When the Diector’s Cut of Ridley Scott’s Alien was released, it contained a formerly-cut scene in which Ripley enters a chamber to find three of her crew mates fixed in the alien’s hardened saliva undergoing transformation into eggs, each of which would contain a “facehugger” and start the alien, or “xenomorph,” reproductive cycle over. This scene was cut because Scott felt it interfered with the pace of the film. I understand his reasoning. Nonetheless, the scene is fascinating because it shows us that there is a purpose behind the killings. Moreover, it provides insight into the xenomorph life cycle.
However, for those who pay attention to science fiction canons, the Director’s Cut creates a problem: Cameron’s xenomorph in Aliens has a different life cycle, one in which a queen lays the eggs with the facehuggers in them, while in Scott’s version, as expounded in Alan Dean Foster’s 1979 novelization, the victims mutate into eggs. Even though I like Scott’s movie better, Cameron’s two-stage life cycle feels better because it is scientifically believable. There are actually species, mosses for example, that have two-generation life cycles. The ability of a creature to transform victims into eggs with facehuggers in them with its saliva, mucus, and other secretions feels a bit too fantastic to be believable. I like my science fiction to have a strong element of plausibility.
There is also a serious internal contradiction with the Director’s Cut. In the first encounter with eggs, the eggs are distributed in a regular-like fashion across the floor of a chamber in the alien ship that the crew of the Nostromo is investigating. This arrangement of eggs looks like the work of a queen xenomorph. Who else would have situated them as such? There is no hardened mucus, etc. One can’t imagine how xenomorphs would come to construct such a pattern given that, on the Nostromo, the arrangments appears nothing like the crews’ initital encounter with eggs (then again, the pattern is not so orderly in the queen’s lair in Aliens). The cut scene depicts xenomorph behavior that is contrary to the pattern of behavior indicated by the scene aboard the alien ship.
Because these contradictions bug me, I am going to suggest an interpretation that will allow us to resolve the problems so that we can enjoy both the Director’s Cut of Aliens and Cameron’s Aliens.
In Cameron’s version, xenomorphs fix their victims in hardened saliva near eggs (or perhaps eggs can be brought to the fixed victims), so that the facehuggers can emerge and introduce the alien seed into the abdomen of its victim. This activity on the part of the xenomorphs is certainly instinctual. The xenomorph is driven, as are many terrestrial species are, by the impulse to reproduce. It makes sense, then, that the xenomorph on board the Nostromo would take it’s victims to a remote chamber and fix them in saliva, preparing them for facehuggers.
The fact that there are no eggs there is not a problem for this interpretation. The creature could be waiting for the queen to deposit eggs nearby, other aliens to locate eggs nearby, or even be about looking for eggs itself. Thus, what Ripley found, is the product of the xenomorph’s instinctual activity. It was simply doing what its nature compelled it to do. With this interpretation in force, the viewer can simply disregard whatever the scene’s original intent was.
The only problem with this interpretation (apart from Foster’s novelization) is that hardened secreted matter growing around one of the characters (Brett) looks like the outer covering of a xenomorph egg. Therefore, I suggest that this scene be re-edited to exclude the seconds you see the outer covering, but otherwise leave the scene intact. Doing this, at least for the movie canon, would resolve the contradiction completely. Indeed, I am surprised that they didn’t think of this when producing the Director’s Cut. Maybe Scott didn’t want to be a slave to Cameron’s reconceptualizatin of the xenomorph life cycle.
freedom and reason 