The chestburster from the Spacejokey?

[samoht]

Then where the from where the queen was born?

It was born from one of the eggs.

Many of those thousands of eggs would have been carrying potential queens.

[SiL]

Seems a bit inelegant though.

So?

If none of the eggs in the derelict contained queen-huggers, you'd have hundreds of sterile aliens hatching out being bored and sterile.

The DC of Alien would say otherwise.

Similarly, if Ripley was carrying a warrior embryo Spike would have to waste an extra host creating a queen-hugger through eggmorph.

...dude, Spike spent the entire movie doing nothing but wasting hosts, even when Ripley did have the Queen. Egg morphing would have been more productive than what we wound up with regardless.

[Taxemic]

Direct quote taken from James Cameron's responses to Aliens Critics...

"In my version of the Alien life cycle, the infestation of the colony would proceed like this:

1. Russ Jorden attacked, they radio for rescue.

2. Rescue party investigates ship...several members facehuggered... brought back to base for treatment.

3. Several "chestbursters" free themselves from hosts, escape into ducting, begin to grow.

4. Extrapolating from entomology (ants, termites, etc.), an immature female, one of the first to emerge from hosts, grows to become a new queen, while males become drones or warriors. Subsequent female larvae remain dormant or are killed by males... or biochemically sense that a queen exists and change into males to limit waste. The Queen locates a nesting spot (the warmth of the atmosphere station heat exchanger level being perfect for egg incubation) and becomes sedentary. She is then tended by the males as her abdomen swells into a distended egg sac. The drones and warriors also secrete a resinous building material to line the structure, creating niches in which they may lie dormant when food supplies and/or hosts for futher reproduction become depleted (i.e. when all the colonists are used up). They are discovered in this condition by the troopers, but quickly emerge when new hosts present themselves."

The Queen did not have to be there to have layed them eggs. Maybe the Jockey's stole the eggs, manufactured them or an Alien infestation took place on that ship before the event of Aliens.

[maddriver]

I really doubt it mate. That would mean it would have to have been there waiting for about 35 years until the colonists turned up. I just can't see it.

Why not? As long as there are no potential hosts, what's the point in venturing alone on a dark and hostile planet? I repeat that: alone. That's right, because it was only her and the eggs on that ship.

I would like to think that the queen has emerged from the Space Jokey, then found a dark corner of the ship and started laying eggs (creating a nest). The problem was that since the planet was uninhabited, there were no hosts to create more drones.
By the time the Nostromo lands, the queen might be in some sort of a cocoon form, for long time hibernation and to protect her from the environment. Kane gets facehugger and we all know what happens next.

But still, the queen is unable to do anything more but just sit/sleep and wait. That's when the colonists come and discover the ship. Newt's father gets a facehugger on his face, just like Kane and is transported back to the medical bay. What happens next is unclear, but these are the possibilities :

1. The chestburster extraction goes well, then more colonists are sent to the SJ ship to retrieve more. There they find not only eggs, but also the queen in her cocoon form and transport her back. Ofc this turns out to be a bad idea, as the queen frees herself and helps the drones escape.

2. The chestburster extraction goes well, then more colonists are sent to the SJ ship to retrieve more. There the entire team gets facehugged and xenomorphs emerge from each one. The new drones go to the queen, who wakes up and they proceed to attack the colony.

3. The extracted drone from Newt's father manages to escape and goes back to the SJ ship to wake up the queen. Then they go back to infest the colony.

Why am I saying that it is very possible for the queen to emerge from the SJ? Well, apart from what I've written above, the queen has a very but VERY distinct design compared to the drones. It just doesn't seem like a normal mutation, as most of her physical characteristics are changed so much that she doesn't look like a drone at all.
Her size, the shape of the "dome" head, her jaws, the new pair of arms, everything is too different to be just a random mutated drone.

What's more is that drones are not seen mutating into a queen. In A:R, Ripley8 has a queen inside of her. Not a drone, but a queen. Even the queen chestburster has most of the mature's queen's characteristics (most notably the jaws). So at no point in these movies (other than the extra commentaries) we see or hear about the drones able to mutate into a queen, but what we ARE told is that queen chestbursters exist.

Now you're going to ask me this : why is the SJ queen similar to Ripley8's queen? It may be because the SJ queen can send most of her genes through the egg and the facehugger inside. Ripley gets facehugged by the queen's last egg. Being her last egg it might have been some sort of a last chance of her to further send her genes and help the xenomorphs to exist once again. The genes sent to Ripley by the (super)facehugger might be so strong, that it messes up so much with the DNA and makes the queen in A:R look much like her grandmother, the first queen.

Remember that Kane's son at no point tried to mutate into a queen, although it was alone. In the deleted scenes we see it cocooning the crew into eggs. Maybe that's the only thing a drone can do when it's alone.
The xenomorph in Alien3 also never tried to morph into a queen. It was alive for several days at least, but still no mutation.

Therefore it is possible that the xenomorphs have different reproduction methods, depending on the race of its original host. SJ xenos can lay eggs, while human xenos can transform their victims into eggs. Dog xenos are a bit different, but their method of reproduction is unknown.
I do not want to bring AvP in this discussion (sorry in advance ) but I think that the Predalien's weird method of reproduction is actually making more sense now, since the original host was a Predator.
So to recap, SJ xenos lay eggs, human xenos transform victims into eggs and Predaliens insert chestbursters right inside their victims.

A life cycle similar to ants might still be the correct answer, but remember that these are alien creatures. Their biology can be very different from what we see here on Earth. In fact we know NOTHING about their biology, except vague explanations of what the facehugger does to its host, as heard in dialogues and seen on-screen.
Also, being depicted as "perfect organisms", the alien's ability to adapt to the surrounding environment, makes it a perfect candidate for the scenario above.

[vortep]

Finally! Someone to agree to my theory! I, personally would love to see the ''Aliens'' queen return for a cameo in Alien 5.

[Ghost Rider]

How would that be possible it Alien 5 is supposed to be a prequel?

[Taxemic]

I prefer the theory of the legend that actually made the film lol.

[Ghost Rider]

True.

[SiL]

Why am I saying that it is very possible for the queen to emerge from the SJ? Well, apart from what I've written above, the queen has a very but VERY distinct design compared to the drones.

The design aesthetic is entirely consistent, what with the drones and Queen being redesigned by the same people.

Not that this matters, because you're entirely overlooking the single most balls-out blatantly simple explanation, which is that one of the colonists got face-hugged and gave birth to a Queen on-site. No mutation, no mystery.

You're also ignoring that the Queen in AvP was clearly much older than the one in Aliens, and was about six feet taller. If the Queen in Aliens had come from the Jockey, it wouldn't have been the mere fourteen feet that we saw it. It would've either been the same 20 feet of AvP, or assuming some kind of retarded non-stop growth, the size of Godzilla.

On top of all this, there's literally nothing in the movie indicating the Queen was from anywhere else -- hauling such a massive find would have been mentioned at some point -- and there's bugger-all suggesting that the Jockey's burster was a Queen. There were thousands of eggs in that cargo hold stretched much further than a stationary Queen could lay them.

Aaaand then there's the fact the Queen would have been there for potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It's most likely dead by the events of Alien (And it is, according to the filmmakers), let alone 57 years later.

[Federick Gonsa]

I really doubt it mate. That would mean it would have to have been there waiting for about 35 years until the colonists turned up. I just can't see it.

Why not? As long as there are no potential hosts, what's the point in venturing alone on a dark and hostile planet? I repeat that: alone. That's right, because it was only her and the eggs on that ship.

I would like to think that the queen has emerged from the Space Jokey, then found a dark corner of the ship and started laying eggs (creating a nest). The problem was that since the planet was uninhabited, there were no hosts to create more drones.
By the time the Nostromo lands, the queen might be in some sort of a cocoon form, for long time hibernation and to protect her from the environment. Kane gets facehugger and we all know what happens next.

But still, the queen is unable to do anything more but just sit/sleep and wait. That's when the colonists come and discover the ship. Newt's father gets a facehugger on his face, just like Kane and is transported back to the medical bay. What happens next is unclear, but these are the possibilities :

1. The chestburster extraction goes well, then more colonists are sent to the SJ ship to retrieve more. There they find not only eggs, but also the queen in her cocoon form and transport her back. Ofc this turns out to be a bad idea, as the queen frees herself and helps the drones escape.

2. The chestburster extraction goes well, then more colonists are sent to the SJ ship to retrieve more. There the entire team gets facehugged and xenomorphs emerge from each one. The new drones go to the queen, who wakes up and they proceed to attack the colony.

3. The extracted drone from Newt's father manages to escape and goes back to the SJ ship to wake up the queen. Then they go back to infest the colony.

Why am I saying that it is very possible for the queen to emerge from the SJ? Well, apart from what I've written above, the queen has a very but VERY distinct design compared to the drones. It just doesn't seem like a normal mutation, as most of her physical characteristics are changed so much that she doesn't look like a drone at all.
Her size, the shape of the "dome" head, her jaws, the new pair of arms, everything is too different to be just a random mutated drone.

What's more is that drones are not seen mutating into a queen. In A:R, Ripley8 has a queen inside of her. Not a drone, but a queen. Even the queen chestburster has most of the mature's queen's characteristics (most notably the jaws). So at no point in these movies (other than the extra commentaries) we see or hear about the drones able to mutate into a queen, but what we ARE told is that queen chestbursters exist.

Now you're going to ask me this : why is the SJ queen similar to Ripley8's queen? It may be because the SJ queen can send most of her genes through the egg and the facehugger inside. Ripley gets facehugged by the queen's last egg. Being her last egg it might have been some sort of a last chance of her to further send her genes and help the xenomorphs to exist once again. The genes sent to Ripley by the (super)facehugger might be so strong, that it messes up so much with the DNA and makes the queen in A:R look much like her grandmother, the first queen.

Remember that Kane's son at no point tried to mutate into a queen, although it was alone. In the deleted scenes we see it cocooning the crew into eggs. Maybe that's the only thing a drone can do when it's alone.
The xenomorph in Alien3 also never tried to morph into a queen. It was alive for several days at least, but still no mutation.

Therefore it is possible that the xenomorphs have different reproduction methods, depending on the race of its original host. SJ xenos can lay eggs, while human xenos can transform their victims into eggs. Dog xenos are a bit different, but their method of reproduction is unknown.
I do not want to bring AvP in this discussion (sorry in advance ) but I think that the Predalien's weird method of reproduction is actually making more sense now, since the original host was a Predator.
So to recap, SJ xenos lay eggs, human xenos transform victims into eggs and Predaliens insert chestbursters right inside their victims.

A life cycle similar to ants might still be the correct answer, but remember that these are alien creatures. Their biology can be very different from what we see here on Earth. In fact we know NOTHING about their biology, except vague explanations of what the facehugger does to its host, as heard in dialogues and seen on-screen.
Also, being depicted as "perfect organisms", the alien's ability to adapt to the surrounding environment, makes it a perfect candidate for the scenario above.

Thats your college thesis right there.

[maddriver]

Not that this matters, because you're entirely overlooking the single most balls-out blatantly simple explanation, which is that one of the colonists got face-hugged and gave birth to a Queen on-site. No mutation, no mystery.

I am talking here just about what we see on film. There is no indication to your statement in the movie. I care less about the DvD commentary or interviews. It is like saying that George Lucas wanted to make Jar Jar a funny character, but he did not accomplish that on film. Is Jar Jar funny? No, regardless of what the director intended to do.
What matters is what you see in the movie, no commentaries, novels or anything else.

You're also ignoring that the Queen in AvP was clearly much older than the one in Aliens, and was about six feet taller. If the Queen in Aliens had come from the Jockey, it wouldn't have been the mere fourteen feet that we saw it. It would've either been the same 20 feet of AvP, or assuming some kind of retarded non-stop growth, the size of Godzilla.

We do not know the age of either queen. We do not know for how long the SJ is dead and the ship crashed. We also do not know the age of the queen in AvP. Only their size indicate that one is older and one is younger.

Since we do not know for how long xenomorphs live (but it is clearly a huge amount of time, considering that the eggs in the SJ ship were there for...a long time), this is my explanation : considering that a xenomorph lives for....500 years (just saying). If one is 100 years old and the other one is 400 years old, it is clear that the last one is the biggest.

If the average age of human beings is somewhere around 70, a human continues to grow (in size) until aprox. the age of 20, which is roughly 29% of the life span. So if xenomorphs live longer, 29% out of 500 means 145. So until the age of 145 earthly years, the xenomorph may continue to grow up.

On top of all this, there's literally nothing in the movie indicating the Queen was from anywhere else -- hauling such a massive find would have been mentioned at some point -- and there's bugger-all suggesting that the Jockey's burster was a Queen.

The same way there is no proof in the movies to demonstrate the opposite

There were thousands of eggs in that cargo hold stretched much further than a stationary Queen could lay them.

How do you know that the SJ ship did not have anything to do with it? Something like a conveyor belt. We do not know for how long the SJ ship is crashed on LV-426. If the queen was able to lay a sh*tload of eggs in a span of a few weeks (Aliens) imagine how many eggs could she lay in a hundred if not a thousand years?

Aaaand then there's the fact the Queen would have been there for potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It's most likely dead by the events of Alien (And it is, according to the filmmakers), let alone 57 years later.

Why does everyone try to make the xenomorphs live for a few weeks (at most). Humans live for aprox. 60-70 years, so what makes you think that the "perfect organism" has a shorter lifespan. Like I said, she might have cocooned herself and entered a state of hybernation to protect herself. Something like a personal cryotube, but with slime and goo all over the place. Anything is possible. They are ALIEN creatures, not Earth creatures.

Like I said, your theory might be the right one, but none of the movies explained anything in such detail. Things may not be as they seem. Maybe this prequel will explain it and prove I'm wrong, but until then everything is covered in mystery.

To be honest there is no clear proof to indicate that I am 100% right, but also no proof to indicate that I am 100% wrong

Thats your college thesis right there.

If only it is that easy =)

[SiL]

There is no indication to your statement in the movie.

And yet somehow there's even less indication for yours.

We do not know the age of either queen. We do not know for how long the SJ is dead and the ship crashed. We also do not know the age of the queen in AvP. Only their size indicate that one is older and one is younger.

Given the fact the Aliens Queen is exactly the same size as the Alien Resurrection Queen, we know the Aliens Queen is young.

How do you know that the SJ ship did not have anything to do with it? Something like a conveyor belt.

Because there are none in sight.

We do not know for how long the SJ ship is crashed on LV-426. If the queen was able to lay a sh*tload of eggs in a span of a few weeks (Aliens) imagine how many eggs could she lay in a hundred if not a thousand years?

That doesn't address my point.

Why does everyone try to make the xenomorphs live for a few weeks (at most).

Where in my post did it say that?

I said hundreds or possibly thousands of years. Not weeks. Not months. Not even single or double-digit years. Hundreds and thousands.

Why do people assume they could have grossly long life-spans? Something that develops and grows as quickly as that is not something built to last a particularly long time, let alone millenia.

Humans live for aprox. 60-70 years, so what makes you think that the "perfect organism" has a shorter lifespan.

They're not perfect organisms, so why should they have long life-spans?

Anything is possible.

Quite, but then it's equally possible they can fart lightning to the tune of Beethoven's fifth symphony, first movement, and there's certainly nothing in the movies saying they can't.

[maddriver]

And yet somehow there's even less indication for yours.

I know, but as long as the movies don't follow one of these theories, both of them have equal chances of being right or wrong.

That doesn't address my point.

We do not know if the queen is always stationary. Yes, in Aliens she is, but maybe that was for her own protection, designed by the drones. The queen could not create the support for her and the egg sack on her own. She is lifted above the ground. Maybe she was the bi*ch of the hive. The drones kept her chained up so that they can do whatever they want with her. Something like "We'll let you live if you let us chain you up and bang you from behind. You just stay there and lay eggs."

Why do people assume they could have grossly long life-spans? Something that develops and grows as quickly as that is not something built to last a particularly long time, let alone millenia.

Why not? Growth acceleration does not necessarily mean short life-span. Oh it can, but not for an alien life form.
If we associate these creatures with Earth life, then how can they survive in the vacuum of space (Alien, Aliens). No creature on Earth would have survived that. But the xenos do.

They're not perfect organisms, so why should they have long life-spans?

Ash called it "perfect". Being able to adapt, a survivor, a hunter and a savage mastermind. All in one.

Quite, but then it's equally possible they can fart lightning to the tune of Beethoven's fifth symphony, first movement, and there's certainly nothing in the movies saying they can't.

Exactly. But as long as we do not see them fart lightning in the movies, it is not considered canon

[SM]

Ash called it "perfect". Being able to adapt, a survivor, a hunter and a savage mastermind. All in one.

Ash's opinion doesn't make it so.

[SiL]

Oh it can, but not for an alien life form.

It can still mean it for an alien lifeform. The filmmakers thought as much anyway.

No creature on Earth would have survived that.

Extremophiles. Tiny organisms that live in extreme circumstances, like in lava.

Ash called it "perfect".

Yet they rely on host organisms and can be killed. They aren't perfect.