David's Evolution (Transendance)

David has had 10 years on the planet and there is no telling what he has learned and accomplished in that time. By the time the Covenant shows up, whether by a signal from David or the planet was found by the Weyland group...I'm sure as you ha e said, David has much contempt for the humans. 

Indeed...

While we dont know how long David has been their i would assume that he has been there for a while, how long is a while? who knows.

It could be up to 10 years, as i think he knows how to get to Paradise and the Engineer ships i feel would be able to Travel to Paradise far faster than the Covenant can.

The Covenant is a W-Y ship after the Merger, which the Weyland-Yutani-Report suggests occurred in 2099 and if Alien Covenant will follow this date roughly as Canon then that means The company has been Merged for 5 years by the time of Alien Covenant.

So if Fox have rubber stamped the information in Weyland-Yutani-Report and are going to use that same Merger date, then the Covenant would have traveled to Paradise in a maximum of 5 years....

As for how long David has been there? it depends, but i would think the Juggernaught can Get to Paradise far quicker and so i would assume he has to have been there for at very least 8 years and potentially over 9.5 years. But we dont know for sure, but its logical to assume he has been their long enough to gain a lot of insight into the Engineers Technology, History and Knowledge and also enough time for him to perform a number of experiments.

Out curiously, how long after the Covenant do the events of the Nostromo and LV 426 happen? 

About 18 years give or take, few months.

The Nostromo was first commissioned in the year 2101, but then it was refitted as a commercial towing ship in  the year 2116

Alien was set in the year 2122 June 3rd, and so is 28.5 years after Prometheus (2094 January 1st/2nd)  and Alien Covenant is set 10 years after Prometheus but that does not mean January 2104 but its likely some point in and around the year 2104

Would the company be working two fronts? The planet of the doomed Covenant and LV 426? Trying to aquire the organisms

Well this is one of the big Questions... Here are some points and Questions and i think they have to be addressed at some point.

*About 28.5 years (2122) after the Events of Prometheus (2094), the Nostomo arrives on LV-426 and the company is aware of the Specimen (Order 937). 

*Surely any ship that arrives to detect and is sent to investigate a Alien Signal from LV-426 would also have had to know about Shaws SOS on LV-223

*10 years approximately after Prometheus the Colony Ship Covenant arrives at Paradise, does this ship arrive by Coincidence or does it get information about Paradise Location from David 8, or was able to determine where David 8 went or are the co-ordinates acquired from another mission to the LV-223 System?

*We have to ask, what becomes of LV-223 from 2094 to the timeline of Alien 2122 or Aliens 2179, with the company going to LV-426 twice without checking up on near by LV-223 and what became of Prometheus.

So yes at some point its logical another mission is sent to the LV-223/426 system between 2094 and 2122

The Weyland-Yutani Report Book, seems to show us that Weyland Obtained Yutani in 2099 after Yutani had some difficulties.

The Prometheus Weyland Viral sites and videos show us that Yutani is a big play maker in the Comunications Systems, and ships including Prometheus are fitted with Communications, and Data Storage Solutions by Yutani

And so its a good chance that Yutani have gained information on not only Prometheus planned mission (Shaws requests for Weylands Help to fund a mission to LV-223)  but also potentially information on LV-223 and LV-426 maybe by means of obtaining intelligence without Weylands knowledge like how say the NSA would monitor communications around the World.

So we cant rule out Yutani sending a mission between 2094 and 2099 and having it be a costly one for the company.

Yutani are primarily a Cybernetics Company but they also are involved with Micro Processing Technology and Software related to Communications and Data Storage.

They tried to battle Weyland Industries in a Lawsuit over a number of Patents relating to Synthetics in particular the Technology behind the real life like Skin and Materials used in the David series of Androids. Weyland Won this case.

It could be seen like Dyson holding full rights to Cyclone type Technology and so no other vacuum can use similar Technology without License from Dyson... with the Cyclone Technology being so advanced and preferred this could lead to a Monopoly.  And so Weyland Androids had the advantage of having a Life like look compared to a more Synthetic (like Data from Star Wars) look that Yutani Androids have.

Weyland are a company who mainly deal with Terra-forming and Mining, but also Cybernetics, Biology, Medicine, and also Technology as far as Ships, FTL and Transportation they also have a more limited Military applications.

I would assume that Weyland have gained a Market Share as far as Androids for particular roles, i.e more customers/contractors would prefer the Weyland Androids than Yutani ones.

With the many areas Weyland Industries Excel in i would assume that the Yutani Corp are lossing Money, and maybe if they intercepted information on Weylands Missions to the LV-426/223 System and had some idea of what rewards may be there... maybe they can hack the Yutani ECU's and Coms Technology to control what information missions like Prometheus send back to Weyland HQ....

So maybe Yutani send a mission themselves knowing if they can gain the rewards from LV-223 then it would be a Game Changer for their Company.

This is what i ASSUME had gone down... but this proved costly and failed and led to the company being acquired by Weyland so that Weyland can gain all the information that Yutani have.

Its interesting that the Company in Alien 5, set 20+ years after Aliens and so 2200-2205 is a Asian Company and maybe has links to Yutani?

Another interesting thing is that Tyrell company from Blade Runner had been hinted at in the Alien Universe as far as Viral connections such as a Email etc from the head of Tyrell to Weyland regarding its advancements in Biological Androids... i.e Replicants.

So maybe Weyland also buys out Tryrell in the timeline before Alien Covenant and the next Generation David on the Covenant could be more like a Replicant than Android?  I think this tie in, and explanation for Doppelganger seems very plausible.

Well, we will either see something at ComicCon this year from Scott or a trailer perhaps earlier or soon after July. Just have to see but this is some good discussions. I appreciate it! 

I remember some leaks and speculation early on in the drafts for Prometheus 2, there was rumored to be two plot lines. One being Shaw and David and the other being a mission to Lv223. Could the gap (or part of it) between Prometheus and Covenant still be shown in Covenant? 

I am not sure that Sir Ridley really has time or will to necessarily cover that here in Covenant

Yeah those leaks was about a 3 Plot movie, and the source claimed 3 plots as far as Prometheus having two plots.... one was the Sacrificial Scene, and main plot was from Shaw and Holloways discovery of clues to our creation and getting Weyland to fund a mission to where those clues would take them and the rest of the crew.

But the source can not be taken as 100% Fact, and especially since the Plot has changed somewhat, the only way to see if the Source was correct would be if the movie has a lot of matching themes, or if the Green Re-write of the Draft as of October 2014 comes to light.

So as for the Gap between David leaving LV-223 and Covenant arriving at Paradise may not be covered, as far as what went on but that does not mean we cant get clues.

Oh i am not sure if the Two Plots that you cuponator3000 are the same as the leaked source 3 Plots....

The source said the movie has 3 different plots and the movie would go back and forth between them and that David and Shaws mission to Paradise to meet the Engineers would only play a smaller part and the other TWO Plot elements where bigger. But i am not sure if they meant Bigger as in screen time or as far as importance to the whole Plot/Franchise.

But indeed some things the source had said as far as the Plot are starting to seem likely again, yet after the Alien Covenant name change it maybe seemed different to the leaked Plot points....

But as more information comes out, then the Alien Covenant Plot Synopsis does not tell the full story.

Keep in mind as well, the concept of space time and relativity. For Earth it's  only been 20 years since they lost contact with the Prometheus, but for David, it could be more like 50-100 years, who knows! I watched Interstellar again yesterday and it got me thinking about how the concepts of space time and relativity could impact the Alien: Covenant plot, as well as David's evolution and Shaw's  unfortunate / unknown fate. Imagine if David arrived on Paradise and Engineers WERE still living there! But David unleashes something upon them, kills them all and awaits the next Weyland-Yutani ship to come around? Really got my head spinning with theories.

@ Chris

As Ridley has said the Covenant Crew are beginning of the 1st Act and they have propelled the time frame forward "10 Years" I am taking that as a deliberate attempt to begin the movie at a point where they feel the crucial drama that needs to be told real time begins. By moving ten years it has provided space for :-

1) Weyland- Yutani to merge so that story driver comes into play replacing the vanities of Weyland and Shaw.

2) The Paradise history is ripe for the telling and its fall has either occurred very recently or in the distant past. Either way David is now enjoying and using his "survivor ship" to develop and full fill his curiosity. There is nothing in the set up which suggest at the time of Prometheus that the fall had definitely occurred on Paradise (LV223 maybe a quarantined location for the creative engineers) and David maybe so "big" on arrival that he caused it and that would then move us to the Zeno and Shaw's historical role.

Chris all of those plot clues could be solved in one movie and essentially you would have W Y and David on either side of the equation with the idealistic unknowing Coventee's in the middle. If David sets in motion the fall, a huge move in the mythos, then I expect he is key to all the other answers we are looking for going forward. The Space Jockey and its particular cargo may represent collateral in the battle between David and  W. Y. (earth).