Alien TV Series From Noah Hawley and Ridley Scott CONFIRMED

[Xenomrph]

The Queen is fantastic in design, execution, and concept. I'm also totally open to seeing an alternative Alien gestation process, if the story calls for something different.

If it ain't broken, why fix it etc.

Alien has a gestation process, if they want to screw with it they probably shouldn't be telling an Alien story. I'd accept "egg morphing" only so long as it's not used as a replacement for the Queen. Egg morphing has a place and I'd love to see it used again, but full-on rebooting the Alien lifecycle isn't something I'd be a fan of.

[Kradan]

I want to see some eggmorphing in the next Alien movie

[Nightmare Asylum]

The Queen is fantastic in design, execution, and concept. I'm also totally open to seeing an alternative Alien gestation process, if the story calls for something different.

If it ain't broken, why fix it etc.

Alien has a gestation process, if they want to screw with it they probably shouldn't be telling an Alien story. I'd accept "egg morphing" only so long as it's not used as a replacement for the Queen. Egg morphing has a place and I'd love to see it used again, but full-on rebooting the Alien lifecycle isn't something I'd be a fan of.

The Alien definitely has "a" gestation process, but things like the pathogen in Prometheus/Covenant and the genetic manipulation in Resurrection do offer alternate possibilities. Ultimately, I feel like the pathogen offers a way for the series to have its cake and eat it to. That meaning, the Alien form as seen in the original film and its sequels can be David's, while the pathogen offers a near infinite number of possibilities that can take on the general shape/form of the Alien and spin it off in an array of different directions, with the pathogen also retaining the cosmic, Lovecraftian element of unknowable horror.

[Xenomrph]

That meaning, the Alien form as seen in the original film and its sequels can be David's, while the pathogen offers a near infinite number of possibilities that can take on the general shape/form of the Alien and spin it off in an array of different directions, with the pathogen also retaining the cosmic, Lovecraftian element of unknowable horror.

I'd rather those were reversed.
Or better yet, David removed from the equation entirely.

If we're getting capital-A Aliens in our capital-A Alien TV show, I'd prefer if they don't go reinventing the wheel. Alien Queens lay eggs, lone Aliens egg-morph in order to ultimately produce Queens which lay eggs.
Like I said, if they're going to go screw around and change things, do it to something other than the Alien. If they want to use the pathogen idea to make crazy new monsters then that's totally fine, the prequels have done that well enough. But the moment you go screwing with the capital-A Alien and what it does and what it symbolizes is when it starts putting a bad taste in my mouth.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Just thinking in a practical sense, the Alien in the original films does seem to be pretty specifically designed for humans (in a real world sense, at least, if not in-continuity). The facehugger is perfectly made to fit the general size/shape of a human head, et al, whereas the pathogen in its raw form is seemingly totally random in its design and outcome, which fits the "unknowable" nature a bit better to me.

[Xenomrph]

Just thinking in a practical sense, the Alien in the original films does seem to be pretty specifically designed for humans (in a real world sense, at least, if not in-continuity). The facehugger is perfectly made to fit the general size/shape of a human head, et al, whereas the pathogen in its raw form is seemingly totally random in its design and outcome, which fits the "unknowable" nature a bit better to me.

The Alien facehugger in 'Alien' was implied to have facehugged the Space Jockey, which was decidedly non-human in design. Likewise, both Ridley Scott and James Cameron talked about the facehugger getting Jones, and 'Alien3' had it nail a dog/ox. The very idea of it taking traits from its host precludes that the facehugger can attack things other than humans.

The notion that the Alien was specifically designed for humans is a very recent retcon, and one that I feel severely devalues the Alien and its lovecraftian horror elements.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Oh I am very well aware of all of that. It is all absolutely, 100% a recent retcon and I would never say otherwise. It just happens to be a retcon that I find to be a fascinating thematic expansion of the material that enhances David's arc.

At the end of the day, it amplifies my viewings of Covenant, and it doesn't really enter into my mind all that much when viewing the original films. I'm able to look at each movie as a movie, on its own terms, without really worrying about canon or continuity in the grand scheme of things. As long as a film has something interest to say within its own body, I say run wild with it.

[Xenomrph]

I can appreciate that.

I guess my thinking is that I wish they didn't enhance David's arc at the expense of the Alien creature. David messing with Black Goo, totally great, David making Neomorphs and the like, also awesome. It's when he starts messing with the Alien itself (be it physically or thematically) that it starts rubbing me the wrong way.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Agreed completely with NA.

[Nightmare Asylum]

I bet if you travel through H.R. Giger's backyard you just wind up in David's lab.

https://youtu.be/iqZqmVxtiws

I guess the Alien and the David retcon doesn't bother me all that much because, at the end of the day, it's Giger's inherently sexualized beast being created by a character that is so self-obsessed and sexually depraved and has this vendetta against his creators and an obsession with creation on his own terms. That just feels a whole lot more appropriate to me than something like the original comics where the Aliens just have a natural home world where they are part of a natural ecosystem.

Anyways, I fully expect a future project (maybe even this series from Noah Hawley) to re-retcon the Alien being David's creation (or, perhaps, flat out overwrite the prequels), and I'm fully prepared for it. I hope I like whatever comes next, but at the end of the day, like Covenant, it'll just simply be another take. I'm sure I'll be able to enjoy the good things about both Covenant and whatever comes next on their own terms, even if they stand in opposition of one another.

[Immortan Jonesy]

I guess the Alien and the David retcon doesn't bother me all that much because, at the end of the day, it's Giger's inherently sexualized beast being created by a character that is so self-obsessed and sexually depraved and has this vendetta against his creators and an obsession with creation on his own terms.

I know it might sound creepy, mostly because Giger wasn't an evil killer psychopath like David, but don't forget about their respective muses 

Humans are manufactured Neo-Engineers. Their replicants created by unkow purposes. David on the other hand, is a robot. He was raised to be the servant of a failed Übermensch. But he becomes his own somewhat disturbing version of the Übermensch, once he is aware that his creator God is dead. He's also an artificial person as well, capable to understand and experiences human emotioms. But as a machine, David is unable to exprex his own sexuality. Alien is that.  It's the monstrous sexuality of a delusional A.l, and it's really creepy. I think you nail it.

On a side note, it is incredible how ancient the concept of artificial intelligence is, older than science fiction itself.

"Through their myths and stories, scholars wrestled with what it meant to be human and how man can push his biological limits to what he can give life to. These stories involved giving a sort of human intellect to inanimate objects and, through this, creating a machine that questions what humanistic values might differ from those of nature. Writers portrayed automaton such as the defender Talos, working through blood vessels behind a bronze robotic armor, with human qualities such as emotions and judgements. These primitive forms of artificial intelligence challenged what it meant to be human by stretching the limits of what man can create"

▶A History of Artificial Intelligence

I think Raised by Wolves is a fever dream of the concept; mixing themes from ancient aliens machines, religion vs atheism, references to Alien and the even more classic Metropolis.

[Nightmare Asylum]

Which makes Ridley's "Greek God" Engineer aesthetic all the more interesting to me. There's a huge part of me that still longs for the biomechanical horror fused to his chair of the original Alien, but I can't help but also find the humanoid Engineer that passed fire in the form of creation down to us a very interesting take on the Space Jockey mythos as well.

[Kimarhi]

Bring back the old jockeys. 

[Nightmare Asylum]

Bring back the old jockeys.

I am almost certain they will. Either as the Engineers' creators, or as something that flat out casts the prequels aside.

Spoiler

Or maybe David is fused to the chair.

[close]

[Kimarhi]

I always thought it could work the other way.


The jockeys created the engineers and the engineers tried to follow the jockeys designs etc.


Could explain the size difference. 

I'm really not against the engineers except as a replacement of the jockeys.