Charles de Lauzirika interview at Bluray.com

[Pete Script]

I'm not sure as to why it's less organic, but I'd assumed it was to make the ALIEN sets look like a denuded, ancient version of the ships in their pristine weapons facility state.

Arthur Max said exactly this. The derelict was in a state of decay and the juggernaut/s were in top condition. But this is not satisfactory for me - you don't go from flat angular plates to giant bones with 'decay'.

i think the difference in the ships was brought on by having aliens living inside the derelict. The walls of the derelict look very similar to the hive in Aliens.

[whiterabbit]

I'm not sure as to why it's less organic, but I'd assumed it was to make the ALIEN sets look like a denuded, ancient version of the ships in their pristine weapons facility state.

Arthur Max said exactly this. The derelict was in a state of decay and the juggernaut/s were in top condition. But this is not satisfactory for me - you don't go from flat angular plates to giant bones with 'decay'.

He could have been referencing a social decay that affected the aesthetics of ship design. The engineers are supposed to be seriously f**ked up in one way or another.

[redalert51]

The sad issue with doing a so called Directors Cut , would change the plot or add anything relevant . Another sad issue is no evolvement
of HR Giger and no R rating . all I know is that there was a rumour floating around that HR did or would not get along with
Arthur Max . If anyone has a copy of HR Giger's book of his designs for films especially the designs not used for
Alien 3 which there is a whole pencil drawings of a refined Alien and  almost a full size sculpture . I can go on  ,
but  the studios call the shots ...
Thank You

[ChrisPachi]

Another sad issue is no evolvement
of HR Giger and no R rating.

It was rated R. OK, a U.S. R, but still an R. Alien is rated M here in Australia, right alongside Spiderman and Greys Anatomy.

...all I know is that there was a rumour floating around that HR did or would not get along with Arthur Max.

I am picturing a show-down: After a long and tense staring match Max whips out his iMac and bedazzles Giger with some fancy ZBrush art. Giger, with a dramatic roll of the eyes, flips out a rusty old airbrush and paints a ridiculously detailed Giger-scape across Max's (tenth) glass of shiraz.

Giger then proceeds to have mutually enjoyable sex with every human being in the room, except for Max, who is now crouched in a corner, blubbering incoherently.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

There's an interview somewhere where Ridley says that he hated the look of the space jockey set in Alien.. but he didnt have time to change it. So he eventually changed it on this film.

It was said that he didn't like the pipes covering the floor.
Now was that a reference to the entrance corridor because the person being interviewed didn't seem specific, I really wasn't sure what he was talking about