Analysing Alien, 40 Years on. The Alien Script by Dan O’Bannon Page 1-10 – Studio Yutani Livestream

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2 years ago

Footnotes

Chaz Standard = Dallas
Martin Roby = Ripley
- Roby to Ripley https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/roby-to-ripley/
- Hill and Giger vs Dan O’Bannon http://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/2016/09/alien-dan-obannon-vs-messrs-giler-and.html
Dell Broussard = Lambert
Sandy Melkonis = Kane
Cleave Hunter = Parker
Jay Faust = Brett
Ash doesn’t exist, his character was added in later by David Giler and Walter Hill.
It was Dan O’Bannon’s choice to make the characters unisex/interchangeable between men or women.
Chaz Standard is characterised as A leader and politician. Believes that any action is better than no action.
Other captains who lead are Janek(Prometheus), Oram(Alien: Covenant) and in a way Gorman(Aliens) and Sgt Apone(Aliens), Dillon(Alien 3).
Martin Roby is characterised as Cautious but intelligent – a survivor.
And 20th Century Fox suggested it Roby/Ripley should be a woman, subverting the expectation she would not be the survivor. Even all the promotional material did not suggest she was a lead character, they utilised this tactic again with Prometheus, making David the main character and more noticeably more after the release of Alien: Covenant.
Dell Broussard is characterised as Adventurer; brash glory-hound. Which doesn’t sound much like Lambert, perhaps only after the character was changed to a woman she was made into the nervous wreck she played opposing Ripley’s cool and calm demeanour.
Jay Faust is characterised as a Worker. Unimaginative. Which explains why Faust/Brett only parrots Parker and says “Right”
The Outer is 108 Light years in diameter and the galaxy is 100 light years in diameter, here is an actual map of the sun type stars in 100 light years of Earth.

http://www.solstation.com/stars3/100-gs2.gif

As many as 512 or more stars of spectral type “G” (not including white dwarf stellar remnants) are currently believed to be located within 100 light-years or (or 30.7 parsecs) of Sol — including Sol itself. Only around 64 are located within 50 light-years (ly), while some 448 are estimated to lie between 50 and 100 light-years — a volume of space that is seven times as large as the inner sphere within 50 ly of Sol. A comparison of the density of G-type stars between the two volumes of space indicates that the outer spherical shell has around 100 percent of the spatial density of known G-type stars as the inner spherical volume, which suggests that astronomers have identified the great majority of the G-type stars that are actually located within 100 ly of Sol, assuming the same spatial distribution in the Solar neighbourhood. Read more about G Type Stars like our Sun. Image c/o http://www.solstation.com

Aldebaran was where The Forever War took place and was the prime influence for Ridley’s look of Alien: Covenant. It also is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus and is known as the “Eye of Taurus.” The name “Aldebaran” is Arabic, which means “The Follower” because it appears to follow the Hyades star cluster that forms the head of the bull.
On the bottom of the star map is a note saying as of 2087 A.D. 14 Earth Colonies on Planets of other systems in Earth vicinity space… None beyond. Here are the 14 colonies as listed on the Project Prometheus Website before it was removed, I am currently compiling information on them:

Since I have researched more I have found more colonies to add here.

The Galactic Map via Alien Explorations, with Dan O’Bannon’s guess being 46 and the number of Sun type stars actually being between 64 and 448. It’s off by quite a bit, but not a bad guess for someone who was not studying Astronomy.
Page 1 – A stainless steel room with no windows is what is characterised as the hypersleep bay, as you know this concept was changed to be more like a padded cell or hospital. White and sterile instead. This concept would be used later in Aliens as the crew wakes up from hypersleep in the Sulaco.
Page 1 – Roby makes a comment on feeling cold, the hypersleep chambers described as freezers. In Alien it is Lambert who says she’s cold. This was possibly used as a call back in Aliens when Hudson comments to Sgt Apone about the floor being freezing. And the design of the hypersleep chambers in Alien: Covenant making the frozen colonists look like hanging meat in a freezer.
Page 2 – Faust groans about feeling dead while ironically being alive, I mis-attributed this character to be Kane when it was actually Lambert. Kane later utters this line in Alien.
Page 2 – Melkonis (Kane) says The vampires rise from their graves, a forshadowing of his miraculous recovery after the encounter with the Alien.
Page 2 – The cat is lifted out of the freezer, Jones was in the first script!
Page 3 – Broussard (Lambert) comments on buying a cattle ranch, some took this as a possible nod to Blade Runner. Specifically in instance about the calf skin wallet during the Voight Kampff Test. Deckard to Rachel “someone gives you a calfskin wallet ” – Blade Runner (1982)
Page 4 – “Where’s Irth?” Why this spelling? I don’t know honestly and I can’t find any more information, but I find the choice to spell it this way fascinating.
Page 4 – The early name of the Nostromo was The Starship “Snark”
a nod to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. Information via Strange Shapes.
Page 4 – 180246 was kept as the ship’s number, you can read about this detail and more at Typeset in the Future Alien.
Page 5 – Broussard (Lambert) says they are just short of Zeta II Reticuli. It is actually located RA 03h 18m 2.81853s with a Dec −62° 30′ 22.9048″
Page 5 – Standard (Dallas) says they are only half way to Irth,
Page 5 – The computer is voice interactive through a microphone, just like in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Page 6 – The crew play back the message, listening to an Alien language uncommon to them. In Alien this signal is kept but in Alien: Covenant the ghostly signal comes from Elizabeth Shaw, who is an Alien to Planet 4, but this time recognisable to the crew.
Page 7 – The computer can analyse the transmission, striking out 678 dialects, and pinpointing it to be of non human origin, suggesting intelligent origin.
Page 7 – Melkonis (Kane) points it out as First Contact, then this also may be a foreshadowing he would indeed have first contact with the Alien.
Page 7 – Melkonis (Kane) tracks down the point of origin for the transmission coming from RA 6m, Dec -39° 2 sec
- If we used that as coordinates looking at the sky from Earth, we find nothing there, although we find that it’s between the areas of the constellation of the Phoenix and the sculptor. – Alien: The galactic map of “Alien” (Personally I think it may be intentional, at least to the concepts visited in the Prequels that the Engineers were Gods who made man and gave them the gift of fire)
- In Alien: Covenant they find Planet 4 in Sector 87 RA 47.6 Dec 24.3 from the Covenant’s current location.
Page 8 – Broussard (Lambert) says the planet diameter is 120 km with a 2 hour rotation and gravity of .86. In Alien: Covenant the planet is similar in size to Earth with 0.96 G surface gravity on Planet 4. Earth is 12,742 km in diameter.

Here’s a size comparison someone has already done on Reddit.

Page 9 – Melkonis (Kane) talks about the fact they are obligated in investigate the signal, with Hunter (Parker) saying its not part of his plan unless he’s being paid. In Alien it is Ash that urges the crew to investigate, or face the forfeit of shares.
Page 10 – Melkonis (Kane) feels obligated to investigate, Standard (Dallas) overrules Roby (Ripley) decision to play it safe. This exact scene plays out in Alien: Covenant with Daniels and Oram. And with Rosie urging Oram to not make them go back into hypersleep.
Page 10 – Standard (Dallas) asks Dell (Lambert) to give a detailed scan of the planet surface, this was kept in Alien and also done in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
Page 10 – Melkonis (Kane) comments on the planet surface being quite stormy, this aesthetic is kept in Alien, Aliens, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Part 2 of this analysis will be done soon, stay tuned by subscribing to the blog or on Patreon.

Footnotes

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