I know there have got to be some trivia fanatics on this board that would know the answer, so here goes...
What are the actual species names of the Aliens and Predators from the 20th Century Fox movie franchises of the same name? I know they have both had healthy runs in Dark Horse Comics, and I imagine at some point they have been given species names as opposed to just Aliens and Predators.
I always felt that the fact that no one ever seemed to dub a name on the the aliens form the 'Alien(s)' franchise was pretty weak. It is a defining characteristic of humanity that we feel the need to name everything. Bugs could work. Or naming them after the location they were discovered (?don't remember the name of the place...Fury something?), or after the Nostromo (?spelling?), or after the sole survivor of the first encounter. Ripleys, bugs, Nostromos, Furies, anything but...aliens. The biggest problem is that the movies imply that this isn't the first alien life form that humanity has encountered either, so there really is no excuse for not designating these creatures as something else.
I think a distinction should be made between the Yautja (Predators) and the 'Aliens' as well. The Yautja are clearly a lot more civilized and have a society, while the 'Aliens' are much more bestial and uncivilized. One could almost argue that the 'Aliens' are really just a highly-evolved hunting animal, like a Lion or Tiger, just far more dangerous and a little more cunning.
While I haven't read much of the graphic novels, I have seen all of the movies several times, including AvP over the weekend (hence the thread), and I have seen no evidence to support the 'Aliens' having any sort of culture.
Now, an argument could be made that because the 'Aliens' communicate with one another (seems like on an empathic level to me), they could be considered civilized, but I'm not sure that communication alone automatically makes them into a culture.
Anyway, I think I'll go with Xenomorphs for the time being, as no other aliens in the setting have the ability to host inside other beings and such, there shouldn't be any confusion with that sort of name.
I think a discriptive name might be in order for the Aliens creatures. Warhammer 40k's Genestealers were based on the creatures from Aliens. It is my understanding that as part of their reproductive cycle they utilize genetic material from thier host to better adapt to the environment. Thus you get the difference between the human hosted Aliens and the dog hosted one in Alien3. So some sort of name that describes this behavior (like genestealer) would be in order, imho.
Or naming them after the location they were discovered (?don't remember the name of the place...Fury something?), or after the Nostromo (?spelling?), or after the sole survivor of the first encounter.
LV-426 was the planets only designation in the first movie. In the second movie it had been colonized and named Acheron (taken from the Greek name of a river in Hades). Between those two movies it obviously doesn't get a name because Ripley was the sole initial survivor and then it was just "some unknown lifeform" and referred to as a xenomorph as a simple alternative to alien. They mean largely the same thing except that xenomorph is more specifically referring to an animal or insect of some kind.
I believe it's scientific tradition that the discoverer is allowed to name a new species - but who's the actual discoverer? Kane, the initial victim? Ripley, the sole survivor? The unknown individual(s) who first translated the warning being transmitted from LV-426 - which led to Ash the science robot being placed aboard the Nostromo and it's return journey being diverted to the location? Was it Mr. Weyland who deserves the credit? <S>
After seeing AVP yesterday it's clear that his company - which would eventually become the Weyland-Yulani company from the Alien movies - knows about the aliens existence only because of the incident in Antartica but it apparantly is unable to do anything with this knowledge until many decades later when the LV-426 warning is recieved.
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In Alien3 [one of the movies that I refuse to acknowledge actually exists] it's still just a lone hitchhiker on Ripleys escape pod that nobody knows about until it's loose inside a penal colony. Nobody yet really ready to claim credit for its discovery except, IIRC, those unknown individuals/forces inside the company who show up at the end to finally take the sucker away for analysis and exploitation.
In Alien: Resurrection [another movie I refuse to acknowledge the acutal existence of] they've gotten one from SOMEwhere - I rather assume by going back to Acheron/LV-426 and finding eggs or something that was outside the blast zone of the atmosphere processing station from the second movie. What is truly mystifying is why they should cross-breed it with Ripley of whom nothing but ashes should have remained.
I'd have to say that Ripley most deserves the naming rights for THREE times being the sole survivor of incidents involved in actually capturing one [survived the Nostromo explosion, the destruction of the Sulaco, and then the incident on the penal colony immediately after which she committed suicide], but she obliterated herself. And that leaves only the scheming quack from the last movie (Dr. Gediman) who also subesquently dies taking whatever pet name he gave them with him.
Maybe you should name them Gigers. It kinda sounds right, but it doesn't fit into the movie canon in anyway, it's a real-world reference.
Ripleys, bugs, Nostromos, Furies, anything but...aliens. The biggest problem is that the movies imply that this isn't the first alien life form that humanity has encountered either, so there really is no excuse for not designating these creatures as something else.
It's really just that nobody PUBLIC has ever survived long enough to even think about taking credit for their discovery and claiming the right to name them, or bothering to do so.
