Alien Queen Theory

No one actually knows for sure Newt, trust me, I wish we did :-P The Queen was Cameron's idea, I'm sure O'Bannon and Ridley and Giger had other ideas about where the eggs came from..............................

^What he said. Giger actually liked the Queen design though.

I can't answer your question, but the easiest way I can imagine where the queen came from is this: Many species of amphibian and some insects are known to change sex when they are in a single-sex environment. Yes, that's almost word-for-word the same quote from Jurassic Park, but it is also true. If the eggs on the derelict were genetically grown, then a queen could very well be "engineered" into the life cycle as well. A bio-weapon is useless if it only survives one generation.

This is MY take based on all I have seen and read: A facehugger can lay drone egg -or- a queen egg just like two humans can create a male (drone) or female (queen). Some say that temperature can play a role, some say that sperm of one sex may swim faster than the other, and some just say it comes down to pure luck (however, in the animal kingdom, temperature DOES sometimes play a role in the sex of the offspring). But in regards to the xeno, a facehugger will create a queen egg/chestburster in the absence of an established queen over the immediate "lair". This is why Ripley's chestburster in Alien3 was a queen and took far longer to gestate than a drone. Had it been a drone, it would have been in the escape pod welcoming the inhabitants of FIORINA 161 right away. Fortunately, there was the second face-hugger on board that got the dog creating the unique quadruped alien. One might ask, however, why wasn't Kane's chestburster a queen given the above explanation? There is no logical explanation, but in reality the queen hadn't been invented by the writers, however, the method of turning their prey into eggs had, but removed due to pacing concerns (thank-fully so because it also would have created problems for the writers of Aliens and their queen). So what happened in Aliens? To reiterate, this is MY OPINION based on film evidence (and filling in the blanks): -Newts father goes to the derelict and gets facehugged -He is taken back to Hadley's Hope where the events of Kane's experience are replayed, however..... -This time, the chestburster is a queen -That creates her hive, grabs more victims in the gooey stuff, lays eggs to create a lot of drones -And their you have it. The Queen in Alien was created by Newt's father's facehugger because no queen was in the vicinity and this is simply the nature of their biology (just like with honey-bees).

@Aint: But that might be just it. Again, with the gender swapping in an attempt to continue with the procreation of the species. I actually think the queen wasnt engineered, as a precaution to prevent unauthorized breeding between the aliens. To introduce a queen would equal mass chaos, possibly killing everything, Jockeys included. But to quote Jurassic Park again, "Life finds a way."

One issue i always wanted to know is what happened to the chest burster on the Space Jockey? How big was that Xeno? and what part of the ship did it curl up in and die?

Big Bad Momma! I like the theories in the thread on the queen, perhaps it's just the order the xenos are produced in? Is it safe to assume that the Alien in Alien was a drone?

@Freeze him; That is what people say. It's pretty amazing looking at all the different types of Xenos that came about after the "Aliens" movie. @Mostly; That is the EXACT question people hope Prometheus will answer.

Aren't all the xenomorph's female?? I heard awhile ago that Giger mentioned that previously. Nevertheless, we can all agree that at least the facehugger could be regarded as a male

@Mostly: If we recall how incredibly THICK the SJ's ribcage was, we can surmise that it took an extra strong chestburster to burst out...quite possibly an Alien Queen. She could've died before the Nostromo came but who knows. Such a scenario wouldn't surprise me at all.

Yes I see the xeno as a big one. Just what did it do with it self? No one to terrorize, no one to chase......or a thought, it may be all those eggs we see in the chamber were not all pre loaded, Could have been keeping her self busy laying a few eggs herself.

OH, another thing. Xenos only like a day or so. They have a very fast lifecycle.

I think xenos live a little longer than that. It took the colonial marines a while to get lv426 and they had more than a few alive and kicking when they got there.

@Svanya: I know they grow fast but do we really have canon on how long xenos actually live once fully grown? And the Queen might have a longer life cycle than her drones.

I think I got you all trumped. Maybe its lifecycle is dramatically altered just as the xeno takes on traits from the host. We can all assume that Shaw would've "given birth" to Cuddles. But what we know about the lifecycle of the Jockeys is next to nothing.....with the Derelict ship crashing, one of the Jockeys will then become a host. So many variables, all of which make me very excited.

Good thinking, Egg. I especially love your use of the word, "Cuddles." lol..

Here is a thought to chew on. I can not wrap my mind around a lose face hugger infecting the SJ. They are a great fit for a human face, not so much for a SJ with a mask or helmet on. so was the SJ infected on purpose? Did he set it the ship down on the planet as a sacrifice? And if so, did the xeno that emerged lay those eggs in that chamber?

@Mostly: actually, the snorkel is more of a nose. I recall the SJ having an frozen, open mouth, just perfect for Cuddles.

@ Newt; Hmm, good question Newt. I know I read somewhere that they only live 48 hours. It was some weird detail in one of the novels. I remember in the Alien novel, Ripley found a food locker that was raided by the Xeno and all sorts of weird stuff was consumed, like batteries. @Mostly; Maybe a Cobra-Hugger or whatever they call it, (ala Milburn) did it to the SJ... O_o

@Mostly: The jockey is still humanoid though. Someone did a close up of the Prometheus trailer and they had a picture of the jockey without a suit on, he looks quite human. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120328032232/avp/images/c/c3/Man-in-jockey-room.jpg