1 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact, 2 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 1: a short form series from Stuff to blow your Mind, 3 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 4 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: In this episode will begin a multi installment exploration of 5 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: the various strange forms found in the Alien universe leading 6 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: up to the debut of the new Alien Romulus film 7 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: in August. I previously wrote about xenomorph biology in the 8 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,960 Speaker 1: article how the Alien Xenomorph Works back in twenty twelve 9 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: for the website how Stuff Works. That article is still 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 1: there in full, accompanied by illustrations authorized by the hr 11 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: Giger Museum, and as I work up to various considerations 12 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: of how natural world biology is reflected in or matches 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: up to the xenomorph, I'll likely draw on some of 14 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: the same ideas, but I also plan to touch on 15 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: various additional natural world and mythological connections, as well as 16 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: such sources as the twenty seventeen film Alien Covenant and 17 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 1: the excellent Alien RPG source books from Free League Publishing. 18 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: I want to add the caveat that I am not 19 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: setting out to wrangle all the lore here or to 20 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,840 Speaker 1: provide you with a one hundred percent canonical take on everything. 21 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: You have no shortage of wikis and lore videos for that. 22 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: The Monster Fact Journey will touch on a lot of 23 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: the same themes and information, but will also reflect my 24 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: own thoughts and obsessions as a fan. With all that 25 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: in mind, let's start at the beginning with the Enigmatic Engineers, 26 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: an elder race spacefaring humanoids. The Engineers have largely vanished 27 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,080 Speaker 1: from the portion of the galaxy traversed by twenty second 28 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: century terans. It is unknown what they call themselves, but 29 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: accounts whisper the names Malacak and Ossians, while informal names 30 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: such as space jockeys and universal pilots also abound. The 31 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,840 Speaker 1: term engineer, used by doctor Elizabeth Shaw of the Doomed 32 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: Prometheus Expedition, has stuck in the few circles allowed to 33 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:25,640 Speaker 1: know of them. Pale, hairless giants of uncanny statuesque perfection. 34 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: The Engineers are thought to have worn modest clothing on 35 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: their home worlds, but donned more exotic, biomechanical space suits 36 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: during their interstellar voyages. Suits that seemingly melded with their bodies, 37 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: fused with their organs, and via their strange helms, gave 38 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:48,799 Speaker 1: them the outer appearance of a trunked elephantic head. They 39 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: were or are masters of not only interstellar travel, but 40 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: also biotechnology, able to generate new forms of life, program genetics, 41 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:04,119 Speaker 1: master evolutionary process augment their own bodies and craft, terrifying 42 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 1: bioweapons beyond the scope of even the most advanced whalen 43 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: Utani weapon lab. Within the wrecked Juggernaut found on planet 44 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,959 Speaker 1: LV four, twenty six, crew members from the Nostromo encountered 45 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: the long dead remains of a very large engineer, with 46 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,200 Speaker 1: evidence of an explosive emergence from its chest, as well 47 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 1: as thousands of eggs. Prior to this, the crew of 48 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: the Prometheus encountered even more artifacts of the engineers, and 49 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: even a lone living specimen preserved in some advanced form 50 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: of suspended animation. The android David, one of the few 51 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: survivors of that mission, went on to study their works 52 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: more exhaustively, decimating one of their inhabited worlds in the process. 53 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: As such, we have much more to go on than 54 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: the crew of the Nostroma, but much about the engineers 55 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 1: remains clouded in mystery. Members of their species seemingly seated 56 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: the planet Earth with life long ago and as such 57 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: are our progenitors, and then much later members of their 58 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:08,120 Speaker 1: species seem to decide to end that life instead. The 59 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: rationale for either impulse is a matter of debate, but 60 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: we find many ideas in the realities of human nature 61 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: and our own impulses to murder and create. We know 62 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: from various engineer artworks that they held their own form 63 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: in high regard, perhaps even worshiping themselves or deities drinpt 64 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 1: of in their own image. But they also held strange 65 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: and dangerous forms of life in seemingly high regard as well, 66 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:39,159 Speaker 1: forms that resemble the xenomorphic creature spawned from their biotechnology. 67 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,600 Speaker 1: Did they use their advanced understanding of life to create 68 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: life forms that reflected their dark beliefs? Did they harness 69 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: the raw biological power of some pre existing life form? 70 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:55,359 Speaker 1: We simply don't know. The Alien RPG source book ruminates 71 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 1: on these questions as well as others. Is there indeed 72 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: a single engineer species and or culture or many? Are there? 73 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: Different breeds? Are there different casts? Is the space jockey 74 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:09,920 Speaker 1: individual found on LV four to twenty six merely a 75 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: large specimen, a subspecies or something else? Again, all of 76 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: this is shrouded and delicious mystery, as it should be. 77 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,240 Speaker 1: The Engineers are often invoked as gods, demigods, or, indeed, 78 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: as the invocation of Prometheus implies, Titans. The Titans of 79 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:31,119 Speaker 1: Greek mythology were, of course, the pre Olympic gods cast 80 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: down by Zeus in the epic war known as the Titanomachi. Afterwards, 81 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: the gods imprisoned many of the Titans in Tartarus, while 82 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:43,720 Speaker 1: others remained free. The individual nature of the Titans varied 83 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: from brutal Chronos to the culture bearing tricks, to Prometheus, 84 00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: who in some tellings created human beings but is also 85 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: credited with giving them the gift of fire or fire technology, 86 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,040 Speaker 1: and this is a common trope in many different cultures. 87 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,039 Speaker 1: Even in invoking the engineers as Titans, a certain mystery remains. 88 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,520 Speaker 1: Are they our creators? Are benefactors, cruel former masters of 89 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: the cosmos? Maybe all of the above. In the film Prometheus, 90 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:17,160 Speaker 1: the engineers are explored in a manner clearly partially inspired 91 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: by the pseudoscientific ancient astronaut hypothesis, and I personally think 92 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: science fiction is the right place to deploy these concepts. 93 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,040 Speaker 1: While the idea that aliens visited the Earth in ancient 94 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 1: or prehistoric times carries no weight in serious consideration of history, mythology, 95 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: or science. Please see our past Stuffable your Mind episodes 96 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: for more on this. It's all fair gain. In a 97 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: twisting tale of futuristic fictional space horror, the Engineers provide 98 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,720 Speaker 1: us with a great elder race for the alien universe, 99 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:52,800 Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery, ultimately unknowable and untrustworthy. In the films 100 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,440 Speaker 1: that follow the life of the android David, they also 101 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:59,159 Speaker 1: serve as a fitting contemplation point for humanity's own place 102 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 1: in the universe as a creator of artificial life and 103 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: an expansionist terraforming civilization in decline. Look on their works, 104 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: Ye Mighty and Despair. This alien centric monster fact series 105 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: will continue on Wednesdays, with episodes of The Artifact and 106 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:21,920 Speaker 1: Animalia Stupendium set to return after that. I'd love to 107 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:24,760 Speaker 1: hear from any alien fans as we proceed. There's a 108 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: lot of alien media that I haven't consumed, so you 109 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 1: may have additional details and your own analysis to contribute, 110 00:07:32,520 --> 00:07:35,400 Speaker 1: so send it on. As always, you can email us 111 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:36,800 Speaker 1: at contact. 112 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 2: At stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 113 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 114 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 115 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.