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Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Also…has the show joined the hallowed Andor as a show universally enjoyed by Dakkanauts?
Only 3 episodes in. There is still time.
I have some issues so far, but going to wait for the full body of work because I love the showrunners work with Fargo and I've heard good things about Legion, though I never watched that one.
I'm much the same. I don't think the writers respect the laws of physics*, which effortlessly puts them on my naughty list. The question is whether the good parts outweigh that in the end.
* --->
Spoiler:
The xenomorph can effortlessly knock over a heavy ass steel cargo container but lets itself get dragged around by a 50kg synth girl. Right.
Nehekhara lives! Sort of!
Why is the rum always gone?
I am still holding out for a cross alien hybrid where T.O. infects the plant thing and makes Audrey III. Cue Musical Episode.
Spoiler:
Wendy’s connection to Xenomorphs. I was wondering if it could be related to her illness?
My only gripe is the sixty-five year old transceiver that manages to connect to a distant ‘secure facility’ island.
It’s weird that they haven’t given the kids any kind of psychological counselling/ debrief. Not simply from a caring perspective but more a scientific perspective.
I’m hoping BK just wants her to read some books on philosophy…but it have a suspicion it might be rather more sordid than that.
Legion is available on Disney+ . Highly recommended.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/08/20 21:11:46
I haven't been this happy - delighted, really - with a series in a long, long time. It keeps flashing through my mind as I watch: they know what they're doing! At least for the first three episodes, anyway. Loved all three.
I really needed this. Sometimes the fates really are kind.
Dakkadakka: Bringing wargamers together, one smile at a time.™
Wendy’s connection to Xenomorphs. I was wondering if it could be related to her illness?
Spoiler:
I don't think it's a connection at all, just a side effect of her super-acute hearing (revealed in episode 1 or 2 when they showed her doing a hearing test and said she was way above the human range). So she's hearing the aliens communicate at a level that everyone else can't register.
Her collapse at the end of ep 3 is presumably just because it was loud and painful enough to be debilitating.
I could be wrong, but that's how it looks so far to me.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
I still think Romulus provided the most interesting answer there.
It’s not the Xenomorph, so much as the Prometheus Black Goo, Xenomorphs being the current sole source thereof, that’s of interest.
If you can harness that, you can make colonists better suited to their colony world’s environment. That increases profits and saves lives. Probably with interest in that exact order.
But even so? The critters seen in Alien Earth are of course like no native flora or fauna. What breakthroughs might their unique biologies throw up?
Consider the Horseshoe Crab. Their blood is used in modern medicine, and no other critter’s blood offers the same properties.
So like anything new? What is it? What does it do? How does it do it? Are there any beneficial traits there, expected or unexpected? Can we isolate them to understand the chemical/biological process underlying it? Can that be synthesised, or do we need more, erm, raw materials?
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Really good third episode for the most part. The hybrid acting is really well done. Anyone else wondering what the deal is with the guy constantly washing the wall?
Spoiler:
Still not liking the weirdly schizophrenic xenomorph with a level of aggression tuned to the plot requirements of the scene. There are a few issues with the cyborg too. He's clearly intelligent and resourceful but seems confused by the fact the Yutani he knows is dead since it's been 65 years since he left Earth. On that note, I do wonder how he knows about modern technology and how it works, especially the scene where he securely dials into WY using a stolen phone. Imagine someone from 1960 trying to do that with a modern mobile. Also, the comm device he attached to Slightly annoyed me. Apart from the ease with which a 65-year old piece of tech apparently avoids detection in a secure facility, there's the fact he randomly starts communicating with Slightly without knowing where he is. As far as the cyborg knows he's sitting in a room with all the other hybrids and a bunch of scientists when he decides to announce himself.
I am liking the approach to the xenomorphs though. It's the first time we've actually seen vaguely competent science being done on them. That said, it did seem a touch irresponsible to let BK get so close to an egg before telling him how dangerous it was.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Definitely intrigued what the wall washer is doing.
Kinda reminds of Lu-Tze from Discworld. Nobody notices the sweeper, after all….
On the others?
Spoiler:
The Cyborg had just uploaded a load of files into his bonce. So I’m happy to chalk that one up to “brain is full, simple things shoved out for important files”.
Others are valid. If we’re looking at a single Xenomorph - and I’m not sure we are! We see someone in a cryo-tube that became the not at all proud parent to a bouncing baby killing machine. And we see what I think was the result of at least an attempt to remove the Chestburster before it let itself out like a big boy.
So perhaps (and I’ll admit credulity is at least slightly stretched here), the one surgically removed is a bit stunted in brain growth, allowing for odd behaviour, compared to its full term sibling? Haven’t at all persuaded myself here, but it’s possible, I guess.
Cyborg’s sneaky implant thing mildly irks me as well. Though on the “how did he know the hybrid was alone”? He can clearly use it to hear the person it’s on. So I’m ok assuming he was listening out for periods of silence.
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Mr. Hawley likes to put background characters into the foreground later in the series... but, I have a buddy who worked in Thailand for about 6 years and he said they had guys spraying for mold before the rainy season kicked in and right after.
This guy could be a metaphor for humanity's struggle against biological lifeforms that are hostile to human life (like black mold)...
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
I’m intrigued that they left the crash site this quickly, I figured that would be the main location for the series.
Despite occasional cliched moments, this feels like it’s turning into a very good show. It weirdly feels like a bit of a slow burn, despite the fact that plot elements are moving at a reasonable pace.
Zed wrote: *All statements reflect my opinion at this moment. if some sort of pretty new model gets released (or if I change my mind at random) I reserve the right to jump on any bandwagon at will.
Souleater wrote: As someone who’s only watched the films: why are the corporations so obsessed with the Xenomorphs as a weapon?
Acid-proof combat droids with guns and melee are well within their technical capabilities.
It's in a lot of ways a creeping specter in the franchise that I'd argue has sort of become a mythos plot tumor;
-Alien never explains why 'the company' wanted the Alien except vaguely as a specimen, and really how much they knew about it was obscure. Great movie.
-Aliens, the company seems to have forgotten about it entirely (no one went looking until Burke tried following up on Ripley's testimony, apparently). It's only vaguely suggested here the Alien could be worth something as a bioweapon, which has about as much sense as weaponized velociraptors but w/e. Great movie.
-Alien Cubed, we're not really told why 'the company' wants it yet again, simply that they do and how much they know about it is obscure. It's not a great movie.
-Buffy the Alien Slayer is just a gakky movie that doesn't even fething try and is honestly kind of better off for plain not trying.
-Alien Romulus rounds back to Prometheus, providing a solid impetus for why the company wants the Alien and what they want to do with it.
In essence, each film in the series has either not given a gak why the alien is important. Sometimes 'the company' is just a nefarious boogeyman vaguely in the film's background whose reasons, motives, and methods are essentially Lovecraftian. Other times it's bioweapon or research reasons. Other times it's 'just cause idk look they're fighting aliens underwater now!'
To a certain extent, the obsession with the Xenomorph starts bordering on the utterly asinine (it keeps killing everything and everyone who feths with it and you're getting nowhere, stop fething with it). So I feel you, but at least this series seems to be setting up how the Xenomorph came to Weyland-Yutani's awareness in the first place. The first film implied someone had already been to LV426, which may well be the ship in the series, and it's trying to procure another sample that motivated the events of Alien and that this series will round back to explaining 'the company's initial interest.
Jadenim wrote: I’m intrigued that they left the crash site this quickly, I figured that would be the main location for the series.
Despite occasional cliched moments, this feels like it’s turning into a very good show. It weirdly feels like a bit of a slow burn, despite the fact that plot elements are moving at a reasonable pace.
That the series draws so many illusions to Peter Pan I took as an indicator that 'Neverland' would be the primary setting. And yeah. Ep3 slowed down compared to ep 1 and 2 but that's only a problem if the whole series then slows to a crawl.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/08/21 22:36:45
The schizophrenic Alien, the horrible action scene, the sometimes acid blood. Why did they go thru the whole process of removing the embryo from the egg to implant into a single lung rather than just tossing one egg into a room with a sheep and seeing what happens? Like, how did they even know specifically to look for the embryo, that it could survive submerged in liquid, etc. I liked the android’s “Don’t stick your face next to the egg” speech and their “no humans allowed in this room” protocol they then enacted, but everything after that felt like Too much knowledge on the subject. Also Wendy’s unique super hearing the others don’t have, and no one apparently noticing she came into the room during surgery and passed out twitching on the floor behind them.
The schizophrenic Alien, the horrible action scene, the sometimes acid blood. Why did they go thru the whole process of removing the embryo from the egg to implant into a single lung rather than just tossing one egg into a room with a sheep and seeing what happens? Like, how did they even know specifically to look for the embryo, that it could survive submerged in liquid, etc. I liked the android’s “Don’t stick your face next to the egg” speech and their “no humans allowed in this room” protocol they then enacted, but everything after that felt like Too much knowledge on the subject. Also Wendy’s unique super hearing the others don’t have, and no one apparently noticing she came into the room during surgery and passed out twitching on the floor behind them.
Spoiler:
Anyone else notice that the embryo burrowing into the lung would've killed the host?
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
Jadenim wrote: I’m intrigued that they left the crash site this quickly, I figured that would be the main location for the series.
Despite occasional cliched moments, this feels like it’s turning into a very good show. It weirdly feels like a bit of a slow burn, despite the fact that plot elements are moving at a reasonable pace.
That the series draws so many illusions to Peter Pan I took as an indicator that 'Neverland' would be the primary setting. And yeah. Ep3 slowed down compared to ep 1 and 2 but that's only a problem if the whole series then slows to a crawl.
If it's set before Alien they kind of have to keep Alien Earth's story contained and largely out of the public eye. A spaceship crash in the setting is probably no different than a plane crash nowadays. Happens rarely, but does happen. Besides, they named the thing after a Frenchman. It was bound to end in catastrophe. Move along. Nothing to see here.
It seems Prodigy also flew in the surviving first responders that came into contact with the ship's cargo. And with our android buddy determined to make his way to Neverland everything is nicely contained on a remote island and whatever mayhem ensues can be neatly swept under a rug. Possibly nuked from orbit, just to be sure.
Nehekhara lives! Sort of!
Why is the rum always gone?
The schizophrenic Alien, the horrible action scene, the sometimes acid blood. Why did they go thru the whole process of removing the embryo from the egg to implant into a single lung rather than just tossing one egg into a room with a sheep and seeing what happens? Like, how did they even know specifically to look for the embryo, that it could survive submerged in liquid, etc. I liked the android’s “Don’t stick your face next to the egg” speech and their “no humans allowed in this room” protocol they then enacted, but everything after that felt like Too much knowledge on the subject. Also Wendy’s unique super hearing the others don’t have, and no one apparently noticing she came into the room during surgery and passed out twitching on the floor behind them.
Well…
Spoiler:
On too much knowledge? He had reviewed and recorded the ship’s data logs. We see from the initial exploration of the ship that research had been done.
Presumably, he’s picking up wherever that left off. No need to conduct the same experiment twice, provided the records of that experiment seem thorough in methodology and that. Not when you’ve currently limited stock to work with.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/22 10:38:45
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Anyone else notice that the embryo burrowing into the lung would've killed the host?
Spoiler:
To be fair, it was free swimming in a tank. It would normally have been placed directly inside some appropriate tissue by the facehugger, so no burrowing required. Although I had always assumed it was somewhere in the oesophagus, rather than the lung? Having said that, the lungs have an incredible blood supply, so using them as a pseudo-placenta would have a logic.
Zed wrote: *All statements reflect my opinion at this moment. if some sort of pretty new model gets released (or if I change my mind at random) I reserve the right to jump on any bandwagon at will.
If it's set before Alien they kind of have to keep Alien Earth's story contained and largely out of the public eye. A spaceship crash in the setting is probably no different than a plane crash nowadays. Happens rarely, but does happen. Besides, they named the thing after a Frenchman. It was bound to end in catastrophe. Move along. Nothing to see here.
It seems Prodigy also flew in the surviving first responders that came into contact with the ship's cargo. And with our android buddy determined to make his way to Neverland everything is nicely contained on a remote island and whatever mayhem ensues can be neatly swept under a rug. Possibly nuked from orbit, just to be sure.
Yeah, I'm expecting that whenever this all winds up, it finishes with Wayland Yutani wiping the island off the map to keep it all under wraps.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
It needn’t be so dramatic.
Another outcome is that Weyland-Yutani interrupts the Nostromo, because it loses everything to Boy Kavalier. They’re yet to recover the data held in Morrow. If he comes a cropper, or it turns out his implants and upgrades are faulty, and/or they never recover the live specimens? You’ve reason enough there to direct whichever ship you own that’s nearest to where the samples were originally found. Heck, that order could already have been given. Even before the Maginot had its little accident (insurance, we’d like a second shipment pls universe), or as soon as Weyland-Yutani knew something had gone wrong. Given hypersleep, the sheer scale of space and subliminal speeds? It’s entirely possible the Nostromo was still the closest ship possible.
By the time of Aliens, where we’ve ostensibly learned more of Earth in that time (but we never actually see it), more could’ve happened. Including Prodigy figuring the creatures are just far too dangerous, terminating the specimens and experiments. Which could come at any point in that currently 59 year span.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/22 21:10:07
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I think we're ignoring the really big technology question here.
It's not synthetic people vs cyborgs, implantation of alien zygotes, or why Mu/th/er can't autopilot.
No, the real question is
Spoiler:
What the hell was Wendy's guillotine (paper cutter blade) made from? How did it survive being plunged into a xenomorph, and still be able to behead one! If TO doesn't get to kill a Xenomorph by throwing a board rubber at it...I'm going to be a little disapponted...
I'm really enjoying the series despite one or two gripes.
My favourite character is definitely Timothy Oliphant's SP. The dry sense of humour. The 'I'm better than you but I'm not going to be so crude as to say...but I am actually telling you that...' of the character is a nice change from the 'I've gone made and started slaughering meatsacks schtick'
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/08/22 20:51:36
I've noticed that the black goo hasn't made an appearance in dialogue, are they skipping over the odd prequel stuff that contradicted the original film, or are they sticking closer to the original Alien/Aliens?
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
Lathe Biosas wrote: I've noticed that the black goo hasn't made an appearance in dialogue, are they skipping over the odd prequel stuff that contradicted the original film, or are they sticking closer to the original Alien/Aliens?
I don't think we can really know yet if they will/won't bring up the goo. This is before the events of Romulus so maybe these events play into the company's search for the stuff/how they even became aware of it to begin with.
On the whole, while Romulus actually made something plot coherent come of the black gunk, I would not shed a tear over all future alien properties acting as if Prometheus and Covenant never happened.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/22 22:11:07
Another outcome is that Weyland-Yutani interrupts the Nostromo, because it loses everything to Boy Kavalier. They’re yet to recover the data held in Morrow. If he comes a cropper, or it turns out his implants and upgrades are faulty, and/or they never recover the live specimens? You’ve reason enough there to direct whichever ship you own that’s nearest to where the samples were originally found. Heck, that order could already have been given. Even before the Maginot had its little accident (insurance, we’d like a second shipment pls universe), or as soon as Weyland-Yutani knew something had gone wrong. Given hypersleep, the sheer scale of space and subliminal speeds? It’s entirely possible the Nostromo was still the closest ship possible.
By the time of Aliens, where we’ve ostensibly learned more of Earth in that time (but we never actually see it), more could’ve happened. Including Prodigy figuring the creatures are just far too dangerous, terminating the specimens and experiments. Which could come at any point in that currently 59 year span.
Thing is, the more people know a secret, the harder it is to keep it secret. Particularly when some of them are not on your side.
Regardless of whether or not Wayland Yutani manage to recover their specimens (and it would certainly make sense that they don't, leading to the Nostramo's diversion) Prodigy needs to be eliminated to keep things quiet.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: He’s definitely closer to Bishop in portrayal. Personable enough, but kind of without ego.
No, he definitely has ego, he's just polite enough to not generally rub the humans' faces in his clear superiority. But they've been fairly clear in showing that he considers humans as lesser beings. He's Bishop without the extra subservience programming.
Watched the 3rd ep last night. Was not impressed by the
Spoiler:
Wendy/Xenomorph fight. The whole scene was flawed.
-First it flips a shipping container around with no effort. Then can't even pull a single biped opponent off her feet. Even if we give Wendy the benefit of the doubt and assume that her new Synth body is significantly heavier (and stronger) then a human equivalent, it still should have been a pretty one sided fight.
-Also, why was it trying to pull away from her? It could have just as easily jumped onto her, pinned her down and then went stabby stabby with its tail.
-On that note, what happened to its tail? It suddenly too short to reach past its head? Pah.
Other then that, a strong 3rd episode.
I did like the
Spoiler:
eggs/facehuggers not reacting to synths. That's not something I've given much thought to before as I don't think we've ever seen androids/synth interact with the eggs. Combined with the scene from Romulus where they evade the facehuggers in the corridor, it adds an interesting limitation to that stage of the Xenomorph lifecycle.
Lathe Biosas wrote: I've noticed that the black goo hasn't made an appearance in dialogue, are they skipping over the odd prequel stuff that contradicted the original film, or are they sticking closer to the original Alien/Aliens?
The schizophrenic Alien, the horrible action scene, the sometimes acid blood.
-If you're referring to after the fight scene where they've got the dead alien on the trolley, wheeling it into the facility, I'm prepared to assume that the aliens blood goes inert(?) after a certain amount of time exposed to air/non-internal body conditions. Maybe the coagulation process for xenomorph blood alkalises it? Returns it to a base level Ph?
I'm not sure on the correct terminology, for as much as I enjoyed it, chemistry was not a strong subject for me.
Spoiler:
Why did they go thru the whole process of removing the embryo from the egg to implant into a single lung rather than just tossing one egg into a room with a sheep and seeing what happens? Like, how did they even know specifically to look for the embryo, that it could survive submerged in liquid, etc. I liked the android’s “Don’t stick your face next to the egg” speech and their “no humans allowed in this room” protocol they then enacted, but everything after that felt like Too much knowledge on the subject.
-I agree with MDG, Kirsh had read all the files the previous crew had collated on the various alien species. He was working from an informed position and either knew exactly what he was looking for, or otherwise correctly extrapolated what he had to do.
I did like the way he took charge with BK and pushed him out of the lab. Shows he's not prepared to fool around with things he doesn't yet fully understand. And I think actually shows that BK has at least a modicum of trust in those he delegates too. Or at least a level of trust in Kirsh. He allows himself to be ejected from the lab without throwing a tantrum and doing the the usual billionaire thing of "you can't tell me what to do!" when they're separated from their new toys. While he might not like it, he accepts Kirsh's judgement on the matter and is instantly prepared to roll with it.
Spoiler:
and no one apparently noticing she came into the room during surgery and passed out twitching on the floor behind them.
-That scene might not be as linear as we're lead to believe. I don't think Kirsh just stepped over her without on his way out. There's something else going on in that scene and I'll not be at all surprised if the 4th episode starts with Wendy being rushed back to lab for further diagnostics/debugging/etc.
You know given the general weirdness of the whole scene, what with the audio interference Wendy's getting, along with Kirsh and the others not registering she'd entered the lab and subsequently ignoring her collapse. I'd not be shocked if the entire thing turns out to be some sort of synth fever dream bought on by... whatever.
Lathe Biosas wrote: I've noticed that the black goo hasn't made an appearance in dialogue, are they skipping over the odd prequel stuff that contradicted the original film, or are they sticking closer to the original Alien/Aliens?
I don't think we can really know yet if they will/won't bring up the goo. This is before the events of Romulus so maybe these events play into the company's search for the stuff/how they even became aware of it to begin with.
On the whole, while Romulus actually made something plot coherent come of the black gunk, I would not shed a tear over all future alien properties acting as if Prometheus and Covenant never happened.
It’s also not clear in Romulus how the black goo is harvested.
We know it’s obtained from the Xenomorph. Seemingly the Face Huggers specifically if memory of that scene serves. And there’s the “no other explanation has been offered” assumption that between the end of Covenant, and the events leading up to Romulus, the company learns of the Black Goo. Yet we still don’t know how, exactly.
Though perhaps the crew of the Prometheus had been uploading clips of their antics to Future Space YouTube, that footage found it’s way to Fail Army, which was being watched by a Weyland-Yutani Intern on their lunch, when in comedy film stylings a Big Wig walked past, saw the “hey, let’s sniff the mystery substance” and started getting ideas.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Also…has the show joined the hallowed Andor as a show universally enjoyed by Dakkanauts?
Only 3 episodes in. There is still time.
I have some issues so far, but going to wait for the full body of work because I love the showrunners work with Fargo and I've heard good things about Legion, though I never watched that one.
I'm much the same. I don't think the writers respect the laws of physics*, which effortlessly puts them on my naughty list. The question is whether the good parts outweigh that in the end.
* --->
Spoiler:
The xenomorph can effortlessly knock over a heavy ass steel cargo container but lets itself get dragged around by a 50kg synth girl. Right.
On the spoilered bit?
Spoiler:
As ever, if I’m thinking of the same bit of the scene? When they’re wrestling, she’s got it by the pharyngeal jaw. We know she has super strength. Add to that a useful pressure point and I’m much more forgiving of that scene.
Doesn’t make it suddenly entirely realistic of course. But it’s sufficient for my suspension of disbelief to not require toxic amounts of salt.
And to add Srunb’s observation on other steps it could’ve taken? I’m happy enough that whilst a bit silly, it’s within “it’s a creature of instinct when solitary” tolerances for me. Again if we apply my pressure point argument, and perhaps add in she’s the one that stabbed it so perhaps it’s mildly cautious of her as a result?
Only argument and opinion. Not intended to be taken as cast iron fact and that.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also it did put me in mind of this classic fight.
And yes. Ade Edmondson is in both shows.
Eddie vs Xenomorph, pls!
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2025/08/23 04:57:51
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