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 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Wending? The Lost Boys? Neverland? Eccentric and self-absorbed? He's kind of a walking allusion to Peter Pan.

He was reading Peter Pan... and the Cyborg is obviously Captain Hook.

Does that make the Alien the crocodile?!

 Jadenim wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Wending? The Lost Boys? Neverland? Eccentric and self-absorbed? He's kind of a walking allusion to Peter Pan.

He was reading Peter Pan... and the Cyborg is obviously Captain Hook.

Does that make the Alien the crocodile?!

If we can figure out if what Wendy heard is the analog for the ticking clock.

Timothy Olyphant seems to be going for the Roy Batty look.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Timothy Olyphant seems to be going for the Roy Batty look.

I'm sure it is a coincidence.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Timothy Olyphant seems to be going for the Roy Batty look.

I'm sure it is a coincidence.

Ridley Scott wouldn't cross over three different movies?

I’m genuinely half expecting a Predator to turn up in the later episodes.

Based entirely on hope.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely half expecting a Predator to turn up in the later episodes.

Based entirely on hope.

Oh. I was talking about Bladerunner and it's same-universe sister film Soldier.

One minor issue that's been bugging me is the intro that states the corporations are vying against one another to control the next big technology/evolution of mankind. They list the three technologies as:

AI (synths, which we've seen before)
Cyborgs
Hybrids

I get that hybrids are the new thing that Prodigy has just invented, but the cyborg thing bothers me a bit. I've not read any of the extra material in comics or novelisations so maybe this pops up there, but it seems weird that cyborgs are a thing yet we've never encountered them in the franchise before, especially in Aliens where it seems like having a cyborg in the team would have been a really good idea.

It's not enough of a thing to reduce my enjoyment of the series. It just seems a little odd to introduce it now. Maybe they just wanted the cool cyborg character.

It's possible that cyborgs just went out of fashion, because Synths were ultimately better in practically every way.

There is a cyborg in a short comic from Dark Horse. Only known survivor of a Chestburster, with replacement parts from synthetics.

We’ve also previously only seen Weyland-Yutani centric tales. And I’m not entirely convinced Mr Cyborg is working for That Company.

 insaniak wrote:
It's possible that cyborgs just went out of fashion, because Synths were ultimately better in practically every way.

Think maybe that answers the question.

What's cheaper? A Synth with a prebuilt body and code or an augmented human who has nanomachine implants?

Was it nano-machines? All we’ve seen is a blowtorch thing (and presumably fuel for it) and a knife.

Both of those could happily be stowed in the arm itself.

Indeed, if it was nano-machines? I’d expect something a bit fancier than just a knife.

My take is Horses for Courses. A Synthetic cannot move beyond its programming. A human can make leaps of logic and find novel solutions a Synthetic may simply discount due to low chance of success. So slap some upgrades on, and hope for the best of both worlds.

And you don’t need to worry about programming errors with a smelly hooman. Gross stupidity of their own invention? Sure. But not “do not enact any plan with less than X percent chance of success” type goofs.

It makes the classic nano machine sounds and his hand looks weird.

It's not like a spinny rotaty sort of thing either it's gloopy.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely half expecting a Predator to turn up in the later episodes.

Based entirely on hope.

Oh. I was talking about Bladerunner and it's same-universe sister film Soldier.

Exactly. We're getting a de-aged Kurt Russel by episode seven.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely half expecting a Predator to turn up in the later episodes.

Based entirely on hope.

Oh. I was talking about Bladerunner and it's same-universe sister film Soldier.

Exactly. We're getting a de-aged Kurt Russel by episode seven.

That would be more awesome than any Predator appearance.

Spoiler:

At the end of episode two when the xeno was barreling down on them and she was hearing that noise in her head and it transitioned to a slightly different sound that I thought it sounded an awful lot like part of the intro to Tool's Stinkfist. Turns out that is exactly what it was. Was not expecting Tool to make an appearance.

I did not interpret his arm as nano, more just a Swiss Army knife opening up with a tool inside.

Is Boy Genius supposed to be Peter? I was getting more vibes that Wendy is filling both roles. Her body language, massive apparent self confidence and grabbing that blade before the mission follows Peter to me, whole she is also acting as the Wendy role as more caring role for the others.

I do quite like the use of the Peter Pan tropes in this new setting. It may be a bit contrived, but it gives a familiar structure for viewers. When do you think they will be massively subverted, and it turns out that Wendy is in fact a Predator-human hybrid now transplanted into a synthetic shell

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m genuinely half expecting a Predator to turn up in the later episodes.

Based entirely on hope.

Oh. I was talking about Bladerunner and its same-universe sister film Soldier.

Don’t have time to look it up right now, but I think there’s a background cross reference in either Aliens or one of the Blade Runner cuts that puts them in the same universe (like one of the corporations name checked on a computer screen somewhere).

Apparently Captain Dallas from the first film previously worked for Tyrell.

I think Boy Kavalier sees himself as Peter. He’s created a band of Lost Boys to follow in his wake.

If they turn out to actually be smarter than him…I don’t think he’s actually going to be able to handle that. He may go full Hook at that point.

Krish is definitely Tinkerbell, though. Just check out the hair!

I imagine Boy Kavalier will be learning why Intelligence and Wisdom are two different stats in D&D.

This discussion makes me hope the people in charge haven't overdone it with the Peter Pan stuff. I've had very little exposure to Peter Pan. I'd rather not have to catch up on unrelated stuff to get whatever super clever subtext they put in Alien Earth.

Rewatched episode 2 last night.

I’m still not entirely convinced Boy Kavalier is malevolent.

Rash, self obsessed and reckless? Sure thing. No argument there. But I’m not sure it’s a conscious thing.

From his video call with Weyland Yutani, he seems genuinely unaware or at least uncertain what the Maginot had been doing before it parked itself on his land. So I don’t think he’s sent in Wendy and Chums out of anything but genuine curiosity and avarice (on his land, claim salvage rights, nick everything not nailed down, then come back with a crowbar, prise up everything that was nailed down, and swipe the nails whilst you’re at it).

What will be interesting is how he reacts once the brown stuff has hit the rapidly spinning cooling device.

He may order them home. He may wish to see how tough they are in a bad situation. He may wish to claim the gribblies at all costs, considering them a much better project. Remains to be seen.

But for now? He’s mostly just supremely arrogant. Which isn’t in itself a crime.

Being an arrogant billionaire who faked the death of children to satisfy his urge for a mental peer is pretty malevolent.

If you dont want to hear spoiler abouut ep 3 . dont click this one



Looking forward to tomorrow..!

 Geifer wrote:
This discussion makes me hope the people in charge haven't overdone it with the Peter Pan stuff. I've had very little exposure to Peter Pan. I'd rather not have to catch up on unrelated stuff to get whatever super clever subtext they put in Alien Earth.

I've never seen peter pan before and have little knowledge of it outside of knowing the names of Peter, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. I didn't even catch the Wendy/Lost Boys significance until I saw it mentioned here.
That said, in hindsight, I don't feel like I was missing out on anything crucial, not being familiar with it. It's not a huge plot device or anything. So far they're just names. They could have been called Bob, Rob, Job, Lob and Dob and been apart of the "Sketchy Billionaires Robo Goon Squad" for all the difference it would have made.

 Gert wrote:
Being an arrogant billionaire who faked the death of children to satisfy his urge for a mental peer is pretty malevolent.

While I don't disagree, they could be playing him as one of those "I'm actually so incredibly superduper-slighly-autistic smart that I completely missunderstood that what I was doing is actually really evil" type smart people. Doesn't ignore the morality of it, just actually misses it entirely.

Given the history of the setting, I really doubt that the individual in charge of any of the major corporations is intended to be viewed as anything other than massively flawed, narcissistic and largely without morals.

 Gert wrote:
Being an arrogant billionaire who faked the death of children to satisfy his urge for a mental peer is pretty malevolent.

I’m not sure he did. Sure, Wendy explained it to Merit. But it was their Dad’s decision to entrust her care and healing to Boy Kavalier?