Ash Running In Place

...anywho, TO RAVEN: I assume it was a "glitch". Im not for sure but in the second movie Aliens, ripleys dinner with bishop next to her, he mentions that ash's model was a bit twitchy. Bishop explained that he as the new model 57years later is a much upgraded version. So my guess is that Ash just twitches out of glitching reasons. OR maybe he needed a lil friction lol he seemed to be cold. but i didnt think androids whould be touchy to temp.

think it was deliberate mislead by ridley to get us to think he was a normal human having a quick limber up before settling into his console..

In the commentary for the 20th Anniversary DVD release, Ridley says something to the effect that Ian Holm suggested that little frenetic jog and Ridley viewed as a little touch that's meant to suggest something's not quite right about Ash...forgive me if I'm not qouting him exactly, but that's the gist of what he said.

I always thought it was kinda a way of 'maintenancing' himself... Kind of a robot self check kinda thing?? Making sure everything is running correctly.

Maybe this scene is suggesting that Ash is already malfunctioning; at odds with his internal programme of not hurting anyone and to follow company orders. Driven by an illogical order to protect and harvest a dangerous biological organism over a logical need to protect self and the rest of the crew..... Maybe :)