WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Alien, Part 3 – Trilobite & Deacon

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>In the previous episode, in this special alien themed Monster

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<v Speaker 2>Fact series, we discussed Agent A zero thirty nine fifty

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<v Speaker 2>nine x point ninety one slash fifteen. The Black Goo,

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<v Speaker 2>a powerful evolutionary accelerant created by the Engineers and deployed

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<v Speaker 2>as both the creator and destroyer of worlds. We consider

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<v Speaker 2>the various ways that it worked itself through a host,

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<v Speaker 2>spawning zombie like abominations in the process. As witnessed in

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<v Speaker 2>the film Prometheus, a mixture of pathogen infected hosts can

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<v Speaker 2>lead to truly straining forms. The android David infected Human

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<v Speaker 2>Crew made Holloway with a mere drop of the Black Goo.

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<v Speaker 2>The infected Holloway then impregnated his partner, doctor Elizabeth Shaw,

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<v Speaker 2>who then employed appalling medpod to surgically remove the resulting

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<v Speaker 2>squid like embryo before it could burst out of her

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<v Speaker 2>on its own. Left to its own devices, the resulting

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<v Speaker 2>creature rapidly grew into an enormous seven tentacled monster sometimes

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<v Speaker 2>referred to as the trilobite. The creature has virtually nothing

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<v Speaker 2>in common with the prehistoric arthropod of the same name,

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<v Speaker 2>which we previously discussed un stuffable your mind. If anything,

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<v Speaker 2>the creature looks more like an octopus. They'll find very

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<v Speaker 2>few seven armed organisms in the natural world. The seven

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<v Speaker 2>armed sea star comes to mind, but we also have

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<v Speaker 2>to consider the so called seven armed octopus. Some call

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<v Speaker 2>it the septipus or the blob octopus, but Halifron atlanticus

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<v Speaker 2>actually does does have eight arms. It's just that the

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<v Speaker 2>male's hectocotylus or specialized fertilization arm, remains coiled away in

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<v Speaker 2>a sack beneath the right eye, thus giving the creature

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<v Speaker 2>the appearance of having only seven arms, at least in

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<v Speaker 2>the males. But back to the monster, we quickly learn

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<v Speaker 2>that the alien trilobite is merely an intermediate stage in

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<v Speaker 2>the creature's overall life cycle. When the trilobite overpowers a

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<v Speaker 2>surviving engineer, incapacitates the host and implants its own embryo orally,

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<v Speaker 2>the tentacled monster then covers the host's body in a

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<v Speaker 2>posture that the Alien RPG from Free League Publishing describes

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<v Speaker 2>as a protective posture. There's already a lot to unpack here.

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<v Speaker 2>I don't want to get two ahead of ourselves, but

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<v Speaker 2>the creature here is essentially more of a body hugger

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<v Speaker 2>than a face hugger, though it still depends on oral

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<v Speaker 2>injection of its embryo. It also feels as if the

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<v Speaker 2>trilobite form developed expressly for the purpose of infect larger

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<v Speaker 2>than human prey, did its juvenile forms somehow detect the

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<v Speaker 2>presence of a much larger engineer in its midst and

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<v Speaker 2>morph into a form capable of taking one down. It's unknown, however,

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<v Speaker 2>we do know that the black goop pathogen seems to

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<v Speaker 2>ultimately result in more stabilized xenomorphic creatures with distinct life cycles,

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<v Speaker 2>and we can suppose that these stabilized forms in life

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<v Speaker 2>cycles are informed by environment and host survivability. Certainly, engineers

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<v Speaker 2>or rogue android scientists might manipulate this development, but it

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<v Speaker 2>seems to be a typical pattern. But the resulting creatures,

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<v Speaker 2>as we'll discuss, remain highly adaptive to host availability. But

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<v Speaker 2>I will go ahead and speculate, and I'm sure others

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<v Speaker 2>have speculated along these exact lines as well, that the

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<v Speaker 2>trilobite is a specialized engineer nabber, and that Holloway and

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<v Speaker 2>Shaw's genetic contributions were marginal at best. The android David,

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<v Speaker 2>in his Covenant recordings at least mentions in passing that

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<v Speaker 2>the engineers are perfect carriers and perfect mothers. We're also

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<v Speaker 2>to understand that the engineers are genetically somewhat similar human beings.

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<v Speaker 2>But perhaps there is something else about the Elder race's

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<v Speaker 2>biology that draws the pathogens and creatures of their own creation.

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<v Speaker 2>I wonder if it might have to do with the

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<v Speaker 2>various other biotechnological alterations that the engineers have made to

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<v Speaker 2>themselves or are made via their suits. And of course,

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<v Speaker 2>in Prometheus's closing moments, we see the trillabte crumpled and

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<v Speaker 2>dead and watch a juvenile xenomorphic organism emerge from the

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<v Speaker 2>engineer's body. It has indeed grown quite large in the

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<v Speaker 2>giant body of its hosts. The alien RPG describes the

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<v Speaker 2>gestation as effectively hollowing out the host creature's body, reducing

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<v Speaker 2>it to little more than a husk. The new form,

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<v Speaker 2>dubbed the Deacon, emerges as a more typical bipedal eye

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<v Speaker 2>list xenomorphic creature with an elongated head, though lacking a

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<v Speaker 2>tail and various other key features associated with its kin.

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<v Speaker 2>It boats protrucible jaws like that of the deep sea

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<v Speaker 2>goblin shark, and its nickname derives from the sharp point

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<v Speaker 2>on the end of its head, which resembles the pointed

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<v Speaker 2>miter worn by some Christian clergy. The creature uses this

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<v Speaker 2>point to violently rip its way out of the host body.

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<v Speaker 2>In this regard, we might reasonably compare the deacon's headspike

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<v Speaker 2>to the egg tooth, a temporary sharp protrusion that various birds, reptiles,

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<v Speaker 2>and monotremes use to penetrate their own eggshell and break

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<v Speaker 2>free spiders, too, are known to develop an egg tooth

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<v Speaker 2>like spike to aid in their hatching. The Deacon's spike

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<v Speaker 2>would seem necessary as it has to emerge not only

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<v Speaker 2>from the body of the engineer, but also through its

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<v Speaker 2>biomechanical spacesuit, which again may to varying degrees, be biologically

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<v Speaker 2>integrated with the engineer. Just as birds quickly lose their

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<v Speaker 2>egg teeth, it's possible that the deacon loses its key

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<v Speaker 2>feature as it develops into its no doubt gigantic adult forms. However,

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<v Speaker 2>we have no idea what this form might look like.

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<v Speaker 2>Perhaps its full development puts in more in line with

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<v Speaker 2>other xenomorphic forms, only on a scale devoted to prey

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<v Speaker 2>on giant humanoid hosts. We also have no idea what

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<v Speaker 2>the Deacon's life cycle would consist of in whole, but

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<v Speaker 2>we might assume that it would resemble that of a

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<v Speaker 2>stabilized xenomorphic life cycle, which we'll discuss in the weeks ahead,

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<v Speaker 2>only with larger eggs that produce a body hugging embryo depositor.

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<v Speaker 2>The engineers might know for certain, but fortunately humans remain

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<v Speaker 2>in the dark. Tune in for additional episodes of The

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact each week. Our Alien series will continue next

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<v Speaker 2>week with a look at the neomorph before getting into

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<v Speaker 2>the traditional xenomorphic life cycle. Write in with your own observations, readings,

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<v Speaker 2>and thoughts. Thanks as always to the excellent JJ Possway

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<v Speaker 2>for producing this show. Email us at contact at stufftable

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<v Speaker 2>your mind dot com.

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