Inconsistencies with Alien

[O'Malley]

Just a couple minor things that have been nagging at me:

• No breathable atmosphere in the Derelict.
  In Prometheus, both the pyramid and the ship have an oxygen atmosphere, which has been automatically replenishing itself for at least 2,000 years. Wouldn't it be reasonable for the Derelict in Alien to have the same? It must still have power of some sort, as shown by the blue field protecting the eggs. (On that note, why do the Engineers need suits then? Are they more for navigation?)
• Androids in stasis.
  When Prometheus begins, David's been awake for the entire 2-year journey. This would make sense, except in subsequent films androids have always been kept in stasis with the crew (Ash is excusable, but what about Bishop?).

Going to see the film again this weekend...most likely I will find some more.

[Limited Vertigo]

There are plenty of variables that would explain why the air was not breathable in Alien. 

-Different Planet conditions
-System for replenishing the air could have been damaged
-Damage to the ship itself may have resulted in this
-Lots of others

I don't think David being awake the whole time creates an inconsistency.  He was a different type of android in a different situation.  For all we know Weyland kept him awake to monitor the others in order to see their dreams and study them (Like he did with Shaw). 

[Darkfox]

Just a couple minor things that have been nagging at me:

• No breathable atmosphere in the Derelict.
  In Prometheus, both the pyramid and the ship have an oxygen atmosphere, which has been automatically replenishing itself for at least 2,000 years. Wouldn't it be reasonable for the Derelict in Alien to have the same? It must still have power of some sort, as shown by the blue field protecting the eggs. (On that note, why do the Engineers need suits then? Are they more for navigation?)

Well, maybe the blue field was powered by some systems which were not damaged while the life-support was, or (given the importance of the, ahem, "cargo") they had some backup power generator for the blue field, or somesuch.

• Androids in stasis.
  When Prometheus begins, David's been awake for the entire 2-year journey. This would make sense, except in subsequent films androids have always been kept in stasis with the crew (Ash is excusable, but what about Bishop?).

Ash is obvious, like you implied, they are not supposed to know he is an android. Bishop may be also explainable, for a different reason, I think - "esthetic reasons", so to say. It is common to have a synthetic on board by that time (as we are told by Burke) - as opposed to Prometheus-time. The synthetic works alongside humans, tries to "fit in", be like one of them perhaps to a greater extent than it used to be in David's time (in any case, Bishop - and even Ash - seems to act a bit "smoother", unlike David who just seems freaky like HAL). So as part of this "emulating humans", he shares sleep with them... that's what I would say.

[Dutch90]

Lambert, Dallas and Kane never scanned the atmosphere inside the Derelict, so maybe it was breathable.

[O'Malley]

I suppose, given that the Derelict had several gaping holes in it (including from the crash, much to the Jordens' misfortunate), that any atmosphere being generated would be constantly filtered out (and the natural atmosphere of LV-426 looks way harsher than that of LV-223). Still, I have to wonder, what's the point of the Engineers' suits? And does one of them really need to be piloting the ship the whole time? Do they have to take turns in stasis while one of them flies the thing?

As for the androids, maybe it came down to a company-wide protest or something ("Look, we're okay with having androids on board, but watching us dream? Not cool with that").

[deezelboy]

I think the Derelict in Alien's intact - it only gets messed up between then and Aliens, which cripples the transmitter as well.

In Prometheus the Temple/Pyramid has breathable atmosphere as well. I'm presuming that's doing the work, basically scrubbing the carbon out of the atmosphere. So it's a very basic, internal atmosphere processor.

Androids: in the original script Bishop doesn't use hypersleep, and acts much like David does when the crew wake up. This was dropped so that Bishop's droidness is revealed to the audience at the same time as Ripley.

As an explanation, I'd go for Darkfox's, adding that Bishop would probably prefer being in hypersleep with the rest of the crew. He prefers the term 'artificial person' after all.

Engineer suits: the dead ones in the Temple/Pyramid were most likely wearing them to prevent contamination. The live one - I expect the helmet is used for a number of purposes and has the biomech equivalent of an HUD and ship interface system.

No idea if they have to be piloting the ship the whole time. Hypersleep capsules onboard suggest journeys were quite long, so if so I'd like to think that the suit & pilot chair set up act as a kind of hypersleep in themselves, slowing down the metabolism but still allowing the pilot to remain conscious.

[O'Malley]

Interesting take on the biosuits. I'm glad there's still a lot of mystery surrounding the Engineers and their tech.

But...if the temple's generating the atmosphere, then Shaw's not going to last long once they break orbit. All part of David's plan, perhaps?

[maledoro]

I'll never forget in the novelization of Alien Ash calling the Jockeys a "noble people". You always were an asshole, Ash.

[deezelboy]

But...if the temple's generating the atmosphere, then Shaw's not going to last long once they break orbit. All part of David's plan, perhaps?

Engineers apparently have human DNA, so they'd be breathing oxygen. If their ship's have any form of life support, Shaw's going to be fine in that regard.

Hypersleep might be a bit of a bugger, though. The capsules were designed for huge Engineers, and seem to have all these nozzles going into the suits. Can't see how that's going to be compatible with Shaw's stature and space suit!