Dear Johnny Fanboy,

I'm currently working my way through the excellent Alien Quadrilogy box set, but I think I have discovered a continuity problem within the series. In the new director's cut of Alien there is a new scene in which Ripley finds Dallas and Brett cocooned in alien resin. We know from watching Aliens that the creatures do this so that humans can become the helpless victims of newly hatched alien eggs.

However, there are no eggs on board the Nostromo, and Aliens also establishes that it is a Queen alien who lays the eggs. Why does the alien trap Dallas and Brett when it has no eggs to use against them?

Regards,

Fay Sugger

Johnny Fanboy replies:

The alien may not necessarily have been storing Dallas for reasons of procreation. The species might also do this to store food. Note that the creature only retains two of its victims, Dallas and Brett, and has a good old nosh on Parker and Lambert.

It is also entirely plausible that the creature is acting on a blind instinct to procreate, regardless of the fact that there are no eggs present. As Hudson points out so eloquently in Aliens: "They're animals, man!" So we shouldn't expect too much logic from them.

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