"What happened to the rest of the crew?"

[ivymike]

I have a crazy teory about the eggs in the Alien Derelict Ship.

In the scene inside of the Space Jockey "cockpit" we hear Lambert say to Dallas..."I wonder what happened to the rest of the crew"

A detail...I believe that if the "Dallas Cocoon scene" had remained in the film, it would imply that perhaps the Derelict crew(maybe more Space Jockeys)had been transformed into eggs and Lambert´s phrase would be a clear reference to that possibility.

Any thoughts?

[maledoro]

I have a crazy theory about the eggs in the Alien Derelict Ship.

Any thoughts?

My thought is that your "theory" ain't so "crazy".


That was the implication set forth by that line. We all would have had an "A ha!" moment if the Cocoon Scene was left in and we got a close look at what Brett was turning into. (And Cameron might have had to work a little harder to get the queen into the lifecycle in the next movie.)

[beckmen]

Yeah, that works. Or there was no 'rest of the crew', and the Jockey was just the central nervous system of the living ship...

...Or any number of other theories. But I like both of the first two discussed in this thread.

[deezelboy]

Yeah.  O'Bannon wanted the Derelict to contain six Eggs, answering what had happened to the rest of the crew.  Scott and Giger wanted thousands of Eggs, because it was much more visual.

[Hudson]

I always saw the ship as possibly a passenger ship much like the Lusitania and much like the Lusitania it was illegaly carrying weapons (the Aliens) and the weapons backfired on them and all the passengers below were turned into eggs while in hypersleep or something.

Either that or I consider the ship to be somehow military in nature. I'm not completely 100% decided on it and I prefer it that way. It's just so damned mysterious and I hope it stays that way with the new film.

[CHAINS]

Like that theory ^^ Its possible, They only explored a part of the ship though.

[oniyama]

I have always been of the opinion that the ship had only one crew member, the space jockey.  I say that not because of anything related to the eggs but because it there were other crew members, there would have been some sort of work stations for them.  In the film we only see one work station and that is the chair that the space jockey had been grown into.  My impression is that the space jockey was delivering the eggs somewhere.  With that sort of cargo, you'd want to risk as few people as possible.

Here's an idea:  What if the derelict ship was intended to land on a planet and upon landing, deliberately impregnate the space jockey and then open its doors so that the xenomorphs could start attacking a population base.  Now let's say that something malfunctioned on the ship and caused the crash landing.  When the ship landed it released a face hugger as it was designed to.  I know it's kind of "engineering after the fact" but such a scenario could be a possible explanation.

[maledoro]

I've always liked the original idea where the Jockeys had landed on that world on an exploration mission and discovered the eggs there. And since the planet was dying (at the time of their landing), the Jockeys loaded whatever eggs they could find into the cargo bay.

[oniyama]

I've always liked the original idea where the Jockeys had landed on that world on an exploration mission and discovered the eggs there. And since the planet was dying (at the time of their landing), the Jockeys loaded whatever eggs they could find into the cargo bay.

The problem I have with them finding the eggs on Acheron and collecting them is that, in the process of collecting the eggs, they would have gotten attacked with face huggers well before they could have collected thousands of them.  Those things pretty much attack on site (within close proximity).  Before the eggs could be collected they would first have to be found.  In all likelihood, the moment they were found a face hugger would pop out and attach itself to one of the crew.

Just my thought on the matter.

[maledoro]

The problem I have with them finding the eggs on Acheron and collecting them is that, in the process of collecting the eggs, they would have gotten attacked with face huggers well before they could have collected thousands of them.  Those things pretty much attack on site (within close proximity).  Before the eggs could be collected they would first have to be found.  In all likelihood, the moment they were found a face hugger would pop out and attach itself to one of the crew.

Just my thought on the matter.

The same thing could have happened loading the eggs elsewhere.

The rest of the crew may have used some sort of unmanned means to load the eggs while the first alien was gestating inside of the infected Jockey. It is possible that they had loaded the eggs without knowing what was going on inside the infected Jockey.

[oniyama]

The same thing could have happened loading the eggs elsewhere.

The rest of the crew may have used some sort of unmanned means to load the eggs while the first alien was gestating inside of the infected Jockey. It is possible that they had loaded the eggs without knowing what was going on inside the infected Jockey.

Well, let's think about it a minute.  I don't know about you, but if I were the captain of the crew and one of my people had been hit with a face hugger, I'm going to stop and figure out what that thing is before I collect thousands of them and put them in my ship's cargo hold.

As far as the usage of unmanned systems being used to transport the eggs goes, consider this.  Such unmanned equipment would likely be used for one of two reasons, ease of transport and threat to personnel.  If it was only a matter of ease of transport then it is likely that the crew would come into close proximity to the eggs.  If they are curious enough to collect them, then they would be curious enough to look at them closely and even pick them up.  Given the behavior of the face huggers inside the eggs it is likely that the space jockeys would determine them to be a threat.  Such a threat would certainly be enough inspiration for me not to put thousands of eggs in my ship's cargo hold.  Now if were to find the eggs and determine that they were threatening I might use some sort of unmanned conveyance to move one or two eggs into a secured environment where I could study them, but, again, I wouldn't bring thousands of them on board.

[maledoro]

Well, let's think about it a minute.  I don't know about you, but if I were the captain of the crew and one of my people had been hit with a face hugger, I'm going to stop and figure out what that thing is before I collect thousands of them and put them in my ship's cargo hold.

Unless they felt that they could keep them under control.

As far as the usage of unmanned systems being used to transport the eggs goes, consider this.  Such unmanned equipment would likely be used for one of two reasons, ease of transport and threat to personnel.  If it was only a matter of ease of transport then it is likely that the crew would come into close proximity to the eggs. If they are curious enough to collect them, then they would be curious enough to look at them closely and even pick them up.  Given the behavior of the face huggers inside the eggs it is likely that the space jockeys would determine them to be a threat.  Such a threat would certainly be enough inspiration for me not to put thousands of eggs in my ship's cargo hold.  Now if were to find the eggs and determine that they were threatening I might use some sort of unmanned conveyance to move one or two eggs into a secured environment where I could study them, but, again, I wouldn't bring thousands of them on board.

There is also the chance that the Jockeys might not have physically come into contact with the eggs until after they were loaded onto their ship, thus not knowing the threat until it was too late. As for their curiosity, I'm sure that they would have some protocols that would involve collecting specimens in a safe manner. Once they eggs were onboard, the Jockeys might have found out that their lab or containment procedures were not enough to keep the eggs in check.

There are some universal principles that ensure the survival of intelligent species, but keep in mind not all intelligent species think or act alike.

[DAVIE]

Maybe the spacecraft is actually the Aliens' spacecraft and the dead people were people exploring the craft and fell into "the trap". Where there is eggs there's usually a queen, so they must have either been on their homeworld or a queen was with them all along and a fight broke out, which ended with the crew and queen/aliens dead.

[Mr. Domino]

Even though I know its completely implausible, I've always liked the idea that a queen was waiting just around that corner in the egg chamber. I find it very creepy and unsettling.

[Thedus]

I've always liked the original idea where the Jockeys had landed on that world on an exploration mission and discovered the eggs there. And since the planet was dying (at the time of their landing), the Jockeys loaded whatever eggs they could find into the cargo bay.

But weren't the eggs located beneath the ship?  Also the shape and size of the egg chamber never seemed to fit with the shape and size of the ship... it felt bigger somehow.