Wow. I totally missed this discussion. Guess it's not too late, after all.
A belated welcome, Steve! I still have '
Earth Hive' and '
Nightmare Asylum' and think they were superb adaptations of the source material.
On the other hand, I eventually came to really detest all the 'Yautja' stuff, but as we would both agree; to each their own.
I suppose it comes down more to what the fans eventually did with it: Turn the Predators from sadistic galactic hunters into what can best be described as Viking Samurai. Of course, the contemporary version of what Klingons and Ferengi are, happen to be
far removed from their original concepts, so it does happen.
I would like to thank you, in a way, for bringing up something eartlier to light. I, too, was really struck by that 'the love of God' line Cameron put in the script. I had forgotten about it. You brought it back for me.
It
is a really powerful line and those sorts of motivations, never seen by the viewer and yet which, nevertheless, find their way into how characters react in stories, are precisely the type of thing I learnt to place in my own scripts, when I write them.
We seem to mostly agree on '
Aliens' having more entertainment value, for us,
personally, than '
Alien' and I agree about the 'idiot plot' thing. Scott even admitted that, in at least one interview. It's particularly obvious at times such as when Ripley goes for her cat. However, my preference for the two films is a
very fine line and I came to appreciate the original much more, as years went by.
I'd disagree with you on the Aliens' intelligence level, of course. They've shown a very high level of cunning and one of the things I like about '
Aliens' is that, although it has a superficial level, it also has a deeper one. Those who look at it, at first glance, can assume hundreds of the things are getting blown away, yet, later on, the motion tracker shows tons of them still very much active. It has that rewatchability factor so crucial to the making of a classic.
I'd like to ask you, if I may, what gave you the inspiration for your version of General Spears. You added things to him which were never in the graphic novel and rounded him out a lot more. The flashbacks to his early life, in particular, with his first sexual experience going some way to shaping his outlook on things, were an interesting way of bringing that sort of stuff out. Did you have in mind a certain historical character to help you with that sort of stuff or was it just a matter of looking at the comic and then throwing in some spontaneous ideas?
If you had the chance, would a future novel of yours bring back the horrific concept of transforming people into eggs, in order to obtain a Queen facehugger? I've often been compelled by that idea, as have many others and thought it a shame '
Alien 3' never used it.
If you were given a blank slate and told, "Ignore all the graphic novels, book adaptations of your own and other authors'. We want to go from scratch." Would you still have followed the idea of Predators using Aliens for hunts or would you have them meeting in a completely different way?
One of the original ideas for the Alien was that they have arisen into their own technological and highly advanced civilisation. That the eggs found were merely examples of them removed from their own society. As a writer, would this idea appeal to you, in terms of exploring it? Or would you prefer for the creatures to remain as removed from technology as possible?
Finally, if you were asked to, would you dare to write a deliberate parody involving these creatures or would you hate to see someone even attempt to do such a thing?
