QuoteSo the planet is composed of an ultra-dense mineral not found in our solar system. I can live with that. It even explains why the company financed a mining colony there.
The problem is if it's as dense as it needs to be, not only can you not mine it, but even if you could, the half-life of the element would be in the microseconds before it decays into nothing. There's an upper limit to the density of elements on the periodic table, and as you start getting towards the ends of the table, you get into elements that can only be created in a lab and don't exist for more than fractions of a second.
QuoteShirley there was ways of making it all fit.
There sure is: Lambert mis-spoke because she's a human being who can make mistakes, and the planet is actually 12,000km, not 1200km. We have no reason to take Lambert's word as gospel truth just because she said it, especially when it makes no sense. If that were the case, then I guess Gediman was correct when he said "Fiori 16". I mean the words left his mouth so they must be true, right?
QuoteWhat if the colony was in a crater or on a plateau?
A plateau would show the horizon, and we see in the movie that they're not inside a crater. If it were as dense as it needs to be, it wouldn't have impact craters (it would be impossible for them to form), and if it were a realistic density but still 1200km, then an impact strong enough to make a crater big enough for the colony would utterly devastate the planet.
Like, the science and common sense just isn't there, and that's why the Tech Manual moved the decimal place one spot to the right and fixed every problem effortlessly. You have to jump through so many hoops to justify the 1200km number just because a fallible, unqualified character spoke the words, when the really obvious solution is right there in front of you, and supported by the movies no less.
QuoteBy all means, do the math. Sooner or later, you're going to have to concede "hey, it was the 70s."
'Alien' is chock full of garbage science and technobabble gobbledygook. Dallas says the Alien's blood is "some kind of molecular acid", as if that's a profound observation (hint: all acids are molecular acid. It's like saying "the blood is made of a wet liquid").
That doesn't mean we need to blindly accept it, especially when there's really easy, obvious explanations. After all, it's fiction.