LOST ON PARADISE by Alan Dean Foster

@Ingeniero

I think that indeed any such Prequel to Alien Covenant would get Repetitive if it was just about David alone, and even with a Proportion of Interaction with Dr Shaw.

I think a lot of Fans were Hopeful to discover more about the Engineers, and so you have to think HOW can we show this..  Well what we have to remember is that David had LEARNED of their WAYS before he arrived at Planet 4, quite HOW MUCH he learned and from WHERE is interesting to Ponder.

But what we know for CERTAIN is that David would have had quite some time on Planet 4 without any Engineer Threats, and so he had become FREE to roam the City, to take a LOOK at every piece of Information, Manuscripts, Books etc of the Engineers.  It appears they WROTE some stuff down.

Ridley Scott had indicated the Cathedral Dome Building where the Hall of Heads was located, was where the Engineers had STORED all their Knowledge.  Such a place would be a Gift of a repository of Information for David.

So the Novel only has to have David come across some of this Knowledge and Begin to Read some of it, then we can CUT to a Flash Back Scene to give some details.

A Example.....

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INT. ENGINEER REPOSITORY

David walks among the Engineers Library of Information, seemingly Endless STONE STACKS each like Post/Mail Sorters.  He takes out one of the SCROLLS and begins to read its contents.

The Scroll Tells of a Ancient Time maybe many MILLIONS of YEARS ago, when it describes this Paradise of the Engineers was a Virgin World.  As David reads the History of this Place he discovers the Engineers Ancestors had arrived at this Place in the DISTANT PASS.  They had came to START ANEW...

FADE TO..

EXT. PRIMORDIAL WORLD

Among the Clouds of this Very Familiar World we see a SHADOW and a RUMBLING like THUNDER.  But this is NO NATURAL SOUND, it is MECHANICAL.  

The OBJECT now comes into view, it is  SHIP the VERY SAME KIND from PROMETHEUS...  The SHIP casts a Shadow over the Lake that lies at the Bottom of a WATERFALL

The SHIP begins to Descend upon a FLAT AREA just of a RIDGE by the  WATERFALL.  They are TOUCHING DOWN.

Dropping behind the RIDGE to a RIVER DELTA - RUSHING WATER as we HEAR A  TOOTH-RATTLING SOUND -- MECHANICAL.  All of a SUDDEN a METAL PLATFORM hits the FLOOR.. CLANK!

THREE FIGURES appear at the TOP of the PLATFORM they are ROBBED MEN or so they APPEAR.

As they walk down the PLATFORM we see FOUR MORE start to ADVANCE from behind them.

We ZOOM in on the FIGURES HUMAN and YET NOT --- TALL about EIGHT FEET TALL at least, BALD with NO SIGNS of any other Hair.  They all LOOK like OLD MEN, apart from ONE who appears to be YOUTHFUL

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I could go on, but the idea would be to show a EXTENDED Shot of the SACRIFICIAL SCENE with some Dialog between the Engineers to give us a Indication of whats going on.  We then have the Engineers Return to the Ship and it RISES UP.

Then we go to describe the Engineers Last Moments, the LONELY WALK to the WATERFALL.  We END this FLASH BACK as the Engineer arrives at the END OF the Waterfall and looks at the Sacrificial Bowl.

We then CUT BACK to David.

So you could use things like this to take us BACK to some Flash Backs for a Visual Explanation to what David has discovered.

Any dialog between David and Dr Shaw could have her ASK him something and as he goes onto EXPLAIN.. we CUT TO A FLASHBACK.

Ingeniero: Thanks! The same to you

I have not read the AC novel but maybe I could try to get it although to be honest I have not decided about that yet. I like that quote that you put there, I like that kind of writing. ADF has been writing for many years so I am not surprised that he is good with words at least that part is written well. You know how you can read pages in books when you look at Amazon? It kind of reminded me about that. Maybe it could have been better but at least it shows that David did not create the first monster. Just for that part alone I bet that the book is better than the movie. Maybe they could go through the novelization and try to correct things if they are about to make another one? At least they could try to correct the things that most people are not happy with but that is not to say that they need to listen to every little detail.

My two biggest wishes for the next movie if they will make one is:

• Better characters
• Do not have David as the creator of the Xeno because it is bad, lame, whatever word that you can come up with

I would hope NOT as far as discredit Davids work, as i stated above it would be IN-EFFECT doing less Credit to him, than what we got with Dr Shaw as a Corpse ;)

Unless they come up with some Good Detailed Reason and NOT A LAZY....     One such as say this...

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INT. CATACOMBS

As David wonders around the Gloomy Catacombs under the Engineers Cathedral, he DETECTS a Horrific Smell.  Had some Engineers tried to HIDE here, but the STENCH does not smell like it’s from Dead Corpses that are DAYS OLD.

The Smell leads him down some Stairs and into a Damp, Dark Room, as his EYES SCAN the Room something in the CORNER catches his EYE.

LOW AND BEHOLD... David has discovered an EGG like the one from the ORIGINAL MOVIE, this ONE looks Withered Away.

DAVID "My oh my what have we here"

As he approaches it he caresses it’s WITHERED SURFACE and he Notices the Petal Like Opening that seems PARTIALLY OPEN.

He PULLS APART these Flaps to Reveal a Arachnid like Organism, the FACE HUGGER as he takes it out, it begins to HISS and Move with its LAST CLUCH OF LIFE it tries to SMOTHER David but then detects he is NOT LIVING.... This is the LAST ACTION that the Organisms makes, before it FALLS to the FLOOR and CURLS UP.

DAVID looks on AMUSED

"Impressive, what tenacity"

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But i guess as long as its NOT less detailed than that.

I think the BEST OPTION would be to have David responsible for the XENOMORPH as far as its LEVEL of Evolution at Present...

Have someone else come and EVOLVE his Creation, but that would leave us with the PICKLE that the Xenomorph Eggs on LV-426 are NOT there at least 17.5 years prior to ALIEN but there is a FIX that would sort this and KILL us TWO Birds with ONE Stone..  (Age of Eggs and LV-223).