Spoilers Alien: Earth Spoiler Thread

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Man, you guys would eviscerate me for the on the nose names I use in my Mothership game.

Although since I don't have any Brits in my game, I think the starship Doherty and mining colony Cargill-84 probably got past them. It does make naming stuff easier if you just use the influences as the sources for names in-game.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Man, you guys would eviscerate me for the on the nose names I use in my Mothership game.

Although since I don't have any Brits in my game, I think the starship Doherty and mining colony Cargill-84 probably got past them. It does make naming stuff easier if you just use the influences as the sources for names in-game.

Man the stick I'd get for Cargill-84 lol! At least you dropped the S to disguise it slightly!

I once made up the name "Agadir" for a major dragonborn antagonist (not quite badguy) in my D&D campaign only to find out a week or two later that it was the name of a city in Morocco and the way I found out was using the tube (the underground train) and seeing gigantic billboards with the name very prominent in virtually every station I went through. I killed him off much sooner than intended because I grew tired of the comments ("He doesn't seem very 'sunny' to me!" "He's not fun to visit at all!" and so on).

Also my worst superhero game naming - "The Dark Adept" for like a mystical assassin-type. Seems fine right? He didn't make it through his opening speech before one of the players blurted out "The Dork Inept!" and they would refer to him as nothing else! I never felt so much like one of my villains was being metaphorically crammed in a locker when he lost the combat with them lol.

 

[Laurefindel]

Eh, I kinda liked Alien: Resurrection.

When I first saw it I had just seen La Cité des Enfants Perdus with Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon, and was delighted to see them again together in A:R (Dominique Pinon is the guy in the wheelchair). The smuggler crew looked cool, which spoke to us roleplayers at the time, and the Betty is still one of my favourite sci-fi ships ever.

 

[wicked cool]

Loved parts of 3, hated some early dialogue but interested and intrigued. Beginning to figure out what happened in episode 1 (maybe)

 

[dragoner]

Eh, I kinda liked Alien: Resurrection.

When I first saw it I had just seen La Cité des Enfants Perdus with Ron Perlman and Dominique Pinon, and was delighted to see them again together in A:R (Dominique Pinon is the guy in the wheelchair). The smuggler crew looked cool, which spoke to us roleplayers at the time, and the Betty is still one of my favourite sci-fi ships ever.

The crew of rogues in a spaceship, perfect RPG fodder.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Man the stick I'd get for Cargill-84 lol! At least you dropped the S to disguise it slightly!

I once made up the name "Agadir" for a major dragonborn antagonist (not quite badguy) in my D&D campaign only to find out a week or two later that it was the name of a city in Morocco and the way I found out was using the tube (the underground train) and seeing gigantic billboards with the name very prominent in virtually every station I went through. I killed him off much sooner than intended because I grew tired of the comments ("He doesn't seem very 'sunny' to me!" "He's not fun to visit at all!" and so on).

Also my worst superhero game naming - "The Dark Adept" for like a mystical assassin-type. Seems fine right? He didn't make it through his opening speech before one of the players blurted out "The Dork Inept!" and they would refer to him as nothing else! I never felt so much like one of my villains was being metaphorically crammed in a locker when he lost the combat with them lol.

I created a supervillain called The Procrastinator, but I never got round to running that game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's not.

It's the first thing you see in the show (IIRC)

It's foreshadowing what's going to happen more broadly. It's irrelevant that it's a ship, it's irrelevant that it's collecting specimens. It's a theme, if we're going with the "EXTREMELY ON THE NOSE" approach the show seems to be taking more broadly.

That's my guess on the name anyway - they do make sure you see the name as it goes past, which I supports this, because what, Western man/woman/nb does the word "Maginot" say to you? It says failure of defences. It says your expensive and extensive plans and preparations are worthless. It says "arrogance" and "failure to anticipate". It says you're looking in the wrong direction.

I could be totally wrong but it is a peculiar name.

There's another "On the nose" name - "Best Laid Plans" - bit of a more Banksian vibe. Or "Mice and Men" but then we'd just expect someone to get Lennie'd.

EDIT - If it's SUPER DUPER on the nose, the biggest threat will not be any of the aliens on the Maginot. It'll be the Hybrids. Because you're getting hit from an angle you weren't ready for.

EDIT EDIT - Looked to see what people online thought - a lot of people seem to be taking it as more literally meaning the containment of the species inside the ship will fail but like, duh, come on, that's not even a theme, it's Alien show, obviously that will happen. Some people do think similarly that it's theme-related though.

You mean it's not a reference to tiny peas served in the pod?!

If you are using names of meta-significance you have to consider if your audience will pick up on the reference; if you want them too, or if you want it to remain a private joke. This one, would have passed a lot of people by I think, if Google didn't exist. The danger is, does your clever-clever name take people out of the fiction? In-universe, why would anyone choose that name? Nostromo was fine, we can imagine someone was just going through a list of old book titles.

In RPGs, it goes further and can give players meta-information they shouldn't have. In the example given by @Whizbang Dustyboots , I doubt it would break anything if the players anticipated striking miners, but I remember once, whist playing FASA Star Trek, we were approached by a ship called The Alucard. So of course I immediately gave the order "Stand by to receive vampires".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You mean it's not a reference to tiny peas served in the pod?!

I do think "Mangetout" - "eat everything" would have been another very on-the-nose name!

To be fair to the Maginot line btw, whilst the cultural valence in the English-speaking West is as I describe, the French designers did actually understand the Germans could go around it, they just thought "To do that they'd have to start another World War because they'd have to invade multiple European countries in addition to France! And no-one is going to that again in a hurry!". Oh dear.

 

[pukunui]

I do think "Mangetout" - "eat everything" would have been another very on-the-nose name!

As an aside, I'd never heard the term "mangetout" before Wet Leg introduced me to it with a song by that name on their new album. (Despite NZ being more British than the USA, they call them snow peas here, just like they do back home ...)

 

[John R Davis]

Episode 3 got a bit weird towards the end. Plus hope we get to see Wendy V Alien in a flashback?!