Alien Queen Theory

@Svanya, yummy batteries! I too was thinking maybe our Cobra could have more of an involvement in Prometheus other than Milburn, surely it must

I like the Queen, but initially I think Ridley Scott a different life cycle in which the alien is a hermaphrodite. Then the monster enveloped in cocoons its victims to turn them into eggs. [img]http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg561/spacejockey1/imagesCA365MOP.jpg[/img] But on the other hand I would like to see a giant chestburster chest out of the Space Jockey, as this fan art [img]http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg561/spacejockey1/Snake_Alien_by_ReBeLKiMy.jpg[/img] And in the event that Prometheus does not happen, anyway I'll enjoy this movie because I trust that Scott has created something new.

I own the original [i]Alien[/i] book too and from my memory it was either the facehugger or the chestburster form that had the 48 hour limit [u]before[/u] it became fully adult. I'll have to dig out the book to see if the 48 hour timespan applied to the adult xeno.

Here is the deleted scene, which I find totally disgusting and possibly the scariest aspect of the movie. [url=http://youtu.be/dS5MtzrW1vU]ALIEN, DELETED COCOON SCENE[/url]

I agree, in fact I can never understand why it was removed, IMO they should remove another scene, and that scene is certainly one of the most disturbing.

Supposedly they removed it because it slowed down the ever increasing intensity of Ripley's "gotta-get-outta-here-b4-countdown-ends" situation. She had to keep moving to avoid being detonation (and Alien) fodder.

The way I see it is this... In Alien the Drone had no access to a Queen, and therefore used Brett to create an egg that wound incubate a Royal Facehugger (as seen in the assembly cut of Alien 3), with Dallas as the host for the Queen from that oyal Facehugger. In Aliens once there was enough Warriors (maybe half a dozen or so), they selected a colonist to be host to a Royal Facehugger within the Derelict. At the end of Aliens I suspect the Queen was aware of her broods approaching doom and "somehow" carried two Facehuggers (one normal and one Royal) with her before pursuing Ripley, knowing that one of the human survivors would become host to another Queen, ensuring the survival of the species, as it was in Alien 3. Here is an exert from an Alien Mythology I have written... [i]Originally, the hierarchy of the Xenomorph was composed of infertile (Warriors) and fertile females (Queens). Directly implanted into hosts by immature fertile females (Princesses), infertile females, once matured, constructed a hive using secretions from their mouths, faeces and the remains of exhausted hosts. Once the hive was complete and securely guarded by the infertile females the immature fertile female would cocoon her in resin and develop into her mature form. Fully-grown the fertile female laid eggs from an ovipositor, each egg incubating an embryo-carrying parasite (Facehugger/Royal Facehugger). After many generations of extracting genetic information from hosts, the Xenomorph evolved, introducing the male Y chromosome into the genome of the embryo of the infertile females giving rise to the more aggressive infertile males (Drones).[/i]

A little late to the party, but nevertheless, I have a theory (two main ones actually) about how the Queen in ALIENS (and the next two films) came to be. (This is a long post, much longer than intended. Please bear with me.) THEORY ONE. Suppose the chestburster from the Space Jocky in the first film was a Queen, the FIRST Queen. Ignoring the whole molting theory, she existed solely because she was born of the SJ, and therefore was drastically different from human-born Xenos; in size, shape, IQ, and the ability to lay eggs to perpetuate the species. Suppose that she didn't die off, and instead all this time from when the Derelict first crash-landed, she had been keeping herself busy, laying all those eggs in the chamber where Kane first discovered them. The Queen's absence from the first film would be easily explained - after laying hundreds of eggs in that chamber, she relocated to another portion of the ship and either laid more eggs in a less crowded area, and/or simply went into hibernation once she realized there were no hosts present for impregnation. (Assume the presence of Dallas, Lambert, and Kane and the subsequent impregnation of Kane were not enough to wake the Queen.) - OR, none of those eggs in the Derelict are hers, at least not the ones Kane discovers. Just bioweapons created by the Space Jockies. Or no...- Fast forward to when LV-426 first became a human colony. They knew nothing of the Derelict or the Queen and her dormant brood within, but their very presence was enough to wake the Queen. She could sense them. There are many theories as to how Aliens perceive their surroundings. One of which is they can sense an organism's bioelectric field. So, get enough magnets in one location, and their collective magnetic field is strong enough to attract a distant magnet. Another theory is that Xenos sense prey/threats and each other via pheromones. The more concentrated pheromones are in the area, the stronger the “scent”. Apply either principle to the new colony on LV-426, and the Queen is thusly awakened. Next, when Newt's father is impregnated in the Derelict, he's brought back to the colony by his family and probably received the same treatment Kane in the first film received. So, pop goes the weasel and a new Xeno is born. Assuming her motherly instincts are keen, this may have been enough to wake the Queen. She finds her way out of the Derelict, possibly carrying a few or several eggs with her (though I doubt it mostly because she would look utterly ridiculous making the trip to Hadley's Hope waddling with armfuls of eggs). So possibly she just found her way out of the Derelict and made her way to Hadley's Hope and reunited with her first Drone there. With her eggs in tow, or probably after laying a new batch, her hive was up and running as seen in ALIENS. Now to explain the origins of the Queen fetus growing in Ripley in ALIEN3... Given that the first Queen originated from the Space Jocky in ALIEN and thusly enabled the species to perpetuate itself, all subsequent Xenos are directly descended from her. NOT the original eggs found in the Derelict, which came from somewhere else (possibly bioweapons created by the Space Jockies, as per current popular belief - I have my own theory on this as well, but that's for later). As for the new Queen in Ripley, it was either deposited there from the supposed "super facehugger" as it was originally meant to be in the film, or better yet, a regular facehugger deposited a regular Xeno that changed into a Queen fetus possibly as a byproduct of Ripley going into hypersleep aboard the Sulaco at the end of ALIENS. The hypersleep put the fetus into hibernation, which could have triggered genes in the Xeno fetus's DNA to grow into a Queen fetus. Another theory is that the fetus changed into a Queen fetus simply because it sensed that there was no Queen around after the first one was blown out into space. Basically, while there is a Queen alive and well close by, either leading or establishing a hive, then no other Queen can be born. When/if something happens to the reigning Queen and she dies, the next available fetus in a host (or facehugger), develops into a new Queen. Now, since the first Xeno in ALIEN originated from the eggs in the Derelict chamber, this theory could still work. That Xeno in the first film died off, and thusly that original strain (keeping in context with the idea that it forms new eggs from the biomass of captured victims to perpetuate the species, as opposed to a Queen Xeno), died off along with it when it was blown out into space. Remember how I stated that all subsequent Xenos are directly descended from the first Queen on LV-426. Thusly a new strain of Xeno evolved, if you will, apart from the eggs contained within the Derelict. As for ALIEN RESURRECTION, 200 years after ALIEN3, Ripley was simply cloned along with the Queen fetus inside her. Done. I have a feeling much of this first theory is going to be disproved once PROMETHEUS comes out. :P THEORY TWO. (Don't worry, this one's much shorter and to the point. Parts of which, many might be familiar with.) This theory is based on the idea that Xenos molt into more advanced stages in their lives, much like how a chestburster molts into an adult Xeno. In this version, any Xeno could theoretically molt all the way up to being a Queen, under the right circumstances. First of all, the chestburster born from the Space Jocky in ALIEN remains a mystery (until PROMETHEUS)... Instead, let’s say that the Xeno born from Kane was simply a young Xeno and the first stage in the adult Xeno's life - the Drone. Next, in ALIENS, the Xenos here are much older, by weeks or months. Unlike the first Xeno in ALIEN, it's abundantly clear that these ones are much different. They lack the classic smooth dome of that first Xeno. It's possible that at the early stage of their adult lives, they had a smooth domed head, but shed it as they matured into the second stage in the adult Xeno's life - the Warrior. This theory is backed up by the smooth domed head of the Dog/Ox Xeno in ALIEN3, which was also young like the original Xeno in ALIEN. The same can be said for ALIEN RESURECTION and even the recent (and I must admit tasteless and probably non canon) AVP and AVP-R films. Smooth domes in AVP, what with the Xenos in that film being less than a day old. Ridged heads in AVP-R, with those Xenos being probably a few days to maybe a week old. In the video games based on Xenos and AVP, there is another stage in the adult Xeno's life - the Praetorian. I realize this is also probably non canon, but I think it could be. They serve as the elite guard of the Queen, and hold the highest rank in the hive second only to the Queen. It can be said that they're either young Queens (Princesses, lol) serving the reigning Queen until a subsequent hives can be established, or they're just older Warriors that either molted up to their size and stature (either on their own or with the help of "royal jelly"), but are NOT young Queens at all, since the reigning Queen is still alive and kicking. If the first idea was the case, than my first theory is well and truly sunk. (There are many, many other non-canon Xeno forms that are just utterly stupid. I’m not even going to mention them here.) Finally, a Xenomorph could molt from a Warrior (or Praetorian, depending what you may consider canon or not) to a Queen much in the same way as how I theorized the fetus Queen's existence. When/if something happens to the reigning Queen, a regular Xeno of appropriate age/stage will start to molt into a new Queen. How this process occurs, I'm not quite sure. Possibly the molting Xeno cocoons itself much like a caterpillar does. After some time (given how fast they mature, I'd say no more than a few days to a week), a new Queen is formed. Perhaps a combination of this and the fetus idea could coexist... Whichever occurs just depends on what the situation dictates. I think that both theories can stand on their own, or perhaps a third theory consisting of a combination of the two could work... Anyway... So there you have it: the Queen from ALIENS, ALIEN3, and ALIEN RESURECTION, explained in two theories. Without ruining the original concept for the first Xenomorph (and strain) of ALIEN! This is the best I've been able to come up with, and makes the most sense to me. I didn't mean to Drone (lol) on and on like this, but I've never been able to organize all my thoughts about the topic like this before. Hope I did more good than harm...

"The Alien from the Space Jockey was a Queen and laid all those eggs in the egg chamber" is a common theory that is thrown around, but there are problems with that theory. - Where did the Facehugger come? - Why are the eggs so organised in the chamber? - Why are the eggs only found under the blue laser-mist? - Where was the Queen in Alien? Viewing the eggs as cargo with the Derelict makes more sense and only leaves one question. - Where is the Space Jockey born Alien? Which can be answered in many, many ways - Its somewhere else aboard the Derelict, on the Planetoid (Dead, Hibernating or in Stasis) or it has been disposed of by either the Jockey, the Derelict or a third party (previous Human crew, maybe).

@SimonSays: I too believe that the Derelict eggs were originally 'controlled' by the SJ, but somehow one facehugger managed to slip out of the 'blue mist' (containment?) field and adios, Space Jockey. This hopefully is the question [i]Prometheus[/i] will answer. Bottom line, I posit that one of [i]Prometheus[/i]'s main memes will be the folly of trying to control Nature by engineering Nature. In the end, Nature will turn around and bite our arrogant asses. @SimonSays: Do you have a larger image of your avatar somewhere? I wanna see what your xeno is doing. Great lookin' avi!

In response to the original question: THe origin of the xenomorphs is sketchy at best. We know they have a home planet for example but not where. We see results of their infestation but never the process. And we know there is at least one queen on this planet, due to their hive structure it is likely that there is only one queen but due to the fact that with maturity they become larger and more powerful (provided they have the rare hierarch genes) it is likely she is unlike anything ever witnessed, immensly powerful and incredibly massive. The aliens have a basic form, their traits and body structure changes with hosts but they retain most of their own species traits. Minus of course the abomonation created by the queen in Alien: Ressurection but that was only possible because the dominant blood in the mix was Ripley's not the queen's. (all the aliens in that movie were cloned from her infected DNA) In AVP 'Reqeium' (bad spelling) the predalien abomonation was from an infected predator so the Alien Dna was still dominant but with noticable differences. So back to the question, yes the queen was around before the ship crashed. The SJ'S likely captured multiple aliens and isolated them from their queen in space. Without their queens guidance they would breakdown, feeling the loss as seen in some of the video games. However if any of the captured aliens posssessed the rare genes that allow for metamorphosis then the strongest of those would begin the process. The SJ's would have then disposed of the others and secured the soon to be preatorian so it could morph again and become a queen. The movie will likely explain what happened next if not this whole process. Hope this satisfies the insatiable.

(they would have had to settle for normal xenomophs because any attempt to capture their queen on their own planet would have been near impossible unless they had access to an entire army of hunters and even then...)

My guess is that there had to be a Queen or at least other drones about sometime, somewhere in the Derelict because only that would explain the "hive" architecture added to the Derelict's walls. When you see the Nostromo crew first poking around the Derelict's innards, there is obvious "hive-itecture" that is not part of the original ship. The reason I think a Queen may have existed is that even though the drone Alien managed to start a cocooning area in the Nostromo, it is messy and unstructured compared to the very well built up hive-walls found both in the Derelict and in the movie [i]Aliens.[/i] It takes both a Queen and a well established brood to create such things.

In other words, TWO queens involved here, timeline. The SJ's captured a nest guardian or preatorian. Let it evolve to lay eggs. (my first reply explains why) SJ's likely destroy queen. (too much liability) SJ's end up on LV426. Humans end up on LV426. Outbreak. New hive. Now there is a period I can't explain because what happened from outbreak to Nostromo won't be know till Prometheus is out.

Sorry it's taken so long for a response (really busy) good observations, you will also notice however the SJ manning one of the ships cannons is brandishing an ejection sight on his/her chest. This is because there is an outbreak on the ship (likely the humans fault, we are almost never cautious of other species let alone respectful) so like I said, the movie is meant specifically to answer this question and a few others (plus to be badass) so as I said I would assume the jockeys were smart enough (their still functional motion sensors and artificial environment controls abord ship in the egg chamber prove their cation and knowledge... The mist is part of these environment simulators) to vent the queen after the eggs were layed... Dormant egg vs live queen... You get the idea. But somewhere somehow likely due to human involvement there was an outbreak and the rest is history. Hope it helps.