Alien: Ash's observation blister

leading from

Alien: Nostromo

a) Ash in his observation blister 

a.i) Ash in his observation blister  (from Book of Alien by Scanlon and Gross)

 

 

a.ii) Originally there was supposed to be an observation blister at the top of the ship .

There would have been a scene where Dallas and Ripley were to have a love scene interupted by Kane's ejected dead body bumping around in space tapping against the window, but that was cut. 

Here at least they managed to include the observation blister for Ash at the bottom of the Nostromo. 

Perhaps the idea was near enough like a World War 2 bomber aircraft

From here, Ash would watch what's going on when members of the Nostromo crew go out to visit the derelict ship. 

He is able to see them go by, walking off and keep an eye on what it seen through video feeds, monitoring their positions.

As Les Dilley the art director would understand it, there would be the idea that Ash love being down here all alone. It would be his place of glory, like an ultimate disc jockey's booth

 

a.iii) Ash in his observation blister

 

 

 

1. Les Dilley: The blister is on the lowest part of the ship, so when they're down on the planet, Ash can sit there and watch them go by, and then he can monitor their position. He loves being down there all alone. The blister is his glory. It's sort of the ultimate disc jockey's booth.  (Book of Alien by Scanlon and Gross) 
2. Fantastic Films: I see Ash's bubble as a direct outgrowth of Dark Star.
    
   Ridley Scott: There was a bubble in O’Bannon's original screenplay. That's where the love scene took place. And that’s also where the body that's ejected from the ship was bumping around. But we couldn’t do that. I wanted to do it. I was trying to hold it in until the last dying stroke. But that involved . .. what that involved was involved.
    
   There was also a decompression sequence where Lambert gets killed and Ripley saves Parker from the similar fate of getting sucked out into space through a little tiny hole in the airlock. That was closely linked with the bubble.
    
   Because the decompression went— mainly for budget reasons— the bubble went. I guess the Ash blister was all that was left of that intention. (Fantastic Films #11, 1979)
    
   

b.i) Ron Cobb's art for the observation blister interior

 

 

 

 

b.ii) Comparable image of Ash sitting at his observation blister from the film

 

 

 

 

c) Blue print for the observation blister set

 

 

 

c.ii) Blue print for the observation blister set

 

d) Exterior shots of the observation blister

d.i) Underside view of observation blister from Book of Alien by Scanlon and Gross

 

d.ii) Photo of Ash seen from the outside in observation bubble from Fantastic Films #11

d.iii) In the background on the left is the window of the set for the observation blister