giger-alien

[Catch]

Hey could some one please help me understand the refernce to a "giger-alien"

from what ive seen i think its a refference to the original Alien in the first film - but that was blown out into space and i didnt think it was any different fromn a normal warrior alien

if some-one could help me out id be greatful
thanks
Catch

[Spacejockey]

There are some pretty significant differences in the types of Alien seen in the films, much less the myriad alien designs of games/novels/comics.

The easiest way to tell from the Alien and Aliens type, look at the heads. The Giger alien has that smooth head, which actually has a translucent quality- the Cameron alien has the ridged head.

[Catch]

Thanks, i always knew there was different types just never realised there was so many

[Mustafuck]

Hey Catch, wellcome to the forum man and hope you enjoy your stay here.

There are multiple points of view about the Giger-alien depending on the fan of the first film that tries to answer your question.

The closest explanation to the monster you see in that movie is:

1) Highly sophisticated and independent organism. The smooth head indicates us It does not belong to a hive. (nothing to do with Its age)
2) Based on the host It spawns from. Will also take the psychological attributes from the host, which means that the Giger-alien is also a weapon of terror.
3) This is up to one's opinion, but the Giger-alien has always looked more of a kind of bio-machine than a pure organism, sort of perversion based on the host DNA. The acidic blood may support this point of view..., this thing is like a walking battery, let's say 70% machine / 30% organism.
4) As stated by Ash, and later proved in the last scene, a Giger-alien can not be destroyed once It reaches Its adult form, only contained, that of course in case you can contain something like that with the strength It is supposed to have.
5) Scott also stated that this "thing" should live for a matter of days only. Jockeys weren't supposed to be a bunch of fools who created weapons of annihilation AND TERROR and then let'em live for extended periods of time. A giger-alien simply erases anything that gets in Its solitary way, and then dies after a very short lifespan. A perfect "living" weapon of mass destruction.

Then you have the more simplistic views of the moster caused by many years of Cameron's canon reigning supreme over the entire franchise and ignoring in almost every single way the many differences and attributes shown by the first creature. This vision consists in demoting/downgrading the Giger-alien to the simple rank of "Scout", or worse "Drone" (the alien drone was in fact a smaller alien warrior that Cameron wanted to add to his film, a ridged head too, not smooth, but in the end he couldn't due to both budget/time problems). According to Cameron, a Giger-alien is just a young warrior who will lose Its head dome once It has lived enough time, and It is of course submitted to Its queen as well, just like Its older version, the warrior also known as "Cameralien".

Fortunately, this was just Cameron's vision of the Giger-alien, second to come in the series, not the first and original one. Anyway, and thanks to Cameron we got another human born alien type (that If you follow the original canon, not Cameron's) which is always a good thing, specially in gaming terms. Too bad we couldn't get Cameron's failed drone too cause that would have been a thrid human born alien enemy type. (even better for gaming purposes)

There are even more visions of the Giger-alien as the aliens universe is so rich and open to speculation due to the multiple differences between the first film and the creature we saw in It, and the second film and the arachni..., I mean the aliens we saw in It.

The choice is yours.

[BooGNiSh]

I think Musta gets aroused discussing the Giger-Alien.

[Guirec]

I think it's a pretty unique way to look at the Alien of the first film. I always assumed that when Ash said that they couldn't destroy it, he just meant that, given their "weapon" loadout and lack of military training that they had a highly improbable statistical chance of destroying it, equatable to "impossible".

[Mustafuck]

Originally Posted by BooGNiSh

I think Musta gets aroused discussing the Giger-Alien.

heh, yeeaah. Terror!, back to the roots hah

Originally Posted by Guirec

I think it's a pretty unique way to look at the Alien of the first film. I always assumed that when Ash said that they couldn't destroy it, he just meant that, given their "weapon" loadout and lack of military training that they had a highly improbable statistical chance of destroying it, equatable to "impossible".

It is probably, first because Ash's words and second cause of the last scene (plasma shower in a vacuum), that the creature becomes indestructible once It reaches Its adult state, and It is only vulnerable at Its first life stages, though It is also believed to be impossible to track and find chestbursters, so..., we are all gonna die man

[Guirec]

I just never thought of it as indestructible. I mean, that grapling gun penetrated the exoskeleton, right?

[Mustafuck]

Originally Posted by Guirec

I just never thought of it as indestructible. I mean, that grapling gun penetrated the exoskeleton, right?

Maybe because the scene requiered that to happen, though It is unlikely It penetrated the exoskeleton. The +5000ºC plasma didn't even make a scratch on Its body, neither make the creature explode nor even disintegrated It, furthermore It still struggled to re-enter the ship with the engine engaged, so It is highly unlikely that some PR piercing bullets or SG ammo can deal with It, even a grapling gun.

They had weapons too, that's what the crew carried when they went to the derelict (lasers, It stillwas the star wars era), though I don't think they could have hurt the alien by any means after what we saw in the plasma scene.

[Guirec]

I totally forgot about those lasers. Why didn't they try to use those in the ship? I think I'd risk depressurization if a xeno was about to give me the ol' double bite.

I don't have any understanding of the physics of superheated plasma in space, but I always got the impression that it was gettin' pretty screwed up by those engines.