(*this is a continuation of the following thread as im pretty sure it wouldnt be allowed in the Literature forum) http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=225337 Heres an outline of how an Aliens v Trek comic mini series could go IMO: (issue #1) Pre title credits opening The late 23rd Century. The original 5 year mission of the Enterprise NCC1701 under the command of Captain James T Kirk. The Ent comes across yet another uncharted M class planet in the outer regions of the galaxy...faint life signs but strangely uninhabited...beam down landing party (Kirk, Spock, Bones, red shirts etc) and find a crashed long lost federation ship ..enter and look around for abit. A red shirt finds hundreds of alien eggs in ships cargo hold - one opens as he inspects it - face hugger attack. Act 1 Bring him back up to the ship...Bones operates in sickbay...finds creature has acid for blood etc - stabilises. Kirk & Spock continue to investigate - examine damaged ships logs and find the crew encountered an alien lifeform on another uncharted planet many years ago - eventually spock figures out the eggs are whats left of the ships crew (but still no clue how ship crashed). Back on Enterprise, Spock consults the computer library and after breaking of federation codes finds similar highly classified case in the early 22nd century with a commercial cargo ship that landed on a now unmarked/off limits planetoid - realises the redshirt is being infected with dangerous organism. Alerts sick bay, but too late - an alien breaks out of red shirts chest and escapes... (issue #2) Act 2 Alien starts picking off the crew...creates more Aliens. They start running amok on Enterprise..lots of battles, deaths and horror etc...Spock and Bones start work on a way to defeat the aliens without destroying the enterprise...they come up with something that might work but before can explain/put into practice are attacked - Bones is badly injured/unconscious. Spock is captured... (issue #3) Act 3 Aliens have now totally over run the ship, power is off line, life support only etc. Kirk has no choice but to set the ship on self destruct and evacuate the remainder of the crew in shuttle crafts and escape pods to the planet below .. He stays behind to try and retrieve spock who has been taken to the hive in engineering ...Kirk, bloodied with his shirt shredded, arms himself with a phaser rifle and two hand phasers on his belt…eventually finds spock in the hive but its too late - he's being infected by a facehugger... (issue #4) Act 4 Kirk carefully breaks spock out of the hive and takes him to sickbay, and with a phaser manages to cut off the facehugger without killing spock and before hes fully impregnated (his vulcan physiology helps save him)...spock reveals knowledge of how they can defeat the aliens - bombarding the ship with a special radiation that will neutralize the acid in the blood killing them (and any other life form). They get to the bridge..Kirk stops the self destruct just in time and Spock completes radiation procedure...suddenly banging on the bridge doors - the aliens have found them! ..they fight way to the transporter room to beam on to a shuttle craft before radiation is initiated throughout ship in 5 minutes…but due to strain on ship only enough power to beam off one person!! - Kirk stuns spock before he can nerve pinch him and throws him on the transporter pad - beams him on to an escape pod….then heads to the shuttle bay blasting aliens on the way, gets there but encounters the Alien queen! gets in environmental suit, does battle, environmental suit is damaged but times up - radiation imminent…opens the shuttle doors - he and the queen are blown out into space …radiation is activated and kills all the aliens on board...then the crew take back the ship…locate kirk in deep space…beam him back on the ship before air runs out from damaged suit. Epilogue Enterprise is orbiting the planet of the crashed federation vessel - fires full phasers on the ship vaporizing it. marks planet for quarantine. then slowly heads to nearest starbase for repairs. As they leave, Bones (now recovered) wonders how such a species of creature could ever come into existence. Spock theorizes that they may have been created eons ago as a biological weapon designed to wipe out a planets population, but as to who made them is unknown.... Kirk hopes mankind will never encounter those that created them.... The End.
Great fun! Except you are missing the bit where Janice Rand gets into her pants in the shuttlecraft. Every Trek story has to have an obligatory pants shot these days ;P
thanks. yes i shouldve included Rand in there somewhere. maybe she shouldve been like Ripley and been the sole survivor included some original series motifs in there to make it seem like a typical episode - e.g. red shirt death (every other episode), Spock and Bones being given the task of trying to solve the problem (as Kirk often put them both to work - Operation Annihilate, Immunity Syndrome, Deadly Years etc), Kirks ripped shirt (every other fight), Kirk putting ship on destruct (Let The Be Your Last Battlefield, Star Trek III), spocks vulcan physiology saving his life (Operation Annihilate, The Apple), kirk sacrificing himself at the end for his friends/ship (Obsession, Doomsday Machine, Star Trek V), Kirk going mano e mano with the main villain as the fate of his ship/crew hangs in the balance (Court Martial, Arena, Space Seed, Star Trek III, etc), kirk in a spacesuit running out of air getting saved by spock (Tholian Web), dealing with problem on planets surface/destroying vessel on planet (Operation Annihilate/Alternative Factor), kirk spock bones pontificating/moralising on the bridge at the epilogue (every other ep) also putting in the typical Alien/s motifs and plot devices - the plot would be similar to Alien/Aliens (& First Contact - which was basically Star Treks version of Aliens). Obviously the way the xeno gets aboard is similar to Alien, the way it would create more would be like what was happening with Dallas and Brett in the Alien Directors Cut, Spock being captured Newt/Data style resulting in the end finale with the lead character going back to rescue and facing off against the Alien/alien queen and using the airlock to blast it out…and obviously the epilogue is a nod to Prometheus
Lol - yes you've got a lot of classic stuff in there! I especially love Kirk charging to the rescue with a ripped shirt. :0 I tried to come at the topic from left field by placing crewmen in peril off the ship for the first story. I thought it would be too easy just to beam an alien off the ship so I tried to think of ways to nip that quick fix in the bud. I love the notion that the aliens are bio-weapons so I linked that into the Vorlon/Shadow conflict. I tried to walk the line between making Rand the damsel in distress and the plucky heroine who can take on the Aliens in her pants. The biggest problem I've found is that there are just not enough 'action' shots from TMP to illustrate a decent fight. I'd love Kirk to take on a Queen!
actually it probably better to set it in the TMP era like you did as a nod to TMP/Alien out the same year (the Alienverse would fit in more with that era of Trek)
I figured since i was doing an almalgam universe anyway I can play with the tech levels. I loathe the notion that you can just transport something by detecting their life signs from the ship (so don't get me started on long-distance beaming in nuTrek). I much prefer that you need a localised quantum scanning device (communicator or belt monitor) so the best you can do is beam down a communicator to the site of your life signs - risky since you can't be sure who or what you have detected until your local scanning device is onsite (class M planets are full of life signs) but at least with a communicator you can try and establish dialogue and beam the ting back if no dice. As far as transporters go, I thought it makes more 'sense' if your data is quantum linked with the matter stream and then phased/exchanged with the energy of the matter stream so the person is not disassembled in a literal sense. The confinement beams' job is then to stop the quantum-linked energy leaking away so that the person reverts back in the right order at target site. If the links get scrambled you get a TMP style mess back. Boosting your matter gain is adding in replicated material based on the quantum scan you took at the start point replacing stuff that has leaked away but if too much has leaked you just get a replicated corpse. This places more interesting limitations on transporting. If you transport too frequently you end up with cell damage (as more of your cells have to be replicated each time). Emergency transporters have lower standards on the basis that it's better to be alive with cell damage than dead
Just realised JGoldsmith did the scores for Alien/TMP - even more reason to set AvST in the TMP era! (then again Horner did Aliens/TWOK so maybe just prior to TWOK era would be pretty good too, especially with the Khan uniforms) Whichever maybe the Xeno incident could cause the ENT to need a refit/over hall (TOS-TMP or TMP-TWOK)
I really need to get back to story 3 for my Youtube comic - although I was planning on moving away from Aliens and more towards featuring Babylon 5's Shadows. Using TWoK uniforms as variants for away team jackets would give you the best of both worlds.
Cool Story, I would just find some way to explain why the crew doesn't start beaming the aliens into space before they overrun the ship....(they don't show up on scanners, difficult to pinpoint, something)
More important (esp. if this is TMP era with that scanner bed), how would Bones/Chapel somehow miss that there's a parasite growing in said redshirt's chest?
I covered that in my version of the story, namely that the aliens are bio-weapons specifically designed to be invisible to scanners. I went with a concerted effort to herd the alien, sealing off corridors with portable force field generators and using sonic grenades, and stasis fields to try and incapacitate the creature. Mind you, you have to hand wave a lot of stuff away, like why do bio-filters not detect an embryo when transporting, and if an alien can't be scanned, surely it would be left behind? The way to overcome it is for one of the characters to say, "But how is this possible?" and for one of the others to say, "It isn't." Job done! TMP tech is just about right to handle this compared to TNG more magical tech.
The scanners in Prometheus, Alien (Ash watching the embryo on the screen as Ripley enters the infirmary) and Alien3 worked just fine in playing Spot the Chestburster. New idea: They decide it's too risky to try to separate the guard and the facehugger using the transporter. In Sickbay, they do spot something odd on the chest scan, but priority is the facehugger. Cue obligatory acid blood scene. McCoy figures out what's going on when the facehugger drops off and orders immediate emergency surgery - "Let's get this thing out now. If we wait until it decides it wants out, the results won't be pretty." FINALLY, the reader thinks, things are being done right without a greedy Company in the way. But McCoy (and a no-name nurse) learn the hard way that chestbursters won't take no for an answer when it comes to the gory, agonizing death of its host - or anyone else too close to the action. (So that puts McCoy out from the end of Act I on, instead of Act II where you've got it.)
Okay, here's my full-fledged take on Issue #1. This is set during the post-TMP 2nd FYM. "Parasite" ISSUE 1: The Enterprise picks up a distress signal - or what seems like a distress signal - from an uninhabited Class-L world near the Klingon Neutral Zone, on the Federation's side. The transmission is coded - but unmistakably Klingon. A heavily damaged pressure dome is located on the planet's surface. Life scans are...inconclusive. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov and two security guards beam down in spacesuits. The facility turns out to be a Klingon science outpost (or is that bioweapons facility?) built around a far older structure, vaguely silo-shaped. (That the Klingons would be into archaeology of any kind surprises the landing party.) The outpost is dark, wrecked and empty except for several desiccated Klingon corpses with exploded chests - or half-melted by something. They make their way to the main lab area, filled with several fleshy objects Spock immediately identifies as spore pods of some kind. All are open and empty - or so we think. As Spock (with Chekov's help) begins attempting to access the outpost's main computer, one guard hears a scuttling noise in the distance. He takes a couple of steps, nervously looking over the eggs with his spotlight - and is hit from above by a facehugger. (There are eggs up in the ceiling the crew didn't spot.) Two more drop down, Chekov and the other guard fire - stun is ineffective - Guard #2 switches to a higher setting and fires just as one of the other facehuggers jumps at him - the facehugger explodes, spraying the guard head-on with acid - Kirk orders an emergency beamup - Chekov sets his phaser to vaporize, nails the other facehugger as the beam finally takes them. Back in the Transporter Room, there's nothing to be done for the other guard, as he visibly melts in screaming agony before the party's horrified eyes. And then the transporter itself is badly damaged as the acid continues through the guard. Only then do they realize what happened to the first guard - the facehugger inside the smashed helmet, gripping his head... (This is where a commercial break would go were this an episode.) Sickbay. The spacesuit's been cut off the guard. McCoy's stymied - any attempt to cut the facehugger off will cause an acid leak that will probably kill the guard and will certainly wreck the diagnostic bed. While he and Chapel monitor the guard, Kirk/Spock hold a staff meeting in the briefing room. They're only slightly less confused than McCoy. Are these spore pods indigenous to the planet? How did the Klingons find out about them, and why were they risking war by studying them on the Federation side of the border? Bioweapons aren't exactly the Klingons' style. But with the look into the outpost computer interrupted by the facehuggers, there's not much to go on. Looks like another trip down there's going to be necessary. But this time, to buy Spock enough time to hack the computer and download its data, Chekov's leading a full security contingent ready to vaporize first, ask questions later... As they beam down, bridge sensors pick up signs of motion heading from the silo towards the adjacent outpost; the earlier fight got something's attention. A lot of somethings. Up in Sickbay, the facehugger suddenly falls off the guard and dies in front of McCoy and Chapel. A scan of the guard reveals another lifeform in his chest - embryonic, but growing fast. McCoy preps for emergency surgery. In the outpost lab, Spock works on the computer as Chekov and the guards cover him. They vaporize the eggs, but leave one empty one intact at Spock's suggestion - they'll beam it up later for analysis. Tricorder readings aren't being much help. There is mobile life around, but too fast and too cloaked by the environment to get a fix on. In Sickbay, McCoy exposes the chestburster in the guard's chest and is about to cut it out and place it in an isolation tank...when the guard wakes up. They'd given him a heavy sedative, but what the facehugger did to him earlier rendered it inert - as it does the painkillers they try to give his screaming, thrashing form. Blood is flying everywhere, all over McCoy, Chapel and the assisting nurse. That chaos gives the chestburster an opening to strike, launching through into the air and right into the nurse's chest, then out the other end! McCoy and Chapel manage to grab it and wrestle it toward the tank. But the critter's stronger than it looks, coldcocking McCoy with a sweep of its' tail. Wrenching free of Chapel, it vomits acid all on the floor and escapes through one of the resulting holes. At the outpost, Spock completes the download and calls for a beamup. As he hears the Intruder Alert siren screaming over his wrist communicator, hissing noises start to fill the room and the walls seem to start...slithering. The Aliens have found them...
Nice! One observation - you are casually falling into sexist tropes. Make one or both security guards women or you have a very male-centric story with only two nurses flying the flag for women.
So quick to judge. For all you know, I could have Ripley showing up in Part 2! (I don't.) As far as Part 1, I didn't figure anyone would want to see a female chestburster scene after Prometheus, let alone a woman getting her skull melted off. But okay, whatever floats your boat...melted-face female security guard it is. (Sorry, Lieutenant Williams - I was quite enjoying your web series.) Working on Part 2 now. If I don't have it in by tonight, I'll get it by tomorrow.
ISSUE 2: The first six pages are pure battle, as 'Chekov's Cossacks' (two men, two women) stand tall against the Alien onslaught. (These Klingon-spawned Xenos, BTW, are the 'ridged-head' warriors from Aliens.) They're trying to clear out enough of a space between them and their attackers to beam up; they dare not bring any of them along. Interspersed with this is the chestburster racing through a thoroughly alarmed Enterprise quickly locking down, dodging phaser fire and shrugging off knockout gas blasts. There seems nowhere to hide, until it spots a Jefferies Tube and races down toward the engineering hull. On the planet, one Alien snatches up Spock, preparing to 'tongue' him. He retaliates with a mind touch that knocks both for a loop - Chekov picks him up and pulls him clear. Finally the beam arrives and the shaky group (minus 1-2 guards) arrives at Transporter Room 2 (plus the empty egg). At Sickbay, Kirk arrives to find Spock analyzing the egg, and McCoy awake, but weak & w/ a roaring headache in an adjoining bed. Spock relates to Kirk an inner glimpse of an almost-perfect killing machine - instinctively cunning on its own, but even smarter and more dangerous in large numbers. The Klingons came to discover such creatures from their struggles with a different warrior culture on the far side of their Empire from the Federation, a culture which deployed these creatures with seemingly little strategy, or regard for themselves. The Klingons were hoping that by studying and perhaps 'conditioning' these parasites, they could turn the tables on their opponents. As to how the Klingons came to know of this abandoned world, or what 'conditioning' means, the computer data does not say. Talk now turns to how to defeat the alien. Firing phasers at full power inside an abandoned base is one thing, firing at a creature fast & maneuverable enough to dodge the beams - inside this ship - is quite another. With each crew member equipped with a personal med scanner (the black belt buckles), it won't be hard to pick out the alien on scanners...or it wouldn't be, if the creature wasn't now hiding somewhere between engineering and the cargo holds, masked by the energy of the engines and with plenty of places to hide. Getting a transporter lock is impossible. Worse, McCoy figures it won't take long to fully mature - "Not long at all." Kirk orders all in the lower decks (except skeleton crews at Engineering/Shuttlebay) to evacuate to the saucer, those remaining to barricade themselves. A deck-by-deck search will be organized to flush the alien out and either blast it out of the ship or destroy it. In the meantime, Kirk orders Sulu to fire photon torpedoes and wipe that outpost and silo off the face of the planet... In the lower decks, the now full-grown Alien (the smooth-domed classic Alien, that is) strikes from the shadows and scoops up a crewman, then another, then another - careful not to kill them. The Enterprise has barely broken orbit when it receives another distress call... a clear-cut Federation distress call this time, from a nearby penal colony. Seems a Klingon battle cruiser has crashed there. Kirk is well aware they may soon have a problem too big to handle themselves, but there is no other starship close enough to investigate - and the odds of this ship, also in Federation space so close to that lab, not being somehow connected to it or its' lethal subject of study are far too great. He reluctantly sets course. The Alien has been busy. Several crewmen have been webbed up in a cargo hold fast starting to resemble a hive. Some are being converted into eggs themselves, others waiting to serve as hosts. On the bridge, the crew notes with worry a growing zone inside the engineering hull where no scanner will penetrate. And in the Science lab, the empty alien egg has been placed in storage. Unwatched by anyone, the egg's flaps slowly close... and gurgling sounds are soon heard inside it...
Great stuff. ridged head Cameron aliens due to Klingons - inspired! The Warrior race the Klingons had a run in with - engineers? We'll see...
Well, it's not specifically because of the Klingons. It just seemed too great a visual gag not to use. My was actually tinking someting a bit more dreadlocked, mon. But that's a whoooole 'nother story. They don't pop up here. As for the Engineers, we shall indeed see...