Egg Morphing or Queen?

[Valaquen]

Egg morphing sounds more interesting. It could explan what happend to the crew of the derilict space craft. Remember all those eggs in the hold, that kain saw.

That's a lot of crew members. Doesn't explain why they're all in a cargo hold and why there's a sensor over them. Kinda like a deadly weapon you wanna keep monitored.

[OmegaZilla]

Exactly. That's why I don't think the crew was egg morphed. If they were, why would any Alien transport them over there along with the other eggs?
It's either that the "rest of the crew" didn't exist at all, or their corpses were somewhere hidden in the part of the Derelict that wasn't explored (which was a pretty good one, considering the Nostromo Crew got over a pair of scenarios)

[Valaquen]

Or anyone else was taken away by the Jockey-Alien and cocooned in some infernal nest on LV426 ... maybe Dallas and the later colonists were only a stone's throw away from some ancient hive ... gimme the shivers! Speculation, conjecture, and fan-fiction, of course

[Gash]

Egg morphing all the way for me. I find the queen to be... well, deliberately taking the plot into a very predictable B movie finale. What I love about Alien is that it is a high class, gorgeous looking film that was inspired by B-movies, but took such themes into a warped and twisted version that in places has ideas almost too hideous to want to explore.

Whereas the queen is just the 'big bad' and plot wise is a massive disappointment.

And, I don't get why people say the Dallas scene looks bad, it looks suitably hellish (like the larder in Chainsaw Massacre) and I find the fate of Brett and Dallas really effective. The cocoons in Aliens though look like Santa's grotto and there's no sense of empathy with the one live victim. It was really good to finally get to see how cocoons were meant to be done.

[arachnophilia]

Egg morphing all the way for me. I find the queen to be... well, deliberately taking the plot into a very predictable B movie finale.

i have a love/hate regard for the whole queen thing. she makes for a really exciting action move, expands on the mythology, has a really cool-looking design, and (imho) cameron pulled it off without making it seem too much like "bid bad +1" b-movie schtick. so i suppose i have to differ with you there.

but, not entirely. the whole "egg morphing" business makes for a really fascinating reproductive cycle, completely alien to anything we'd know. the queen? just a bug. but genetic implications are just crazy for the other model. we know that the alien incorporates some of the host DNA into its own, probably so it can adapt better to the host species' world. genetic leapfrog, basically. well, what happens when that alien, with its host DNA, produces the next generation? and when that generation produces the next?

[TheMonolith]

Giger loves the Queen. If Giger likes her, she is good enough for me.

[arachnophilia]

Giger loves the Queen. If Giger likes her, she is good enough for me.

giger's an artist. he likes good art, and the queen is good art. that said, i'm not sure she's the best thing for the story.

[Gash]

I admire what Winston did with the Queen, but I don't like the design much myself.

[arachnophilia]

I admire what Winston did with the Queen, but I don't like the design much myself.

i suppose it doesn't quite have that giger flair to it.

[RoaryUK]

Some people have also suggested the only theory I ever went for. That the eggs were placed on board the Space Jockey ship prior to take off, and during flight one hugger escapes and impregnates the only occupant inside.  Ergo, you have the victim who was also assumed to have sent the transmission, a shit load of Alien eggs that didnt need to be associated with what happened on the ship, while Ridleys original theory on the creature that was only supposed to live a few days actually holds up because it never shows.... I believe it really could be that simple anyway.

[arachnophilia]

Some people have also suggested the only theory I ever went for. That the eggs were placed on board the Space Jockey ship prior to take off, and during flight one hugger escapes and impregnates the only occupant inside.  Ergo, you have the victim who was also assumed to have sent the transmission, a shit load of Alien eggs that didnt need to be associated with what happened on the ship, while Ridleys original theory on the creature that was only supposed to live a few days actually holds up because it never shows.... I believe it really could be that simple anyway.

the nest you see later in the film is not nearly as neatly organized as the derelict's hold/cavern. and there's the reactive blue barrier, also not seen in the alien's nest. i'm gonna say that it's not an alien hive, and the eggs were put there by something else.

ie: just based on the first film alone, you're probably right.

[worriors]

Some people have also suggested the only theory I ever went for. That the eggs were placed on board the Space Jockey ship prior to take off, and during flight one hugger escapes and impregnates the only occupant inside.  Ergo, you have the victim who was also assumed to have sent the transmission, a shit load of Alien eggs that didnt need to be associated with what happened on the ship, while Ridleys original theory on the creature that was only supposed to live a few days actually holds up because it never shows.... I believe it really could be that simple anyway.

the nest you see later in the film is not nearly as neatly organized as the derelict's hold/cavern. and there's the reactive blue barrier, also not seen in the alien's nest. i'm gonna say that it's not an alien hive, and the eggs were put there by something else.

ie: just based on the first film alone, you're probably right.

On the Alien Legacy boxset dvd, ridley says that the space jocky's ship is the equivalent of earths aircraft carriers and the Alien eggs are its weapons.

[arachnophilia]

On the Alien Legacy boxset dvd, ridley says that the space jocky's ship is the equivalent of earths aircraft carriers and the Alien eggs are its weapons.

yeah, ridley scott, to the best of my knowledge, supports the "weapons" theory. i think that's good enough for me. but the film leaves some room for debate. same with blade runner: ridley has official stated that deckard is a replicant, and it makes a lot of sense, but the film is sort of ambiguous (the "final cut" less so than the others).

[OmegaZilla]

I admire what Winston did with the Queen, but I don't like the design much myself.

i suppose it doesn't quite have that giger flair to it.

Ironically, considering that the Queen was designed after the study of Giger Paintings.

[Valaquen]

I admire what Winston did with the Queen, but I don't like the design much myself.

i suppose it doesn't quite have that giger flair to it.

Ironically, considering that the Queen was designed after the study of Giger Paintings.

And Giger said it was designed just as he would have done.