Quote from: Russ on Nov 12, 2018, 11:45:51 AM
You do!?! Damn, there goes my big novel pitch...
Would love to read it :-)
Yeah I know what you mean.
So often I think I have a great new unique idea and then I read of someone else's thoughts who independently came up with something similar. But then, we all haunt the same forums, subconsciously cross pollinating each others ideas, affected by the same fandom zeitgeist. It sort of has to be expected.
I'll tell you what the differences are (between what you wrote and my stuff):
(This is all fanfic, BTW)
Your "jaded alcoholic cop" is my "Marshall William T O'Neil" (yes, he bares a striking resemblence to Sean Connery, just as displayed on page 1 of this very thread!).
He arrives on Thedus (it's a space station, not a planet) to take up the office of Galactic Marshall in this recently opened sector of the Galaxy. He's getting on in years, close to retirement.
Your "hot-dog newbie sidekick" is my "Dr Elizabeth Shaw." She doesn't work for him, she works for Colonial Admin. as their exobiologist. But O'Niel deputises her and relies on her to provide science advice on his investigations.
Your "murder on Thedus" is my "pursuit of criminal on-the-run" Dr Ian Cuthbert, wanted for illegal clone experiments on unwary citizens.
Your "things Wey-Yu have been trying to hide" is my "Wey-Yu harbouring and concealing a fugitive from justice" (namely, Dr Cuthbert).
Your "they'll find out about Ash, the special order and all that stuff" is a bit more involved in my take (which is essentially a TV series version of the Alien saga).
Here are the opening episodes, in a nutshell:
The Nostromo ships out of Thedus.
O'Neill puts the heat on Cuthbert as he gets closer and closer to finding him, eventually enforcing a lockdown of all unscheduled departures from Thedus.
The Nostromo unexpectedly returns under an emergency flag. O'Neill is alerted.
Kane is offloaded in a stasis tube, creature attached to his face, taken to the W-Y medical lab. Dr Shaw is called upon to provide assistance.
O'Neill asks Dr Shaw to attend the Nostromo crew debrief, in which they recount their tale on LV-426, while he continues his pursuit of Dr Cuthbert.
Cuthbert secretly meets with W-Y and does a deal in which they will help him elude the Marshall and in return he will give them the benefit of his scientific expertise.
Miraculously, the creature falls off Kane's face and W-Y declares him fit for duty, much to Dr Shaw's consternation. In fact, she complains to O'Neil that despite her being asked to consult on the case by W-Y, she was kept at arms length from the patient.
The real Nostromo science officer is kidnapped and replaced by Cuthbert who assumes the name Ash, and the Nostromo hurriedly departs again with Kane and "Ash" both onboard.
W-Y throws up a smoke screen to stifle O'Neill and Shaws' investigations.
Onboard the Nostomo, it's business as usual, except that "Ash" takes an unusual interest in Kane's activities.
Back on Thedus, W-Y is mounting an expedition to LV-426, the planetoid where Kane was attacked. They entice Dr Shaw to accompany them.
And so on...
Quote from: SiL on Nov 12, 2018, 12:38:50 PM
That idea could work -- but it's not really in keeping with what was shown in Alien. Shuffling crew members doesn't seem to be a major thing (Ripley wasn't part of the normal crew roster) and the Company didn't explicitly try to murder anyone until Alien3 (and to be fair, that dude had in turn tried to murder someone right in front of them). More likely they would've just put the dude on another ship and sent him on his merry way.
...
Of course, you're responding to Russ, but it applies to what I just wrote, so in order to pre-empt your next post:
Yes, your objections are correct. My excuse is that I've changed so much of the original stories I've also taken the liberty of excising and rewriting the bits that get in my way, heh heh.
Yes, I'm shameless. Guilty as charged.
TC