13. How Alien Changed Sci-Fi Cinema in 1979

• Dan O’Bannon was a US filmmaker born in 1946. He wrote Alien with his friend and fellow filmmaker Ron Schusett.

• John Carpenter is a popular US filmmaker born in 1948. His most prominent films include Halloween (1979), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983) and my favourite Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

• Dark Star (1974) was John Carpenter’s student film. You can find its IMDB page here.

• The IMDB page for The Thing from Another World (1951) can be found here.

• AE Van Vogt was a prominent science fiction writer born in 1912. His story Black Destroyer written in 1939 and was part of the book The Voyage of the Space Beagle. Van Vogt sued 20th Century Fox for claiming the plot of Alien was stolen from his stories. Fox denied the claim but settled out of court for $50,000.  

• Space Beast was the original name of the script that would go on to make Alien.

• Alexandro Jodorowsy is a Chilean and French filmmaker born in 1929. His version of Dune was never made but involved Dan O’Bannon, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and a soundtrack from Pink Floyd. The final length of the film was reportedly due to be 14 hours long and would feature Jodorowsky’s son as the lead. The production was never made due to no studio being willing to fund the project.

• Dan O’Bannon had Crohn’s disease. Complications from the ailment were cited as the cause of his death in 2009.

• Sadako is the girl who crawls out the television in the film Ringu (1998).

• “In Space no one can hear you scream” is the tagline for the original Alien film.

• Nostromo is the name of the spaceship in Alien.

• The Winter of Discontent is a period of British history that covers the winter of 1978/79. During this time dissatisfied trade unions across multiple sectors were striking for pay rises above the limit set by the James Callaghan’s Labour government. The winter was also one of the coldest on record at the time. Alien was released in the UK in September 1979. You can learn a little more about the Winter of Discontent here.

• James Cameron is the second highest grossing film director of all time (behind Steven Spielberg). Cameron directed Aliens in 1986. You can learn a little more about the “Tea Trolley Mutiny” here.

• Yaphet Kotto plays Parker in Alien. He starred in Paul Schrader’s first film Blue Collar (1978) alongside Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel.

• You can learn more about the characters of Alien being written as unisex here.

• You can learn a little about the ‘Damsel in Distress’ archetype here.

• You can find out more about Alien’s deleted scenes here.

• Although I state all the women in older sci-fi films are useless this is hyperbole. The character of Clare  Wyatt (played my Anna Lee) in The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936) is one example.

• Agatha Christie was a prolific British writer of murder mystery novels born in 1890. She is the second bestselling writer of all time after William Shakespeare.

• HR Giger was a Swiss artist born in 1940. You can find some of his artwork (including images of the planet Harkonnen) for Jodorowsky’s Dune here.

• Jaradowsky’s Dune is thought to have influenced many films including Star Wars, Alien, The Terminator and Flash Gordon.

• Roger Dicken was a British special effects artist born in 1939.

• Roger misspeaks. Necronomicon is the name of the book on Giger’s work published in 1977. The painting is called Necronom IV and was made in 1976. You can see the painting here.

• You can learn more about the parasitoid wasp here.

• You can learn more about Francis Bacon’s triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion on its Wikipedia page here.

• Bolaji Badejo was a Nigerian artist and actor who was inside the xenomorph suit in Alien.

• The IMDB page for It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) can be found here. It is a very dated sci-fi film which I thoroughly enjoyed after David’s recommendation. Be prepared for women scientists serving men drinks and a very 1950s monster.

• Mother is the name of the computer in Alien (1979). It plays well with the famous “Mother” mentioned in Psycho (1960) building a feeling of trepidation with the computer.  

• Emmanuel Levinas was a French philosopher born in 1906.

• Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher born in 1886.

• This article talks about the history of automatons. This Wikipedia article has information on the concept of the brazen head. The Bocca Bocca Della Verità Tthe Mouth of Truth) is a famous tourist attraction in Rome which is fabled to cut off the hand of any liar who puts their hand in its mouth.

• The ash tree that is a central sacred tree in Norse mythology is named Yggdrasil. The sap from the ash tree can be milky in colour which aligns with the android Ash’s 'blood' in alien.

• Henry Ford (founder of the Ford Motor Company) created the assembly line in 1913

• This is the Living Colour skit that Jason refers to.

• Ridley Scott’s first feature The Duellists was based on Conrad’s short story The Duel. The Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899.

• Anne Billson is a writer and film critic who wrote: My Day by Jones. It is part of the book Cats on Film which is available as from many outlets as well as on Kindle.

• Alien and Philosophy: I Infest, Therefore I Am.

• The Prime Directive is from Star Trek’s Starfleet and is the principle that prohibits interference in the natural development of a planet or alien civilisation.

• Heidegger’s essay The Question Concerning Technology was published in 1954 and is available in a book compilation of his essays. You can learn a bit about it here.

• Octavia Butler was a prominent, award winning science-fiction author from the US. She was born in 1947.

• Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild is available from many outlets.

• IMDB page for The Duellists (1977) can be found here.

• The IMDB page for It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) can be found here.

• Dark Star (1974) was John Carpenter’s student film. You can find its IMDB page here.

• The IMDB page for the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune can be found here.

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NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we have a discussion about a long-lost pioneer of science fiction literature from the late 19th Century. Robert Duncan Milne’s work had largely vanished despite a book drawing attention to him in 1980. Milne was born in Scotland and died in San Francisco just before the dawn of the 20th century. Much of his legacy and work is thought to be lost due to the huge earthquake in San Francisco in 1906. My two wonderful guests are working hard to have him and his work recognised.