Ask Steve Perry

Started by Corporal Hicks, May 06, 2007, 09:22:14 PM

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Ask Steve Perry (Read 188,685 times)

Alienseseses

Alienseseses

#570
Here's yet another Q.

Most Alien stories involve somebody attempting to control the alien and fail. I can't see why this is always reused. What have you added to this formula?

SM

SM

#571
It's a natural progression of the films right from the start.  Unfortunately they just did it over and over and over and over....

steveperry

steveperry

#572
Quote from: Alienseseses on Sep 26, 2008, 12:35:48 AM
Here's yet another Q.

Most Alien stories involve somebody attempting to control the alien and fail. I can't see why this is always reused. What have you added to this formula?

I didn't add anything -- wasn't my job. What I did was novelize the comics, until the most recent Pred book, so those were the frameworks around which my books were built.

Xenos are big nasty critters -- either you run into them in the wild, or you get into trouble when they escape from their cages.

It's an old, old idea -- that man's arrogance gets him into trouble. Pride goeth before a fall.

Ever been to the zoo? Hear the story about the kids taunting the tiger who somehow scaled his cage walls and killed them for their trouble? It's a natural worry, and they work it hard in the universe.

Thing is, there are only three plots, you know, according to Heinlein, so you are going to see some pretty familiar stuff in any story you pick up. And when you are dealing with big scary bugs, there's only so much you can with that unless you take them way away from their primary function, which is to be big scary bugs.

People who read these things aren't looking for Chekhov ...

Alienseseses

Alienseseses

#573
Huh. I guess that makes sense, but what was Aliens? They didn't run into them in the wild, they confronted them. And Burk, though he did want the alien, didn't ever get the tiger in the first place.

And what was AVP? Was that in the wild, or escaped from cages?

SM

SM

#574
QuoteThey didn't run into them in the wild, they confronted them.

The Jordens 'finding' the Derelict = "running into them in the wild".

AvP = escape from cages for the Predators/ in the wild for the humans.

War Wager

War Wager

#575
I'd say more purposely bred.

steveperry

steveperry

#576
If you believe as I do that the xenomorphs are war toys, biological weapons, then they never really existed in the wild. If some escape and a queen begins to breed outside captivity, that constitutes "wild," but it would be like a pair of tigers born in a zoo escaping and then having cubs somewhere out on Long Island. Zookeepers would prefer to capture the big cats and put them back into enclosures.

I suspect that most people come to the franchise to watch the movies or read the books because they are looking for a certain kind of adventure. Part of that is seeing humans go up against the aliens, and the easy way to do that is to have a supply of the critters in captivity close to where the humans are. Turn 'em loose, instant conflict.

The social structure of the xenomorphs is ant-like, in that there is a queen who lays all the eggs, and a lot of drones, and their primary drive seems to be to find hosts and continue their life-cycle via chest-bursters. Any planet where a lot of them are running around loose is going to be a constant struggle for potential hosts, and dangerous. You'd need a good reason to go there if you knew what was what.

Remember Ripley warning the company that it was a bad idea to go bug-hunting? But there were other forces at play, and they went.

Anybody who would go to a whole planet full of the critters would need a really good reason, or a death-wish.

Somebody steps into a cage with tigers is taking a risk, even with a gun, chair, and whip. That's why people go to see the show, that chance that the guy in the cage might get et. It happens.

A guy does it for money gets mauled? Too bad, he knew the risks. Somebody who gets into the cage because his girlfriend or daughter is out cold on the floor and he's trying to save her? That's a different story.

happypred

happypred

#577
Quote from: War Wager on Sep 26, 2008, 08:41:48 AM
I'd say more purposely bred.

well in general yes, but most avp stories have the preds screwing up somehow and the aliens getting out of hand

an AvP story won't be very captivating if it only centres around a routine hunt

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#578
Quote from: happypred on Sep 26, 2008, 06:12:23 PM
Quote from: War Wager on Sep 26, 2008, 08:41:48 AM
I'd say more purposely bred.

well in general yes, but most avp stories have the preds screwing up somehow and the aliens getting out of hand

an AvP story won't be very captivating if it only centres around a routine hunt
Depends on how it was handled. I could see a "character" story about Predators hunting and all sorts of character-based things happen. "Political" maneuverings among Predators, hunting rivalries, pissing contests/one-upsmanship, etc. Sure it'd be light on action, but if done right it could have interesting character conflicts and the like.

Several years ago I was working on an AvP fan-fiction story on a bet; someone bet me that I couldn't do a "comedy" AvP story, so I wrote it where the humans are all afraid of the Predators and see them as these noble badasses with high-tech gear, but when it hops to the Predator perspective they're all essentially drunken frat-boys out using their guns and blowing shit up.

War Wager

War Wager

#579
Just started reading Turnabout, very good read thus far. One thing that got me interested was the prolouge in that you make different comparisons from LA and the forests in Alaska. You call city dwellers 'drones' and that they are mindlessly killing the planet. This is of coarse very true, but I was wondering is this your opinion or Pauls?

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#580
I'm a little confused, who is Paul?

War Wager

War Wager

#581
A character in the book.

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#582
Ohh... Mary's brother, right? Sorry, I totally spaced on his name.

War Wager

War Wager

#583
I was a little suprised at how harsh Sloane was being when he and Mary were talking about him for the first time. Felt sorry for Mary but she seemed to be taking it well.

Predator755

Predator755

#584
I have a question myself that relates more to buisness.

You and your daughter have written both novelized versions of comics and self made stories. How do these occur? Does Dark Horse contact you and request that you do these, or do you volounteer? And what would you recommend someone do if they wanted to work for DH in writing novels? I would very much like to know!

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