From: Montague_Kevin@Tandem.com (Kevvy Kev)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: Alien biology
Date: 13 Nov 92 02:41:27 GMT
Organization: In Effect Enterprises

In article <74478@hydra.gatech.EDU>, ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:

[snip]

> >. . .let's bring in that wretched third movie here (oblig. slam)
> >because I think there's a good point to be made: was the Alien at the end 
> >willing to kill Ripley?  Puts a different spin on things.
> 
> When it jumped for her you mean?  I still don't think so.  Why would it?  It
> didn't know that she was about to kill herself.

Why?  Because it was pissed that she'd dumped several tons of molten lead on
its head.  My question was, did its instinct to protect the gestating queen
get overridden by its anger, here. 

> UNLESS the Alien sensed that the Queen was ready to come out, and then it
> wouldn't matter if it killed Ripley or not.  So, can the drone tell if the
> Queen is ready to emerge?  If so, this would seriously affect their treatment
> of the Queen's host.

Hm.  My impression was that the Queen wasn't about to come out, and that she
only did her debutante routine when she did because (a) she knew somehow that
Ripley was suiciding (b) it made for dramatic effect.  (Theoretically.)
Your question remains, however, and if we look at the non-canonical A3 comics
adaptation, we see that they can crawl in and out of host's mouths.  I'm just
as happy ignoring this bit of dross. . .
 
[snip]

> OK, so if they can't plant two embryos, and a single egg can't contain two
> facehuggers, how'd the eggs get on the Sulaco?  (deja vu!)

This is the question of the moment.  Let's define it a little better before
we start, tho: There had to have been at least two f'huggers: one queen, and
one to get the dog.  There is the possibility that there were three, and that
one died trying to crack the cryotube.  Or that there were n, and n-the ones
we postulate are (1) still on the Sulaco (2) in the escape craft.
Pick one, any one, does one of these make more sense than the others?  Or is
there something I'm missing?

> >Shorthand for visible light.  Another obligatory slam at A3, in which our
> >"perfect" killing machine relies on the same perceptual tools we astigmatic 
> >humans use.  Ugh.
> 
> Ah.  Colors of the spectrum.  Got it.  Hmm, yes, again, no way to get around
> that bad writing.  OK, so the Aliens don't have eyes.  How do they see?  Or,
> how do they sense what's around them?

I don't think this is necessarily bad writing, but one of the clear examples of
bad filmaking (I hesitate to say directing, because we don't know that this is
Fincher's fault).  The idea is that they can function in near/total dark, and
that they use some esoteric means of sensing prey.  For my money, the bugs are 
biologically electrical in nature, and sense minute electrical currents in our 
brains/muscles.

> >Okay, how's this: the alien in the first was a drone that used whatever means
> >(help me out here) to turn Brett into an egg, and cocooned Dallas as the next
> >host. It then went through the ship, killed the others it ran into, and 
> >crawled into the shuttle to die. . .a consequence of its work on Dallas and
> >Brett.
> 
> OK, sounds good so far.  That's pretty much what the LD says happens.
> 
> >The egg that Brett turned into was Huge, *much* bigger than any other
> >we see.  The superduper queen f'hugger seen in Fangoria and in outtakes from
>                                                 ^^^^^^^^  Huh?

I thought it was Fangoria. . .Ida know, one of those magazines ran pictures of
outtakes from A3.  The picture of the "queen f'hugger" they built was Huge.
Well, the picture wasn't huge, but. . .ahh, you get it.

> >A3 was Huge; obviously it came from a Huge pod; obviously from a host that 
> >had been transformed into an egg.
> 
> Or....  From the Space Jockey itself.  Not the big facehugger, but the
> original Queen.  OK, so there's a little problem with the time involved,
> but the Queen is HUGE.  Just like the SJ.  Couldn't she have come from him?

Ummm. . .then we have to agree that the Queen can live thousands of years. At 
least I think that's how long it takes something to fossilize.  Also, it seems
to me that the Queen isn't huge enough to have come from the SJ. . .she's 
huge, but only as compares to us (and the drones that came from us).  She's
*not* huge compared to the SJ.
 
> Say....  What if those eggs weren't in the cargo hold when the ship crashed? 
> What if they were put there later?  Every discussion I've seen involved the
> eggs being there already:  Either the SJ's race found them, and was taking
> them for obsevation, when the pilot was infected, or else they created them
> as a weapon, and were transporting them when the pilot was infected.
> What if the Alien that came out of the SJ (say, a Queen) laid all those eggs
> *after* the ship crashed?

Possible. Where does this go?  I think it's easier if the SJ was transporting
them. . .see below. . .

[Snip, drone makes queen egg from host (donates some essential self in 
 process, leading to death), queen propogates]

> >NOW:
> >What was that blue film over the eggs in the first movie?
> 
> This is what I don't know.  I think that it's a part of the ship itself,
> some kind of a containment field or something.  Hmm....
> OK, let's assume that the SJ knew what he was carrying, and he knew what
> those buggers could do.  The blue field is an alarm of some kind, to let
> him know if a hugger hatches and starts trying to get out.  It breaks the
> field, and he knows that one is loose.
> 
> OK, problems with this theory:
> 
> 1)  It contradicts my theory above that the eggs weren't there before. :-)
> 2)  The jockey shouldn't have gotten infected, then, if he knew what they
>     were and had an alarm.
> 
> But, it does make some kind of sense....  Kane said that the field reacted
> when he broke it.  It was *just* over the tops of the eggs....  It would
> make a good alarm, a good alarm is necessary for that kind of cargo, what
> do you think?

It would make as good an "alarm" for the f'huggers, especially if they were
in a millenia-long hibernation.  See below. . .

> >What happened to
> >the alien that gestated inside of the pilot?
> 
> Well, my first reaction would be that it died (maybe after laying all the
> eggs?  Depends on if they were there before).  I mean, that thing had been
> there so long that it had fossilized.  I'm sure the Alien would be dead, unless
> it went into hibernation or something. 

Nah. . .nothing that nasty dies of old age. . .

> Assuming that it can hibernate for extrememly long periods of time, it could
> very well be the Queen from A2.  The size is just about right.

I've already replied to this, vis-a-vis the size issue, so why don't I just 
collect the 'see aboves' in a scenario: 
The SJ was piloting his deadly cargo and Somehow, an egg opened.  My theory is
that there was some control mechanism. . .other than the blue film. . .that
malfunctioned, for Whatever reason.  Okay.  Now, recall that the SJ seemed
"grown" into the chair. . .and recall the designer's love for biomechanics.
I suggest that the SJ and his ship were biologically linked, and that he
couldn't get up if he Had to.  In other words, the containment measures for
the pods fail, and one gets loose, and he knows it, but Can't Move.
Brrrr.
What does he do?  He codes that "frighteningly specific" message, warning 
people off. . .he succumbs to the f'hugger; at some time (either while being
hugged or while it's ripping out of him) the ship crashes, and the eggs, w/o
viable hosts or queen around, generate that blue hibernation mist, and wait
patiently for Ripley and co.  The alien that came out of the SJ may or may 
not have helped the hibernation process along (still collating).
I just read back what I wrote above, and it occurs to me that the following
timeline makes most sense: Egg opens; SJ gets grabbed; SJ comes to and 
realizes what has happened; SJ uses time to code signal in as coherent and
complete fashion as possible; Chestburster does its thing as SJ struggles
to land ship in one piece.

> >And why didn't the colony pick
> >up on the warning beacon from the derelict, either before, or during their 
> >occupancy of Acheron?
> 
> This is the one that bothers me.  Probably poor writing for A2.  But, since
> we can't look at it from that point of view (:-), then I'd say it's possible
> that the company sent someone over there *before* they sent the terraformers
> to shut that thing off.

Ahhh. . .more duplicity from the Company.  Okay, so why the hiatus, between 
actions in the first two movies?

> Or, the terraformers didn't have the necessary equipment to sense the
> beacon?

Doesn't make sense, given that they can communicate w/earth.  I vote for
Company duplicity.  And we're off to the races. . .
 
Kevvy Kev
"Now, I don't generally mind when a movie doesn't go the way I thought it
 would, but it does bug me when my way is a lot better."
  -Jan Wolter
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies