AG Monday!
Aliens!
We’re on an express elevator to hell, going down! We’ve covered Alien earlier, which compels us to do an episode on the 1986 sequel, Aliens. It’s a sequel, sure, but it’s also a different kind of movie. With a different director. (Yeah, that James Cameron kid shows some promise.)
Tom saw it when it was released. Steven just watched it for the first time. Hear our reactions to this film, on first watch and re-watch. Listen us debate how stupidly evil mega-corporations can behave, and what makes a great sequel.
Xenomorphs! Overconfident marines! Good and evil mother figures! Quotable quotes! Some of the most non-stop tension ever in a movie! 80s-style action! It’s all here.
Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
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Saw it in theaters when it came out. Ok action monster movie, more memorable for some clever lines than for what actually took place.
A question that gets asked a lot about many movies is something along the lines of “Why didn’t they just…?” The answer is often the same. In the case of this franchise, the question is “Why didn’t they just listen to Ellen Ripley?”
As noted, the answer is often the same: because then there’d be no movie.
Saw an interview of Sigourney Weaver some time ago. She said the original screenplay had her getting a slight head wound before the final show-down scenes, which was to be covered by bandana, but the director scotched that on the set. The Rambo-lina, or “Mom-bo”, aspect was clear enough, no need to embellish. Wise move.
Related to the podcast, if not to this week’s ep:
In the TNG first season ep “Conspiracy,” the Enterprise goes to Earth to find out what’s wrong with Starfleet Command. Upon communicating with the top admirals, Picard mentions that it’s rare for a starship to return to Earth, or words to that effect.
I bring this up because Steven noted twice in Trek movie eps Kirk’s enterprise was the only starship near Earth. Maybe in Trek III the soon to be decommissioned Enterprise “No bloody A, B, C, or D,” as well as the Excelsior (I think).
So, Picard neatly plugs the plot hole by implying once they leave the nest (the shipyards around Mars), starships go roam the galaxy and most never return home.
But don’t mind me. I’m just procrastinating on a Monday afternoon…