Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Robert Lambin. This is the Monster Fact,
Speaker 1: a short form series from Stuff to blow your Mind,
Speaker 1: focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.
Speaker 1: In this episode will begin a multi installment exploration of
Speaker 1: the various strange forms found in the Alien universe leading
Speaker 1: up to the debut of the new Alien Romulus film
Speaker 1: in August. I previously wrote about xenomorph biology in the
Speaker 1: article how the Alien Xenomorph Works back in twenty twelve
Speaker 1: for the website how Stuff Works. That article is still
Speaker 1: there in full, accompanied by illustrations authorized by the hr
Speaker 1: Giger Museum, and as I work up to various considerations
Speaker 1: of how natural world biology is reflected in or matches
Speaker 1: up to the xenomorph, I'll likely draw on some of
Speaker 1: the same ideas, but I also plan to touch on
Speaker 1: various additional natural world and mythological connections, as well as
Speaker 1: such sources as the twenty seventeen film Alien Covenant and
Speaker 1: the excellent Alien RPG source books from Free League Publishing.
Speaker 1: I want to add the caveat that I am not
Speaker 1: setting out to wrangle all the lore here or to
Speaker 1: provide you with a one hundred percent canonical take on everything.
Speaker 1: You have no shortage of wikis and lore videos for that.
Speaker 1: The Monster Fact Journey will touch on a lot of
Speaker 1: the same themes and information, but will also reflect my
Speaker 1: own thoughts and obsessions as a fan. With all that
Speaker 1: in mind, let's start at the beginning with the Enigmatic Engineers,
Speaker 1: an elder race spacefaring humanoids. The Engineers have largely vanished
Speaker 1: from the portion of the galaxy traversed by twenty second
Speaker 1: century terans. It is unknown what they call themselves, but
Speaker 1: accounts whisper the names Malacak and Ossians, while informal names
Speaker 1: such as space jockeys and universal pilots also abound. The
Speaker 1: term engineer, used by doctor Elizabeth Shaw of the Doomed
Speaker 1: Prometheus Expedition, has stuck in the few circles allowed to
Speaker 1: know of them. Pale, hairless giants of uncanny statuesque perfection.
Speaker 1: The Engineers are thought to have worn modest clothing on
Speaker 1: their home worlds, but donned more exotic, biomechanical space suits
Speaker 1: during their interstellar voyages. Suits that seemingly melded with their bodies,
Speaker 1: fused with their organs, and via their strange helms, gave
Speaker 1: them the outer appearance of a trunked elephantic head. They
Speaker 1: were or are masters of not only interstellar travel, but
Speaker 1: also biotechnology, able to generate new forms of life, program genetics,
Speaker 1: master evolutionary process augment their own bodies and craft, terrifying
Speaker 1: bioweapons beyond the scope of even the most advanced whalen
Speaker 1: Utani weapon lab. Within the wrecked Juggernaut found on planet
Speaker 1: LV four, twenty six, crew members from the Nostromo encountered
Speaker 1: the long dead remains of a very large engineer, with
Speaker 1: evidence of an explosive emergence from its chest, as well
Speaker 1: as thousands of eggs. Prior to this, the crew of
Speaker 1: the Prometheus encountered even more artifacts of the engineers, and
Speaker 1: even a lone living specimen preserved in some advanced form
Speaker 1: of suspended animation. The android David, one of the few
Speaker 1: survivors of that mission, went on to study their works
Speaker 1: more exhaustively, decimating one of their inhabited worlds in the process.
Speaker 1: As such, we have much more to go on than
Speaker 1: the crew of the Nostroma, but much about the engineers
Speaker 1: remains clouded in mystery. Members of their species seemingly seated
Speaker 1: the planet Earth with life long ago and as such
Speaker 1: are our progenitors, and then much later members of their
Speaker 1: species seem to decide to end that life instead. The
Speaker 1: rationale for either impulse is a matter of debate, but
Speaker 1: we find many ideas in the realities of human nature
Speaker 1: and our own impulses to murder and create. We know
Speaker 1: from various engineer artworks that they held their own form
Speaker 1: in high regard, perhaps even worshiping themselves or deities drinpt
Speaker 1: of in their own image. But they also held strange
Speaker 1: and dangerous forms of life in seemingly high regard as well,
Speaker 1: forms that resemble the xenomorphic creature spawned from their biotechnology.
Speaker 1: Did they use their advanced understanding of life to create
Speaker 1: life forms that reflected their dark beliefs? Did they harness
Speaker 1: the raw biological power of some pre existing life form?
Speaker 1: We simply don't know. The Alien RPG source book ruminates
Speaker 1: on these questions as well as others. Is there indeed
Speaker 1: a single engineer species and or culture or many? Are there?
Speaker 1: Different breeds? Are there different casts? Is the space jockey
Speaker 1: individual found on LV four to twenty six merely a
Speaker 1: large specimen, a subspecies or something else? Again, all of
Speaker 1: this is shrouded and delicious mystery, as it should be.
Speaker 1: The Engineers are often invoked as gods, demigods, or, indeed,
Speaker 1: as the invocation of Prometheus implies, Titans. The Titans of
Speaker 1: Greek mythology were, of course, the pre Olympic gods cast
Speaker 1: down by Zeus in the epic war known as the Titanomachi. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: the gods imprisoned many of the Titans in Tartarus, while
Speaker 1: others remained free. The individual nature of the Titans varied
Speaker 1: from brutal Chronos to the culture bearing tricks, to Prometheus,
Speaker 1: who in some tellings created human beings but is also
Speaker 1: credited with giving them the gift of fire or fire technology,
Speaker 1: and this is a common trope in many different cultures.
Speaker 1: Even in invoking the engineers as Titans, a certain mystery remains.
Speaker 1: Are they our creators? Are benefactors, cruel former masters of
Speaker 1: the cosmos? Maybe all of the above. In the film Prometheus,
Speaker 1: the engineers are explored in a manner clearly partially inspired
Speaker 1: by the pseudoscientific ancient astronaut hypothesis, and I personally think
Speaker 1: science fiction is the right place to deploy these concepts.
Speaker 1: While the idea that aliens visited the Earth in ancient
Speaker 1: or prehistoric times carries no weight in serious consideration of history, mythology,
Speaker 1: or science. Please see our past Stuffable your Mind episodes
Speaker 1: for more on this. It's all fair gain. In a
Speaker 1: twisting tale of futuristic fictional space horror, the Engineers provide
Speaker 1: us with a great elder race for the alien universe,
Speaker 1: shrouded in mystery, ultimately unknowable and untrustworthy. In the films
Speaker 1: that follow the life of the android David, they also
Speaker 1: serve as a fitting contemplation point for humanity's own place
Speaker 1: in the universe as a creator of artificial life and
Speaker 1: an expansionist terraforming civilization in decline. Look on their works,
Speaker 1: Ye Mighty and Despair. This alien centric monster fact series
Speaker 1: will continue on Wednesdays, with episodes of The Artifact and
Speaker 1: Animalia Stupendium set to return after that. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from any alien fans as we proceed. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of alien media that I haven't consumed, so you
Speaker 1: may have additional details and your own analysis to contribute,
Speaker 1: so send it on. As always, you can email us
Speaker 1: at contact.
Speaker 2: At stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.