Why the human element?

one word - reliability... what if they malfunctioned, think of how many probes to mars have failed/crashed

you are spot on, however humans, and our emotional 'nonsense' are hardly the most reliable of creatures either, lol. I mean what if Vickers fell in love with a guy back on Earth, such as Spartacus, through some long lost sub space transmission(it could happen) and decided she didn't want to bring anything so inherently destructive back to Earth to protect her man? Weyland would be then up xeno creek without a paddle, lol

then they would just have to kidnap sparky and threaten to pull out his nasal hairs with a spoon to force her to do their bidding

they'd have to use a TARDIS in order to do that, lol Still, I bet Sparky wouldn't mind a little discomfort for his beloved, lolol

Why? because it's a story FOR humans to buy, it must have some humans in it to appeal to humans :) in alien the android is the company agent, in aliens it's burke, in this it's Vickers ? also even though 'the company' is big,all powerful etc remember it will have it's own power structure, rivalry, internal politics.. it won't be a single coherent object.

@ centurian slug [img]http://www.omfgod.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/double-facepalm.jpg[/img]

LMFAO Well er 'imaged' Snorkel

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/LT.HIGHTIMES/frustrate1.gif[/img] [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/LT.HIGHTIMES/1a1cof.jpg[/img]

@ centaurian slug A movie, book, or any story does not need humans to be appealing.

If my company went to look for the origins of humanity, I'd be damn sure to send at least one human to take the credit. Sending only androids in to deep space on a long, potentially dangerous journey makes practical sense. But I'd want at least one representative of mankind to participate and share in the glory of whatever was discovered.

No Humans, no drama = no movie.

@RSAND, Thankyou, yes, a film without characters makes very little sense. and if they were just company drones, there would be no drama, So, yes, that is why we have the company sending humans.. - IT WOULD BE A SHIT FILM OTHERWISE :)

@RSAND,

I was speaking in general. Stories do not need humans to have drama. Other races are perfectly capable of that. This universe in particular, the Alien universe, does need humans in the movies, or else there would not be much to it.

there are many reasons for having humans, like people have said and some not to, but i think that they have humans (in addition to all others mentioned) is that they serve as embasadors, ok yes you could have androids do it, but they don't really make good embasador material. (this is just a brief explanation, there can be other explanations to this)

ok you can have films where you anthropomorphize animals, machines, aliens to make drama (instead of having realistic ones.. which would make for crap films) but this film is about body horror and sci-fi human origins ... and an alien civilization contrasting with human civilization.. it needs humans for us to feel for.

isn't it obvious? why do we still use human labor when machines can do just as well? first-money. we have no understanding of how expensive these androids are, in actuality. they may be custom built for space exploration and in limited supply. second-specialization. an android isn't perfect. some things require a human's touch, despite the inherent flaws. third-expendability. borrowing a theme from blade runner, human life may become just as expendable as a droid, especially to the corporations.

First and foremost, the audience needs to empathise with characters in order to connect with the film. We will not empathise with androids. Secondly, for diplomatic reasons, you must send a human team to uncover human history. You don't send a robot to your own reunion with long-lost daddy. Thirdly, and slightly more speculatively, humans may be much cheaper and plentiful than state-of-the-art android technology.