Different alien designs????

[Its Game Time]

I dont know if this has been discussed before so i will just come out with it.

Can anyone answer why the Aliens are different looking in the movies? I mean, in the first alien movie the alien's head was Smooth and in Aliens they had rough heads. Is there an explanation why or is it just something they changed  for Aliens?

Just out of Curiosity? 

[Darkness]

You mean why Cameron changed the design or why they changed continuity-wise?

I always thought they had the ridged heads because they'd been hibernating and were a lot older.

[SiL]

Real life - Cameron didn't like the look and thought the domes would crack, making problems.
In film - Age, most likely. Or just different races, like how we have black people, asian people, dumb people ...

[Its Game Time]

They should have given some kind of explanation. Wouldnt Ripley notice the difference and wonder why they were different? Fans would notice too, and if they were changing it, they should have had some explanation in the movie why.

[gameoverman]

SiL - maybe different races, but that doesn't make much sense.  Humans have 99.9% DNA in common, but that 0.1% accounts for the differences.  All the aliens in A2 looked the same.  But the alien in A1 and the ridge heads both come from humans, and are from the same group of eggs.

The theory, I believe, is that aliens change over time.  They lose the covering over their ridge heads.

Bear in mind - it could be due to a different race of aliens, like you said.  The A1 and A2 aliens both had a spike sticking out their backs.  The A3 didn't (as it was born from an ox/dog), neither did the A4 - as they were bred out of genetic experiments from Ripley.  The AVP aliens - well we don't know where the predators found them.

Just a way of explaining things I know it is not canon but it at least fits the established continuity within the films although the new AVP2 designs will debunk it.

[Its Game Time]

Well, maybe it does have to do with the amount of time they were living, or maybe it has to do with the enviroment, or maybe some kind of Skin Shedding type of thing, I dont know. We may never know.

[Corporal Hicks]

They should have given some kind of explanation. Wouldnt Ripley notice the difference and wonder why they were different? Fans would notice too, and if they were changing it, they should have had some explanation in the movie why.

They did for A3 at least. "This one is different."

[War Wager]

Remember Ripley hardly saw the Aliens in Aliens, and I dont think she would pay that much attention to what they looked like... they'd still kill her anyway no matter what they looked like.

[Its Game Time]

They should have given some kind of explanation. Wouldnt Ripley notice the difference and wonder why they were different? Fans would notice too, and if they were changing it, they should have had some explanation in the movie why.

They did for A3 at least. "This one is different."

I think she said that it "Moved" Differently. I dont know

[SM]

Age fits quite nicely.

[Nightmare]

could be diferent races if you assume queen take host dna.

see this.

pure alien queen -> pure alien egg --> pure queen hugger + space jokey = space jokey queen

space jokey queen -> space jokey egg -> space jokey hugger + human = space jokey human alien (1st movie)

space jokey queen -> space jokey egg -> space jokey queen hugger + human ->space jokey human queen (2nd movie)

space jokey human queen -> space jokey human hugger + human = space jokey human alien with less jokey dna and more human dna(2nd movie)

and so goes on, but in meanwhile the creature would have almost no original alien, and dna would be lost, so i would say that from this point on the jokey dna would be replaced (fully or partially) by the next host in the chain, preserving the original creature dna,

so for example the queen in aliens when got human dna , this one replaced part of the jokey dn a that had come from before.

this can also be used to explain diferenty hugger/burster characteristics. the hugger had diferent bottom and burster had arms (but burster could be explained by spending more time inside host)

what do you think?

[slipknotpredator]

last night i was dreaming about avp2 and there were diferente kind of aliens in it  , and more than one predator 

[War Wager]

Age fits quite nicely.

It did, but it goes out the window now with the AvP2 Aliens...

[SM]

If one chooses to take them into the greater Alien continuity.  AvP is already pretty tenuous as it is.