intended victims, at a stage where it was fairly close to them.

> I would have thought that the discovery of an intelligent life 
> form broadcasting anything - even a warning -
> would have been extensively publicized - that a SETI program 
> of sorts would have been contacted.  Instead the Company decides to keep
> the whole matter a total secret from science.

Money is the reason.  No more, no less.  They see it as an opportunity
to get a headstart in research.  It explains, and it does not open the
hundreds of holes that your explanation does.

> My belief is that even the explaination we are given - getting the 
> Alien for the bioweapons division - is part truth: they are 
> retrieving the weapon to examine it.

Then the only sensible course of action would have been for Ash to
tell the others about the meaning of the signal, so they could collect
the eggs safely.  But he did not know what they were up against in
detail.  Since he was the Company's operator on the Nostromo, assigned
to guaranteeing the success of the mission, this does make no sense at
all.

> host - something hinted at in Alien^3.  The Company may have been 
> surprised that a ship from the other civilization had left home base,
 
Yes, really.  They meet a spacefaring civilization, then are surprised
that they use their ships.  Also, how should the aliens know where
Earth is, for god's sake?  The Company could never use a slow-working
biological weapon and hope to remain unknown as the perpetrators
unless they struck completely from the dark, i.e., the aliens didn't
even know of their existence, or even that of other humans.

> Because the Company had done the dirty deed, they could not visit the
> actual scene of the crime (the home planet of the other race) for
> a long time.

Why?  This leads back to the assumption that the Company would make
war against that civilization in the first case (which I consider
horseshit, but let's leave that aside for now).  In any case, they
could only do it if nobody knew about it.  That means they absolutely
HAVE to go back, make sure they were completely successful and do the
mopping up, before eventual survivors get back on their feet.

Actually, trying to eradicate a spacefaring race with carnivorous
parasites is one of the more stupid things to do.  The Aliens are not
that hard to detect, and you'll never get all their colonies.  Then
either they strike back, or make contact with your government, and the
shit really hits the fan.  

> The Nostromo was a convenient probe to use to check on
> a minor deviation from the Company's plan without getting much
> attention.

No.  It was a convenient probe on a claim that might turn out a dud.
If it's not something new, but something whose danger you know about
and which you are deeply involved in, you send a team of specialists
that you can trust to keep their mouths shut, or you nuke it from
orbit.

You are also conveniently ignoring another gaping hole - the
supposedly great age of the alien derelict.

Sorry, but your explanation just does not make sense.

-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies