William Gibson, cyberpunk's godfather ("Burning Chrome," Neuromancer") once wrote a provocative draft of "Alien 3" which was never used by the studio. 20th Century Fox finally went with a script that was a combination of ideas from Vincent Ward & John Fasano and David Twohy for director David Fincher ("Se7en," Zodiac"), which resulted in a controversial 1992 entry in the "Alien" scifi series.
Titan Books' Alien 3: Unproduced Screenplay by William Gibson, Gibson's action-oriented novelization, is giving it new life. Space.com and Pat Cadigan have adapted the hardback novelization. Here's a sample to get your attention. The draft was never realized, keeping Corporal Hicks & Newt at the fore and Ripley as a supporting character in cryogenic stasis.
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The plot follows the Colonial Marine vessel Sulaco as it travels from LV-426 to Earth. It then drifts into a sector controlled and controlled by the Union of Progressive Peoples, a nation-state caught up in a growing cold war and arms race. U.P.P. U.P.P. The main commando is attacked by a Facehugger, and the team flees. During exit, the android Bishop is grabbed by the team.
The Sulaco docks at Anchorpoint. Anchorpoint is a huge space station and military facility. Unfortunately, it falls under the control of the military's Weapons Division. Xenomorph drones attack scientists and Colonial Marines as they board the Sulaco.
Ripley's cryotube gets smashed during the engagement and she is taken to Anchorpoint where she remains in an induced coma. Newt and Corporal Hicks, who were both injured, are resurrected. Newt is then shipped to Gateway Station to return to Earth. The U.P.P. Bishop is sent to Anchorpoint by the U.P.P., where dangerous hybrid xenomorph-cloning experiments set the stage for acid-spewing disasters.
Take a deep breath and enjoy this excerpt from Titan Books' " Alien 3": The Unproduced Screenplay of William Gibson.
Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay excerpt
The first three capsules were identical: a Marine, a little girl and a woman. The status lights indicated that they were working perfectly. All occupants looked normal. However, the Marine had suffered injuries to his face, upper body and other burns. While most of his injuries were hidden by bandages, he still needed treatment.
However, the last capsule was trouble. Luc Hai did not believe that the condensation inside the lid had been caused by a mistake. It was the same milky-white color as robot-blood. Something was very, very wrong if the top half of robot was there.
Luc Hai watched as Boris tried to open the capsule by pressing his gloved hands under the lid. He was not having much luck and, despite his bulky vacuum suit showing that he did not want any help, his body language clearly showed that he did not want any assistance.
She was fine with him, but she did not want to help him. She knew better than not to try. Boris did not respond well to questions from his subordinates about his actions. However, he would react much less well to a subordinate questioning his actions when he returned home.
Boris let out a frustrated growl and punched the capsule. Luc Hais jaw dropped. Boris was usually gruff but he was calm-gruff and not tolerant of others who were. Instantly, he was jolted from his anger fugue by the impact and brought him back to himself.
He looked at her and let out a faint, embarrassed giggle. This is called percussive mode. I learned it from an engineer.
Luc Hai didn't hear him. The capsule was slightly out of alignment at its base, and she stared at it. The status lights at the end, which were red and green, flickered briefly before going off. The lock was released with a soft click, then the lid of white plastic slowly fell off the bed.
In graceful billows, dense white fog poured over the capsule's edge. Boris tried to drag Luc Hai away from her, but he shook her off and made an emphatic gesture to keep him distance. Half expecting the fog to turn into liquid upon hitting the floor, she took another step back. But it just disintegrated. Boris asked her about her plans to leave, and she saw that the fog had cleared to reveal a strange egg-shaped object in the center of the capsule.
Or, rather, it is growing, its roots undistinguishable form the ragged guts robots upper body.
The egg did not have a hard shell. It looked rubbery and wet like something a reptile would make. Could capitalists have programmed their machines so that they reproduce like robot-lizards. Is it cheaper to have robots make their own food? Unease was growing, and Luc Hai moved behind Boris to get up on his left.
She saw some plastic pieces under the robot's head. This was the remnants of a medical catastrophic injury cocoon. She couldn't help but feel indignant that a machine was being used to provide medical treatment. There were likely two dozen cocoons left unopened in their supply and no one needed them. Not even the Marine.
The robot's head was rolled to the side, and it opened its eyes. It stared directly at her with a look of pain on its face.
Luc Hai felt a strong dropping sensation in her stomach. It didn't matter if the machine was a spacecraft, a centrifuge or a robot that looked human, it could not suffer. His face was covered by her gaze. She then looked at the egg growing from his torso. This was also impossible. Inanimate objects did not grow anything.
The egg's top was suddenly revealed by flaps that suddenly opened with a moist and fleshy sound. Boris took a step back as something emerged from the egg, splashing his face with an ugly, yellowish liquid. Luc Hai jerked back, avoiding a large blob of liquid that landed exactly where it had landed just a few seconds before. It began to eat through the metal, much to her horror. This was quickly drowned out with Boriss' screams.
Luc Hai looked up to see Boris still standing on his feet as the egg sank through the helmet of his helmet and into his skull. It looked like a cross between a snake and jellyfish. As he staggered backwards, his screams became muffled and he clawed at the creature with both of his hands. He then turned around and ran in a slow, clumsy sprint.
Leaving Ashok to fend himself, Luc Hai closed the lid on her helmet and followed him into the passageway. She hoped it was safe. Although her helmet was filled by the sound of her terrified breathing, she could still hear Boris' cries of pain as the he ran towards the cargo deck. He did this in an off-balance and stumbling run that sometimes hit one wall, then rebounded off the other.
He was still waiting, and she waited for him to fall. She wondered what she would do if he fell, and how she could help him. He made it to the cargo deck and continued on for nearly half an hour before finally falling face-first three meters from an EMERGENCY ONLY airlock.
Luc Hai used her rifle barrel to roll Boris onto her back. As the creature's body pulsed, his hands made a few tentative swipes at it. Maybe those were just spasms. He couldn't be alive with a monster eating him head.
She slung her rifle and hesitated. Boris wasn't interested in her, but it was disrespectful to shoot him in his face after all the things they had been through together.
Hed have also ordered her to ensure that the thing was dead, no matter who it was landed on.
She moved out of the way of blowback, took aim, and then closed her eyes when she pulled the trigger.
The metal deck beneath was being dissolved faster than the bloody tissue and bone fragments, as well as the helmet, were dissolving more rapidly than the metal deck below. There were smaller holes that opened around the places where pieces of the creature had fallen, and the hissing became almost thunderous. Luc Hai couldn't hear her own grunts as she dragged Boris along one leg towards the nearest airlock. She was desperate to save him from falling apart.
Luc Hai hit OPEN beside the hatch to apologize to Boris and shoved him into an airlock. Then he punched EMERGENCY EXPEL. As the inner door closed, a red light flashed overhead and a siren went off. Luc Hai closed her eyes and felt the vibration when the airlock opened, releasing Boris' body into the void.
As the outer hatch was closed, the siren stopped and the airlock was repressurized. Luc Hai sat still, counting her breaths, and pleading for her heart to slow down. She needed to take a few seconds to get her sh*t together, even though her commando training would not allow her to fall apart until she was back at her quarters.
It was a simple mission to get intel, stream the data, then get out. They left no trace of any air they had displaced. It was a simple mission and as safe as any spy mission could be.
Safety was supposed to be a top priority. Safe should have been the goal. Safer if they just established a data transfer conduit on the cargo deck and didn't investigate anything else on board. They would have been back at the interceptor monitoring the Sulaco's big data stream. Boris would have been sharing his mistakes with them, in between the bullshit fairy tales of his Bolshevik ancestor. They wouldn't have been flying headless through space, but they would have been entertained. While Ashok
As she realized that she wasn't alone, her heart started beating faster. She was so stunned, she didn't even notice that something was following her. She hadn't noticed that the sound of acid eating through metal wasn't as loud as she thought. Luc Hai took a deep breath and stood up, before she turned around.
Standing at the mouth, the monster had several limbs that sprouted at strange angles from a bulky top two legs. She raised her weapon and the monster stepped forward, carrying Ashok in his arms. The right half.
Ashok was so intelligent, she thought. They could legally confiscate the robot as suspicious tech aboard a spacecraft that was trespassing and it would contain data that was not in the ships computers. The UPP would have a greater advantage than they thought.
Ashok secured the robot in the quarantine container when they returned to the interceptor. To be safe, they went through decontam three more times on their return trip. Luc Hai could not forget the image of the robots' faces. Although she told herself not to anthropomorphize the robot, she could not forget how relieved she felt when they closed the quarantine and it didn't look like it was suffering any more.
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