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@Michelle Johnston

You bring up a really good point about Vickers going along with things too easily and not deviating from the straightforward path enough. That's what I'm hoping they can avoid with Daniels' character.

There might need to be an explanation for why Daniels chooses to continue following the company's orders in the beginning and then doesn't in the end. When the executive orders come in, she might weigh the potential risks and associated benefits. Normally, when risk is determined, the numbers are put through the company's complicated cost-benefit analysis algorithms.  But Daniels often relies on her own senses and her "gut feelings" to assess the levels of risk.

It does seem like what's needed is a fresh perspective on the inner workings of the company, so this might be a way to shake up the formula a bit more.  Daniels may have had "dealings" with the heads of the company in the past, yet it's mostly because she's good at her job and became a valuable asset to the company. She won't sabotage the mission covertly like Miss Vickers did.  If she decides to sabotage it, it'll be more overtly.

The crew that Miss Vickers hired for the Prometheus mission was almost destined to fail, while the security officers on that mission may be the ones that Mr. Weyland hired personally..  He considered not answering Shaw's calls initially, because the company wasn't sure they needed her.  They only really needed Shaw for her star map. But now the company doesn't really need her.

The security training affords Daniels and the other David crowd control and hostage negotiation skills. She'd be pretty good at performing reconnaissance too, so she can gather and provide intel along the way. The company really wouldn't know much about the creatures at this point; they're still investigating the larger creatures. With that in mind, Daniels hits the ground running, and while the other colonists are busy laying the foundations for the colony, she sneaks off alone to secure the perimeter of the development zone. Then she hits the gas on a rover and drives out to perform initial recon on the Engineer ruins.  There's a lot of ground to cover, thus she chooses to move quickly and with a purpose.

Unlike Miss Shaw, Daniels would carry a weapon with her. It's much like the weapon Shaw told a security guard not to take with him. In the end, when everyone's dying, it's safer to have some sort of weapon. 

As part of WY's security team on the mission, she'd have some authority (like Ripley), but not as much power to change things as someone like Vickers.

If we run with the idea that David views it as his journey, then she needs to challenge the David. So, at certain points in the story, her hostage negotiation skills kick in and she plays both a good and evil role while trying to figure out a way to "deal with" the rogue android in possession of the potential bioweapons.

Most of the crew members might know each other from previous missions: whereas, Daniels would be added to the crew at the last minute as an additional security officer… She's almost an outside observer and an insider at the same time. Her presence doesn’t immediately raise alarms with the crew.

She'd feel that it's important to introduce herself to the colonists that are under her watch, so she uses the time after waking up from hypersleep to introduce herself to as many of the crew members as possible..

While downing a couple cups of coffee during breakfast/introductions (and sizing the colonists up), she realizes that she does actually know one of the crew members. Unfortunately, it's Danny McBride's character, who she's had the displeasure of meeting before. McBride's character would be someone with a long history of not listening to the security officers; there's been issues with this particular colonist in the past. His file lists all the times he's acted irresponsibly on the job, but his nature as a wildcard means he may actually be an asset when the plan goes sideways and calls for more out of the box thinking:  he has survival instincts.

Interesting ideas.... and i am sure as time goes on we would get more clues...

But im drawn to just as the Synopsis Suggests..  that what we are seeing here is a Exploration Mission where the crew are primarily Colonists who are off to a Distant world that could be inhabited by Mankind with little or no Tera-forming and so they would not be in the know as far as what is going on.

But they soon do, as things start to turn bad.... i think David has a Agenda and God Complex and will be the Primary Antagonist.

I do also think the Company know a bit more than the Crew Do, but only maybe one Crew member may know about anything related to the Prometheus Mission etc.

I think David 8 will be the  Antagonist but not quite in as Malevolent way but i think another Antagonist will be on the Covenant and may be the Character who has inside information and knows the True Agenda of that mission  (Think Ash in Alien, Burke from Aliens, and Michael Bishop in Alien 3).

And i think this kind of role is what either Billy Crudup or Demián Bichir Characters will play.

"The idea that the Engineers stole the fire is audacious as opposed to misusing the catalytic life generator ?"

Yes to a degree... i think our Engineers played merely a role in the greater Agenda of those above them in the Hierarchy.

They had a role to play, and they could use the Fire/Tool of the Gods.....

But some of them rebelled against the idea of being Pawns and they chose to use the Fire/Tool for their own Agenda.... to use it in ways that their Hierarchy did not intend.

@BD and Caryn all points noted and entirely probable.

I just took another look at Ridleys observations from the autumn of last year onwards and he talks about Paradise Lost the poem and Adam and Eve which made me think of Caryn's remark Eve = Shaw.

He also mentions we get the Covenant crew at the beginning of the first act.

Taking those two things together I am wondering if we do discover the ten year back story as the film progresses and it includes :-

1) The fallen angels of paradise lost.

2) A big idea David.

3) The misuse of Shaw as the kick starter to create the Zeno life cycle which curiously ends up with a bio-mechanicoid creature where the pathogen has re organised the host DNA which includes in the chain Davids mechanistic DNA which may have been adjusted en route as part of the big idea. That maybe a little bit of  a preoccupation with me because when I saw David with the goo in the Prom trailers I was convinced he became a Zeno.     

@BD Fifield you have been talking about the designs I think a more elegant "we love to admire the Zeno but realise its appalling amorality" outcome would have been much better threading. Pathogen mixed with a human will lead to a zeno so why not show an early form of that more clearly.

@Michelle

The Adam & Eve ideas Ridley brought up seem important to the whole series in a thematic way. You're absolutely right that I've tried to work the Garden of Eden myth into my theory, with the android acting as Lucifer and trying to tempt Daniels into disobeying orders.

What Chris mentioned in his thread about the Aliens possibly requiring certain female reproductive genes/traits forms a HUGE part of my thesis. However, males also possess the X chromosome; therefore, the creature might be able to extract what it needs from mankind's ribs (let's call them "Adam's ribs"), if it bursts through a male set of ribs like Kane's son did.

@BigDave

I'm thinking maybe the first act of the story would come from a place of not knowing.  The other main characters would all assume that it's a run-of-the-mill colony construction job on a fertile world, and we'd be let in on the process of terraforming/colony building. Which may actually tie into the big picture, in a way.

The establishment of the colony would be thematic and symbolic.  Officer Daniels would spend time overseeing the actual construction of the colony in the beginning - tending to colonists' concerns and helping around the colony (before sneaking off to the Engineer ruins a fair distance away). Just to show the true scope/scale of the mission and size of the crew. The other David wouldn't really possess freewill or have a choice in whether or not to follow company orders.  Ideas about hierarchy, rebellion, and the hegemony could come into play.  

I think we'll see power dynamics and status differences emerging between colonists, which would almost be mirrored by Engineer culture/society. Sadly, David may have already brought Hell down upon the remaining Engineers by this point; Hell on Earth can be avoided if Daniels manages to deal with the rogue android who claimed the Engineer throne and possesses the Fire.

The colonists would be able to farm and garden on the planet, since it isn't covered in desert terrain (there is nothing in the desert). It's not a barren space rock like LV-426, so it won't be a shake 'N bake colony. The seismic activity (shake) in the region is stable, and the climate/temperature does make it a veritable Paradise. So, in this case, it would be a larger colony with no planetary heating required (or "bake"). The planet has indigenous plant life, and the oxygen levels are suitable for human life. Plus, there's plenty of natural resources in the area.  It's a perfect place to build a settlement. But it's still a huge coincidence that they stumbled upon the planet that David is on.  I don't think it's a coincidence...

@fengiddel64, in regards to the OP:

The Covenant name could be symbolic of many different things.  It might represent a potential deal with the gods as well as the merger between the megacorps. It's possible that the company looks at all the symbols in multiple ways.  The names Nostromo and Sulaco are from a 1904 novel by Joseph Conrad, entitled Nostromo; they may hold certain meanings to Ridley.  Sulaco is a mining town within the novel, so the names of those two ships come from a story that the company likes. The company chooses another Greek mythological figure for the Narcissus escape vessel.    LV-426 is called Archeron: a river of the Underworld... 

Some interesting responses.

Its maybe to much of a coincidence that they arrive at the same place that David is on, but the Franchise has had a number of coincidental plot elements in the past.

A lot depends on the time frame of the movie and distance between Earth and Paradise and also why and what time did the Weyland-Yutani Merge....

While we may not be shown on screen... how many years would the company wait before sending a mission to find out what became of Prometheus, would Shaws SOS eventually be picked up by a ship located between Earth and 39LY away. If this is so then what would the company do about it?

Or can the company not function without its TWO CEO's?  But then what company puts all its Eggs in One Basket? Surely there would have been a contingency plan should the worst happen. 

How long after not hearing nothing off Vickers would the company operate as normal for before its passed onto someone else?

Also we know the movie is set 10 years latter, this we have to assume is when the Covenant Ship and crew arrive at which ever World that they find David.

The Big Questions we dont have answers for yet are.

*How many years has David been there for before the Covenant arrive?  1 year? 2? 5? 8?

*How far away is this World, and how long would it take the Covenant to arrive... LV-223/426 Took Prometheus 2 years, Nostramo would have taken 10 Months, Sulaco was it 7 weeks? This shows a increase in Speeds as time progresses (Technological Gains) but we have to assume a Engineer Ship would be superior

*Depend on these Two Above, it would then lead us to wonder how long before David left LV-223 did they really leave at the end of Prometheus.. or was this scene actually days, weeks, months after Shaws SOS? If they did leave at the time after she made her SOS, then did David go right to Paradise?

"That maybe a little bit of  a preoccupation with me because when I saw David with the goo in the Prom trailers I was convinced he became a Zeno."

I was drawn to a similar conclusion, based off seeing the Engineer over Shaw in the one shot and well i thought that does not look very tall, maybe it could be David... Maybe David has evolved himself like Pinocchio and now is Part Machine, Part Flesh and Ultimately Shaws Baby Squid Face Hugs him and he becomes the Space Jockey and gives birth to the Xenomorph and this is where the Bio-Mechanical Nature came from.

But there was a few things i never liked about that theory, including the size of the Space Jockey but more so the time frame as i always felt the Space Jockey had been on LV-426 for a very very long time.

But there is no reason they cant go a similar route as above for Alien Covenant... however i hope they dont unless some kind of Time Travel happens and provided its done in a interesting ONE OFF way.

@BD

"Its maybe to much of a coincidence that they arrive at the same place that David is on, but the Franchise has had a number of coincidental plot elements in the past".

Benjamin Rigby has said there is a fluid movement between Prom and Covenant. John Logan the final honing scriptwriter has form in "Spectre" for providing linkage indeed lineage beyond the needs of mere plausible plot making.

Does David wish to remain alone on Paradise with what he has found/created. He may in a number of ways drawn the newly merged company to Paradise. They know its "Paradise". How ? 

The setting out element of why, where and who of Covenant has certainly got me intrigued.!

Indeed and i think this is one of the Mystery Things, as when the Synopsis confirms a Colony Ship and Crew and Uncharted Paradise, to me this points to them arriving at a world that has been surveyed as potential for Habitation a Earth Like World which would be like a Jewel in the desert that is Space.

I dont think the crew was expecting Paradise as in "cant wait to land at the Homeworld of the Gods"  i dont think most of the crew are aware of the Paradise David and Shaw were off to.

Maybe this is pure coincidence that they arrive at the same place?  I wondered as much until we find the Covenant Space Suit Badge, which has Weyland-Yutani which means the Covenant Crew would have set off after the events of Prometheus.

But how much do they know?  I doubt they would know the Horrors of Prometheus and LV-223 or had been there or even Shaws SOS.

If they knew of the SOS, and Shaw and David from Prometheus Mission left it, and they are inbound to where they are now... (Paradise) i think they would be cautious and at very least would want to know whats happened to Shaw.... how can David cover this up...

So i still assume the most of the crew are not aware, but we cant rule the Company out of knowing.

Maybe David contacted the company and said he has found Paradise, and how much information he has passed on is unknown... and maybe the Company sends out a Colonist Mission where the Colony Crew think they are off to explore a Earth like Uncharted World..... without really knowing what they are really in for..

Maybe they know a Weyland Android has been there before and informed the company he has found a Paradise? who knows.

The Synopsis does point me to the Covenant Crew either

1) Expecting to Find David and Shaw but only David is there, which would raise them Questions, especially if they knew of Shaws SOS which they may not.

2) They was expecting to find no one... but then are surprised to find David.

i dont think that are expecting or know this place is the would be Home of the Gods who created Life on Earth, be that a Homeworld that has Gods on it, or that had in the past.

So another big question that we may not get answers is how long has David been on Paradise and what state was Paradise in when he arrived.... i.e No Engineers or other beings, or just a few or even ONE and what has became of them between then and when the Covenant arrives.

The previous Plot, hinted at finding beings, who were not Benevolent at all, which does not bold well for David and Shaw, but David had that Cargo of Hell with him.

The source that i had information on, touched up vaguely more detail than that but we cant know if this is true... but his claims was they find some beings, but they dont find the Good Guys, but a Evil Faction of them and that there was some kind of Rebellion on Paradise.

Shaw gets some answers but they are not what she was hopping for and that her beliefs about the Agenda behind Creation is nothing like the True Horror that is behind it.

Hinted that David sees himself as far superior and wants to play God, and tricks Shaw and the beings and UNLEASHES Hell on Paradise.  They claimed the Plot was more closer to The Matrix than anything else as far as theme, and that Biblical Fall of Man/Rebellion of Satan and Prometheus Myth and Titans Rebellion loosely fitted but over all Plot was like The Matrix..

Which left me very confused lol

Big Dave:

I think that it is interesting that Shaw doesn't get the answers that she wants but then that is what can happen in real life also.

OK so David unleashes hell on Paradise but I wonder if that is any deeper meaning with that other than the fact that David wants to play God? I am not sure what that reason would be. The Matrix is a good movie so I won't mind if they use some of these themes in Alien Covenant even though I agree that it makes one wondering.

@BigDave

The main issue I'd have with it being coincidence would be if the company lands close to the David's location, then starts moving towards him right away.

It all depends on if the crew moves towards David's precise location on the surface of the planet.  If they do, then it could show that the company knows exactly where they're going after they touch down.

On the other hand, if the crew doesn't move towards the David's actual location by choice, then it means that they " bump into" the David on the planet and he happens to be in the area.  It can potentially become more improbable depending on exactly how the crew comes across the David when they meet up with him.  I can't completely rule out that it's a coincidence for a number of reasons. As I mentioned in the other post, it could be a perfect area of the planet to build the new settlement in.  The natural resources in the area would make it an excellent spot for any civilization to build, so there's a chance that the Engineers have already built structures in the area in the past.  

The David may be holed up in the Engineer ruins when they find him, which would allow the crew to explore the downfall of engineer society.  We could then learn more about what happened to the remaining Engineers after David found some alive on the planet.

David would explain that a war with the other faction of gods destroyed most of their civilization: he only wiped out the ones who remained on the planet.  The remaining Engineers became part of his experiments soon after he and Shaw made contact with them. Miss Shaw ran off somewhere when David was testing the bioweapons on them. He's not sure if she's still alive.

The Covenant could be an incredibly fast state-of-the-art ship like the Prometheus was, although maybe it's an older one that departs from a distant outpost. I'm not too sure which direction the company will take with that. At any rate, the planet is located at the "far reaches of the Galaxy."  The synopsis indicates that the planet is relatively far away, so I'm assuming a longer travel time.

In my theory, the company's faster than light probes (from Weyland's corporate timeline) are sent ahead to begin mapping the surface of the planet long before Daniels and her crew arrive.  The FTL satellites move faster and show up before David is through finishing off the Engineers. Which gives the company a rough idea of what he's doing on the planet during that time-frame. Yutani's tech would receive Shaw's message first through their comm links out in the distant colonies. The crew arrives on what they think is an uncharted Paradise - but is actually a very dark planet that has mostly been charted by the FTL probes already.  Mostly...

Caryn Parnall:

"In my theory, the company's faster than light probes (from the corporate timeline) are sent ahead to begin mapping the surface of the planet long before Daniels arrives."

What if the probes are malfunctioning so the people think that they got it right but then in fact they don't? I think that could be interesting because no technology is 100% fool proof, that is everything can start to malfunction. Maybe this can be something that they can use in the movie as a theme: our dependency on technology.

 @Thoughts_Dreams

That's most likely exactly what would happen to the probes.  The technology would malfunction in some way and backfire.  I think you can kind of see where I'm going with the FTL probes already.  Daniels would become overdependent on the holographic maps and grids projected from a device on her wrist.  

The FTL probes would be unable to map certain areas of the planet, because David hijacks the satellites' link to a relay point to begin making his initial demands: the company has been in contact with the rogue android, who is making threats to wipe out the rest (or all) of mankind. David has a list of demands if we want the Fire.

Caryn Parnall:

That could be a possibility but I am not sure if I want David to be the main bad guy. I like that he has a sort of gray area about how he is, so he is not all bad and not all good. We already have Ash as a bad robot in Alien so the main bad guy in Alien Covenant should be someone else IMO.

David could be working for/with Yutani? Maybe he was a spy for Yutani all this time?

Not a bad/evil character...just playing the field.

He has already contacted the Covenant and they know where to find him. Paradise has Davids blessing and he assured the crew it's wonderful!

@Thoughts_Dreams

I agree that David's character should be morally ambiguous.  I view him as possessing knowledge of both good and evil - as being both Good and Evil.

At times we'd almost be asked to see it from David's perspective:  "Doesn't everyone want to see their parents dead?"  He thought that the company would be okay with him wiping out the remaining Engineers to make way for the new colony (since they're pretty evil).  

The company would be almost more evil than the creatures themselves from David's perspective; he doesn't feel "close" to the company.  David may come to view the company as the bad guys in his own personal "adventure."  He's still discovering morality, attempting to interpret it, learning right from wrong.  

The creatures don't seem to attack him or pay him much mind as they go about their business (because he's an android), so he feels that the creature is sort of on his side. It acts antagonistically towards the humans like he does, yet the creature doesn't suffer from the same delusions about morality or a twisted sense of logic like the humans and him:  it's the perfect organism.

The creature kills based on instinct, but on some levels may operate as a machine.  David would feel a strange connection to the biomechanical creatures, as if his kind is related to it...  He feels closer to the Alien than he does to humans, because at the cellular level and even lower it could be partially mechanical,  or part "killing machine."

Ash didn't want Ripley to look through the microscope herself, because "big things have small beginnings."

Caryn Parnall:

That is interesting so David feels that he can act a bit like he wants because he thinks that the company is worse? It doesn’t make what he does right but it can explain some of his actions.

I understand but he isn’t human so he doesn’t really understand how humans view the creature since that seems out of his range of understanding. Maybe he will learn to understand the human point of view but that depends on how advanced he is or maybe it is like Shaw Said “that is because you are a robot” if you remember one of the final scenes in Prometheus.

You mean that there is some connection between Ash and David other than the simple fact that they are androids? I haven’t looked at it in that way, interesting. Can you elaborate a bit on that?

@Thoughts_Dreams

The classic xeno is biomechanical in nature/has metal teeth in its inner jaw, so it may have been created, or altered/designed, to be a biomechanical killing machine. Its main purpose is to kill and procreate. The classic creature may represent a union between machine & flesh to the David 8.  He would worship it in a weird way but also calls the Alien that he creates his "son." 

David would feel that whoever started using the Alien (whichever Engineer it was; he's not pointing any fingers) did so for evil purposes. Because its main purpose may have been to Destroy the other group of gods...  He has knowledge of Good & Evil.  Now that he understands more about what happened between the Creator faction and the Destroyer faction, he almost sides with the Destroyer faction who wanted humans wiped out. 

Mankind would at least need to be conquered by machines like in the Matrix, if not entirely destroyed, to ensure the machines' position in the hierarchy.  He thinks that the Engineer species is superior to humanity as a whole; however, David views himself as superior to most humans.  To him, his kind is the future, and the Engineers may not be needed anymore.  There's still the creators of the Engineers, who would be different...  The story about Good & Evil, and David gaining more freewill and freedom of choice over his actions, would tie into the Good and Evil factions of Gods. Essentially, some of the Gods can be considered to be Destroyers more so than Creators. David would be acting as both a Creator and Destroyer, because "sometimes to Create, one must first Destroy."  In order to play God and sit on the Engineer throne, he has to do a little Destroying.

David 8's ability to understand feelings and interpret subconscious emotional states was relatively untested at the time of David 8's release. Mistakes were made; there were a few "incidents." The Security-type Davids are actually pretty safe for some reason. A security model may have helped Daniels decommission the last rogue android she "dealt with." But she's the Bladerunner here.. Every once in a while, an android runs and she's forced to chase it.  A handful of David 8 androids were able to break free over the past decade. It's not anyone's fault in particular. Most of the incidents were swept under the rug without much hassle; although, there's this one David 8 out there doing experiments...  It may be more than a handful.. Sometimes she hunts down and Destroys androids. 

@Thoughts_Dreams

Yeah but we cant take any of that as what is going on now, Ridley did hint at similar but the source went in more depth but still vague and as far as Matrix they said theme, but would no go into detail and so i dont think its kind of that Mankind and the Universes are just one big Matrix Style Reality but that would explain how Alien 3 and Alien R can fit into the Franchise yet Alien 5 is set prior... and Alien C after Prometheus yet we dont get nothing covered between Prometheus and Alien C


So i think again its the underline theme, of Creator Creates Something that becomes Superior and uncontrollable and Creation Overthrows Creator.... we have this theme in the Bible, Paradise Lost Poem, Prometheus Myth and Greek Titan Mythos, and seen this in  Prometheus.... i think they mean that of those Rebellion Tales, maybe The Matrix one is more closer to whats going on?

who knows?

One of the last things they said was in February and they said they dont really know whats going on with Alien Covenant but that they could be using some ideas from Green/Paglen Draft and so they cant go into details.... just that had the movie been as of their Drafts of October 2014 then after seeing it, then a Matrix Connection would have stood out more than the others.