GuestApril 09, 20121) That's CANON not CANNON
otherwise, I think you're right - the hive insect/queen idea was Cameron's, as far as I know, so why should Ridley follow it? Plus there is the life cycle as shown in Alien with cocoons, sans queen. Scientifically, there is absolutely no contradiction between the two reproductive strategies - many actual animals do it, switching strategies depending on the current environmental conditions. Female Komodo Dragons normally reproduce sexually, but virgin female dragons in zoos sometimes give virgin bitrth to a whole litter of baby dragons -all male. When a certain beetle finds an extra-abundant source of food, it will start producing embryos all within its body, and the embryos (here clones of mother beetle) proceed to entirely devour the mother beetle while growing. And then, there is a type of parasitic wasp (one of the inspirations for the xeno life cycle, with Kane in lieu of a catrepillar). There is another wasp that bites a ladybug to lay its eggs. It actually floods the ladybug's system with retroviruses that incorporate into ladybug DNA and make the ladybug aggressively defend the wasp eggs and larvae till they eat it. Now how f...ed up is that? Alien stuff is actually pretty mild when compared to some things from real biology. Or to put it more succinctly, Mother Nature is such a bitch it makes the Alien Queen look like Kim Kardashian.
