Space Jockey

The Space Jockey was seen in the first Alien movie when the spaceship, Nostromo, landed on a then-unknown planet to answer a distress call. This planet was called LV-426 also known as Acheron. Members of the crew found a derelict spacecraft with a fossilized Space Jockey inside and it appeared to be the pilot of the ship. The creatures haven’t been seen in any of the Alien sequels since Alien but have featured in the video games and comic books. The Space Jockeys have been theorized by fans to be the original creators of the Xenomorphs. H.R. Giger originally designed the derelict spacecraft and the Space Jockey and originally named the creature ‘The Pilot’. The Alien production crew, however, nicknamed the creature ‘The Space Jockey’.

Physiology

In Alien, the huge creature can be seen sitting in front of a large telescope, believed to be the command of the ship, and it was fossilized. It’s not known how long it had been there but it was probably a very long time with it being fossilized. The Space Jockey seemed to be growing out of the chair behind the telescope – as if the creature and the chair had been fused together. Its rib cage was bent outwards which meant a xenomorph creature had emerged from it. It’s not known what happened to this creature. The most distinguishing feature of the Space Jockey is its trunk which extends down its body. It’s speculated that this would have helped it to breathe. Ridley Scott made an interesting comment about the Space Jockeys in June 2010 when he was talking about the upcoming movie Prometheus. He said the Space Jockey isn’t a creature in itself, it’s a suit with another creature inside.

Technology – The Derelict Spacecraft

The Space Jockeys are a technologically-advanced race of creatures. That is clear. They were able to send the distress call/warning beacon which reached the Nostromo. The Space Jockeys are also responsible for building the derelict spacecraft. The derelict, itself, is a large, asymmetrical, wishbone-shaped spacecraft and it has three large entrances near ground level. Members of the Nostromo entered the ship through one of these when they investigated the ship. Inside of the ship, the passages looks very organic and even xenomorph-like. The Space Jockey was sitting behind a huge telescope which many believe to be the bridge of the ship. Then there’s the blue layer of light covering the Alien eggs in the cargo hold.

Theories

It’s speculated that the Space Jockeys created the xenomorphs as a weapon. There are many things to support this. The Alien Eggs in the cargo hold were held in stasis in a blue layer of light and when the light was broken, an alarm sounded for a second. It appears as if the Space Jockeys were transporting the eggs somewhere. The Space Jockeys and the derelict ship also look similar to xenomorphs – biomechanical in design, which would support the theory that the xenomorphs had been created by them. The director of Alien, Ridley Scott also spoke about this in the DVD commentary. He believes that the xenomorphs were created as a weapon and that the derelict spacecraft was in fact a transport vessel.

Another theory, is that the Space Jockey in the derelict spacecraft had escaped from its homeworld which had been overrun with xenomorphs and the creature itself had been infected with a xenomorph. In which case, the derelict crash-landed on the planet. This doesn’t explain however how the alien eggs were in the cargo hold. It’s possible the xenomorph that came out of the Space Jockey was a Queen Alien and it laid all those eggs in the cargo hold. That seems unlikely since there were literally thousands of eggs in the cargo hold.

One unlikely theory connects the Predators to the Space Jockeys. In the film Alien vs Predator, it’s shown that the Predators breed xenomorphs for hunting purposes. It’s not known if there is any connection between the Predators and the Space Jockeys or even if they had contact with eachother. One theory is that the Predators could have been responsible for the derelict crashing on LV-426.

Future

The future of the space jockeys is unknown. The derelict craft was seen in the special edition version of Aliens when a family went to investigate it. It’s very possible that derelict spacecraft has been destroyed since then when the atmospheric processor blew up. In the upcoming Prometheus movie by Ridley Scott, it’s rumoured that the movie would explore the space jockeys. In the early stages, the film was originally an Alien Prequel and then transformed into a stand-alone movie.

Forum Links

Space Jockey Theories – General topic for posting your theories.
Space Jockey Alien – Topic for discussing the creature that emerged from the Space Jockey.
The Space Jockey’s Chair – Discuss the chair the creature was sitting in.
Blue Layer of Light – Discuss the blue layer of light that was covering the Alien eggs.