My good friend Vulhala and I were discussing a particular scene unfilmed for Alien, which led to an interesting conversation about that very scene and another this evening. The two scenes, in particular, are the infamous 'sex' scene with Dallas and Ripley and the dead Space Jockey inside a rock known as the 'Rock Formation' scene.
Let's take a look at these scenes:
Sex Scene:
Dallas is seated inside the Narcissus staring outside into the void. Ripley arrives and tells Dallas she needs some relief. Dallas tells her she left it too long, and she begins to remove her clothes. He begins to put his arms around her. This scene was in the Ridley Grams and in the June 1978 Final Draft of the script. Another version of this scene scripted had Ripley and Dallas interrupted by Kane's bloated corpse.
Scene from the 1978 script
The version drawn in the Ridley Grams took place inside an Observation Dome and not inside the Shuttle as scripted. This is as far as this scene ever got. It was never filmed for Principle Photography or made it into any cut of the film. I have spoken to people who say that this scene was filmed, but because it was to 'Raunchy' it had to be cut. This is not true. This scene did make it in front of a camera but not for the feature film but as one of Sigourney Weaver's screen tests. Ray Hassett stepped in for Captain Dallas.
The Rock Formation:
While on the way to Investigate the Alien Transmission on the planet surface Lambert loses the signal source so Kane, Dallas and Lambert take shelter for a moment. When the signal returns the 3 set off out again, as they are doing this, they fail to notice a strange rock formation behind them. Ash is the only one who manages to see it and begins work on the image to clear it up. The image turns out to be a dead Space Jockey. This scene was Storyboarded and in the June 1978 Final Revised Draft.
1979 Topps card
For a long time, some people believed that this scene was filmed and even a 'Mock-up' of this Rock Formation was also made and filmed. In 1979, Topps released a set of Alien Trading cards. One of these cards was entitled 'Grotesque Rock Formation'. Some people believe that this image is, in fact, the image of the so-called Rock Formation scene, and some people believe that it's the Mock-Up of this scene. It isn't. The back of the image is a painted backdrop to make the set look bigger. Below is another example of the set backdrops used on the Planet set.
The Rock formation scene was never filmed and there was no Mock-Up built. Originally, instead of the Space Jockey being inside the Derelict it was to be inside this Rock, in the end, they put the Space Jockey back inside the Derelict and so the 'Rock Formation' scene was scrapped.
