2012
31st December 2012
At present because of the "star map" tablets in Prometheus, at present, I'm working on looking at the origins of the designs. So far I've begun studies, the Ancient Mayan Space Jockey 'Star Map' Tablet and indeed Ancient Sumerian Engineer 'Star-Map' Tablet. Of course it's a work in progress and still rather messy
1. This might be only interesting of course in terms of the Ancient Astronaut debate which seems to go off in a multitude of directions but it seems that I'm doing everything I can to break the symbols of Palenque tomb down and show other depictions of these things but there is still some contention about what the man in the Mayan Rocket Man tablet is doing while not actually flying a spacecraft. The shamanistic interpretation appears to show something slightly different from the hardline archeologist's interpretation, it's all a question of whether he is going up or down, and then maybe what the idea of an airborne capsule might mean to a Mayan even if it's made up from symbolic representations of monsters and a tree .
2. Meanwhile the study of Ancient Sumerian Tablet isn't really heading anywhere in terms of Zechariah Sitchin's stories about the Annunaki because they didn't use the most talked about one that appeared to feature stars or planets or whatever they are. But it's almost historically interesting to look at how far the image of a large throned man and the people coming up to him go back in time, and how the person who made the Prometheus tablets merged the ideas from two of them together. However putting a halo and angel wings onto the giant really didn't do much for the picture.
3. I certainly wish that the tablets in the movie could be redesigned to the level of oddity of Giger's Alien Life Cycle Hieroglyphic.
Sarcophagus Lid of Tomb of Pakal Votan
11th December 2012
Tim Boxells' comicbook story Defiled was pubished in Death Rattle vol 1, #1 in 1972. Dan O'Bannon in his essay "Something Perfectly disgusting" wrote about how he took the idea for the chestburster from "an underground comic, published in San Francisco in the far out 1970s. In this surrealistic yarn, drawn and written by the weird-brained Timothy Boxell, and alien critter somehow gets inside of a spaceman, and bites its way out, In this, I knew I had found my central image". Pages from the actual comic book have been scanned and cleaned up by me to put on the internet here. I've uploaded them to the Alien Explorations page
Alien Explorations: Tim Boxell's "Defiled" inspired chestburster
25th November 2012
I've worked on a page to tie together the bits of story that Ridley tells where he has questions rising about the space jockey that turn into his concept for a prequel that he brings forth to Fox CEO Tom Rothman. Reiteration Of The Space Jockey Scenario
23rd November 2012
Since it was getting all so long as confusing and I had the urge to bring some order, I've just broken down the elements that made up the section about the development of Necronom IV via Swiss Made into sections that can be individually accessed from :The Development of Necronom IV
18th November 2012
Early Development Of Alien Script
30th October 2012
Likely influence of Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the evolution of the design of the space jockey
Evolution of Space Jockey Via Texas Chainsaw Massacre
25th October 2012
Okay, I just realised that the Engineer's hibernation mask from Prometheus probably was based on a image from Giger's Necronomicon this morning. Likely Inspiration For Engineers
7th October 2012
I'm trying to work out whether this is another point of exploration or not because it's a bit odd like a 80s pop culture reference. Find the connection between the photo and the words printed in it.
Abstract connections between the Deacon and Deacon Blue (since then, this was changed to discussion about connections between the Deacon and the Steely Dan Song Deacon Blues)
25th September 2012
Have now included the Was-Sceptre as part of the H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries section. Don't know whether to say it is a directly something that inspired the Necronom IV head but definitely seems like a part of the shadow behind the thinking. Thanks to Batchpool from Prometheus-movie.com for pointing out the similarity. The Was Sceptre, the head of the alien?
24th September 2012
In view of the space jockey being a suit concept, I've gone further with exploring the Independence Day's biomechanical alien suit and have begun to look for quotes from interviews about the development of the idea in that production which I suppose differs slightly from the way it came about in Communion and Fire In The Sky. There are a good number of images of the suit and drawings I've added and will add more to the page soon. Independence Day's Biomechanical Suit
17th September 2012
This was someone's discovery a few years back at Propsummit about the origins of the coffee makers in Alien that I've put on my site now. KF 20 coffee making machine
10th September 2012
1) I've put a section together about the Viper's Nest set from Alien Explorations which was based on a Giger painting. I'll add more to the page when I find anything to add about the development of the set and the ideas behind it. The Vipers Nest
2) Someone three days ago at Prometheus-movie.com with the username Granolaboy shared an image that he found of a carving of the Nut goddess that looked specifically much more like the one in Giger's Hieroglyphics frieze. Very interesting. Nut_Sky Goddess
24th August 2012
Starting to create pages about the Fifield mutant, nothing really anything of interest to reveal other than a photograph from June edition of Le Cinema S.F.X of a CGI representation of an unused concept for the creature which I haven't seen anywhere else yet.
11th August 2012
I'm taking a look at the origin of Ridley Scott's need to make the Space Jockey a suit, and so it seems that he was having the idea back around 1996 at a time when this whole idea was making itself known. Basically it could have been either Fire In The Sky or Independence Day and one hopes to god that it was the former. The Space Jockey As A Suit Question
3rd August 2012
1) Set of images tracing the design of the Facehugger's sculpted underbelly.
2) Now noticing Brian Johnson the special effects supervisor curiously talking about Escher's work both in relation to the development both the Nostromo and the Derelict. I can't understand exactly why he mentioned it in relation to the Nostromo but maybe one day something else will be found mentioned by him babbling about things in relation to Escher. Escher optical illusions on Brian Johnson's mind
21st July 2012
Transcription of part of an interview with Brian Muir, he was one of the sculptors for Alien, in a video of an interview with him, he briefly about his work on the Space Jockey and briefly talked about being asked to work on Prometheus FollowTheNerd.com interviewed Brian Muir
15th July 2012
Issue No.8 of Weird Science inspires the chestburster
Okay,
I've tracked down the comic story from Weird Science that inspired Dan
O'Bannon in the 1950s and you'll probably be delighted how obvious it
is.
Just documenting the story so far about the likely origins of Elizabeth Shaw's name, going from the name possibly coming from a character in Dr Who to the likelihood that the name came from T. E. Lawrence's false surname. Origins of Elizabeth Shaw
1st July 2012
A page looking at the similarities between a piece of concept art for the Trilobite and a sculpture by the artist Chihuly. Chihuly - Chihulien - Chihulybite
24th June 2012
1. A section on the Nostromo when it was painted yellow. It's basically a collection of snippets of the chat that went on at Alienexperience.com when Dennis Lowe, Simon Deering and Jon Sorenson came to join the users there when Dennis released the earlier Alien Makers film and indeed transcriptions of chunks of a couple of the interviews from Alien Makers I. Yellow Nostromo
2. Thanks for the information from "egoc", two paintings by Ernst Fuchs, Behind Veronica's Cloth (from 1953) and The Angel Of Death Over Purgatory, (from 1951 to 1956) have now been added to the Design origins of the Alien by way of "Swiss Made"
24th May 2012
Here's a section about the auto destruct panel with the buttons painted in by Simon Deering who revealed his secret about the strange words on the buttons back in 2009.
I've managed to create a composite shot with almost all the buttons shown in the closeup shot showing their details. However sad news came recently that Simon Deering passed away this February. He was a fun person to chat with in the Alienexperience.com forum in the last few years and will be missed. Simon Deering's Auto destruct panel
11th May 2012
This set of photos from behind the scene of Alien is showing some very interesting things such as Roger Dicken's attempt at the alien that looked more like a dinosaur is found at Mauvais-Genres.com. I loaded them onto my site and made them easier to look at. Alien behind the scenes photos from mauvais-genres.com
7th May 2012
Okay, another piece in the puzzle about the inspiration behind the refinery platform
2nd May 2012
A
fairly decent scan of the Sokar Funerary barge from the Egyptian Book
of the Dead Papyrus of Ani has been added to the Evolution of the Space
Jockey from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Previously a black and white
one along with a low definition colour version of this simple
illustration had been put there, but now, well I sorted that out
yesterday.
26th April 2012
Updated the section "Pyramid In The Prequel", nothing particularly new that anyone hasn't been talking about in view of the new shot of the face on the top of the pyramid mound, but attempts are being made to organise the information and the origin of each piece of information, so well each photo from the trailers can be found with a link to the original trailer. This is to help me as much as anyone else while we are in the process of piecing everything together from the trailers and featurettes as they deliver us revelations to get excited about rather than see it all on the big screen, it's getting more and more complicated. Pyramid In The Prequel.
23rd April 2012
I've had a go an compiling all the recent information about the Space Jockey - Engineer or whatever we have here as it's being unveiled to us. I admit that I'm much more interested at the moment in the pattern of events taking place in term. Space Jockeys Renamed Engineers
10th April 2012
I've created now a section on Ash the Robot. However the only thing that isn't the usual regurgitated information about what's known in the film is the way the idea just seems more or less a ripoff from an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man called Return of the Robot Maker. That's my only real Trump card on this subject. Ash The Robot
8th April 2012
1) It probably seems a little bit hazy, but gleefully I add another part to the H.R Giger's Egyptian Mysteries with the discover that Necronom IV seems to have been inspired by at least one of the images depicting the Ancient Egyptian Embalming Ritual.
2) And I've updated Design origins of the Alien by way of "Swiss Made" page with a new section "Elongated Skull Apparitions" See part ii or 1 at Development of the Necronom IV.
(at the time a long page with all this information existed and then it was broken down. Elongated Skull Apparitions started as discussion about Dali's possible influence and then it would later extend to Ernst Fuchs a few months later see 24th June 2012)
31st March 2012
6 sketches for an Alien Queen for Steve Johnson's Edge FX bid to do the creature suits for AVP.
30th March 2012
Now have started a page dealing with Giger's response to Cameron's Aliens movie. Gigers talks about Aliens
26th March 2012
Just added an additional note at the end of the article "Locating the Nostromo" because of the Weyland Industries timeline, but well, it's easier for me to state here that it's all still rather blurred, the Timeline says "Weyland astronomers discover multiple moons and a ringed planet just outside the Zeta 2 Reticula System" ( erroneously written Reticula instead of Reticuli). So does that mean it's not part of that system, and if not, what star system is it supposed to be part of, or are we dealing with rogue planets etc? No answers so far! Locating the Nostromo
19th March 2012
Just a page about the sarcophagus lid of Pakal Votan as depicted in Prometheus trailer. I'll try to cover the rest once I've worked out their origins if they are based on anything. The Sarcophagus Lid of the Tomb of Pakal Votan
7th March 2012
New turn discovered in the evolution of the Space Jockey design!
4th March 2012
The New Weyland
11th February 2012
I've been trying to put together some kind of an evolution of the Predalien that features in AVP:R together, I suppose what there is known about the final design of the creature in the film is rather fragmented but a lot of people might say "well who cares?". I'll update it more later and I suppose since not too many people bought into the design of the Predalien in that film, the evolution of the design of the creature is still going on probably. I'm thinking these days about the new SuperPredators in Predators basically looks as if someone has been thinking about biomechanising the predator in its newer form so that might be a point of continuation and well we certainly have the computer game versions that look nothing like the film Predalien either. The Evolution of the PredAlien
25th January 2012
I think I may have discovered depictions of of Rambaldi's early concept for the Alien creature.
2011
30th October 2011
1.Edited transcription of Don Shay interview Ridley Scott
2. Raw-transcription-of Don Shay interview with Ridley Scott
11th October 2011
Examining what was borrowed from Chris Foss in the final Nostromo design. Chris Foss inspiration for the Nostromo
16th August 2011
Possible inspiration for the leap to having the Nostromo refinery platform as a squarish shape.
2nd August 2011
Now writing about the intermediary stage of the alien, Ridley Scott talked about his idea for one which he didn't film and a version of something reminiscent of what he talked about was seen in a roughcut and ended up in the Alien illustrated story. An intermediary stage
1st August 2011
A smallest update in the section dealing with the medical inspiration for the chestburster, a newspaper article about Jason Zinoman's "Shockvalue" recounts the story once again about how the effects of Crohn's disease provided O'Bannon with the personal inspiration. Number six at the end of the page.
29th June 2011
I've started updating the revelations about Prometheus section, since Ridley's made another reference to Von Daniken and it's more or less a direct quote this time, but you can never quite tell at the end of the day with some of these journalists. But now it seems that Prometheus is definitely the name of a space ship. Prometheus Q & A at CineEurope
5th June 2011
Alien Explorations: Aliens in a pyramid puzzle box
Added quotes and their sources to the article on the Alien vs
Predator pyramid being possibly inspired by Vincenzo Natali's cube. Aliens in a pyramid puzzle box
1st May 2011
Compilation of various thing that excluding the aliens themselves, Paul Anderson borrowed from the Alien saga for ideas and tributes in his Aliens Vs Predator movie. There has been some sort of bug in the blogs programming so excuse me if the spacing seems rather up the wall on some pages, I might have solved the problem, I don't know.
14th April 2011
I've just made a list of instances that Giger incorporated Egyptian Imagery into his work for Alien which seems to be three instances at this time, not including the pyramid earlier on in the production because it wasn't his idea to introduce it into the designs. HR Giger and Egyptian Mystierie
9th April 2011
1) The Space Jockey Design As It Is In Alien (updated with an interview with Brian Muir found in page 115 of Scifi Now magazine, issue #52, May 2011. )
2) Shadow Of The Sphinx
14th January 2011
Realisation that the Space Jockey in seat design had been inspired by the Sokar Funerary Barque. Evolution of Space Jockey from the Egyptian Book of the Dead
2010
August 2010
Created page for Dan O'Bannon's Original Story
14th June 2010
Well, what I've done is break everything into bundles of statements and interpretations about what Ridley said about this and that throughout the interview to give you the most complete picture available until someone who has an audio copy actually decides to transcribe the *swear word* thing
Ridley Scott At Hero Complex Festival
January 2010
Created page for Galactic Geography
Created page Design of the derelict
2009
February 2009
1) Created the page Space Jockey's Origins from Swiss Family Robinson
2) Created the page Inspired By Erich Von Daniken
2007
May 2007
The blog was started in May 2007 . However no record was kept of the updates until 2011. The starting point though was the addition of an old essay Dissecting the Derelict written about 1999 which I admit is now a little bit outdated
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