1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,439 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lham, and this is The 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 2: We recently finished an eight part look at many of 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,400 Speaker 2: the various creatures from the alien universe here on The 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,240 Speaker 2: Monster Fact. We did that mostly leading up to the 8 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 2: debut of the twenty twenty four film Alien Romulus, and 9 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 2: now we're busting out the omnibus episode of The Monster 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 2: Fact Alien Episodes that lines up with the video on 11 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:45,840 Speaker 2: demand release of the film. So I hope you enjoy 12 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 2: these episodes if you listen to them previously or if 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 2: you are listening to them for the first time. The 14 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 2: omnibus episodes of The Monster Fact are all about taking 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 2: the previous shorts and stitching them together Frankenstein style into 16 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 2: one long episode. I understand some of you prefer to 17 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 2: listen to these episodes in that format, and so this 18 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 2: is for you. Without further ado, let's jump right in, 19 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 2: beginning with part one. The Engineers in this episode will 20 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 2: begin a multi installment exploration of the various strange forms 21 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 2: found in the Alien universe. I previously wrote about xenomorph 22 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:29,760 Speaker 2: biology in the article how the Alien Xenomorph Works back 23 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 2: in twenty twelve for the website how Stuff Works. That 24 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,680 Speaker 2: article is still there in full, accompanied by illustrations authorized 25 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,960 Speaker 2: by the hr Giger Museum, and as I work up 26 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,119 Speaker 2: to various considerations of how natural world biology is reflected 27 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 2: in or matches up to the xenomorph, I'll likely draw 28 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,200 Speaker 2: on some of the same ideas, but I also plan 29 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 2: to touch on various additional natural world and mythological connections, 30 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 2: as well as such sources as the twenty seventeen film 31 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 2: Alien Covenant and the excellent Alien RPG source books from 32 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 2: Free League Publishing. I want to add the caveat that 33 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 2: I am not setting out to wrangle all the lore 34 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 2: here or to provide you with a one hundred percent 35 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 2: canonical take on everything. You have no shortage of wikis 36 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 2: and lore videos for that. The Monster Fact Journey will 37 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 2: touch on a lot of the same themes and information, 38 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,399 Speaker 2: but will also reflect my own thoughts and obsessions as 39 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 2: a fan. With all that in mind, let's start at 40 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 2: the beginning with the Enigmatic Engineers, an elder race of 41 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 2: spacefaring humanoids. The Engineers have largely vanished from the portion 42 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:44,520 Speaker 2: of the galaxy traversed by twenty second century terans. It 43 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 2: is unknown what they call themselves, but accounts whisper the 44 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 2: names Malakak and Ossians, While informal names such as space 45 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 2: jockeys and universal pilots also abound. The term engineer, used 46 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 2: by doctor Ilizzabeth's Shaw of the Doomed Prometheus expedition, has 47 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,799 Speaker 2: stuck in the few circles allowed to know of them. Pale, 48 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 2: hairless giants of uncanny statuesque perfection. The engineers are thought 49 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 2: to have worn modest clothing on their home worlds, but 50 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:22,239 Speaker 2: donned more exotic, biomechanical space suits during their interstellar voyages. 51 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:27,519 Speaker 2: Suits that seemingly melded with their bodies, fused with their organs, 52 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 2: and via their strange helms, gave them the outer appearance 53 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 2: of a trunked elephantic head. They were or are, masters 54 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 2: of not only interstellar travel, but also biotechnology, able to 55 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 2: generate new forms of life, program genetics, master evolutionary process 56 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 2: augment their own bodies, and craft terrifying bioweapons beyond the 57 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 2: scope of even the most advanced whalen Utani weapon lab 58 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 2: within the wrecked Juggernaut found on planet LV four T 59 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 2: one twenty six crew members from the Nostromo encountered the 60 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:07,120 Speaker 2: long dead remains of a very large engineer, with evidence 61 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,800 Speaker 2: of an explosive emergence from its chest, as well as 62 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 2: thousands of eggs. Prior to this, the crew of the 63 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 2: Prometheus encountered even more artifacts of the engineers, and even 64 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 2: a lone living specimen preserved in some advanced form of 65 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 2: suspended animation. The android David, one of the few survivors 66 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 2: of that mission, went on to study their works more exhaustively, 67 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 2: decimating one of their inhabited worlds in the process. As such, 68 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 2: we have much more to go on than the crew 69 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:39,719 Speaker 2: of the Nostroma, but much about the engineers remains clouded 70 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:44,239 Speaker 2: in mystery. Members of their species seemingly seated the planet 71 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 2: Earth with life long ago, and as such are our progenitors, 72 00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 2: and then much later members of their species seem to 73 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:55,640 Speaker 2: decide to end that life instead. The rationale for either 74 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,559 Speaker 2: impulse is a matter of debate, but we find many 75 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,560 Speaker 2: ideas in the realities of human nature and our own 76 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:06,160 Speaker 2: impulses to murder and create. We know from various engineer 77 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 2: artworks that they held their own form in high regard, 78 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 2: perhaps even worshiping themselves or deities dreampt of in their 79 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 2: own image. But they also held strange and dangerous forms 80 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 2: of life in seemingly high regard as well, forms that 81 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:26,480 Speaker 2: resemble the xenomorphic creature spawned from their biotechnology. Did they 82 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:29,720 Speaker 2: use their advanced understanding of life to create life forms 83 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 2: that reflected their dark beliefs? Did they harness the raw 84 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 2: biological power of some pre existing life form? We simply 85 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:42,000 Speaker 2: don't know. The Alien RPG source book ruminates on these 86 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:45,039 Speaker 2: questions as well as others. Is there indeed a single 87 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:50,240 Speaker 2: engineer species and or culture or many? Are there? Different breeds? 88 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 2: Are there different casts? Is the space jockey individual found 89 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 2: on LV four to twenty six merely a large specimen, 90 00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 2: a subspecies or something else? Again, all this is shrouded 91 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 2: and delicious mystery, as it should be. The engineers are 92 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 2: often invoked as gods, demi gods, or, indeed, as the 93 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:14,920 Speaker 2: invocation of Prometheus implies, Titans. The Titans of Greek mythology were, 94 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,640 Speaker 2: of course, the pre Olympic gods cast down by Zeus 95 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 2: in the Epic War known as the Titanomachi. Afterwards, the 96 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,920 Speaker 2: gods imprisoned many of the Titans in Tartarus, while others 97 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 2: remained free. The individual nature of the Titans varied from 98 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 2: brutal Chronos to the culture bearing tricks, to Prometheus, who 99 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:39,200 Speaker 2: in some tellings created human beings but is also credited 100 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 2: with giving them the gift of fire or fire technology. 101 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:46,280 Speaker 2: This is a common trope in many different cultures, so 102 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 2: even in invoking the Engineers as Titans, a certain mystery remains. 103 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 2: Are they are creators? Are benefactors, cruel former masters of 104 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 2: the cosmos? Maybe all of the above. In the film Prometheus, 105 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 2: the Ers are explored in a manner clearly partially inspired 106 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:07,960 Speaker 2: by the pseudoscientific ancient astronaut hypothesis, and I personally think 107 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,240 Speaker 2: science fiction is the right place to deploy these concepts. 108 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 2: While the idea that aliens visited the Earth in ancient 109 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 2: or prehistoric times carries no weight in serious consideration of history, mythology, 110 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 2: or science. Please see our past Stuffable Your Mind episodes 111 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 2: for more on this. It's all fair game. In a 112 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:30,800 Speaker 2: twisting tale of futuristic fictional space horror, the Engineers provide 113 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 2: us with a great Elder race for the alien universe, 114 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:39,880 Speaker 2: shrouded in mystery, ultimately unknowable and untrustworthy. In the films 115 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 2: that follow the life of the Android David, they also 116 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,239 Speaker 2: serve as a fitting contemplation point for humanity's own place 117 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 2: in the universe as a creator of artificial life and 118 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 2: an expansionist terraforming civilization in decline. Look on their works, 119 00:07:55,560 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 2: Ye Mighty and Despair. All right, now, let's move on 120 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 2: to Part two, The Black Goo. In the previous episode 121 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 2: of The Monster Fact, we began our alien series with 122 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 2: a look at the mysterious Engineers. Today we'll turn to 123 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:23,120 Speaker 2: this Elder race's most dangerous creation, a highly volatile genetic 124 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 2: accelerant classified by human researchers as Agent A zero thirty 125 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 2: nine fifty nine x point ninety one dash fifteen. In 126 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 2: its purest form, this so called black goo does in 127 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,680 Speaker 2: fact resemble a viscous tar like material or liquid. Human 128 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:44,200 Speaker 2: explorers first discovered the substance amid the ruins of an 129 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 2: engineer outpost on the planet designated LV two twenty three. 130 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,479 Speaker 2: They found the gou and coretets of glass like vials 131 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:58,560 Speaker 2: secured in steatide ampules or urns. The engineers had secured 132 00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 2: it there like a precious tread me, like the remains 133 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,920 Speaker 2: of the dead, like a devastating bioweapon, the pinnacle of 134 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 2: the engineer's advanced biotechnology. We can even think of agent 135 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:12,800 Speaker 2: A zero thirty nine to fifty nine x point ninety 136 00:09:12,840 --> 00:09:16,559 Speaker 2: one slash fifteen as a kind of biological AI that 137 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 2: reprograms everything it touches, perhaps following specific instructions, general directions, 138 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:27,559 Speaker 2: or left entirely to its own generative impulses. As revealed 139 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 2: in the film's Prometheus and Alien Covenant, and as discussed 140 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:36,640 Speaker 2: in Freely Publishing's Alien RPG, the black Goo aggressively recodes DNA, 141 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 2: rapidly transforming individual organisms, species, and entire ecosystems. When exposed 142 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:47,800 Speaker 2: to the atmosphere, it atomizes and spreads as an aerosol, 143 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 2: but may also be further manipulated in liquid form if 144 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:55,440 Speaker 2: handled with proper expertise. High level exposure to the substance 145 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 2: generally spells instant death for organic beings. Select engineers are 146 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,240 Speaker 2: to have ritualistically ingested the substance in its pure, concentrated 147 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:08,079 Speaker 2: liquid form to seed new worlds, allowing the black good 148 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 2: to rapidly break down their bodies and spend new life 149 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:15,680 Speaker 2: forms out of the genetic pieces. Likewise, when weaponized, aerial 150 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 2: bombardments of the steatide ampules quickly laid waste to entire populations, 151 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 2: finally twisting the life forms at the peripheries of the 152 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 2: attack into dangerous new creatures. At lower exposure levels, the 153 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 2: Black Goose steadily mutates human beings into zombie like forms 154 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 2: known as abominations, noted for their increasingly aggressive behavior, enhance strength, 155 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,800 Speaker 2: elongated limbs, and swelling craniums. They are also able to 156 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 2: pass on their rampage in genetics through different infection routes, 157 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:49,679 Speaker 2: as we'll explore in the next episode. It's impossible to 158 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 2: know exactly how the engineers regarded the Black Good, but 159 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,679 Speaker 2: we might best understand it, like many forms of technology, 160 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,360 Speaker 2: as having tremendous potential to destroy or create. It can 161 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 2: enable the seating of whole new worlds with the divergent 162 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:04,679 Speaker 2: genes of a single donor. But it can also be 163 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:08,240 Speaker 2: a weapon of terrifying power, wiping out most life on 164 00:11:08,280 --> 00:11:13,120 Speaker 2: a world and reprogramming the surviving biome into aggressive monstrosities 165 00:11:13,280 --> 00:11:17,440 Speaker 2: that steadily grind all life to its end. But let's 166 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:20,680 Speaker 2: set aside metaphors and interpretations, and consider a few additional 167 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 2: takes on black goo. With all of these extraterrestrial horrors 168 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:27,480 Speaker 2: now running through your brain, you might find it a 169 00:11:27,520 --> 00:11:30,439 Speaker 2: bit unnerving to realize that here on Earth, outside of 170 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:33,600 Speaker 2: the Sci Fi horrors of the alien franchise, we actually 171 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 2: do have to contend with strange black goo within the 172 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:41,600 Speaker 2: buried creations of ancient civilizations. As Kate Fulcher reported for 173 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,240 Speaker 2: the British Museum back in twenty twenty, the goo in 174 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:47,760 Speaker 2: question here would have been poured warm into the caskets 175 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:53,079 Speaker 2: of mummified individuals, effectively cementing their linen wrapped mummy cases 176 00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:57,680 Speaker 2: into the encasing casket. Museum scientists analyzed more than one 177 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,920 Speaker 2: hundred samples of the now long dried goo and determine 178 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:04,199 Speaker 2: that while the exact ingredients varied, the main components tended 179 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 2: to be plant oil, animal fat, tree resin, beeswax, and bitumen, 180 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 2: a viscous or solid form of petroleum. Egyptian black goo 181 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:17,440 Speaker 2: was reserved for royalty and those rich enough to afford 182 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:21,440 Speaker 2: the very best in their funerary preparations. We've even found 183 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 2: the stuff on the golden mask of Tuton common According 184 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 2: to fulcher. Its pitch black color was associated with mythic 185 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 2: osiris and concepts of rebirth and regeneration. It's clear that 186 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 2: a certain amount of Egyptomania went into conceptions of the engineers. 187 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 2: It even goes all the way back to artist hr 188 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,400 Speaker 2: Giger's late seventies concept art for Alien, which includes a 189 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 2: hieroglyphic inspired alien life cycle tableau. Look it up, and 190 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 2: it makes sense in later ruminations of the franchise that 191 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 2: filmmakers might have found inspiration in the real life black 192 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:01,760 Speaker 2: Goo of Egyptology. It's rather fitting, after all, given that 193 00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 2: the ancient Egyptians seemed to have viewed the journey into 194 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,760 Speaker 2: the next life as something cosmic and transformative. The sarcophagus 195 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 2: in many ways like a cryo chamber, and monstrous entities 196 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:17,000 Speaker 2: like Ahmet awaiting the passage of the dead. Black Goo has, 197 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 2: of course another larger life in sci fi in general, 198 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:24,920 Speaker 2: sometimes as a catch all name for just black inky evil, 199 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:28,760 Speaker 2: or other times more specifically as a self replicating meta 200 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:33,960 Speaker 2: material graphene oxide. Jason Kahey profiled the notion in a 201 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 2: twenty twenty two article for Wired Magazine, drawing on sci 202 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 2: fi usages of the stuff on TV's Westworld and TV's Severance, 203 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 2: and if we go wider than that, he points out, 204 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 2: we see dangerous black goos in the original X Files 205 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 2: as well as in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Elsewhere, We've watched 206 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 2: it drip onto Gary Olben's head in The Fifth Element, 207 00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 2: and Yes, the low budget nineteen eighty five alien knockoff 208 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,840 Speaker 2: Creature features a scene in which the leaks from an 209 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,079 Speaker 2: alien tube shortly before a monster breaks out of it. 210 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:08,760 Speaker 2: What is Marvel's Venom but a slightly more stylish black goo, 211 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 2: and the Sorcerer egg Shin and Big Trouble in Little 212 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,560 Speaker 2: China warned us, matter of factly, not of oil, but 213 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:18,160 Speaker 2: of the black blood of the earth. The examples are endless, 214 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 2: though they often betray a Western prevalence for the negative 215 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 2: connotations of the color black, which dates back through the 216 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 2: Middle Ages and into humoral theory with its black bile. 217 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 2: But black also represented power in secrecy during this time 218 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 2: period as well. Colors are in the end multipurpose, culturally 219 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 2: dependent and based on context. The color black may be 220 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 2: invoked to convey everything from darkness and mystery to beauty 221 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 2: and power, and when we combine all of that with gooiness. Well, visually, 222 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 2: there just seems to be something otherworldly about black goo, 223 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 2: and so it's the perfect visual manifestation of the underlying 224 00:14:57,560 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 2: power in the alien universe of anti blood and anti seed, 225 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 2: as dark as the spaces between the stars. Up next 226 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 2: Part three, Trilobide and Deacon. In the previous episode, in 227 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 2: this special alien themed monster fact series, we discussed Agent 228 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,040 Speaker 2: A zero thirty nine to fifty nine x point ninety 229 00:15:30,040 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 2: one slash fifteen. The Black Goo, a powerful evolutionary accelerant 230 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 2: created by the Engineers and deployed as both the creator 231 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 2: and destroyer of worlds. We consider the various ways that 232 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 2: it worked itself through a host, spawning zombie like abominations 233 00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:51,960 Speaker 2: in the process. As witnessed in the film Prometheus, a 234 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 2: mixture of pathogen infected hosts can lead to truly strange forms. 235 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:01,560 Speaker 2: The android David infected the human crew made Holloway with 236 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 2: a mere drop of the black Goo. The infected Holloway 237 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,960 Speaker 2: then impregnated his partner, doctor Elizabeth Shaw, who then employed 238 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 2: appalling medpod to surgically remove the resulting squid like embryo 239 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 2: before it could burst out of her on its own. 240 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,200 Speaker 2: Left to its own devices. The resulting creature rapidly grew 241 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 2: into an enormous, seven tentacled monster, sometimes referred to as 242 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:29,120 Speaker 2: the trilobite. The creature has virtually nothing in common with 243 00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:32,480 Speaker 2: the prehistoric arthropod of the same name, which we previously 244 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,280 Speaker 2: discussed on Stufftable your Mind. If anything, the creature looks 245 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 2: more like an octopus. They will find very few seven 246 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 2: armed organisms in the natural world. The seven arm sea 247 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 2: star comes to mind, but we also have to consider 248 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 2: the so called seven armed octopus. Some call it the 249 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 2: septipus or the blob octopus, but Halifron atlanticus actually does 250 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,480 Speaker 2: have eight arms. It's just that the males hectocotylus, or 251 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 2: specialized fertilization arm, remains coiled away in a sack beneath 252 00:17:05,640 --> 00:17:09,359 Speaker 2: the right eye, thus giving the creature the appearance of 253 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:13,119 Speaker 2: having only seven arms, at least in the males. But 254 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 2: back to the monster, we quickly learn that the alien 255 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:21,440 Speaker 2: trilobite is merely an intermediate stage in the creature's overall 256 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:27,040 Speaker 2: life cycle. When the trilobite overpowers a surviving engineer, incapacitates 257 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:31,440 Speaker 2: the host and implants its own embryo, orally, the tentacled 258 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,280 Speaker 2: monster then covers the host's body in a posture that 259 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,120 Speaker 2: the Alien RPG from Free League Publishing describes as a 260 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 2: protective posture. There's already a lot to unpack here. I 261 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,000 Speaker 2: don't want to get too ahead of ourselves, but the 262 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:47,160 Speaker 2: creature here is essentially more of a body hugger than 263 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,440 Speaker 2: a face hugger, though it still depends on oral injection 264 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 2: of its embryo. It also feels as if the trilobite 265 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:57,439 Speaker 2: form developed expressly for the purpose of infecting larger than 266 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 2: human prey, that its juvenile form somehow detect the presence 267 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 2: of a much larger engineer in its midst and morph 268 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,280 Speaker 2: into a form capable of taking one down. It's unknown, however, 269 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 2: we do know that the black goop pathogen seems to 270 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:17,240 Speaker 2: ultimately result in more stabilized xenomorphic creatures with distinct life cycles, 271 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 2: and we can suppose that these stabilized forms in life 272 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:26,200 Speaker 2: cycles are informed by environment and host survivability. Certainly, engineers 273 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:30,480 Speaker 2: or rogue android scientists might manipulate this development, but it 274 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,400 Speaker 2: seems to be a typical pattern. But the resulting creatures, 275 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:38,199 Speaker 2: as we'll discuss, remain highly adaptive to host availability. But 276 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 2: I will go ahead and speculate, and I'm sure others 277 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:42,800 Speaker 2: have speculated along these exact lines as well, that the 278 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:47,239 Speaker 2: Trilobyte is a specialized engineer naver, and that Holloway and 279 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:51,679 Speaker 2: Shaw's genetic contributions were marginal at best. The android David 280 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,760 Speaker 2: in his covenant recordings at least mentions in passing that 281 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:59,440 Speaker 2: the engineers are perfect carriers and perfect mothers. We're also 282 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:03,400 Speaker 2: to understand that the engineers are genetically somewhat similar human beings. 283 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 2: But perhaps there is something else about the Elder race's 284 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,360 Speaker 2: biology that draws the pathogens and creatures of their own creation. 285 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 2: I wonder if it might have to do with the 286 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:18,600 Speaker 2: various other biotechnological alterations that the engineers have made to 287 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,800 Speaker 2: themselves or are made via their suits. And of course, 288 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:26,600 Speaker 2: in Prometheus's closing moments, we see the Trillabite crumpled and 289 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 2: dead and watch a juvenile's xenomorphic organism emerge from the 290 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:34,520 Speaker 2: engineer's body. It has indeed grown quite large in the 291 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,159 Speaker 2: giant body of its hosts. The alien RPG describes the 292 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:42,960 Speaker 2: gestation as effectively hollowing out the host creature's body, reducing 293 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,080 Speaker 2: it to little more than a husk. The new form, 294 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:50,360 Speaker 2: dubbed the Deacon, emerges as a more typical bipedal eye 295 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:54,080 Speaker 2: list xenomorphic creature with an elongated head, though lacking a 296 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 2: tail and various other key features associated with its kin. 297 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 2: It boasts protrucible jaws like that of the deep sea 298 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 2: goblin shark, and its nickname derives from the sharp point 299 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 2: on the end of its head, which resembles the pointed 300 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:12,560 Speaker 2: miter worn by some Christian clergy. The creature uses this 301 00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 2: point to violently rip its way out of the host body. 302 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 2: In this regard, we might reasonably compare the Deacon's headspike 303 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:24,399 Speaker 2: to the egg tooth, a temporary sharp protrusion that various birds, reptiles, 304 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 2: and monotremes use to penetrate their own eggshell and break 305 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 2: free spiders, too, are known to develop an egg tooth 306 00:20:31,800 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 2: like spike to aid in their hatching. The Deacon's spike 307 00:20:35,119 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 2: would seem necessary as it has to emerge not only 308 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,960 Speaker 2: from the body of the engineer, but also through its 309 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,840 Speaker 2: biomechanical spacesuit, which again may to varying degrees, be biologically 310 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:50,200 Speaker 2: integrated with the engineer. Just as birds quickly lose their 311 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 2: egg teeth. It's possible that the Deacon loses its key 312 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,719 Speaker 2: feature as it develops into its no doubt gigantic adult form. However, 313 00:20:57,760 --> 00:20:59,879 Speaker 2: we have no idea what this form might look like. 314 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 2: Perhaps its full development puts in more in line with 315 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:06,200 Speaker 2: other xenomorphic forms, only on a scale devoted to prey 316 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,199 Speaker 2: on giant humanoid hosts. We also have no idea what 317 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:13,320 Speaker 2: the Deacon's life cycle would consist of in whole, but 318 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 2: we might assume that it would resemble that of a 319 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 2: stabilized xenomorphic life cycle, which we'll discuss in the weeks ahead, 320 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 2: only with larger eggs that produce a body hugging embryo depositor. 321 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,639 Speaker 2: The engineers might know for certain, but fortunately humans remain 322 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,199 Speaker 2: in the dark. Now it's time for part four, the 323 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:42,879 Speaker 2: neomorph our journey through the alien universe. This time brings 324 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,480 Speaker 2: us to the mysterious planet for the rotting paradise of 325 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:50,119 Speaker 2: Alien Covenant. Once an occupied world of the Engineers, the 326 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 2: planet suffered a mass extinction event at the hands of 327 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,440 Speaker 2: the rogue android David. Descending from the sky in a 328 00:21:56,520 --> 00:22:01,280 Speaker 2: stolen Engineer starship, he unleashed a devastating bombardment of the 329 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:06,960 Speaker 2: skeetide ampules eradicating most non botanical non fungal life with 330 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:11,439 Speaker 2: the dreaded evolutionary accelerant agent a zero slash thirty nine 331 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,200 Speaker 2: fifty nine x dot ninety one slash fifteen. But as 332 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 2: we've explored already, the black goo doesn't destroy everything in 333 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 2: such incidents. No, it also creates new dangerous organisms to 334 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,240 Speaker 2: prowl the lifeless borders of devastation, and it tends to 335 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:30,000 Speaker 2: find its way back to the basic form of a 336 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,600 Speaker 2: xenomorphic predator, in this case working its way up from 337 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 2: fungal and possibly insect life. The neomorph begins as a 338 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:42,680 Speaker 2: fungal growth that produces small pods or egg sacs, which 339 00:22:42,720 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 2: release a swarm of moats upon disturbance. These moats are 340 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:48,600 Speaker 2: able to move through the air by their own volition, 341 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:53,200 Speaker 2: sometimes synchronizing in murmurations to zero in on a potential 342 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:58,119 Speaker 2: host organism's vulnerable orifices. The moats are often compared to 343 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,280 Speaker 2: plant pollen, though of course pollend on vectors such as 344 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,159 Speaker 2: wind or other organisms to move from one plant to 345 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,360 Speaker 2: the next. We might instead be tempted to compare these 346 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:11,760 Speaker 2: moats to fairy flies or fairy wasps. The smallest known 347 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:15,359 Speaker 2: flying organisms. As pointed out by Julius Klarr in a 348 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,919 Speaker 2: twenty twenty four article for The Sierra Club, fairy wasp 349 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 2: body length can measure as little as zero point one 350 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:26,120 Speaker 2: three nine millimeters, equal to the thickness of a human hair, 351 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:28,800 Speaker 2: so it's not out of the question for something so 352 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 2: small to be capable of powered and deliberate flight. According 353 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:38,080 Speaker 2: to Freely Publishing's Alien RPG source books, the neomorph moats 354 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 2: make their way into a host body, where they deliver 355 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,679 Speaker 2: microscopic amounts of the black goo to the host's blood stream, 356 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 2: and then the moats die. In the blood the evolutionary 357 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:53,000 Speaker 2: accelerant mutates white blood cells, forming a tumor like mass 358 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,760 Speaker 2: that rapidly develops into an embryo, referred to as a 359 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,760 Speaker 2: blood burster. When this small quadruped is ready to emerge 360 00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:02,640 Speaker 2: from i'm the host, it bursts out through whatever part 361 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,960 Speaker 2: of the anatomy is most accessible the mouth, the back, 362 00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 2: even an eye socket. It depends in large part on 363 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 2: where the tumor develops. If it survives, the bloodbuster rapidly 364 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:20,600 Speaker 2: develops into a neomorph. These medium size pales xenomorphic predators 365 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:25,240 Speaker 2: boast goblin shark like protrusible jaws much like the deacon 366 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,760 Speaker 2: that we previously discussed, along with a whipping spike tail 367 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 2: in a cluster of dorsal spikes, which as a blood burster, 368 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 2: aids in its emergence. Let's talk a bit more about 369 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,560 Speaker 2: those goblin shark jaws. Though the deep sea mitsucarina o 370 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:46,479 Speaker 2: stony isn't alone in having protrusible jaws. Shark jaws are 371 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,280 Speaker 2: not attached to the organism's cartilage skull and move as 372 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:55,280 Speaker 2: separate parts, allowing for varying degrees of protrusion when attacking prey. 373 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,000 Speaker 2: The goblin shark nearly boasts the most extreme jaw protrusion known, 374 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 2: both in terms of reach and speed. According to a 375 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:08,119 Speaker 2: twenty sixteen article by Nakaya at All published in Scientific Reports, 376 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:12,240 Speaker 2: the jaw sling shots forward at a maximum velocity of 377 00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:15,320 Speaker 2: three point one meters per second to eight point six 378 00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:18,480 Speaker 2: to nine point four percent of the total length of 379 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:22,639 Speaker 2: the shark. They cited the phylogenetic evidence that suggests the 380 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,280 Speaker 2: adaptation involved in response to their food poor deep sea 381 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:29,680 Speaker 2: environment and is a possible trade off for the loss 382 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,679 Speaker 2: of strong swimming ability. It might not be able to 383 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 2: catch desired prey in an all out pursuit, but if 384 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,120 Speaker 2: they get close enough, their jaw length can make up 385 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 2: the difference. As seen in Alien covenant, Neomorphs can act 386 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,920 Speaker 2: as both pack hunters and solitary stalkers. While they may 387 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:51,359 Speaker 2: enter prolonged states of hibernation, they're ultimately short lived and 388 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,080 Speaker 2: don't seem to engage in any form of host recurement 389 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,480 Speaker 2: or parasitic reproduction while alive. When they die or are killed, 390 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,760 Speaker 2: their corpses simply produce more sporesas ready to release more 391 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 2: black moats when a potential host ventures near. Now, in 392 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,879 Speaker 2: the natural world, we certainly have organisms that die after reproduction, 393 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 2: what we call simularity. These organisms reproduce but a single 394 00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 2: time and then die. The Pacific salmon are a great 395 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 2: example of this, along with certain insects and molluscs. The 396 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:25,760 Speaker 2: neo morph, however, would seem to reproduce through death, which 397 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,639 Speaker 2: is of course a fitting xenomorphic and gigresque twist on 398 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:33,800 Speaker 2: everything it kills, it dies, and through its death it 399 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 2: ideally spreads more of those moats that will produce new 400 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 2: blood bursters, and new neomorphs, presumably until all life on 401 00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,480 Speaker 2: a world is reduced to just a few hibernating xenos 402 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,840 Speaker 2: and their weighting fungal eggsacts, we might reasonably compare it 403 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,920 Speaker 2: to various pathogens that spread via contact with dead hosts. 404 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 2: How are you ready for Part five? Let's look at 405 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:12,040 Speaker 2: the xenomorph egg. In the original nineteen seventy nine film Alien, 406 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,919 Speaker 2: the crew of the Nostromo discovered thousands of strange rubbery eggs, 407 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 2: each between two and three feet in hide or point 408 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,679 Speaker 2: six two point nine meters in height, aboard a derelict 409 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 2: engineer spacecraft. As I originally discussed in the article how 410 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 2: the Alien xenomorph Works back in twenty twelve for the 411 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:33,399 Speaker 2: website How Stuff Works, the first stop in interpreting this 412 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:37,440 Speaker 2: strange stage of the alien life cycle is to approach 413 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,919 Speaker 2: it as an egg. That is to say, we have 414 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,119 Speaker 2: to compare it to the amniotic eggs of birds, reptiles, 415 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:47,840 Speaker 2: and amphibians, which protect and nourish the organism inside during 416 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:52,159 Speaker 2: its early development. The xenomorph egg certainly contains and protects 417 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:56,119 Speaker 2: an organism the face hugger stage of the xenomorph life cycle. 418 00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 2: No matter what the external environmental conditions might be, The 419 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 2: egg seems to keep the face hugger moist alive and 420 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 2: possibly at the appropriate temperature, within a vat of fleshy 421 00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,439 Speaker 2: pulpy material that we might compare to the yolk or 422 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:15,199 Speaker 2: dudoplasm that serves this purpose in terrestrial eggs. But the 423 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 2: Zeno egg seemingly evolved to not only protect a developing organism, 424 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,440 Speaker 2: but to preserve it in a state of readiness. As 425 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,840 Speaker 2: we'll discuss in the next episode, the face hugger absolutely 426 00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:30,960 Speaker 2: depends on host availability, and the egg patiently awaits delivery 427 00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:35,560 Speaker 2: too or discovery by suitable hosts. And this is where 428 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 2: we consider another possibility, one explored by the alien RPG 429 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,440 Speaker 2: from Freely Publishing. Perhaps it's not merely an egg, but 430 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:46,880 Speaker 2: a full blown stage of the alien life cycle, an 431 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:51,520 Speaker 2: ovomorph and an organism in and of itself. Consider the 432 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,480 Speaker 2: face hugger doesn't hatch or burst from the egg like 433 00:28:54,520 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 2: a natural world hatchling. Instead, it's the ovomorph that opens 434 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,480 Speaker 2: its four dorsal petals or lips and allows the face 435 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 2: hugger to spring forth. Perhaps indeed, it is the egg 436 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:10,240 Speaker 2: that initially senses nearby prey and not the face hugger. 437 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,040 Speaker 2: We might also look to the ropey tendrils that seem 438 00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 2: to protrude from the bases of these eggs. Are these 439 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:20,200 Speaker 2: merely secreted resin strands to bind the eggs in place 440 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 2: against environmental stress or gravitational changes, or are they tentacles 441 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 2: that may help sense interlopers. Are they in fact roots 442 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,560 Speaker 2: that seek nourishment to sustain their hidden organic payloads. Finally, 443 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 2: in the phantasmagorical concept art of dark surrealist hr Giger, 444 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 2: the eggs dorsal openings are sometimes manifested as a single slit, 445 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,880 Speaker 2: implying not hatching but live birth. Ah. But there is 446 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,840 Speaker 2: more mystery to consider here concerning the ovomorph, as seen 447 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 2: in alternate cuts of Ridley Scott's Alien and is embraced 448 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,360 Speaker 2: in the Alien RPG source book. There are two known 449 00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,720 Speaker 2: ways to wind up with the xenom. A hive queen 450 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,200 Speaker 2: may deposit the eggs in great number, as we see 451 00:30:04,240 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 2: in James Cameron's Aliens, or a living host may develop 452 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:14,000 Speaker 2: into a xenomorphag Here's how it allegedly works. A lone 453 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,880 Speaker 2: xenomorph drone such as the titular creature in the original Alien, 454 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 2: collects hosts, incapacitates them, cocoons their bodies with resin secretions, 455 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,200 Speaker 2: and then uses a barb on its tail, perhaps a 456 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:30,480 Speaker 2: form of ovipositor, to inject them with enzymes, hormones, and 457 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 2: perhaps some derivative of the black Good. The unfortunate host 458 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 2: then slowly transforms into a swollen ovomorph themselves, complete with 459 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,880 Speaker 2: a face hugger, drifting dreaming in its semi translucent depths. 460 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:49,200 Speaker 2: With enough time and enough available hosts, the new egg 461 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 2: may birth a whole new hive of xenomorphic world consuming horror. 462 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,840 Speaker 2: What comes out of the xenomorphag wine the face hugger. 463 00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 2: Of course, it's time for part six. In our look 464 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 2: at the xenomorph life cycle, we finally come to the 465 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:15,040 Speaker 2: horrifying face hugger. This is the creature that emerges from 466 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,440 Speaker 2: the traditional xenomorph egg aggressively attaches itself to the face 467 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,000 Speaker 2: of a human host, implants an embryo in the comatose 468 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 2: host organism, and then dies. The embryo, of course, develops 469 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,240 Speaker 2: into a standard xenomorph, which we'll explore in the next episode. 470 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:33,400 Speaker 2: There are a few different ways to look at the 471 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,360 Speaker 2: basics of the face hugger. On one level, we can 472 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 2: ground it in the dark surrealism of hr Giger another 473 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 2: twist on sexual reproduction, Freudian death drive, and physiology. But 474 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,080 Speaker 2: just as we previously face the question of whether the 475 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 2: xenomorph egg is an organism in and of itself, we 476 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:55,480 Speaker 2: must also consider this with the face hugger to some degree. 477 00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 2: In HowStuffWorks dot COM's How the Alien xenomorph Works from 478 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 2: twenty twelve, I explored the idea that the face hugger 479 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,280 Speaker 2: might not constitute a true organism at all, but would 480 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,160 Speaker 2: rather be a delivery system for the embryo. No more 481 00:32:08,200 --> 00:32:11,360 Speaker 2: an organism than a sperm cell is an organism, and 482 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,560 Speaker 2: of course this alone is a comparison worth considering. A 483 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,280 Speaker 2: human sperm cell is not a human being, but it 484 00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 2: does metabolize sugar to produce energy, grow and move on 485 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 2: its own to reach the egg as part of human reproduction. 486 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 2: But anyway, back in twenty twelve, the face hugger also 487 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 2: brought to my mind at any rate, the male argonaut 488 00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:36,680 Speaker 2: or paper nautilus, which has a detachable spermatophore filled arm 489 00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,880 Speaker 2: called a hectocoutilus that it leaves with its mate. So 490 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 2: if the xenomorphic could be considered an organism, we might 491 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,640 Speaker 2: consider the face hugger to be its hectocoutilyus of sorts, 492 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,800 Speaker 2: only one that moves on its own to seek how 493 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,640 Speaker 2: the host. However, there's an important point to be made here, 494 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 2: and one that I don't think is properly reflected in 495 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,080 Speaker 2: that twenty twelve How Stuff Works article I wrote. A 496 00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 2: hectocodulus is not free swimming like a sperm cell. Some 497 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 2: creatures of the hectocodulus use it as a sex organ 498 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 2: that remains attached. In others, such as with the argonaut, 499 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 2: it detaches and the male manually leaves it, with the 500 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,040 Speaker 2: female leaving it inside a special cavity in her mantle. 501 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,480 Speaker 2: In the Free League Alien RPG, the authors present three 502 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:28,760 Speaker 2: rival theories concerning the face hugger. The first, in line 503 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:31,200 Speaker 2: with what we've been discussing, is that it deposits an 504 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 2: embryo of some sort, thus making it another morph of 505 00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,880 Speaker 2: the same species. The second idea is that it deposits 506 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 2: not an embryo, but a cancerous growth that mutates into 507 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 2: a chessbuster. This, I would imagine puts it more in 508 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,160 Speaker 2: line with the concept of the black goo in the 509 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,600 Speaker 2: alien universe. The third premises of the face hugger is 510 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 2: its own species in a symbiotic relationship with the prime 511 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:57,240 Speaker 2: xenomorph species, and that it injects bacteria into the host 512 00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 2: that leads to the development of the chess burster. Part 513 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:03,040 Speaker 2: of the confusion here is due to the fact that 514 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:06,640 Speaker 2: the developing embryo or chess burster inside the host takes 515 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:10,640 Speaker 2: on at least some of the host's genetics, be it 516 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 2: the chessbuster we see emerge from the quadruped host in 517 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 2: Alien three, or if we're considering Ash's comments in the 518 00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:22,840 Speaker 2: original Alien, that the xenomorph that emerges from Nostromo Executive 519 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:27,759 Speaker 2: Officer Caine is essentially quote Cain's son. And even this 520 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:30,920 Speaker 2: is not entirely outside the boundaries of the natural world, 521 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:35,360 Speaker 2: as recent studies have shown that horsehair worms steal genes 522 00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,759 Speaker 2: from host organisms in order to control their behavior, and 523 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,080 Speaker 2: we see plenty of other examples of horizontal gene transfer, 524 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,560 Speaker 2: the non sexual transfer of genetic information between genomes. But 525 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,160 Speaker 2: let's get back to the face hugger itself. I turned 526 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,120 Speaker 2: to the paper science Fiction The Biology of the Alien 527 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:56,000 Speaker 2: in Alien by Armand im Curis and Mona Wi Leo, 528 00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,160 Speaker 2: published just last year in the Portland Press. They classify 529 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 2: the face hugger as a quote hoxt attack larval stage 530 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 2: and conclude that quote unattacking larva injecting the next larval 531 00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 2: stage is realistic for earthling parasites. For a natural world 532 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 2: example of something related, they turn to Seculina Carcini, the 533 00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:23,960 Speaker 2: crab hacker barnacle, one of the parasitic Rhizocephala crab castrator barnacles. 534 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:28,400 Speaker 2: One of the organism's early motes, is a specialized juvenile 535 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:33,040 Speaker 2: form known as a kentragon, which boasts only the antennuals 536 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:37,080 Speaker 2: necessary to attach to its crab host, and is otherwise 537 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 2: a living hypodermic needle that exists only to inject a 538 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,000 Speaker 2: cell mass known as a vermagon into the crab, and 539 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:49,120 Speaker 2: the vermagon is described here by the authors as microscopic 540 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 2: and worm like. The injected vermigon then proceeds to grow 541 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 2: like roots through the host organism, branching through its organs, 542 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:01,400 Speaker 2: leaving it unable to reproduce and completely control its physiology 543 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 2: and behavior. Absolutely fascinating and another example of how the 544 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,520 Speaker 2: natural world is always willing to match even our most 545 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:12,839 Speaker 2: bizarre sci fi and fantasy inventions. We might well think 546 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:15,600 Speaker 2: of the face hugger as a kind of kentragon and 547 00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:20,040 Speaker 2: its reproductive payload as a vermigon. And indeed, the vermigon's 548 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 2: role in the natural world is to grow and establish 549 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,840 Speaker 2: the adult form of the organism within the body of 550 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:29,279 Speaker 2: the hosts. Only in the case of the xenomorph, that 551 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 2: final form must burst free. As we'll discuss in the 552 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:47,959 Speaker 2: next Monster Fact episode. Ooh, Finally, part seven, let's look 553 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:54,040 Speaker 2: at the adult xenomorph. Thus far in the Alien Monster 554 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:57,520 Speaker 2: Fact series, we've discussed everything from the mysterious engineers and 555 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,799 Speaker 2: their black goo, to the xenomorph ag and the face 556 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,040 Speaker 2: hugger that emerges from it. As we all know, the 557 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:07,120 Speaker 2: next phase in the alien life cycle is the violent 558 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,360 Speaker 2: eruption of the free living chest burster, which swiftly grows 559 00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,799 Speaker 2: to become an adult xenomorph, sometimes referred to as a 560 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:19,399 Speaker 2: stage four xenomorph or simply a drone or warrior in 561 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 2: science fiction. The Biology of the Alien in Alien by 562 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,799 Speaker 2: Armand im Kurus and Mono why Law, published just last 563 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,239 Speaker 2: year in the Portland Press. The authors describe the xenomorph's 564 00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:34,600 Speaker 2: parasitic development inside the host as lining up with natural 565 00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:40,280 Speaker 2: world coinobiant parasitoids, parasites that attack hosts that then continue 566 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:44,960 Speaker 2: feeding and growing during the parasitism. Because, of course, we 567 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:48,200 Speaker 2: see this in the original nineteen seventy nine film Alien, 568 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 2: when Caine's face hugger falls away, he awakens and acts 569 00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 2: like his old self again. He chats and jokes with 570 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 2: his crewmates. He enjoys a meal and prepares to carry 571 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:03,360 Speaker 2: on his ship duties before the creature inside him violently emerges. 572 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:08,920 Speaker 2: Corros and Low compared this to various parasitoid wasps, horsehair worms, 573 00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:12,719 Speaker 2: and the Cortescep's fungus. In general, we're dealing with examples 574 00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:16,080 Speaker 2: where the doomed host organism continues to behave as usual, 575 00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 2: sometimes even feeding, but also acting in a manner to 576 00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:24,359 Speaker 2: benefit the parasite. Corticeps infected ants climb to a high 577 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:28,239 Speaker 2: point and release spores. Horse hair worm infected crickets seek 578 00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:32,000 Speaker 2: out water to drown in, enabling the spawn inside them 579 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000 Speaker 2: to burst free into their desired watery habitat and swim 580 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:38,359 Speaker 2: off in search of a mate. The growth of such 581 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,920 Speaker 2: parasites is amazing, consuming host tissues to the developing organism 582 00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,920 Speaker 2: is almost as large as the host in some cases, converting. 583 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,200 Speaker 2: According to Chris and Low, upwards of quote seventy percent 584 00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 2: of the host tissues into parasitoid biomass and up to 585 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,400 Speaker 2: ninety percent of its nitrogen, mostly to build parasitoid protein. 586 00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:03,759 Speaker 2: In twenty twelve article how the Alien xenomorph Works for HowStuffWorks, 587 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:07,600 Speaker 2: dot com I pointed to some grizzly natural world examples 588 00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:11,960 Speaker 2: of this sort of thing, including the parasitic wasp cotesiaglomerata, 589 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,960 Speaker 2: which may pump up to sixty eggs into a single caterpillar, 590 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:18,719 Speaker 2: which may ultimately account for thirty percent of the host 591 00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,680 Speaker 2: organism's body weight. The hatching larvae drink the host organism's 592 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:26,960 Speaker 2: fluids but avoid vital organs. Other organisms, such as the 593 00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:32,520 Speaker 2: Dinocampus cosinella wasp, seem to reprogram the host to protect 594 00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:36,000 Speaker 2: the emergent larvae. And here's another interesting wrinkle to this. 595 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:39,920 Speaker 2: Parasitic wasp larvae seem to use a virus mimicking poison 596 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 2: to shut down a host's immune system, allowing their growing 597 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:48,319 Speaker 2: spawn to develop inside the host unopposed. In a matter 598 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:52,280 Speaker 2: of hours, perhaps aided by the consumption of additional biomass 599 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:56,120 Speaker 2: and even metals, the xenomorph chest burster develops into a 600 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,200 Speaker 2: full grown adult, standing a good eight feet or two 601 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:03,319 Speaker 2: point four meters in height, glistening and black, the bipedal 602 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,400 Speaker 2: xenomorph boasts a number of features that indeed make it 603 00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:10,720 Speaker 2: worthy of the moniker perfect organism. It seems to benefit 604 00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 2: from a dual skeletal system, both indo and exo, as 605 00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:18,360 Speaker 2: well as caustic blood that burns anything that might injure it. 606 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:23,520 Speaker 2: They're fast, They're stealthy. They attack with vicious claws, spiked tail, 607 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:28,440 Speaker 2: razor sharp teeth, and a secondary jaw that launches piston 608 00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,600 Speaker 2: like to puncture prey, often compared to the pharanngial jaws 609 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:36,239 Speaker 2: of the moraeel. Yet while the eel uses this adaptation 610 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:40,080 Speaker 2: to pull in prey, the xenomorph seems chiefly concerned with 611 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:43,880 Speaker 2: killing and subduing its prey, either for transformation into an 612 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:49,440 Speaker 2: ovomorph or in preparation for a xenomorph. Queen's eggs alone, 613 00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 2: an adult xenomorph betrays cunning and a fair amount of 614 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:57,239 Speaker 2: vicarious learning and problem solving, and within a high context, 615 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:00,960 Speaker 2: they may benefit from emergent intelligence or some manner of 616 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,160 Speaker 2: hive mind. They have even been observed to exploit human technology, 617 00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 2: at least to a limited degree. To quote the android Ash, 618 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:13,080 Speaker 2: we are left with a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, 619 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:17,640 Speaker 2: or delusions of morality. It may constitute the ultimate creation 620 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,160 Speaker 2: of the Engineers, or that of the rogue android David. 621 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,440 Speaker 2: It may also be the true form of a creature 622 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:29,719 Speaker 2: that inspired the Engineers in their biotechnological pursuits, still dominant 623 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,399 Speaker 2: in the dark reaches of the galaxy, or resurrected via 624 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:37,600 Speaker 2: the mad research of a demented, vengeful mind. We don't know, 625 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:41,640 Speaker 2: We may never know, and it seems entirely likely that 626 00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,399 Speaker 2: we should never have left the Earth to begin with. 627 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:51,080 Speaker 2: And finally getting into spoiler territory for alien Romulus, let 628 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:58,720 Speaker 2: us consider the offspring and other hybrids. First and foremost, 629 00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:01,239 Speaker 2: we have to remember that even the ror xenomorph life 630 00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:05,840 Speaker 2: cycle is one of horrific and deadly hybridity. The adult 631 00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:10,120 Speaker 2: Xenomorph is inherently a combination of alien and host DNA 632 00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,279 Speaker 2: agent A zero slash thirty nine to fifty nine x 633 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:18,120 Speaker 2: point ninety one slash fifteen. The black Goo works as 634 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 2: an evolutionary accelerant on most biological modes of life in 635 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:26,319 Speaker 2: the series, pushing them into stranger, more hostile, and more 636 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:31,200 Speaker 2: durable forms. So most of the individual forms and lifestyle 637 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,879 Speaker 2: stages we've discussed so far can be thought of as 638 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:39,120 Speaker 2: the most likely forms and morphs of xenomorphic life, but 639 00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:43,279 Speaker 2: many other paths are possible. This is especially true when 640 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:49,200 Speaker 2: human engineer or android scientific manipulation changes the shape of 641 00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:54,120 Speaker 2: things to come. In nineteen ninety seven's Alien Resurrection, set 642 00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,640 Speaker 2: two hundred years after the events of Alien three in 643 00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,279 Speaker 2: the year twenty three eighty one, we encounter United Cisdum's 644 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,880 Speaker 2: military scientists who have not only created numerous clones of 645 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:07,239 Speaker 2: long dead Ellen Ripley, but also the xenomorph queen that 646 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:09,360 Speaker 2: was growing inside her at the moment of her death. 647 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,799 Speaker 2: Their results are numerous Ripley clones with varying degrees of 648 00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:18,200 Speaker 2: xenomorphic biology, as well as an alien queen with human 649 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:22,880 Speaker 2: reproductive physiology. The latter situation results in the birth of 650 00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:27,280 Speaker 2: a monstrous newborn hybrid, a pale humanoid xenomorph with various 651 00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:31,920 Speaker 2: human features and a complex emotional state. Much earlier in 652 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,200 Speaker 2: the Alien timeline and more recently at our cinemas, we 653 00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,920 Speaker 2: witness the birth of the offspring hybrid in Alien Romulus. 654 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:42,960 Speaker 2: We get to this creature via various missteps. First of all, 655 00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,640 Speaker 2: whilean Utani scientists managed to isolate the black goo from 656 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:51,280 Speaker 2: the remains of the original nostromo xenomorph, then they attempt 657 00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:55,080 Speaker 2: to engineer it into a control biohacking agent that alters 658 00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:59,239 Speaker 2: human physiology to make them more resilient offworld colonists. A 659 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,920 Speaker 2: futurist common that we've discussed on stuff to blow your 660 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,600 Speaker 2: mind before. Instead of terraforming other worlds into something more 661 00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:08,879 Speaker 2: like Earth, what if we altered ourselves to better fit 662 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:13,000 Speaker 2: those worlds, or at least met them halfway. So give 663 00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,840 Speaker 2: it up to Waylan Newtani. Solid concept. Their execution, however, 664 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:21,160 Speaker 2: falls tragically short of perfection. In their vanity, they attempted 665 00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,799 Speaker 2: to harness the biotechnological might of the engineers, and the 666 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,480 Speaker 2: violent trajectory of the black goo could not be contained. 667 00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:32,239 Speaker 2: We see footage of the supposedly successful resurrection of a 668 00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,240 Speaker 2: dead laborat via the formula let's call it gray Goo, 669 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,239 Speaker 2: only to later see the disastrous mutations that the specimen experienced. 670 00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 2: Now unaware of the latter complications, the characters and Romulus 671 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,319 Speaker 2: take off with the gray Goose samples, and sure enough, 672 00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:50,879 Speaker 2: one of them k eventually injects it into their own 673 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:54,000 Speaker 2: system to bounce back from an injury. The gray Goo 674 00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:57,560 Speaker 2: appears to work here, at least initially. However, the formula 675 00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 2: affects K's pregnancy, resulting in the rapid birth and development 676 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:05,560 Speaker 2: of a fast growing alien zeno hybrid referred to as 677 00:45:05,840 --> 00:45:10,560 Speaker 2: the Offspring, a towering, misshapen monster with elements of xenomorphic 678 00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:14,759 Speaker 2: human and engineer features. Now, I wasn't sure exactly how 679 00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:17,319 Speaker 2: I felt about this creature design at first, but it 680 00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:20,080 Speaker 2: has grown on me and I've seen that it clearly 681 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:22,920 Speaker 2: freaked out and revolted plenty of viewers, So it's very 682 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,080 Speaker 2: much serving its purpose in the film. So I eagerly 683 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 2: await revisiting this creature when Romulus is released into our 684 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:34,120 Speaker 2: homes later this month. Now, the Romulus scientists were far 685 00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:37,160 Speaker 2: from the first to experiment with the black goo and 686 00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:41,279 Speaker 2: charge its effects on various organisms. The engineers, of course, 687 00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:46,480 Speaker 2: pioneered this science and the rogue android. David experimented exhaustively 688 00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:49,760 Speaker 2: on the flora and fauna of an engineer home world, 689 00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:54,759 Speaker 2: before presumably moving on to more human centric experimentations on 690 00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:59,959 Speaker 2: the far flung world of Aura Guy six. In David's notes, 691 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,200 Speaker 2: and drawings from the Engineer World and Covenant, we see 692 00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:07,480 Speaker 2: exhaustive and increasingly nightmarish records of the Black Goose effects 693 00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:11,200 Speaker 2: on native species, as well as his own manipulation and 694 00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:16,279 Speaker 2: proposed alterations of human and engineer physiology with the accelerant 695 00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:20,880 Speaker 2: and altered strains of xenomorphic life. Interestingly enough, one of 696 00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:24,160 Speaker 2: these images depicts a creature with the head of an 697 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:27,560 Speaker 2: engineer and the body of a xenomorph. It would seem 698 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:32,800 Speaker 2: that David's twisted imagination, if not his unwholesome experiments, prophesied 699 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:37,799 Speaker 2: the romulus offspring decades earlier. You'll see this illustration, by 700 00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:41,560 Speaker 2: the way, in the compiled volume David's Drawings, published in 701 00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:46,360 Speaker 2: splendid hardback, alongside a softback booklet about the artists Matt 702 00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:50,160 Speaker 2: Hatton and Dame Hallett, who created the drawings, and the 703 00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,760 Speaker 2: notes that litter the set of David's laboratory in the film. 704 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,120 Speaker 2: The main book is a beautiful, haunting volume, and the 705 00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:00,720 Speaker 2: accompanying booklet provides wonderful insight into the vis visual design 706 00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:05,160 Speaker 2: process of the film. Now, the Extended Alien Universe contains 707 00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 2: numerous additional hybrid complications. The Alien RPG from Freely Publishing 708 00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:13,360 Speaker 2: includes several of these related to the creation of the 709 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,800 Speaker 2: twenty six Dracona strain, a black goo based vaccine similar 710 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:20,880 Speaker 2: to what we see in Romulus, intended in this case 711 00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:24,200 Speaker 2: to halt the development of a xenomorphic embryo in the 712 00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:28,560 Speaker 2: human body. In the module Destroyer of Worlds, we see 713 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,040 Speaker 2: one complication in which the black goo derivative is introduced 714 00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,360 Speaker 2: into the body of a human already impregnated by a 715 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:39,560 Speaker 2: face hugger. The accelerant, they write, serves as a genetic bridge, 716 00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:44,239 Speaker 2: resequencing the DNA of human host and xenomorphic embryo into 717 00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:48,799 Speaker 2: a single organism, essentially turning the human into a xenomorph 718 00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:53,600 Speaker 2: from the inside out. The resulting body burster resembles a 719 00:47:53,760 --> 00:47:57,440 Speaker 2: normal adult xenomorph, but with the skull of the human 720 00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:02,640 Speaker 2: host embedded in the creature's cranial dome. This concept, in essence, 721 00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:07,000 Speaker 2: originates in William Gibson's unproduced screenplay for Alien three, and 722 00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:10,239 Speaker 2: plays on some early hr Giger suit designs for the 723 00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:15,240 Speaker 2: original Alien. It's a fitting and horrific concept that Alien 724 00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:22,960 Speaker 2: filmmakers should certainly come back to in the future. All Right, 725 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:28,120 Speaker 2: that's it for this monster fact omnibus episode dealing with 726 00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:32,520 Speaker 2: the alien series. Now, some of you might be asking yourself, well, 727 00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:35,040 Speaker 2: why didn't we talk about the Queen. Why didn't we 728 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,719 Speaker 2: talk about Well, maybe one or two other creatures that 729 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:40,680 Speaker 2: pop up in the series. Well, maybe we'll come back 730 00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,440 Speaker 2: and look at them in the future. But this, for 731 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:48,640 Speaker 2: the most part concludes the journey. So, as always, I'd 732 00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:52,080 Speaker 2: love to hear from everyone out there. If you have thoughts, opinions, 733 00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:55,600 Speaker 2: or additional analysis on anything that we teased out here, 734 00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:59,399 Speaker 2: write in I would love to hear from you. Thanks 735 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:02,520 Speaker 2: to the wonderful Apossway for producing these episodes and then 736 00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:05,480 Speaker 2: stitching them all together into this final form, And if 737 00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 2: you want to get in touch with us, you can 738 00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:12,440 Speaker 2: email us at contact at Stuffdblow your Mind dot com. 739 00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:15,480 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 740 00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:19,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 741 00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:21,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.