Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds?

Here's a few lines discussing this topic between Ripley and Burke from Aliens. Burke: [Talking about the facehuggers] Look, those two specimens are worth millions to the bio-weapons division. Now, if you're smart, we can both come out of it as heroes and we'll be set up for life. Ripley: You're crazy Burke, you know that? You really think that you can get a dangerous organism like that past ICC quarantine? Burke: How can they impound it if they don't know about it? Ripley: Oh they *will* know about it, Burke. From me. Just like they'll know that you were responsible for the deaths if 158 colonists here. Burke: Wait a second... Ripley: You sent them to that ship. Burke: You're wrong. Ripley: I just checked the colony log. Dated 0-6-1-2-7-9, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn't even warn them. Why didn't you warn them, Burke? Burke: Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody; nobody wins. So I made a decision and it was... wrong. It was a bad call, Ripley, it was a bad call. Ripley: Bad call? [Ripley grabs Burke by his vest, shoves him against a wall] Ripley: These people are *dead *,Burke! Don't you have any idea what you have done here? Well, I'm gonna make sure they nail you right to the wall for this! You're not gonna sleaze your way out of this one! Right to the wall! [Ripley lets go of Burke] Burke: Ripley...! You know, I... I expected more from you. I thought you'd be smarter than this. Ripley: I'm happy to disappoint you.

I could see where someone could argue that Burke had no reason to know anything about the history of LV-426. The problem is still that 57 year gap. What were the Weyland people doing shortly after they lost contact with the Nostromo/Ash via Mother? They HAD to know something major was on LV-426. I dunno, just strikes me as weird.

My guess is this; With events in Prometheus, Weyland know about the planetoid (assuming Prometheus is LV-426)...but perhaps, due to the mission failing, some top brass removed the location from company co-ordinates, but programmed future ships to have a protocol in their system in the unlikely chance a sign from the Prometheus crew/mission shows up. After 30 years, most people except the top-of-the-top even have the remotest idea that this even exists (leading to disbelieve in Ripley's hearing in Aliens). As for the droids and their fascination with the creatures...my theory puts it that they are all programmed in anatomy and serve as science officers with sub-routines that essentially makes them obsessive over ANY new species that is discovered, with guideliness to perhaps see if it can be artificially created, used in bio-warfare (which I think might be a huge part of alien mythos not yet explored in official canon). This would explain both Ash and Bishop's odd behaviour with regards to the face hugger specimen, and of course the Xenomorph itself. In terms of the planet itself, I would assume, since by this point 80+ years have happened since Prometheus, that the terraforming on this planet is just simple human expansion. When they find Ripley, Burke becomes curious to the truth and in turn sends out the Jorden family to the co-ordinates of the derelict and viola...Aliens take place. As for the SOS signal, my guess would be the same as others and putting that the signal either died or its source was destroyed by weather conditions - which would put the incoming colonists at a loss for not having that warning.

1. habitable super-earths are rare, especially if you want them to be close enough to another colony or on a trade route. 2. the sicker explanation is that they were hoping to get a bunch of Alien-Aliens by colonizing the planet and then sending people to get infected.

i think the time-dilation effects of near light travel are perhaps part of the story. ultimately if prometheus is a prequel and it explains why the space jockey ship is derelict on LV-426; then i would expect older, slower technologies (nostrum) will find the remains on LV-426 much much later. I guess James Camerons "aliens" is a bit of a discontinuity in the mythos especially with regards to time travel as it thinks time in the universe works like star-wars... "space opera"? I guess prometheus travels near-light speed; causes the derelict ship; 100's or 1000's of years later the nostrum finds it. all weyland knows is that it sent the prometheus to LV-426...

[quote]i think the time-dilation effects of near light travel are perhaps part of the story. ultimately if prometheus is a prequel and it explains why the space jockey ship is derelict on LV-426; then i would expect older, slower technologies (nostrum) will find the remains on LV-426 much much later. I guess James Camerons "aliens" is a bit of a discontinuity in the mythos especially with regards to time travel as it thinks time in the universe works like star-wars... "space opera"? I guess prometheus travels near-light speed; causes the derelict ship; 100's or 1000's of years later the nostrum finds it. all weyland knows is that it sent the prometheus to LV-426...[/quote] think you need to lay off the coffee and the star trek

Weyland-Yutani: Building Better Worlds Weyland-Yutani: We Guarantee a One Way Ticket. Weyland-Yutani: We'll Get You There. Weyland-Yutani: A Life Altering Career. Weyland-Yutani: It Wasn't Us Weyland-Yutani: Just Don't Eat The Noodles Weyland-Yutani: We'er Always Hiring Weyland-Yutani: Come Fly in Our Creepy Ships Weyland-Yutani: Your Neigbors Will Never Know And the Number One Slogan - Weyland-Yutani: We Make Hilter Look Good

In some of the background material I developed for Lee Brimmicombe Wood to use in the Colonial Marines Technical Manual, Weyland Yutani quietly dropped their plan for getting an Alien after the Nostromo failed to return to Earth, as it would probably open up a can of worms they wanted kept firmly quiet. The project would have been kept to a few individuals within the Company. I also presumed that when Ripley did turn up alive and well, that someone in the Company hierarchy reactivated the project. Making Burke the front man made him the perfect fall guy if it all went belly up again. This was why he transmitted the order on 12 June 2179 to the colony. As for how far the colony was from the ship, it was a number of days travel from Hadley's Hope out past the Ileum Range (mountains probably). The ship was never detected by the colonists as it was to all intents and purposes dead to any sort of sensing equipment. With all the turbulence in the atmosphere, satellites would never have picked it up. Cameron said there had been a volcanic eruption that covered part of the ship. An unused script element had Russ and Annie Jordan finding the SJ chamber and the SJ buried under ash that had got in when the dome at the top of the ship was damaged. The Jordan's must have been rescued fairly quickly probably by some sort of shuttle. Some of the rescue crew also explored the derelict and fell victim to the deadly cargo too.

I think you guys might be missing the point (unless I am). Ripley Clone 8 hit the nail on the head - the company (well, Burke) maybe couldn't be exactly sure what was on LV-426, but knew enough to know they wanted to know more. Hence the colonists were dispatched, essentially as lab rats, and basically the company waited to see if something would happen. --------------- Ripley: You sent them to that ship. Burke: You're wrong. Ripley: I just checked the colony log. Dated 0-6-1-2-7-9, signed Burke, Carter J. You sent them out there and you didn't even warn them. Why didn't you warn them, Burke? Burke: Okay, look. What if that ship didn't even exist, huh? Did you ever think about that? I didn't know! So now, if I went in and made a major security issue out of it, everybody steps in. Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody --------------- The answer to the question of why colonists were sent out there instead of some more heavy duty hombres, I guess is covered by the sentence "Administration steps in, and there are no exclusive rights for anybody". Cameron nicely ties the whole misadventure down to greed. Case closed.