First Alien: Isolation Screenshots

[Engineer]

Sure if you want to completely ignore the context.

Special doesn't mean it was sent while they were in route, it could have been contingency.

Special means 'not standard'.

it still doesn't make sense that the company would divert space truckers instead of fielding a more appropriate team if there was prior knowledge of the signal.

It depends on what the signal contained.  If it just said "Stay away! Dangerous organism!" then why not send some passing tug and if they find something $$$ and if they don't, you have no more costs than a late shipment.  If it gave detailed info about the Alien, it makes more sense to send an expensive dedicated team, but then you have all the rules and regs about dangerous organisms and "nobody wins".

But weren't these "special" circumstances? Seems like that would call for "not standard" actions/routines to be implemented to me.

But who knew what the signal contained without translating it. Which they did, or started to do, in the movie. It was a warning to stay away.  Probably intended for other space jockeys who'd already know what the dangers were, and therefore leave out the details of what the alien was. So, ok, send the space truckers, and one measly synthetic to investigate. Then never bother to return when they all disappear, which was a rather expensive piece of hardware ($42 million unadjusted dollars if I remember correctly). And if this organism was crew expendable, and they knew before hand that it was worth the lives of the crew, then why not the lives of a second crew? Why wasn't there at least a second set of space truckers sent to investigate? That's rhetorical. The answer would be speculation, ;-)

Special doesn't mean it was sent while they were in route, it could have been contingency.

And if the company sent it, they could cover it up along with what happened on the Nostromo and still get answers about the source of the transmission.

How did the company know of the xeno if all they knew about was a distress signal that's not human? If that's the case, the special order would have to have been sent, but there's nothing to suggest, and even argument against the ability to communicate so quickly. They couldn't get in touch with earth. And even after the facehugger showed up, they didn't bother trying, maybe because the transmissions weren't fast enough, or because the tech wasn't there. So the special order doesn't make sense unless it's a contingency (pre-programmed).

it still doesn't make sense that the company would divert space truckers instead of fielding a more appropriate team if there was prior knowledge of the signal.

The special order was most likely sent to the Nostromo when they were docked in Thedus, then Mother used it as an excuse to drift 10 months off course outside of the normal shipping lanes.  Hell it could've even been uploaded by Ash.

The Nostromo was most likely the closest WY vehicle that could be used to claim the find.  When the Nostromo itself was destroyed trying to kill the Alien and there were no survivors WY most likely tried to cover it up to avoid the bad press.  Otherwise Ash could've made some sob story up about what happened to the rest of the crew.

In between Alien and Aliens the beacon is destroyed by volcanic activity on Acheron's surface.

I've actually heard the volcanic activity bit before... I have nothing to refute that...

But if the company was trying to cover up the events of alien to avoid bad press, then they would have known there was something to cover up. Therefore, they would have known of ripley's survival... Thus making it the worst cover up in history... I know, speculation, right?

[UDA]

Then why risk letting a bunch of space truckers potentially screw it up? If they really wanted to make contact, why not send a team of andriods? The reasoning doesn't add up.

[Acid_Reign161]

Ya know, sorry to reiterate what others have said, but i always felt the story behind 'Alien' was very clearly explained;

The science officer was replaced two days before leaving. The crew of the Nostromo had never shipped with Ash before.. i recall a conversation between Ripley and Lambert (i think it was a deleted scene) where they remark about being able to 'vouch for the others' (implying they had engaged in sexual intercourse with the other male crew members at some point, possibly on previous journeys, but none of them knew anything about Ash)  Special order 937 was for 'science officer eyes only' and the instructions were clearly shown on screen. I've always taken it as it is... Ash knew his mission before he boarded the Nostromo.. he was sent there specifically to ensure a life form was brought back. That's what he had been put there for. If this hadn't been planned before the Nostromo set off for Earth, then why replace the science officer at all? They needed a synthetic...someone without emotion or feelings of remorse for the crew who would follow orders as instructed.

As for the warning transmission from the Derelict, in 'Aliens' you can clearly see the volcanic activity of the planet has literally caused the ship to crack/break down the middle... which would account for its malfunction.

[szkoki]

Then why risk letting a bunch of space truckers potentially screw it up? If they really wanted to make contact, why not send a team of andriods? The reasoning doesn't add up.

because they cant bring an alien lifeform through the quarantine with a science ship BUT if Ash let the alien infect the crew then separate the infected ones in time and kill the others or just kill everyone and make sure the alien is in safe place while only he is alive and can cover all the other's death and land on Earth thats why the space trucker choice

[Engineer]

Then why risk letting a bunch of space truckers potentially screw it up? If they really wanted to make contact, why not send a team of andriods? The reasoning doesn't add up.

because they cant bring an alien lifeform through the quarantine with a science ship BUT if Ash let the alien infect the crew then separate the infected ones in time and kill the others or just kill everyone and make sure the alien is in safe place while only he is alive and can cover all the other's death and land on Earth thats why the space trucker choice

One big problem with this... No one knew that the alien life cycle required a host organism until after first contact.

Ya know, sorry to reiterate what others have said, but i always felt the story behind 'Alien' was very clearly explained;

The science officer was replaced two days before leaving. The crew of the Nostromo had never shipped with Ash before.. i recall a conversation between Ripley and Lambert (i think it was a deleted scene) where they remark about being able to 'vouch for the others' (implying they had engaged in sexual intercourse with the other male crew members at some point, possibly on previous journeys, but none of them knew anything about Ash)  Special order 937 was for 'science officer eyes only' and the instructions were clearly shown on screen. I've always taken it as it is... Ash knew his mission before he boarded the Nostromo.. he was sent there specifically to ensure a life form was brought back. That's what he had been put there for. If this hadn't been planned before the Nostromo set off for Earth, then why replace the science officer at all? They needed a synthetic...someone without emotion or feelings of remorse for the crew who would follow orders as instructed.

As for the warning transmission from the Derelict, in 'Aliens' you can clearly see the volcanic activity of the planet has literally caused the ship to crack/break down the middle... which would account for its malfunction.

That's one interpretation... I have stated my interpretation, and I recall reading/hearing somewhere that Ridley Scott wanted an element of fear associated with a computer making decisions without human input, sort of like HAL 9000 from 2001: Space Odyssey. That would support my theory that muther made the decision on its own, and Ash was following the same decision process as muther, but he was there coincidentally. The coincidence isn't far fetched, and not the only coincidence in the story arc... It's pretty coincidental that a colony was setup on LV-426 37 years later, it's coincidental that the alien decided to hibernate on the nostromo's escape vehicle just prior to ripley self destructing the Nostromo, it's coincidental that Clemens was a doctor on Fury 161 and was the best person to help ripley along after arriving, it's coincidental that ripley was impregnated with a queen during alien 3, the list could go on if you include Prometheus and resurrection but I prefer not too include those films, and I'm sure that there are other coincidences I have not thought of just yet. But my point is, they never explicitly state why ash was added to the crew just before the Nostromo left, so that's open to speculation/interpretation. My interpretation is different, but not wrong.

Oh and James Cameron moved away from paranoia of technology to paranoia of corporation. And I prefer to think of the alien showing some intelligence, perhaps even memory acquisition/inheritance from its host (kind of like they mentioned in resurrection regrading ripley-8), when it boarded the escape vehicle, rather than that being coincidence...

[Mr. Clemens]

Ash was following the same decision process as muther, but he was there coincidentally.

Engineer, by that logic, it's just as likely that 'Bob the Human' might have been the Science Officer on that flight... and what would he have thought of Special Order 937?

[PRJ_since1990]

Maybe I got lost in reading the recent comments. What exactly is being debated here? I was pretty sure most Alien fans were on the same page regarding Ash, Wey-Yu and Special Order 937. It was all planned. What's the question? How did they know in the first place? Pretty sure that's partially what Prometheus was trying to do, in addition to universe expansion. There are some loose ends and unanswered questions, but that's what happens when you have 4 + 1 films, with 4 directors and 2 side titles with different directors trying to tie in to the original 4.

[Engineer]

Ash was following the same decision process as muther, but he was there coincidentally.

Engineer, by that logic, it's just as likely that 'Bob the Human' might have been the Science Officer on that flight... and what would he have thought of Special Order 937?

No doubt that a human science officer would have completely altered the outcome of the movie. I'd imagine a human science officer would have acted out of self preservation... The way ripley did when she refused to open the air lock for Dallas, Kane, and lambert. But again, this is speculation and ultimately irrelevant to the argument.

Maybe I got lost in reading the recent comments. What exactly is being debated here? I was pretty sure most Alien fans were on the same page regarding Ash, Wey-Yu and Special Order 937. It was all planned. What's the question? How did they know in the first place? Pretty sure that's partially what Prometheus was trying to do, in addition to universe expansion. There are some loose ends and unanswered questions, but that's what happens when you have 4 + 1 films, with 4 directors and 2 side titles with different directors trying to tie in to the original 4.

The quick and dirty version is, I have a different opinion based on the apparent lack of knowledge of the alien in the beginning of the second movie and the lack of direct incriminating evidence that ash and the company had an agenda prior to the nostromos course deviation. There's circumstances which might suggest a hidden agenda, I admit that, but they never outright say it, so it could be viewed either way... I prefer to think of it as there was no company conspiracy yet in alien because there was no follow up investigation after the nostromo disappeared, the board room attendees in aliens where skeptical of ripley's story, and the colonists had no idea the derelict ship was nearby until Burke told them to check out a grid reference after hearing ripley's story.

[UDA]

Maybe I got lost in reading the recent comments. What exactly is being debated here? I was pretty sure most Alien fans were on the same page regarding Ash, Wey-Yu and Special Order 937. It was all planned. What's the question? How did they know in the first place? Pretty sure that's partially what Prometheus was trying to do, in addition to universe expansion. There are some loose ends and unanswered questions, but that's what happens when you have 4 + 1 films, with 4 directors and 2 side titles with different directors trying to tie in to the original 4.

I guess this is bringing out the conspiracy dissenters. Some of us believe there is enough evidence to buck conventional theory that the company would have been aware of the direlect, xenomorph, ect, prior to Alien. The lack of communication in the first film suggests that the Nostromo wouldn't receive the special order if it was sent from somewhere outside the Nostromo (Such as earth). We believe the company would have contingencies for encountering an alien species, but because the Alien was hostile, by default the orders would have been to bring back a sample (We used to actively seek out Ebola, though it's rarely found, worrying that it could become a plague. My suggestion is that the company would have done the same thing, or that the government had laws forcing the corporation to bring back samples for study). Also the fact that they didn't immediately freeze Kane after the facehugger was attached to him and they realized it had a tube down his throat makes me think that the company wasn't as on top of the situation as we previously thought. There's also the argument that if the Company wanted to check out what could potentially be a extraterrestrial, granted the SoS from the Direlect wasn't human, they could have fielded a better team than space truckers, so it's reasonable to assume that the Nostromo had first contact with the SoS, and then diverted automatically. Also, in Aliens, it was Burk that send the colonists to check out Ripleys' story, not the company. And if the company knew of the Xenomorph, and wanted a specimen like everyone body thinks was the case in the first film, why would they send Marines, who would be more likely to destroy every specimen they could find, instead of sending a more appropriate biohazard team like we saw in Alien 3.

We have to keep in mind that at the time these films were made, Prometheus didn't exist, so there could be some slight retconning taking place, and even then, we still don't know the outcome of what happened during prometheus? Did they ever send a rescue team? That sort of thing.

Basically, this all started with us wondering if the company knew about the Xenomorph prior, and whether that will play into the Story of Alien Isolation.

It's a fun debate.

[Kimarhi]

Sure if you want to completely ignore the context.

Special doesn't mean it was sent while they were in route, it could have been contingency.

Special means 'not standard'.

it still doesn't make sense that the company would divert space truckers instead of fielding a more appropriate team if there was prior knowledge of the signal.

It depends on what the signal contained.  If it just said "Stay away! Dangerous organism!" then why not send some passing tug and if they find something $$$ and if they don't, you have no more costs than a late shipment.  If it gave detailed info about the Alien, it makes more sense to send an expensive dedicated team, but then you have all the rules and regs about dangerous organisms and "nobody wins".

But weren't these "special" circumstances? Seems like that would call for "not standard" actions/routines to be implemented to me.

But who knew what the signal contained without translating it. Which they did, or started to do, in the movie. It was a warning to stay away.  Probably intended for other space jockeys who'd already know what the dangers were, and therefore leave out the details of what the alien was. So, ok, send the space truckers, and one measly synthetic to investigate. Then never bother to return when they all disappear, which was a rather expensive piece of hardware ($42 million unadjusted dollars if I remember correctly). And if this organism was crew expendable, and they knew before hand that it was worth the lives of the crew, then why not the lives of a second crew? Why wasn't there at least a second set of space truckers sent to investigate? That's rhetorical. The answer would be speculation, ;-)

Special doesn't mean it was sent while they were in route, it could have been contingency.

And if the company sent it, they could cover it up along with what happened on the Nostromo and still get answers about the source of the transmission.

How did the company know of the xeno if all they knew about was a distress signal that's not human? If that's the case, the special order would have to have been sent, but there's nothing to suggest, and even argument against the ability to communicate so quickly. They couldn't get in touch with earth. And even after the facehugger showed up, they didn't bother trying, maybe because the transmissions weren't fast enough, or because the tech wasn't there. So the special order doesn't make sense unless it's a contingency (pre-programmed).

it still doesn't make sense that the company would divert space truckers instead of fielding a more appropriate team if there was prior knowledge of the signal.

The special order was most likely sent to the Nostromo when they were docked in Thedus, then Mother used it as an excuse to drift 10 months off course outside of the normal shipping lanes.  Hell it could've even been uploaded by Ash.

The Nostromo was most likely the closest WY vehicle that could be used to claim the find.  When the Nostromo itself was destroyed trying to kill the Alien and there were no survivors WY most likely tried to cover it up to avoid the bad press.  Otherwise Ash could've made some sob story up about what happened to the rest of the crew.

In between Alien and Aliens the beacon is destroyed by volcanic activity on Acheron's surface.

I've actually heard the volcanic activity bit before... I have nothing to refute that...

But if the company was trying to cover up the events of alien to avoid bad press, then they would have known there was something to cover up. Therefore, they would have known of ripley's survival... Thus making it the worst cover up in history... I know, speculation, right?

They wouldn't know about Ripley.  If they DID know about her they would probably claim her in an attempt to figure out what was going on.  Had they claimed her its more than likely we would have had an Aliens incident long before the incidents of the second film.  They simply judged that it wasn't worth it and popped smoke on the entire situation.  Sometime after that the transmission was cut off.

The something to cover up is why the Nostromo never made it back to port.  Losing 42 million in adjusted dollars is going to raise red flags with the media when the Nostromo never docks.  If it somehow came out WHY the ship was diverted and that the crew were expendable then its nothing but bad press for WY and some higher level executives are probably going to be sacked.

Now if Ash and the Alien made it back to whatever WY headquarters they were supposed to be going to, WY would have its ship along with a "survivor," to make up any story it wanted.  Kind of like Burke in Aliens.  Its just the world we live in.  Six people dying in deep space isn't going to raise as many red flags as 7 people dying losing 42 million dollars worth of spaceship and cargo. 

Despite many people's interpretation of Aliens, Burke acted alone.  He wasn't part of a major WY conspiracy.  The lack of knowledge about the Nostromo incident in Aliens only shows that it HAD to have been covered up.  57 years is along time to wait to get the Alien back.  Burke took a gamble by sending Newt's Mom and Dad out to the coordinates that Ripley gave at the inquest.  And lo and behold she wasn't a crazy woman.  At that point Burke jumps aboard the Colonial Marine Corps mission to secure the claim and potentially boost his career.

It wasn't until after Aliens and Hadley's Hope falling and the Marine detachment failed to come home that the company was like, "Oh shit, everything that crazy woman said was true about the Alien!"  and they sent their own merc team to secure the queen. 

Truthfully I actually think that Aliens is somewhat at fault for all of this by setting it so far ahead in the future.  Realistically I think a corporation would be all over Alien tech whether people died for it or not.  But you can't really argue that it was anything BUT covered up when WY had no contact with the Alien between Alien-Aliens.  Unless you want to add comic book stuff in there.  You saw how they reacted when they learned there was potential for the Bio Weapons department to make a buck in Alien 3.

[Engineer]

Some very good points. I'm at work right now, but later today I will reply with some more of my thoughts on all this. I just don't have the time to articulate a good response just yet. This is a fun debate and I'd like for it to continue, on friendly terms...

With that being said, SM, let me just say that in text formats such as this it's really hard to judge a person's emotional state. I hope you aren't taking any of this personally, or getting upset by my stance. I've seen your site, and find it very impressive. I can tell you've put a lot of time, energy and thought into the alien franchise which is something that I respect, commend you for, and appreciate. It really does help to enrich the community, and even though I might not agree with your perspective in its entirety, I can and do respect it. Just thought I'd make that clear. :-)

[Kimarhi]

Its straight man.  I see where your coming from and I DO find it much more likely that WY would try to covertly reach the Jockey Ship regardless of political damage endured back home.

I just think given the massive time gap between Alien and Aliens that there was indeed a coverup between the first and second films.


If Aliens happened say two years after Alien, I'd feel much differently.

Other than that the only disagreement I have is about Ash and his boarding of the Nostromo.  Don't think it was coincidental.

[Mr. Clemens]

Ash was following the same decision process as muther, but he was there coincidentally.

Engineer, by that logic, it's just as likely that 'Bob the Human' might have been the Science Officer on that flight... and what would he have thought of Special Order 937?

No doubt that a human science officer would have completely altered the outcome of the movie. I'd imagine a human science officer would have acted out of self preservation... The way ripley did when she refused to open the air lock for Dallas, Kane, and lambert. But again, this is speculation and ultimately irrelevant to the argument.

Nope, totally relevant. 

Relevant because it essentially refutes your hypothesis that Special Order 937 was really just 'Regular Order 937'. If the company was going to mandate such an important standard order (important enough to rate the "crew expendable" tag), why would they do so and just hope, if the scenario eventually arose, that coincidence would favour them with a company android who just coincidentally happened to be on board? Because if there wasn't an android aboard, it would play out much like this:

SCIENCE OFFICER:
Captain, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I've just been notified of something called 'Special Order 937' - my eyes only.

CAPTAIN:
What is it?

SCIENCE OFFICER:
Well it seems we've been rerouted ten months off course, and we're supposed to go down to that planet and retrieve an alien lifeform and bring it back to Earth. Also, it appears the entire crew is expendable.

CAPTAIN:
Including you?

SCIENCE OFFICER:
Looks that way.

CAPTAIN:
Right. Okay, everybody back in the freezers; we're going right back to Earth and straight to the press.

End of mission, and potentially end of Company. Ash was there specifically to see that the mission was carried out. Otherwise, it wouldn't be. And at the end of the day, there's also this:

RIPLEY:
What was your Special Order?

ASH:
You read it, I thought it was clear.

Not 'our' Special Order, not even 'the' Special Order... your Special Order. If Ripley had gotten that part wrong, I've no doubt Ash would have taken a perverse android pleasure in pointing out her error.

I prefer to think of it as...

Now this I can get behind. And with that, I leave you to your preferred thoughts. 

[UDA]

But the Special order wouldn't have appeared until after the facehugger did, how else would the company know about the specimen? Remember, Ripley found it by override, but Dallas didn't (else, he'd have word with Ash). I don't recall Dallas talking to mother after the Facehugger appeared anyway.

And by Special it could meant that it's a hidden order, meant to be see only after certain situations arise. Contingencies. Somebody gets infected with a foreign disease? Okay, collect a sample and bring it back.

Kane would go into quarantine, they all would, but the specimen would still end up in company or government hands either way for testing. Like I said, the 'Special Order' is probably a mandate given to all vessels. They would have to have contingencies for those circumstances.

[SM]

But the Special order wouldn't have appeared until after the facehugger did, how else would the company know about the specimen?

The content of the transmission, which the Company received, translated and acted upon long before the Nostromo departed Thedus.  The transmission was a warning about a hostile organism, and even if they didn't know precisely what it was warning against, it was still warning against something.  And the Company wanted that something to the death of their crew if it came to that.

Kane would go into quarantine, they all would, but the specimen would still end up in company or government hands either way. Like I said, the 'Special Order' is probably a mandate given to all vessels. They would have to have contingencies for those circumstances.

Which again, stops it being a "special order".  They already have contigencies.  First is the clause in their contracts to investigate transmissions.  Second is quarantine protocols.  Putting that special order as a secret standing order on every ship is beyond stupid, as anyone who might think something was up can issue a command over-ride to find it.

But if the company was trying to cover up the events of alien to avoid bad press, then they would have known there was something to cover up.

What they had to cover up was them issuing orders that their flight crews are expendable.

Beyond that, everyone is just going round in circles over really petty points about who knew what when and no one is willing to give any ground.

Que sera sera.