What kind of Alien is in the original?

Collector Freaks Forum

Help Support Collector Freaks Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Dr.Mirakle32

Super Freak
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
2,854
Reaction score
20
Ever since ALIENS expanded the universe from the original, there have been all sorts of Xenomorph rankings in the fictional universe. There are queens, warriors, hybrids etc. So with the wealth of expanded universe material in the forms of comics, novels and video games, has the Alien from the original ever been officially categorized? Is it a regular warrior, or something more?

Sure it was the original, and I'm sure Scott and Giger had no idea Cameron would tweak their ideas in a sequel, and even change the direction of the xenomorphs, but the geek in me is curious.

In the first film, the Alien was intelligent, methodical, and much more quiet than those in the sequels. Plus, he seemed to be a MUCH more effiecient killer: "The perfect killing machine," as opposed to the warriors who did more harm with their acid blood than anything else.
The design was of course different, as it had an exposed skull, being protected with a translucent dome, where as the ones from ALIENS have openly unprotected heads with ridges. There is even a question to if it is some kind of cybernetic origin, due to it's metallic teeth.

The original Alien also walked more like a humanoid than the insects in the sequels (no doubt due to the actor inside!)

Like it's various Predator cousins, has the original Alien's status ever been fully expalined?
 
Re: What Kind of Alien is in the Original?

Ever since ALIENS expanded the universe from the original, there have been all sorts of Xenomorph rankings in the fictional universe. There are queens, warriors, hybrids etc. So with the wealth of expanded universe material in the forms of comics, novels and video games, has the Alien from the original ever been officially categorized? Is it a regular warrior, or something more?

Sure it was the original, and I'm sure Scott and Giger had no idea Cameron would tweak their ideas in a sequel, and even change the direction of the xenomorphs, but the geek in me is curious.

In the first film, the Alien was intelligent, methodical, and much more quiet than those in the sequels. Plus, he seemed to be a MUCH more effiecient killer: "The perfect killing machine," as opposed to the warriors who did more harm with their acid blood than anything else.
The design was of course different, as it had an exposed skull, being protected with a translucent dome, where as the ones from ALIENS have openly unprotected heads with ridges. There is even a question to if it is some kind of cybernetic origin, due to it's metallic teeth.

The original Alien also walked more like a humanoid than the insects in the sequels (no doubt due to the actor inside!)

Like it's various Predator cousins, has the original Alien's status ever been fully expalined?


My opinion will remain that they are not Xenomorphs in the sense that they know what that means. I will take the approach that that is just a term not unlike UFO. They don't have a name IMO. :D
 
Here's how I think it:

The ALIEN Xenomorph is a DRONE/WORKER. Though formidible by itself, it's still a "working bee" and you can see it uses a lot of stealth that is common to the Xenomorphs. I also think by its skinnier and less bulk unlike the Aliens of later movies. Perhaps because of the lack of a Queen and a "Hive Mind"...the Xenomorph retained more of a sense of individual survival.

The ALIENS Xenomorphs are DRONES/WORKERS....duh...mostly because of the Queen. It's also quite possible that the ridge-heads are a genetic evolution conducted by the Queen so perhaps her workers can "see",work, and communicate better through the harsh environment of LV-426.

ALIEN3 I think was more in terms of a WARRIOR, acting almost like a "bodyguard" to protect the upcoming birth of a new Queen. But also due to the host being a dog (or ox if you prefer the other version), it's hard to place it against other Xenomorphs.

ALIEN RESURRECTION I consider as WARRIORS...birthed by the Queen to help protect her since she was captured and under wraps by the USM and its scientists. Their unique look perhaps because of the combination of the human/Alien DNA. They were also more "monsterous" and versatile considering the "fin" on the tail so they could swim.

AVP and AVP:R were WARRIORS definitely...the Predators probably would want to go against the best of their prey so of course the Warriors. Though there could've been some genetic differences and such considering the dome versus the ridge head. But whatever...

That's how I classify the Xenos.
 
I like Bardoons analysis, it sounds pretty good. I think the Alien3 dog creature was the first of its kind i cant imagine them coming into contact with Dogs prior to the first human contact with Ripley in Alien. Maybe the Alien3 creatures heightened aggression was also due to the fact that it had the instincts of a Rottweiler canine which in its own right can be quite savage when pissed off.
The speed and the movement of the Alien is a no brainer in this case also being from the dog, this creature by far is my favorite of the species
 
The A L I E N alien is also quite young, therefore the translucent headpiece (perhaps) as protection while its cranial whatever hardens...while the ALIENS aliens may have been around longer, perhaps adult versions who have shed their 'headpieces'. We have no idea of a natural lifespan for an alien so any physical differences -- not attributed to a host -- could be explained by age, at least between the first two movies. Perhaps.
 
I'd allways considered the one in alien a drone, or standard alien.
the ones in aliens were warriors
the one in alien 3 a scout type creature. fast, smaller, etc
And the rest, so far, have been warriors.

just my 2 cents.
 
What was the alien in ALIEN doing with the people it captured, I don't remember if I saw it in a deleted scene or not, but it looked like the people were turning into Aliens themselves??
 
The A L I E N alien is also quite young, therefore the translucent headpiece (perhaps) as protection while its cranial whatever hardens...while the ALIENS aliens may have been around longer, perhaps adult versions who have shed their 'headpieces'. We have no idea of a natural lifespan for an alien so any physical differences -- not attributed to a host -- could be explained by age, at least between the first two movies. Perhaps.


This is a cool idea, like tadpoles tails or childrens teeth.

I listened to the directors commentry to aliens recently and in it Scott says one of the reason the Ripley need to destroy the nostromo is because the number of aliens will increase. Maybe the alien is like some insects, if there is no queen a lower class bug will become a queen.

I usually think of the Alien in Alien to be Kain's son.
 
What was the alien in ALIEN doing with the people it captured, I don't remember if I saw it in a deleted scene or not, but it looked like the people were turning into Aliens themselves??
\

In a deleted scene, Ripley finds Dallas and Brett in cocoons. They were being chemically converted into eggs. It was meant to show how the Alien continues the species (which was subsequently changed with the queen in Aliens).
 
I'd [always] considered the one in alien a drone, or standard alien.
the ones in aliens were warriors
the one in alien 3 a scout type creature. fast, smaller, etc
And the rest, so far, have been warriors.

just my 2 cents.

You WIN!

Your 2 cents have now been turned into $2.
Congratulations. :D
 
According to the game I have, the first one was a Drone...

Then there were warriors and a queen...

Then a runner...

Then, I don't know what...

And then a Predalien...
 
Technically speaking, the Alien in the 1st movie can't be a drone, since there is no queen.

By definition, a drone is "a stingless male bee in a colony of social bees (especially honeybees) whose sole function is to mate with the queen."

As I mentioned before, the deleted scene with the cocoons shows how the Alien continues the species. There is no queen, hence, the Alien is not a drone.

I'd suggest it's more like a worker bee.
 
I like to think that the Alien in 1 & 3 are predecessor warriors that come before a Queen. Make the way for one, as it were, if a queen is not handy. And, are able to make eggs of hosts to make a queen egg, genetically. Had things worked out on the Nostromo, there might have been a Queen egg there soon.

Then, the warriors in Aliens would be plain workers.

As for AR, well, they are corrupted DNA strains extracted from Ripley blood DNA, and are not fully natural born aliens anyway. In a word, they don't count.

As for AVP and AVP-R ones, looking like the AR ones, count out the AVP ones as anything but cinematic (and easy to do since nothing was really all that altered from the AR molds, other than hand size, headrest and colors...), and the AVP-R ones are therefore a bit more natural in form, even though they borrow from AR molds still.

They are just getting watered down as each movie goes. Be nice to see them NOT cut corners just once....

So to answer the question of this thread, I would say, the Alien in ALIEN is a Pre-Queen Pathmaker Warrior-drone. Short life span, high metabolism, meant to aggressively produce a Queen egg in absentia, then begin to gel and harden as it ages (Hence runny drool at first, and more gooey slime as it ages or hibernates), possibly providing future food or reproductive cellular material for a future Queen.

The Aliens warriors are workers. They only make hives, gather and secure hosts, hibernate and serve the Queen. They are a slightly different make and order than the Queen Predecessor.
 
Everytime I read a post catagorizing the first Alien as a "drone", I really hate Cameron for what he made the Aliens. It was never meant to be a "bug" and the original lifecycle (cocooning) is what I wish they'd stuck with.

LOVE "Aliens" as a movie, but hate the whole "drone", "worker", "warrior" crap.
 
Scott has also refued to the Alien as an insect, so that makes the "Cameron made them bugs" argument moot, as far as the "bug hunt" coment goes it wasn't derected at the Aliens themselves, it was a homage to the book Starship Troopers witch infuenced Aliens.

They weren't as dumb as some people want to think, dumb Animals don't set traps, and they sure as hell don't cut the power (smart ones don't eather) and don't forget the Queen was able to work an elevator and board the Dropship with out any noticing her till it was to late.


also the Alien in the frist film wasn't as "unkillable" as some people want to think, The alien has acid blood for a reason, O'Bannon didn't want to leave room for people to say "wait a minute why don't just shot it?" he didn't want those kind of loop holes. the crew could have shot it dead at any time, but doing so would cause it's blood to pour out on to the deck and eat a hole in the hull, thats also why they couldn't "wait it out" and let it starve, the blood would spill out when it decomposed.


the USCM on the other hand didn't have the fear of a hull breach, they were also trained to handle hostel situations and well armed.
 
Scott has also refued to the Alien as an insect, so that makes the "Cameron made them bugs" argument moot, as far as the "bug hunt" coment goes it wasn't derected at the Aliens themselves, it was a homage to the book Starship Troopers witch infuenced Aliens...

The point I was trying to make is that I can't stand the "hive insect" concept that has erupted since the "Aliens" film. It wasn't meant to be a "hive" type creature. So yeah, Cameron did make them just big "bugs" by adding the hive and the Queen. Now all I see is "Is it a drone or a worker or blah blah blah?" Totally taking away from what Scott, O'Bannon and Giger were trying to do with the creature.
 
Back
Top