Space Jockey........Engineer or something else?

[SM]

It's not a documentary.

[The Old One]

And?

It's uninteresting and nonsensical regardless. Unsuitable for Alien™

[SM]

And it doesn't need to conform to that actual history of the world.

Whether you find it uninteresting and nonsensical isn't relevant in this particular instance.

[Immortan Jonesy]

Even if you are determined to relate the concept of the Space Jockeys with the history of the human race:

1. They should have made it more elegant and symbolic like in "2001: A Space Odyssey". So you don't need the whole "ancient aliens created everything and have our same DNA! trope.

2. They (Space Jockeys) doesn't have to be humans, regardless of their relationship with the planet Earth and its inhabitants.

But I agree that this is fiction at the end of the day, and the franchise is not an academic documentary on astrobiology. It's about monsters eating people with some pretentious paraphernalia here and there. In fact, I don't see many scientists serving as consultants for the Alien movies; as in the case of Interstellar by Christopher Nolan where a real physicist advised the writers, despite the transcendental fantasy present in the final story. 

[SM]

Maybe not many scientists - but there was at least one.

[Immortan Jonesy]

You killed me with that one!  I should have imagined that the neutrino burst didn't come from nothing. Also he likes "The Martian."

But, seriously; that was a nice reading, as usual coming from that site. Thanks for the link. 

[irn]

It's not a documentary.

It's a fiction series but it's grounded in realism. That's what makes it better than other sci-fi franchises in my opinion. It's such a fantasy concept with the ancient aliens thing just that it takes the immersion away from the story. There's already Star Trek or all those comic superhero films for the far out stuff.

At best it could have been handled better by just saying they seeded all life on Earth 4 billion years ago.

[The Old One]

^

[SM]

It's not a documentary.

It's a fiction series but it's grounded in realism. That's what makes it better than other sci-fi franchises in my opinion. It's such a fantasy concept with the ancient aliens thing just that it takes the immersion away from the story. There's already Star Trek or all those comic superhero films for the far out stuff.

At best it could have been handled better by just saying they seeded all life on Earth 4 billion years ago.

Considering FTL travel, hypersleep, artificial gravity, things-that-should-not-be, everything after the "but" sounds redundant.

[Kane's other son]

The space jockey was an engineer, unless Ridley Scott or whoever makes the next movie change their mind and turn him into something else.

[LastSonofKrypton]

He is Space Jesus you fools!!!

[SuperiorIronman]

It's not a documentary.

It's a fiction series but it's grounded in realism. That's what makes it better than other sci-fi franchises in my opinion. It's such a fantasy concept with the ancient aliens thing just that it takes the immersion away from the story. There's already Star Trek or all those comic superhero films for the far out stuff.

At best it could have been handled better by just saying they seeded all life on Earth 4 billion years ago.

Considering FTL travel, hypersleep, artificial gravity, things-that-should-not-be, everything after the "but" sounds redundant.

Yeah but that doesn't excuse creationism.

[SiL]

It's not creationism. The Engineers aren't literally gods. That was the point.

[SuperiorIronman]

It's not creationism. The Engineers aren't literally gods. That was the point.

Granted, but Shaw and David (mostly David) never waver from that belief. Sure the Engineers aren't literal gods, but in the grand scheme of the story they are. The prequels never deviate from that mindset, they only state that they aren't literal gods. They may not be supernatural beings, but they still fit the requirements of being considered a god to Humanity that despite looking behind the curtain, it matters very little.

[SM]

Yes.

What's the problem?