1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,439 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The 3 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 2: When I wrapped up the last Monster Fact episode concerning 6 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 2: the alien universe, I mentioned that I'd be back with 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,160 Speaker 2: at least one more installment. That is, provided alien Romulus 8 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 2: gave us anything new to ponder, and it certainly did so. 9 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 2: Here we are once more going to discuss the many 10 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 2: strange and horrifying ways that xenobiology can interact with human 11 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 2: physiology in this series. Fair warning, this episode is going 12 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 2: to feature spoilers for Romulus, as well as other alien 13 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 2: films and bits of related media. First and foremost, we 14 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 2: have to remember that even the cores morph life cycle 15 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 2: is one of horrific and deadly hybridity. The adult xenomorph 16 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 2: is inherently a combination of alien and host DNA agent 17 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 2: A zero slash thirty nine to fifty nine x point 18 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 2: ninety one slash fifteen. The black goo works as an 19 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 2: evolutionary accelerant on most biological modes of life. In the series, 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 2: pushing them into stranger, more hostile, and more durable forms. 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,320 Speaker 2: So most of the individual forms and lifestyle stages we've 22 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,759 Speaker 2: discussed so far can be thought of as the most 23 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:39,199 Speaker 2: likely forms and morphs of xenomorphic life, but many other 24 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 2: paths are possible. This is especially true when human engineer 25 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:49,600 Speaker 2: or android scientific manipulation changes the shape of things to come. 26 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety seven's Alien Resurrection, set two hundred years 27 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 2: after the events of Alien three in the year twenty 28 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 2: three eighty one, we encounter United Systems military scientists who 29 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 2: have not only created numerous clones of long dead Ellen Ripley, 30 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 2: but also the xenomorph queen that was growing inside her 31 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 2: at the moment of her death. Their results are numerous 32 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 2: Ripley clones with varying degrees of xenomorphic biology, as well 33 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:20,519 Speaker 2: as an alien queen with human reproductive physiology. The latter 34 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,359 Speaker 2: situation results in the birth of a monstrous newborn hybrid, 35 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,080 Speaker 2: a pale humanoid xenomorph with various human features and a 36 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:32,640 Speaker 2: complex emotional state. Much earlier in the Alien timeline and 37 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 2: more recently at our cinemas, we witness the birth of 38 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 2: the offspring hybrid in Alien Romulus We get to this 39 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 2: creature via various missteps. First of all, whalen Utani scientists 40 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 2: managed to isolate the black goo from the remains of 41 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 2: the original Nostromo xenomorph. Then they attempt to engineer it 42 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 2: into a control biohacking agent that alters human physiology to 43 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 2: make them more resilient. Offworld colonists a futurist concept that 44 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 2: we've discussed unstuff to blow your mind before. Instead of 45 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 2: terraforming other worlds into something more like Earth, what if 46 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,600 Speaker 2: we altered ourselves to better fit those worlds, or at 47 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 2: least met them halfway. So give it up to wayaly 48 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:18,399 Speaker 2: Utani solid concept. Their execution, however, falls tragically short of perfection. 49 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 2: In their vanity, they attempted to harness the biotechnological might 50 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:25,959 Speaker 2: of the engineers, and the violent trajectory of the black 51 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 2: Goo could not be contained. We see footage of the 52 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 2: supposedly successful resurrection of a dead lab rat via the 53 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 2: formula let's call it gray Goo, only to later see 54 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 2: the disastrous mutations that the specimen experienced. Now unaware of 55 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 2: the latter complications, the characters in Romulus take off with 56 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,320 Speaker 2: the gray goose samples and sure enough one of them, 57 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 2: K eventually injects it into their own system to bounce 58 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 2: back from an injury. The gray Goo appears to work here, 59 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 2: at least initially. However, the formula affects K's pregnancy, resulting 60 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 2: in the rapid earth and development of a fast growing 61 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:07,160 Speaker 2: alien zeno hybrid referred to as the Offspring, a towering, 62 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 2: misshapen monster with elements of xenomorph human and engineer features. Now, 63 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 2: I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about this creature 64 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 2: design at first, but it has grown on me, and 65 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:20,840 Speaker 2: I've seen that it clearly freaked out and revolted plenty 66 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 2: of viewers, so it's very much serving its purpose in 67 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,640 Speaker 2: the film. So I eagerly await revisiting this creature when 68 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 2: Romulus is released into our homes later this month. Now, 69 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:35,480 Speaker 2: the Romulus scientists we're far from the first to experiment 70 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 2: with the black goo and charge its effects on various organisms. 71 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 2: The engineers, of course, pioneered this science, and the rogue 72 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 2: android David experimented exhaustively on the flora and fauna of 73 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,120 Speaker 2: an engineer home world, before presumably moving on to more 74 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,720 Speaker 2: human centric experimentations on the far flung world of our 75 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 2: Guy six. In David's Notes and Drawings from the Engineer 76 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,960 Speaker 2: World and Covenant, we see exhaustive and increasingly nightmarish records 77 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,479 Speaker 2: of the black Goose effects on native species, as well 78 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 2: as his own manipulation and proposed alterations of human and 79 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 2: engineer physiology with the accelerant and altered strains of xenomorphic life. 80 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,359 Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, one of these images depicts a creature with 81 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 2: the head of an engineer and the body of a xenomorph. 82 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 2: It would seem that David's twisted imagination, if not his 83 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 2: unwholesome experiments, prophesied the romulus offspring decades earlier. You'll see 84 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 2: this illustration, by the way, in the compiled volume David's Drawings, 85 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 2: published in splendid hardback, alongside a softback booklet about the 86 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 2: artists Matt Hatton and Dame Hallett, who created the drawings 87 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 2: and the notes that litter the set of David's laboratory 88 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 2: in the film. The main book is a beautiful, haunting volume, 89 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 2: and the accompanying booklet provides wonderful insight into the visual 90 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 2: design process of the film. Now, the Extended Alien Universe 91 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 2: contains numerous additional hybrid complications. The Alien RPG from Freely 92 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 2: Publishing includes several of these related to the creation of 93 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,920 Speaker 2: the twenty six Dracona strain, a black goo based vaccine 94 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 2: similar to what we see in Romulus, intended in this 95 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:23,960 Speaker 2: case to halt the development of a xenomorphic embryo in 96 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,159 Speaker 2: the human body. In the module Destroyer of Worlds, we 97 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 2: see one complication in which the black goo derivative is 98 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:35,120 Speaker 2: introduced into the body of a human already impregnated by 99 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,400 Speaker 2: a face hugger. The accelerant, they write, serves as a 100 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 2: genetic bridge, resequencing the DNA of human host and xenomorphic 101 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 2: embryo into a single organism, essentially turning the human into 102 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 2: a xenomorph from the inside out. The resulting body burster 103 00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:56,839 Speaker 2: resembles a normal adult xenomorph, but with the skull of 104 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:01,920 Speaker 2: the human host embedded in the creature's cranial dome. This concept, 105 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:06,480 Speaker 2: in essence, originates in William Gibson's unproduced screenplay for Alien three, 106 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 2: and plays on some early hr Giger suit designs for 107 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 2: the original Alien. It's a fitting and horrific concept that 108 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:18,200 Speaker 2: Alien filmmakers should certainly come back to in the future, 109 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 2: all right, that's it for this episode. Tune in for 110 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 2: additional installments of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Anomalogus 111 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 2: Dupendium each week. We'll run an omnibus of the Alien 112 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 2: episodes later this month, and as always, you can email 113 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 2: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 114 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 115 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 116 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.