Understanding ALIEN biology: a Discussion

[pjam]

Man, now I REALLY want a giger Alien! Especially looking at theprop pics up close again. I found the male to female concept to be interesting, and the comparrison to ants. That's how I've always thought of them is like ants or even bees. Pretty interesting stuff.

Oh Yeah. A Giger "ALIEN" is most Wanted!

I've been studying insects for an upcoming project and it is just mindblowing; the variances in species, function, communication, behavior, form, function, life cycles, etc.

 

[abake]

hmm... if I understand the alien life cycle correctly. it like this:

queen - eggs - chestbuster+host - final alien.

if there is a sex angle to their biology, (which I dont really like the idea, alien sex is just... ) then its more likely determined during chestbuster+host stage. I dont have any particular proof for that assumption except that alien seem to adopt the form of the host creature, dog alien in AR, and humanoid alien in A1 and A2. So perhaps the host's sex also determine the sex of the alien.

I do think, however, its more likely aliens are non-sex repro creatures. for a very vicious creature, they are heavily depended on host creature to continue their life cycle. If there was only one host and one egg, and one alien was hatched (like in A1) there would be no chance for that particular alien to continue the alien life cycle if they are required to mate to continue the lifecycle. So it makes more sense to me that each and every alien has the ability to become a queen if there is no pre-existing queen. otherwise, the lifeline dies completely.

Well, yes, aliens reproduce asexually. They don't have sex with each other to further the species. It is actually a nasty form of partenogenesis (sp?), where they don't die, but a host from another species dies...
It seems to me that the alien queens don't need to be impregnated, they just grow and start producing eggs.
In the case of there not being a queen, you can always look to the Director's cut of Alien, where the alien was morphing Brett and Dallas into eggs.

 

[devlinboy]

im not too familiar with aliens but could there be one female queen and many males. as soon as the female queen dies the dominant male changes sex and becomes the new queen? like clownfish do ?Clownfish live in their anemone in groups. Usually a female lives with other males. When the dominant female dies the head male changes sex and becomes the female.

im just throwing this out there, ,i really have no idea.

 

[minivader]

I guess there are 2 kinds of alien life cycles:

Alien:

egg - chestbuster+human - alien - kidnaps human and make them into egg.

Aliens:

queen - egg - chestbuster+human - alien - kidnap human for chestbusters.

 

[dekadentdave]

My biggest question about Alien physiology is: where are the eyes?

The Giger Alien has a humanoid skull cranium with large eye-sockets under the dome. I always figured that this was designed upon a human head and integrated into Giger's design. You could argue that its a function of the humanoid host that shares the genetic structure of the alien.

Cameron's Alien has tubes going into the dome sockets approximately where the cranium sockets were located on Giger's Alien.

Now, I've always found it cool that the Aliens appear to have no eyes which makes them look wicked as hell. Yet somehow they must have some kind of "sense" that would give them the some kind of perceptory recognition of the environment, like bats with sonar or extrasensory hearing, or smell. Or perhaps the eyes are conveniently disguised elsewhere on the dome around all of those biomechanical tubes?

 

[Wor-Gar]

When I first saw ALIEN I always thought that the "dome" was a kind of multifaceted sensor, hence the long, flat smooth section on an otherwise craggy animal. Cameron's ALIENS kind of dismantled that concept, although I still thing the idea works.

 

[ambac]

Well, I can agree on a certain level, as understanding or debunking Aliens is sort of mythblowing, but...biology is biology, and Cameron more or less committed to it. Especially, absolutely in design. If you look good under her crotch area (and echoed in other areas on her body), her "femininity" is magnified times ten! (She even has high heels! )

Note this design sketch:

Seen from underneath, it's outright pornographic. No, The QUEEN is indeed a female. Any egg layer is a female in most biological terms. That is one of the definitions of the term.
As for a "male" I still like the Drone idea myself. A predecessor to the Queen. Makes a certain sense to me.
I am still open to other ideas. I just like those. And, Cameron sort of locked in a gender thing, as Wor-Gar said, Cameron's obsession with strong females made this a sure bet for Aliens.

Anyway, it is always open to debate though.

But if we just base it off our visual interpretation, then face huggers are all female? Because the underneath of a face hugger looks far more like that special female body part than the space between the Queen's legs.

I'll admit though that I think of the Queen as a female gender, as that's what I'm hardwired to do and what Cameron intended. Again, puny human minds....

 

[ambac]

My biggest question about Alien physiology is: where are the eyes?

The Giger Alien has a humanoid skull cranium with large eye-sockets under the dome. I always figured that this was designed upon a human head and integrated into Giger's design. You could argue that its a function of the humanoid host that shares the genetic structure of the alien.

Cameron's Alien has tubes going into the dome sockets approximately where the cranium sockets were located on Giger's Alien.

Now, I've always found it cool that the Aliens appear to have no eyes which makes them look wicked as hell. Yet somehow they must have some kind of "sense" that would give them the some kind of perceptory recognition of the environment, like bats with sonar or extrasensory hearing, or smell. Or perhaps the eyes are conveniently disguised elsewhere on the dome around all of those biomechanical tubes?

Giger deliberately designed the orignal Alien to appear blind, because he thought it was scarier if the creature didn't need to look for you, but could always sense you. The original Alien suit is literally a human skull that blends into the large penis shaped head, complete with eye and nose sockets. The sockets were filled in for the Aliens suits and all other versions of the suit omit the skull aspect completely.

 

[figuremasterles]

This is great! Love all this conjecture!

I like the idea of blind aliens myself. Seems weird and strange.
I think they use organs inside that huge cranium of their's to see with. Some kind of weird, ALien-vision! And not just a weird camera thing, like in Alien 3.

I have a great Dark Horse comic set around here somewhere, ten years old at least, that is an amazing Aliens comic, with art by Killian Plunkett, who drew, bar none, THE BEST LOOKING ALIENS I HAVE EVER SEEN! Perfected ideas of what an Alien SHOULD look like. To me that is.
Anyway, the comic is really cool, a four parter, and has an ALIEN autopsy scene in it. There is a scientist that "explains" the organs of the inner head, and it makes the most sense to me of anything I have ever read regarding their biology, vision, and other activities.

I will look for it and scan and post some pics when I can. Amazing stuff. Can't remember the writer, but it is superb.

 

[dekadentdave]

Wouldn't happen to be the original Mark Verheiden mini-series that was black&white would it?

 

[figuremasterles]

Wouldn't happen to be the original Mark Verheiden mini-series that was black&white would it?

Nope. A much later comic. Got all those too Dave. I got all the Dark Horse stuff. Man, that second set, the painted ones by Denis Beauvais, look JUST LIKE a sequel to ALIENS that could have been! Great story! Great Aliens too!

And, I have the TRIBES book illustrated by Dave Dorman, and he signed it, and a nice poster of the Queen illustrated inside. Love Dorman's art. That one image of the Predator fighting off a bunch of Aliens while knee deep in water, is a landmark early AVP image. Got that image signed too. Amazing work.

Anyway, I just found the comics. ALIENS Labyrinth is the set I am referring to. Written by Jim Woodring, and art by Killian. I will scan some shortly.

 

[figuremasterles]

OK, here are some examples of Killian Plunkett ALIEN art...I just like the way he captures Alien physicality. Something subtle about it. And very cool!

And specific to this thread, a few pics down, the Alien Autopsy scene.
I really like the ideas behind this. I REALLY wish someone would do this kind of thing in an ALIEN movie!

Anyway, enjoy the art if nothing else. The last one is a GREAT page from that old, second Dark Horse comic about the further adventures of Hicks and Newt. If only....

Enjoy!

The Autopsy dialogue

And one of the ALL-TIME great ALiens art images...

HICKS and NEWT, in action! In a sequel of sorts to ALIENS...

Anyway, just adding to the Aliens fun.
As for biology, I am still after some more info. I will add images as I can.

 

[dekadentdave]

That's very fascinating Les. So the cranial membrane does act as a telepathic receiver that translates the electromagnetic impulses into images directly into the Alien's cerebral cortex...

So fascinating that it's almost as if it were by DESIGN as the scientists suggest that it's genetic makeup had been SYNTHESIZED.

Now the question is by WHO?

Could it have been by the SPACE-JOCKEY aliens who were transporting the eggs found in the derelict spaceship on LV-426?

So many mysteries. Every answer opens another door to a new set of bigger questions.

 

[minivader]

I remember that comic. It was very cool to see aliens treated like a pet dog.

 

[Dark_Spidey]

That's very interesting Les, thanks. I've always been fascinated by the Aliens. Seeing how their organisms work is very exciting.

 

[abake]

I really like Killian's art, I might have to look Labyrinth up...
Thanks for the pics Les!

 

[customizerwannabe]

Great tutorial Les!