A Question about Ash

Another question I have about Ash is if the Company knew about the derelict spacecraft before or after Thedus, then why would the Company not send their science officer "double agent" (Ash) to investigate the beacon? It's curious why the Captain, First Officer, and Navigator travel out to the derelict. Ash's frustration with the poor video/audio quality from Dallas, Kane, and Lambert also begs the question why he didn't go out with the team? (Don't you just love Lambert's 2-3 clips of "let's get out of here"? - foreshadowing that some serious whoop is coming down) Now, it was obviously Dallas' call and Kane volunteered to go to which Dallas was not surprised. I think the Company (via Mother) would have instructed Dallas to include Ash in the away team. This would ensure that all efforts were made to get a specimen back on-board the Nostromo. I can imagine Ash saying to Dallas, yeah, I'll watch here top-side, why don't you go down into that seriously spooky hole and see what you find...If the Company already knew of the Facehuggers (doubtful), this seems obvious. It all begs the question why Ash didn't go to the derelict. Another guess is that the Company didn't want Ash (their insurance policy) getting injured (attacked by an Alien). Getting a specimen, back on-board the Nostromo, in a more controlled environment would seem logical too. I can't recall any Star Trek episodes where Spock stayed on-board while Kirk and a bunch of Red Shirts travelled to an alien planet?

It's in the Alien novel Snork ;-) and I think Ripley was always a little suspicious of Ash to be honest......... What do I win? :-D

As I suspected, thanks for the help Cypher, that will help greatly with the Alien Revelations (working title) screenplay I'm working on.

No worries buddy, where the heck have you been anyways? :-P

Could there, in fact, have been some sort of interception of the original Science Officer where by his/her food/drink is tampered with inducing the effects of an illness (i.e: Mission: Imossible style in the first film where the drink of the 'Black-Vault' technician is injected with a fluid that makes him sick for a while) then eliminated him/her out of the equation and thus 'causes' Ash to 'conviniently' become their replacement. With it in mind to set about his set of allocated tasks, building upon 'potential 'prior knowledge of what has gone before with regards to the events as yet to be depicted in Prometheus and any other relevant story line that is to follow that also ties in with the Prometheus/Alien concept universe. He sets his actions into motion and we know the rest of Ash's contribution to the debacle.

It says it in the movie too, when Ripley shuts the door on on Dallas,After Kane has been brought back onboard the Nostromo

I Just wanted to know where this idea had come from that Ash joined the crew at the halfway point of the delivery mission. Narratively it doesn't sit right with me and because it was mentioned in the novel it means that its not canon and can thus be changed. Anyways I am changing the question in the OP...

@ Thadus - I don't recall that?!?

When Ripley confronts Dallas in the [i]Nostromo[/i] corridor about allowing Ash to authorize the return of the facehugger for study, Dallas explains to her how the original science officer was replaced before leaving Thedus.

Just checking that...

If I remember rightly the original Science Officer did in fact get sick according to the novel, but the how and why of that wasn't explored at all, probably because it would have been superfluous to the story. I also heard that the novel was being written at the same time the movie was being filmed, thus some parts were left out, I know there's part of a scene where the Alien is in the main airlock, Parker sees it and radios Ripley and Lambert on the bridge to close the hatch and blow it out into space, then a Klaxon goes off (set off by Ash) and the Alien loses part of it's tail (arm? some part of it's anatomy) trying to escape and nearly depressurizes the ship in the process. Part of that was filmed and is on the extras on the Alien DVD box set I have.

Thats what gets me, if he was sick why not take him back with them, wasn't the nostromo heading back home to earth?

At 48:18 into the Theatrical release... Ripley- Did you ever ship out with Ash before? Dallas- I went out five times with another Science officer, they replaced him two days before we left Thedus,with Ash. Ripley- I dont trust him

Goddamnit Thadus 12 is right, bizarre that it was cut out of the 2003 directors cut though, but will have to figure out a way of explaining that one, hmm.

@ Cypher - the novelization was written from the one of the original shooting scripts, but the film went through many re-workings during production, which explains a lot of the discrepencies between the novel and the final film.

Yeah i cant understand why it was cut either?

Probably because they had medical facilities on Thadus, if I were sick I wouldn't wanna spend 2 days waiting to leave, then spend months in hypersleep only to have to wake up and go to hospital as soon as the ship got back to Earth.

A possibility, but I suspect he was replaced to ensure the Specimen got on board, and thus i suspect he was the "Straight Arrow" type - incorruptible and righteous. I'm thinking the company staged something on Thedus that their science officer specialized in, so that they could feasibly get Ash on board to ensure the execution of Special Order 937.

True Snork, and in the novel Ash actually explains that The Company had in fact de-coded the warning signal and that it was "very detailed, frighteningly specific" about the Alien species. Also, Ash describes the Space Jockeys as "a noble race. Hopefully, we will encounter them again under more fortuitous circumstances." And I have no doubt at all The Company had a hand in the events before the Nostomo even left Thadus for Earth.

Well I know that isn't in the film, any version so I can ignore that, well mostly. I have my own theories on the signal, and the nature of the SJ's remains to be seen in Prometheus.

No it WAS scripted in one version but ultimately never filmed as Ridley wanted to keep some mystery about the Space Jockey intact, so yes, you can ignore it ;-) I'm keen on seeing this baby of yours that you're penning, how far along are you?

At the premise stage, but there are certain elements I can't finalise until seeing Prometheus, because it touches upon the SJ's themselves. I will open a thread later with some of what I have come up with.

[i]- He didn't know about the acid for blood, but knew Kane has incubating something. - He also commented on it nature, suggesting he knew more of the adult stage than he did of the Facehugger stage.[/i] who says Ash didnt just lie to the crew untill he got the Xeno definetley under his hands? I think he knew ( better had his orders) and played the game till his time came. Ergo the incident with the acid, he let it happen, also Kanes incubating. He waited til Dallas was dead and his enemy Ripley got behind his secret orders of Muthar, then he had to kill her and the rest of the crew ( as the crew later proposed themselfes after killing Ash )

That's nothing, what is even better, that is missing, is the conversation between Ripley and Lambert. Ripley asks Lambert if she ever had sex with Ash, and she responded with no, and it never seemed to Lambert that he was interested in her or women in general.