What happened to ash?

[SiL]

I am still not convinced that WY did not have more information on the Alien before.

But what evidence is there to say they did? They knew of a hostile organism, hence putting Ash on to make sure the ship re-routed and that it was protected. That's more than enough - Why did they have to know about the Alien beforehand, based on what you've seen?

[SM]

I did not read the Novel, and go by what I have seen on film.

I'm only talking about the film.

There's hints in the novel they did know more.  But there's also hints to the contrary.

If they knew about the Alien with a capital A, why didn't they send the Bio-Weapons boys instead of risking dumb-ass tug jockies f**king everything up?  And why did they then do nothing after the Nostromo never came back?

[cragdoo]

..... And why did they then do nothing after the Nostromo never came back?

They did do something , in Aliens we learn that Burke sent the colonisers (?) to the location of the derelict spaceship , in fact we even see this event happening in Aliens:Special Edition , where Newts family are sent to the ship !

[Cromartie]

actually only certain employees probably knew about the Alien. like Umbrella inc only the people acosiated with White Umbrella know about the bio weapons division!! and just assumed the project a failure untill ripley gave a detailed report on what the organisms capabilities were!

[cragdoo]

actually only certain employees probably knew about the Alien. like Umbrella inc only the people acosiated with White Umbrella know about the bio weapons division!! and just assumed the project a failure untill ripley gave a detailed report on what the organisms capabilities were!

what report ? The one we see her giving in Aliens ? Surely they knew all about that before hand , hence the reason they sent the teraformers to the derelict ship site

[SiL]

No, the reason Burke sent the colonists was to check out Ripley's story, because he thought that if she was right, he could get himself a shitload of money be presenting the Alien to the company and it's bio-weapons division. Nothing says Weyland-Yutani itself had anything to do with the colonists being there outside of sending them as terraformers to create a new colony out in space - Burke was acting alone.

On top of that, there's nothing to say they knew the exact location of the Derelict, either, and according to James Cameron, the warning signal was switched off by damage sustained to the ship (We can clearly see giant cracks in the SE). So, the company wouldn't know where the Derelict was, and so in all probability the colonists being there was coincidence.

[Pax]

Well, at the time of the original showing of the film, I suppose it was intended that WY only knew that there was an alien ship issuing a warning.  I would think that would probably be enough for them to send an expendable crew down to check it out.

And when the ship they sent didn't ever report back, whoever was in charge shrugged, decided that maybe the warning was somewhat accurate, and buried it to cover his own ass.  That's why no one knew about it 57 years later.

Now, though, I suppose the AvP movie would have us believe that at least the Weyland half of WY knew about it all along and had been waiting for a chance to pick one of the beasties up. 

And yeah, Ash is obviously trying very hard to do his duty.  He warns Parker of the penalties that ignoring the call would incite, he lets Kane on the ship, he's always there with a quick word or a sly suggestion that urges the crew on toward the actions that benefit his instructions.  And he never, ever has anything of any real use to contribute to the situation otherwise.

-Pax

[SM]

With the advent of AvP Weyland stills knows nothing about the Alien.  Who's going to belive Lex when there isn't any eveidence to back up her story even if she did tell the truth.

Following on from SiL's post, a Company that supposedly knows all about an extremely valuable creature then sends tug jockies, then does nothing for 57 strikes me as a rather stupid Company.

[Extroheal]

I don't think Ash was working fine. He seemed to be going spastic when he was attacking Ripley even before his head came off. Ash was probably sent by some special division of Weyland-Yutani that later covered up their actions when their plan failed. I think the Colonial Marines Technical Manual says something along these lines.

[Predator Eldar]

Ash was a synthetic, there's no way of knowing what he was thinking.

[SM]

Ahs's model did have a rep for being 'twitchy'.

That coupled with the fact that he had conflicting responsibilities probably threw him out a bit.

[SiL]

Ah yes, I remember hearing Ash singing 'Bicycle Built for Two' while being disconnected

The problem was, nothing showed Ash had any of the inhibitors or programming that would make Ash go crazy with conflicting instructions like HAL - Hell, what conflicted instructions, anyway? All we knew was that he was there to study the Alien, no more, no less.

[Cromartie]

Im "Shocked".

Was it an older Model?

[Newsfop]

I keep seeing malfunction written all over Ash once Ripley finds out what he's all about. Ian Holm's stance and timing is drenched in method acting. I have trouble seeing him as anything more than defunct when his lubricant starts leaking.

[Chopper]

He is also acting dodgy all throughout the film, walking dodgy, running on the spot, drinking white "milk" alot, speaking to formal and then ripping riply's hair off, crazy robot is written all over him....