"What happened to the rest of the crew?"

[deezelboy]

The ship's pretty big, and you can see the 'bend' - as if the hold (if that's what it was) continued into the 'arms' of the ship.  But then there's no upward slant to it, as far as I can recall, so maybe not...

It's something I've always been curious about.  In Aliens it's very definitely a part of the Derelict - the ship's shifted position but the Jordens, and presumably the rescue crew, encounter the Eggs by entering the Derelict. 

But in Alien it's all over the place.  In the film Kane refers to the Egg Silo as a cave and a pit (I guess he'd know!) rather than a hold or whatever, but that's straight out of the StarBeast script.  Yet they had to use the same set as the Space Jockey for the Silo, so it looks like an extension of the Derelict, and Giger says he designed it as being integral to the Derelict (so why is Kane's line left in?).  And the real bugger is that Kane accesses it through an acid-scarred hatch, which is a script remnant of the original acid-made hole that hulled the Derelict.  The whole sequence is made from a elements mashed together from previous script drafts - it's really quite bizarre how well it works.

[Thedus]

The ship's pretty big, and you can see the 'bend' - as if the hold (if that's what it was) continued into the 'arms' of the ship.  But then there's no upward slant to it, as far as I can recall, so maybe not...

But the bend seems to go in the opposite direction than would be expected.  It's possible that in traveling from the "entrance" to the Jockey the crew of the Nostromo got turned around, but it just "feels" off somehow.  There's even the fact that as Kane is lowered down into the pit there is a wall behind him, if the chamber was part of the ship I would think the wall would have been in front of him to match the room the Jockey was in - to give the impression of an extension of the hull to a lower deck.  But I'm left with a feeling that instead of part of the ship he's in a separate structure.

If memory serves in the novelization either Kane or Dallas makes reference to the fact that Kane is actually below ground as he is descending into the egg chamber.

It's something I've always been curious about.  In Aliens it's very definitely a part of the Derelict - the ship's shifted position but the Jordens, and presumably the rescue crew, encounter the Eggs by entering the Derelict. 

Russ and the rescue/investigative team may have stumbled upon the transformed Derelict crew and not the eggs that Kane found... this might explain some of the physical differences between the Nostromo alien and the LV-426 brood.

[oniyama]

First you said this:

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.

Then you said this:

Unless they felt that they could keep them under control.
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.

On the one hand you're saying that one of the crew got hit by a face hugger but they keep loading thousands of eggs because they were unaware of the larval alien growing inside the crew member.

Then you say that they knew that they were dangerous and used unmanned systems to bring the eggs aboard.

Which one is it?  The two ideas you propose contradict each other.

You said this:

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.

This indicates the by which ever argument you want to make, these eggs were new to the crew.  Now I realize that the crew were not human and may not think like us.  Still, in an exploratory mission, when you discover something new, you get a few samples of it, not thousands  of the things.  What would be the purpose of gathering all those eggs?

I see that you really, really, really like the idea of the eggs being discovered on the planet, but it doesn't make sense. Sorry, but it doesn't. 

[oniyama]

If memory serves in the novelization either Kane or Dallas makes reference to the fact that Kane is actually below ground as he is descending into the egg chamber.

The novelization also says something about the face hugger having an eye.  I suspect that the novelization was started sometime during pre-production.  Giger did a painting of a face hugger with a singular eye.  I'm not sure that we can count on the novelization to add clarity to what was seen or missing in the film.

[Thedus]

My personal view is that the novelizations are sanctioned by Fox and  a tie-in to the source material.  However, due to changes that occur to a screenplay between writing a novelization and the release of a film contradictions can arise.  Thereby making the novelizations a secondary element to the film's canonical content.  Events, characters, and settings from the film take priority as it is the final intended medium.  Expanded information in a novelization can be used to present possible expanded thought on the film, but in case of extreme contradiction the film will always take priority when considering canon.

So in the case of the Chamber being beneath the Derelict: I feel looking to the novelization as point of possibly expanding on the train of thought both here in this conversation and to what occurred in the film as reasonable.

...But this is just my opinion.

and BTW - let's not get into another debate about canon here (that's been discussed plenty elsewhere in the forums) - let's try and stay on target with this thread's evolving discussion.

[SM]

Since the decor for the egg cave was the same as the Jockey chamber I always saw it as another part of the ship that was simply buried.

[Dan]

Ive allways thought it was odd how the space jockey was impregnated to begin with, He was massive and the face huggers tiny. It was asif the face hugger was made to fit humans, what ever laid its seed in the jockey was not your usual face hugger, just look at the jockeys face. How would it attach, and how would the hugger get its tube down its throat?

[SM]

Under the "trunk".  Not that difficult.

[maledoro]

On the one hand you're saying that one of the crew got hit by a face hugger but they keep loading thousands of eggs because they were unaware of the larval alien growing inside the crew member.

Then you say that they knew that they were dangerous and used unmanned systems to bring the eggs aboard.

Just because they had exercised caution doesn't mean that they KNEW that the eggs were dangerous.

What would be the purpose of gathering all those eggs?

According to Dan O'Bannon, the planet was dying and being the benevolent creatures they were, the Jockeys wanted to preserve the remaining specimens of this species; not knowing the danger they were soon to be in.

I see that you really, really, really like the idea of the eggs being discovered on the planet

I posted a theory and answered your concerns about it in a civilized manner. Judging from your posts, I'd say that you were far more passionate about your theory than I am of mine.

[oniyama]

Judging from your posts, I'd say that you were far more passionate about your theory than I am of mine.

Not so much passionate as it just seems that you were making at least two arguments (or theories, if you will) that contradicted each other.

I am curious, do you have links to where Dan O'Bannon made these statements of which you speak.  I'm not challenging you so much as I would really like to read what he said on the matter.

[Dan]

Under the "trunk".  Not that difficult.

Fair enough, but for the usual size hugger in my opinion I just cant see how it would work.
The fingers wrap around the head to keep it from being removed, but theres no way a huggers fingers could wrap round that, and whats it have for the hugger to wrap its tail around.
Considering the size of the hole in the pilots chest, theres a 25ft alien running about that ship!

[SM]

and whats it have for the hugger to wrap its tail around

The trunk.

[maledoro]

Not so much passionate as it just seems that you were making at least two arguments (or theories, if you will) that contradicted each other.

Not to get into an argument, but you might reread them again. I did point out how they don't conflict with each other by emphasizing in my last post a certain point that might have been overlooked. Let's move on, shall we?

I am curious, do you have links to where Dan O'Bannon made these statements of which you speak.  I'm not challenging you so much as I would really like to read what he said on the matter.

It's been a while since I've read it, but I think it was in one of the magazines that were published around Alien's release; possibly the one from Warren Publishing.

[Mr. Domino]

The trunk.

I seem to recall either Giger or Scott saying somewhere that the Jockey was never intended to actually have any sort of elephantine trunk, that what we saw was actually a sort of air hose, like what a fighter pilot would wear. Not that that really helps the argument any one way or the other...

[SM]

Hence my use of inverted commas around "trunk" above.