Quote from: SiL on Apr 02, 2014, 11:22:25 AM
The space truckers weren't told to retrieve shit, just to check out any transmission of possible intelligent origin. Which would make sense in a logical universe -- space is big and empty and there aren't a lot of people flying through it. No-one's going to want to pass up the opportunity to make first contact. Bring back specimen was the sinister dubious dickhole Company Special Order, not their contractual agreement.
How is Ash being planted a plot hole?
Burke's plan was simple: Send the colonists out, and if they found something, claim the rights. The end. Then shit happened and the colony was overrun. He didn't need a specimen until the Marines agreed with Ripley's plan to nuke the site from orbit, at which point he decided to try to smuggle some home. Ripley supposes he'll try to kill the Marines, or deal with them somehow.
The novel explains how he'd do it, the film never bothers saying that part was actually his plan; not that he does much to disprove it, and not that it's terribly relevant by that point in the film.
There's no logic in them checking out transmissions... what does "check out" actually mean? It implies finding out who/what is the source of the transmission. A job for truckers??? I don't think so. If we are expected to believe that in the future 'space truckers' can be contracted into investigating the source of alien transmissions, it certainly should be as 'believeable' that a scientist may be a bit of an idiot. The latter certainly seems the most believable to me.
Re. Ash. The inference in the film is that he's onboard the Nostromo covertly. Why would the company put Ash there? It's either...
1) Because the company routinely and surreptitiously replace crew with artificial life forms... which stretches internal logic given the randomness of it without any on screen explanation.
2) That the company put Ash there in order to report on/protect anything coming back from the Nostromo's detour. Which again wouldn't make any sense given the logistics of putting Ash on board prior to the Nostromo leaving dock (wherever that was). If the company had time to supplant Ash, then they surely had the time to send a dedicated crew and vessel instead of the Nostromo.
Re. Aliens and Burke... again it's not logical. Firstly - it's not really believable that a colonist or company employee (Burke) can automatically claim the rights to something found on LV426... that's been terraformed, and presumably owned, by that company. Just because that is what's alluded to in the film (specifically the deleted scene) doesn't make it any more believable. But we'll let that pass to get to the next thing... If Burke sent the colonist purely to check it out, then why wasn't he more explicit in his instructions? Surely whoever put the claim in on Burke's behalf would have to be complicit? Why all the subterfuge on Burke's part? None of that is ever explained... and that's because there's really no logical need for subterfuge other than to create a 'villain' for afterwards.
The conversation should have been:-
Burke: "Hey Simpson - there's possibly a big find, a crashed ship, at coordinates X,Y and Z. However, it could be very dangerous, so find it, take some aerial shots and we'll make a joint claim... 50/50... But whatever you do, do not go inside. We'll leave that for the specialists once we have the rights".
Simpson: "Sounds sensible to me... I don't like taking risks".
But whilst that's the way it may have been in reality... characters are written to behave in ways that fall outside of what we'd deem 'normal' in order to move/shape the story the way the writer sees fit. Burke is made a villain without any 'real' motivation because it supplies a 'reveal' moment similar to the Ash scene in Alien... Milburn is depicted as a bit of a fool because it was easier to place him in that scene (a scientist) rather than one of the pilots or bodyguards, who'd you'd more readily believe would act 'idiotically' (which is probably the simple truth of it). It serves the story in the most convenient way.