Hey Hicks,
I finally made it through the whole thing. Longer podcasts are fine, but they take a little longer to get through. Interruptions, double back to re-listen to the section I missed, that sort of thing. It's obvious you all put a lot of thought into the topic and the discussion. I agree the aliens were too easily defeated and there were some bits that needed smoothing. It was, of course, a mistake to let Lindelof near any of it.
In terms of android behavior, I like full evil android David. The idea that he "overcame his programming" doesn't necessarily mean what we think it means. He probably had an evolving AI. That's a common enough trope in SF. He's supposed to be a learning machine. Maybe he learned things that affected his worldview. Maybe he had soem logic errors in his subroutines
Point is, we know androids in the Alien universe are not always completely reliable, and this one may have had more reason than we know to do the things he did in that draft.
I don't agree with the idea that Giger could have had a field day with the Spaihts script. Look, I'm a lifelong fan of Giger's work. But I doubt - seriously doubt - that Giger could have made a very a big contribution to the project. Maybe he could have done something, but I think the Giger who made the works that affected so many people sort of went away by the mid nineties. Even the work he did for Alien 3 was mostly small drawings. There is really no sign that he was still doing a lot after that.That's probably a remarkably unpopular thing to say; but all anyone has to do is prove me wrong and I'll cheerfully recant it. Ironically, it's much like Vicker's line in the movie. "A king has his reign, then he dies." And Giger has no heir, literally or figuratively speaking. It's unfortunate. That said, I hope Scott's team will do a fine pastiche of Giger for Covenant and future movies.
Anyway, good job on the podcast.