Quote from: Local Trouble on Jan 24, 2014, 12:07:24 AM
I didn't get the impression that androids were commonly deployed on ships during that era, covertly or otherwise. Ripley's reaction to Bishop's presence on the Sulaco certainly indicated to me that it wasn't a common practice in her day.
According to Ridley, the Company are insistent "on placing a company man on each vehicle. In this vehicle, he takes the form of a robot, Ash. This would seem to be the normal development of a huge corporation trying to protect its interests. In this particular future, it would be very easy for 'pirating' to exist. Corporations will have to find ways to assure that vehicles carrying minerals or vital information will not be hijacked."
He elaborated on the idea of robots and corporations within the wider, but unseen, Alien universe, saying: "[T]he world has been converted into the property of two or three large conglomerates whose sources of energy are provided by the exploitation of deposits in space. The super cargo spaceships that link Earth and the planets would transport enormous loads of minerals: gas, oil and the like. To dissuade the crews from rebelling and to protect their own interests, these companies might place spies aboard, or at least would make the crews believe in the presence of such spies. Gradually a legend would evolve that these people, whose identities remain unknown , are in fact robots. Furthermore, nobody would ever have proof. This would reinforce legends already currently among the astronauts."
