Quote"They've been there for over 20 years."
"Atmosphere processors that make the air breathable takes decades."
That's why.
Invalid argument. A key issue is the safety precautions each group should have taken with regards to what the air might contain following the break in communication. Also, the 20 years time frame means nothing. They're still living in a colony which requires constant operation of the atmospheric processes. Its not like 426 housed a number of fully fledged, large-scale, livable cities in an environment similar to Earth. And even then...
QuoteBecause in Aliens there had been people living in said atmosphere for 20 years, people who maintained contact with Earth and who included medical doctors and scientists.
Again, time frame is irrelevant. Also, 20 years everything is going well and then all of a sudden silence? Does that not sound like a situation requiring extra precaution?
QuoteBecause LV-426 was a surveyed world with atmosphere processors set up, and they had a colony out there for a few decades. The moon was known, Planet 4 was completely unknown, they had no idea what could be on that rock.
Also airborne pathogens would not kill everyone at the same time unless they were all infected at the same time and even then a person's metabolism and immune system will come into play on how long it will take, meaning someone could possible give a warning about what would be happening. Well as far as I know anyway, I am no virologist.
This just makes the Marines look like idiots. They should have, at the very least, began conducting the operation with biohazard gear until at least they discovered Newt.
QuoteNo, that's just not the same kind of thing. Massive stellar events are nothing like biological quarantine and standard safety measures. f**king Hell people, we practice this kind of stuff in the grocery business to keep people from getting horrifically ill from cross contamination. Masks, gloves, hair nets. This is our own planet trying to kill us.
Of course you'd wear biohazard gear. Especially something to cover your face and mouth. Just because a local sampling of the air reads clear doesn't mean you won't have exactly what happened, happened.
Yes, so why would it not make sense for the Marines to wear such gear then?
QuoteBecause Covenant made airbourne micro-pathogens a plot issue (later on someone gets infected by a spore), where Aliens did not.
We audiences are a forgiving lot. If you don't mention that there is no gravity in outer space, we will happily play along with the fact that your spaceship allows people to walk around as if there is. If you don't mention the fact that there is no sound in a vacuum, we will allow your spaceship to make engine noise. If you don't mention the fact that alien micro-pathogens are a biosecurity risk, we will willingly suspend our disbelief and pretend that they don't exist.
This is the "Gentleman's Agreement" we made with the Aliens storyteller, and also the storytellers of Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, The 5th Element, Forbidden Planet, Battlestar Galactica, Dune, Predators, Pitch Black etc etc etc. We're nice that way.
But if you try to exploit the Gentleman's Agreement by taking advantage of its benefits (i.e. first we see spacecrew not following biosecurity precautions, thus implying that micro-organisms don't exist), and yet later on you ignore the Agreement (because the plot features a micro-organism), then we feel like we're being played.
We tend to get snotty about things like that.
This is the best counter-argument presented and one I hadn't thought of. I suppose Ledward could have been attacked by an organism similar to a Facehugger, instead of getting infected if the Gentleman's Agreement was to be respected with regards to no suits.