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Do you think that Ash had an internal receiver that took orders from the

posted 8 years ago by spencerthetracy
6 replies | jump to latest

company explaining why he acted the way he did? Or after knowing the new orders was unable to change his course?

Kay: Senators and presidents don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh, who's being naive, Kay?

[–] dgfan 8 years ago

Just going by what we know Dallas told Ripley that the Science Officer that he had shipped out with before was replaced just days before leaving Thedus with Ash. What I figure is that the ship's course was changed either right before they left Thedus or maybe in flight after the crew had gone into hypersleep. I think it's reasonable to assume that Ash knew of all that before they shipped out. We know that Ash did have access to the computer but we never know when exactly he got it.

[–] spencerthetracy 8 years ago

That makes perfect sense.

I beleive then that since he was the last minute replacement somehow the company discovered the crash on LV426? and wanted to retrieve whatever they could from it.

Thanks.

Kay: Senators and presidents don't have men killed.
Michael: Oh, who's being naive, Kay?

[–] sevenlilxenos 8 years ago

Another unknown variable is when exactly did WY pick up on the SJ's beacon?

Dallas stated he had made the Thedus run 5 times before. Presumably the signal had been broadcasting a very long time. Perhaps a different WY ship on a mission closer to LV426 and within range of the signal picked it up and brought it back to WY.

After whoever picked up the message and WY decoded it, they learned that there may be something of value to be had. The Nostromo may have happened to be the next ship in that general area of space.

I assume they didn't send a scientific crew to LV426 for if the creature was extremely hostile they didn't want to risk losing more valuable WY personal so Ash and a rag tag bunch of WY bottom of the barrel space haulers were the perfect crew to investigate and attempt to retrieve the mysterious creature.

[–] dgfan 8 years ago

Another unknown variable is when exactly did WY pick up on the SJ's beacon?

The way I figure it is that at some time probably a company owned probe or other kind of remote reconnaissance drone intercepted the signal and sent it back to Earth. Exactly when that happened is anyone's guess. Since the Space Jockey was fossilized as Dallas said it's reasonable to assume that signal might have been broadcasting for a very long time. What we don't know is how long it would take for a skeleton to become a fossil on that planet. It might take just a few years or it could take thousands or even longer. From what Lambert said early on in the movie when she was trying to find out where they were is that Zeta II Reticuli was pretty remote and far outside commercial flight paths so it's possible that the signal would have been undiscovered for a very long time just for the simple reason that nobody went there.

Some might raise the question that with all the highly sophisticated listening equipment that we have pointed out into space that how could that signal have gone for who knows how many years and not be discovered? For one, it was necessary for there to be a story, and two the signal might have been weak enough that it was only short range and it broke up so much that it just sounded like background noise that computers were programmed to ignore. At least that's the way I figure it.

[–] AardvarkRatnik 8 years ago

Another possibility is that MUTHR revived Ash before the others so as to relay the Company's orders before putting him back into hibernation so he woke up with the rest of the crew who wouldn't have known what had happened.

[–] sevenlilxenos 8 years ago

While that is of course possible, I always had the inkling that the medical officer on Dallas' last 4 trips was human (given the surprise of Ripley, Parker and Lambert when learning Ash was a robot). So Ash being a last minute replacement would seem to indicate WY knew about the signal before the Nostromo had left Thedus.

OTOH, supporting your suggestion is the fact that MUTHR had Ash's secret order still archived. I've often wondered why WY would allow Dallas/Ripley to access Ash's secret order in an emergency as Ripley did. Seeing how what they were having Ash do was illegal, why keep an accessible record of such unless it had just came in during the flight home?

I've accepted long ago there are some questions raised in Alien that are never answered definitively. Maybe we learn more in Alien Covenant especially since SRS is involved as he was with Prometheus.