Gestation theory.

[Kradan]

So for many fans issue with Covenant was life cycle, I'm not bothered too much with it but see were problem comes from.

In Covenant we see that gestation period of xenomorph/protomorph takes significantly short time. But everything becomes even worse with Lope because in his case xeno takes more traditional amount of time to grow and be born. That gave me thought: what if Alien actually can decide when to be born? You know, Lope's xeno waits to get on board of Covenant. It would not give him any benefit if he was born on cargo lift - that would just lead to people panicing and vehicle's crash.

I suspect that's there many possibilities to argue that statement but anyway.

P.S. Final thought: plot holes and lazy script writting are useful in terms of giving food and space for theorizing and trying to come up with explanation.

[Drukathi]

Good theory. I read about it... maybe in Aliens: Book One? I like this idea. Aliens just waiting a good moment. But how they do it? Or how do they know which moment is good? Chestbuster from Aliens had an epic fail with it.

[David Weyland]

Regarding Gestation times I don't think there has to be a conflict here.
You could argue that the gestation time of Kane's son in in Alien was a result of the eggs being dormant for so long and it took a lot longer because of this.
In the case of Oram, I would say it was about 30 minutes max from the point of being facehugged of what was a proto Xeno
In Lope's, he was put under sedation so perhaps the effects of that had caused the birth to take a few hours
All speculative I know but I think they can repair this discrepancy if they choose to
The impregnation of Lope is a bit flimsy but again who has to say It has to take a long time...See above about Kane in relation to that
The AVP impregnations ( Not canon imo) also had relatively quick gestation times of no more than 30 minutes also

[Samhain13]

In the Covenant novel David mentions that he modified and accelerated the lifecycle of the aliens created on the movie.

[The Old One]

Well, here's a couple things- it's a very different scenario what we see in Alien, because it's simultaneously protecting Kane from the atmosphere of LV-426 as well as performing it's basic function (After a long, long nap). Aliens- we don't see anyone Facehugged, no barometer whatsoever except for a company log claiming  someone died prior to embryo plantation. It doesn't take that long in Alien³ for Ripley or the Ox/Dog.
Something I feel people overlook regarding Covenant is, despite the way it's edited- it's night time when the Facehugger gets Oram but then morning when we see the full grown Alien, similarly we don't know how much time passes between them relaxing on the Covenant and Lope's chestburst- long enough for Daniels to fall asleep anyway.

So, no it's not the same as AVP 2004- because AVP 2004 had microwave chestbursters, Covenant has no such thing. What Covenant instead says by contrast between Oram and Lope, is that the Facehugger may have a myriad of reasons for staying onboard but it doesn't necessarily need to.

[Local Trouble]

Do you ever feel underappreciated and ahead of your time?

[Huggs]

Predalien busters erupted quickly to grow numbers and overrun area.

Oram burster was not in danger and had time to be fully implanted and form.

The Lope face hugger ejaculated quickly due to threat. His burster also had time to fully form once in the body.

Kanes face hugger likely took so long to allow for transportation out of the harsh environment and to be taken back to a food source. Both of which would benefit the embryo. To give birth on a barren rock with no meat around would be a total waste of the organism.

[SM]

While we can't pin down exact gestation times for Oram, the rotation of Planet 4 is about 7 hours 20 minutes.

We don't know where the Engineer city is, but with an axial tilt or 35 degrees it would mean significantly longer nights in winter.

However, they manage a round trip (16km) to the Dreadnought in daylight, so it's probably not winter.

Lope could be four hours+.

[The Old One]

Indeed.

[Huggs]

Easily. Lope had the events on the surface, the flight back to the covenant, time for everybody to reunite, then transfer him to medical and stabilize him. Then time for Daniels to cook and get some shuteye.

[SM]

Mother was off line until 8 bells.  Since we don't know how many bells it was when she was switched off she can only have been offline for four hours max and Lope burst before that.  Plus time to evac back to Covenant.

Oram's gestation was very short.  Lope's may have been longer due to the hugger being on so short a time.  He got a lower 'dosage'.

[Highland]

Lope's impregnation pissed me off more than anything.

Also longer gestation times make it scarier.

[PsyKore]

The sequels and prequels have needed to tweak the time in order to suit its story, pacing etc. But in that I've come to accept it's possible it varies on a case-by-case basis and what Alien shows us with Kane isn't the absolute gospel anymore. I like the fact it can be fast or slow depending on circumstances.

[Still Collating...]

Mother was off line until 8 bells.  Since we don't know how many bells it was when she was switched off she can only have been offline for four hours max and Lope burst before that.  Plus time to evac back to Covenant.

Oram's gestation was very short.  Lope's may have been longer due to the hugger being on so short a time.  He got lower 'dosage'.

The "dosage" due to how long a facehugger is on you affecting the gestation period is my go to theory for now.

[Kradan]

Lope's impregnation pissed me off more than anything.

Also longer gestation times make it scarier.

How?