From: ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: I Liked Alien - again
Date: 5 Nov 92 13:15:07 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <1992Nov4.135133.8612@ac.dal.ca> 01fortec@ac.dal.ca writes:

>1- Your comments are not in contention. I simply found parallels and drew
>conclusions accordingly. I said they were similar, not the same.

How similar are they?!  ;-)

Sorry, I just had to say it.  As for your statement, well, can't argue it
when we're just talking about 'similarities'.  The Alien is also similar
to a human (in the first two movies), since it's a biped.  It's similar to
a bat - blind, requiring some other method of determining what's where
(not necessarily sonar, but something).  It's also similar to many insects,
with that tough exoskeleton....

It's similar to a lot of things.

>2- Actually, I found the hive nature implied in the actions of the alien, not
>in the facehugger garden.

This I don't understand at all, but that's just me.  I found nothing in the
first movie to indicate a hive nature.

>Actually, I think by this point the impression I get is that your objection
>to the hive nature of the alien is more one of taste than substance. You 
>don't like the idea that the alien is just a creature, with all the 
>restrictions that that implies.  You want Super BEM!

No, that's not it.  What I want is a little consistency between the two movies
in the way they treat the Alien.  In the first, the Alien, if not intelligent,
if not cunning, if not scary, at least knew how to hide.  It didn't run around
looking to get killed.  It didn't know that the crew had no weapons.  We can
only assume that it behaves like that whether they have weapons or not.

Then, suddenly, in the second movie, the Aliens can't even hide very well
(after that initial scene).

>	Look at it from another point of view, if you want. Hive creatures 
>on Earth are the most successful of species. They are difficult to 
>exterminate, easily adapt to a wide variety of environments that humans 
>would find impossible to live in, and reproduce at an amazing pace.
>	Now apply those same criteria to something larger and from a 
>much more radical environment, and you have our friends with the large
>teeth and violent disposisions. 

All well and good.  But, personally, I saw nothing to indicate a hive nature
in the first movie.  I saw a bad-ass-mo-fo, who was turned into 'just another
number' in the second.  I want the bad-ass-mo-fo again.  If you call that
wanting super BEM, well, I plead guilty.  Because that's what we were given
in the first movie.

Basically, the idea of a hive nature contradicts what we saw in the first
film for one reason:  in the hive, individuals aren't important.  They
do a job and that's it.  The individual doesn't have to be intelligent, or
sneaky, or cunning.  If it gets killed, it's no loss, it just gets replaced.
A good example of a 'hive' culture on a larger scale would be the Borg of
Star Trek: The Next Generation (one of the few things that I've actually
enjoyed about the show :-).  What we saw in the first film is that the
individual Alien was important.  It was smart, it was sneaky, it knew what
it had to do to survive.  It didn't run around waiting to be shot with a
pulse rifle.

>	Me, I like the idea of hive creatures. It leaves open a number of
>interesting possibilities, like what was their home planet like, and
>what happened to the civilisation that bred the star-pilot. Imagine
>a world full of creatures like this one. Or imagine what kind of creature
>eats an alien for lunch.

It's wonderous indeed, but it can be just as wonderous without turning the
monster into an overgrown bee.

>The two views are not incompatible. It occurs to me, though, that unless the
>alien is at the top of the food chain (I've yet to see it eat anything), its
>population density at home must be pretty low, if only because its prey would
>eventually become acustomed to what happens when you peek at a cocoon. 

Yes, except for one thing:  They only need one prey to peek at a cocoon.
After that, we have one Alien, and he can bring more hosts for the rest of
the cocoons.  After that, the reproduce pretty much exponentially, and soon
the entire world (or as much of it as they can get to) is taken.


-- 
Jorge Diaz                       | "I want you to remember, Clark... in all
Georgia Institute of Technology  |  the years to come, in your most private
Office of Information Technology |  moments...my hand at your throat.  I want
ccoprdj@prism.gatech.edu         |  you to remember the one man who beat you."
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