Noah Hawley Explains Why ‘Prometheus’ Isn’t “Useful” for His ‘Alien’ Prequel

[Ingwar]

Reasons.

"For me, and for a lot of people, this 'perfect life form' — as it was described in the first film — is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that may have existed for a million years out there in space. e's no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me."

Is xeno, according to Alien (1979) the product of millions of years of evolution? It always had been an assumption.

It was not described as such in the first film.

Exactly. So technically speaking derelict could have crashed in the recent past. It didn't have to be there for thousands of years or even longer.

[SM]

This is correct.  People get hung up on a spaceship pilot saying something looks fossilised and taking it as gospel.

[Slutty Badger]

It was not described as such in the first film.

O'Bannon intended that. He also intended Aliens live for centuries and become all wise and scholarly after they overcome their adolescent bloodlust. Ridley went the other way and intended it to live for 24 hours with an overwhelming need to reproduce.

The RPG characterizes the Praetomorph as having an overwhelming need to kill. Sure, it has the ability to capture prey and eggmorph them, but its most prominent trait is feral rage.

[Local Trouble]

"Praetomorph" f**king lol

[Ingwar]

This is correct.  People get hung up on a spaceship pilot saying something looks fossilised and taking it as gospel.

It comes down to so-called cosmic horror stigma which Alien's got. For better or worse.

[SiL]

Covenant isn't ambiguous at all and people who keep telling themselves that are deluding themselves.

Tell that to @Corporal Hicks who thinks it's "deliberately ambiguous"

11:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl5LV_degt4

Ok

@Corporal Hicks  you're deluding yourself.

[Slutty Badger]

Funnily enough, the Covenant novelization is completely unambiguous in stating that the Xenomorph was created by the Engineers; it's described as "the pinnacle of Engineer bioweapon design".

[SM]

Because Alan Dean Foster changed it; not because it was from the movie.

[Slutty Badger]

Because Alan Dean Foster changed it; not because it was from the movie.

Not saying it was. I was just pointing it out.

[razeak]

What source canonized/decanonized Colonial Marines? I"m fuzzy on the details, but f**k it. If David made the Alien, then Hicks can live and we can all pray to avenge Turk. haha.

[SiL]

Randy canonised it.

Everyone else just ignored it.

[SM]

ACM was ignored when The Weyland-Yutani Report was being written (not long after it came out).

[Xenomrph]

Reasons.

"For me, and for a lot of people, this 'perfect life form' — as it was described in the first film — is the product of millions of years of evolution that created this creature that may have existed for a million years out there in space. e's no holograms. The convenience of that beautiful Apple store technology is not available to me."

Is xeno, according to Alien (1979) the product of millions of years of evolution? It always had been an assumption.

It was not described as such in the first film.

Exactly. So technically speaking derelict could have crashed in the recent past. It didn't have to be there for thousands of years or even longer.

It was the intent of the film that the Derelict be ancient. Dallas doesn't need to be an archaeologist to convey that intent.

This is correct.  People get hung up on a spaceship pilot saying something looks fossilised and taking it as gospel.

Saying the Derelict is not ancient is a retcon, full stop. No need to go into revisionist history and say "ohhhh Dallas never knew what he was talking about, it was never meant to be ancient." Within the text of the film 'Alien', the Derelict is ancient - that's the point of the Jockey looking old and Dallas spelling it out by saying "it looks fossilized" in dialogue - it's writing shorthand to convey to the audience what conclusion they should be drawing.

Prometheus and Covenant retconned 'Alien', and they themselves can be retconned again.

[The Cruentus]

It may have been the intent back then but the newer films changed that.

As for the fossilized comment Dallas makes, he is incorrect because I think something can only be fossilized is if its beneath the earth. Its more like dessicated or something. Which doesn't actually take that long to happen.

But then he is just a blue collar captain of an old rig of a ship. A giant alien corpse is out of his expertise and he was just making a laymen's observation.

[Xenomrph]

It may have been the intent back then but the newer films changed that.

As for the fossilized comment Dallas makes, he is incorrect because I think something can only be fossilized is if its beneath the earth. Its more like dessicated or something. Which doesn't actually take that long to happen.

But then he is just a blue collar captain of an old rig of a ship. A giant alien corpse is out of his expertise and he was just making a laymen's observation.

Later stories cannot change the intent of an earlier story; that intent is set in stone when it comes out.

Later stories can recontextualize what the earlier story shows us (that's what a retcon is), but that does not change its original intent. The intent of 'Alien' absolutely was that the Derelict and its contents were ancient, and Dallas uses narrative shorthand to convey that even if the precise words he's using aren't scientifically accurate. He's using a term the audience will understand to convey "this is old". Just because he didn't use the precisely correct scientific terminology doesn't mean the intent wasn't "the audience is meant to conclude this is old". Up until Alien Covenant came out, no one thought the Derelict might not be ancient.