Spartacus
MemberOvomorph01/1/2012Ridley Scott’s Comments On Making An Alien Sequel/Prequel From 1979 thru 2003.
"In many respects it’ll (the sequel) be more interesting (than the first one) from a pure science fiction stand point. We’d get into speculative areas, dealing with two civilisations." –Cinefantastique (1979)
This is pretty much a given now in what to expect in Prometheus.
"The alien form lived to reproduce, and in reproducing took on the characteristics of its last inhabitant and its new host. "Thus the alien on board the Nostromo had the characteristics of space jockey on the derelict and Kane. If the face hugger had hit the cat, it would have been a hybrid of the space jockey and the cat." –Interview with James Delson (1979)
With this in mind, will we see the alien in its original and pure form as Scott suggests it has?
"The sequel should explain what the alien is and where it comes from. That will be tough because it will require dealing with other planets, worlds, civilizations. Because obviously the alien did come from some sort of civilization. The alien was presented, really, as one of the last survivors of Mars- a planet named after the god of war. The alien may be one of the last descendants of some long-lost self-destructed group of beings". –Interview with Danny Peary (1984)
Here he touches on ideas of a lost alien civilization. On a related note, he mentions a civilization with an uncivilized behavior in 2011.
"I always wanted to go back and make an Alien 5 or 6, where we find out where they came from and go there and answer the question, who are they. Mars is too close so they can’t be, they can’t be gods of war, but the theory was, in my head was, this was an aircraft carrier, a battlewagon of a civilisation, and the eggs were a cargo which were essentially weapons. So right, like a large form of bacteriological stroke biomechanoid warfare. Once again you can not, you just can not beat this score, it is great. And again the set is pretty spectacular really. This space jockey is, I’ve always thought was the driver of the craft who is now after many ages, of course it would be dustless but has started to look like a perfect example of Giger’s mind which is ‘where does biology end and technology begin?’ because he seems to have grafted the creature into what was essentially was let’s say a pilot’s seat. But clearly from here, this is where the transmission would emanate from, probably in an automatic transmission, so this creature had obviously experienced maybe one of the eggs had been disturbed and a creature had got out, had attacked the rest of the crew, don’t ask me where they got to, but he’s pretty gruesome, but let’s say he’s part of the civilisation he came from and now had melded into his seat" –Commentary from Alien 20th Anniversary DVD (1999)
Now he’s getting more detailed in his explanations. Also, to my knowledge, this is when he first speaks of the idea of the eggs as a biological weapon. Prior to this, Scott has held the view that in Alien the eggs were the morphed crew members of the derelict ship.
"Earth would be interesting, and there is talk about it… I say we should go back to where the alien creatures were first found and explain how they were created. No one has ever explained why. I always figured that a battleship carrying bio-mechanical organisms that could be weapons was sent into space with some space jockey who didn’t last long." –Interview with Cindy Pearlman, The Chicago Sun-Times (2002)
"I think the Space Jockey is actually the pilot, and he’s part of this military operation – if that’s the word you can apply to his world, and therefore this is probably some kind of carrier, a weapon carrier, a biological or biomechanoid carrier of lethal eggs, inside of which are these small creatures which will actually fundamentally integrate in a very aggressive way into any society or any place they’re dropped."
–Commentary from Alien DVD of Quadrilogy Set (2003)
"Fox and Sigourney Weaver have contacted me, they want to conclude this series with the one who has begun it. [...] But there are not even serious talks. I don’t really know what I could do unless I go back to the questions stated in the first episode. Where does the crashed ship on the planet with this mysterious extra-terrestrial come from ? We could wonder whether massive destruction weapons (which could threaten the Earth) had been used or not. It could be inspired by “The War Of The Worlds”."
-DVDrama (original interview in French, 2003)
The last three quotes, when pieced together, tell of space jockeys that drop alien eggs like bombs in order to clean up civilizations.
These ideas aren’t anything new to the prolific Prometheus speculator (among others). But for some, it offers a glimpse into where the ideas come from and how they might play a part in Prometheus.
That is if Ridley Scott doesn’t change his mind.