Project Formerly Titled STARBEAST

In the beginning there was Dan....

Dan O' Bannon on the set of Alien

Alien fans are familiar with Dan O' Bannon's first draft screenplay, which comes with a variety of mixed feelings by many who have not only read the screenplay but have researched and analyzed it.  Many feel the dialogue in this script is more in tune to a comic book or graphic novel and very un-naturalistic with the over use of general science fiction terminology. Other difficulties people have is the unbalanced pace of the whole script which if was filmed nearly half of the film's runtime would pass long before you reach the first character becoming the victim of the infamous facehugger.  Yes, the above points about this screenplay, and others, are true and I to have said in regular discussions that I to wasn't all to keen on this script.  That's because at the time I kept forgetting these general facts. When Dan O' Bannon began compiling and writing Alien, formerly titled Star Beast, he wrote it with the intentions of the film being made as a low-budget Roger Corman style B movie with O' Bannon himself helming the director's chair. The lack of character development was done intentionally as Dan planned on working the characters with which  actor was assigned to each role. With Dan directing, he would have had complete script control and intended to 'trim the fat' and rewrite his draft before and during principal photography.

“Dan’s original script called for a small, modest little ship with a small crew. They land on a small planet. They go down a small pyramid and shake up a medium sized creature. That's about it. He meant it to be a low budget film, like dark star, and I loved the idea.”

-Ron Cobb, Book of Alien.

Before a fully completed screenplay, Dan O' Bannon wrote a treatment entitled Star Beast. The basic outline to this treatment is similar to the final O' Bannon script but with some major differences, firstly, there is no pyramid in this treatment and no eggs which meant no Facehugger. Furthermore, when the crew discover the derelict wreckage and fossilized alien pilot, they take it's skull as proof of their discovery on the planet. What the crew don't realize is the alien's skull contains a small creature. Once on board the Snark resurfaces and hides rapidly growing in size as they take off and head home. Like in all versions of the Alien draft one by one the alien takes out the crew who attempt to lure it into an airlock to blast it into the void. However, in this version, the plan is successful and the creature is blasted out into the cold hard vacuum of space. There is no final encounter on a shuttle.

I've started to enjoy reading Dans script, which enriches me to watch Alien more and picture how alien could have been and the direction the series could have gone, regardless of it's b - movie intentions. I love Alien, and I love the end result and even with the numerous modifications done by Hill and Giler, with contributions from Ridley Scott, there's one factor you have to remember.

No Dan O' Bannon – No ALIEN – Fact.

Crew of the Snark:

CHAZ STANDARD, Captain.................A leader and a politician. Believes that any action is better than no action. 

MARTIN ROBY, Executive Officer.......Cautious but intelligent -- a survivor. 

DELL BROUSSARD, Navigator...............Adventurer; brash glory-hound. 

SANDY MELKONIS, Communications..........Tech Intellectual; a romantic. 

CLEAVE HUNTER, Mining Engineer.........High-strung; came along to make his fortune. 

JAY FAUST, Engine Tech.............A worker. Unimaginative. 

Green text = Synopsis from draft:

 

En route back to Earth from a far part of the galaxy, the crew of the starship SNARK intercepts a transmission in an alien language, originating from a nearby storm-shrouded planet.

After the crew learn they are, in fact, half way home and of the alien transmission they debate whether or not to investigate.  In the end if the transmission is an S.O.S. they are obliged to investigate so the crew set out to make preparations to land and locate the source of the transmission. The signal leads the Snark to a small desolate planetoid.

The Snark by Ron Cobb

Mankind has waited centuries to contact another form of intelligent life in the universe they decide to land and investigate. Their search takes them to a wrecked alien spacecraft whose doors gape open -- it is dead and abandoned. Inside they find, among other strange things, the skeleton of one of the unearthly space travelers.

Three crew members go exploring through the baron, windswept and dusty landscape. Using a portable scanning device they follow the signal and discover a derelict space craft of non-human manufacture. They enter and explore the craft. They come across a strange 'urn' type object open at one end with strange markings on the side. They eventually find the fossilized remains the ship's pilot and discover in its last moments has scribed a triangle on a near by panel. They take the creatures fossilized skull and head back to the Snark.

Star Beast is one of those titles that you think of and then you, you know, you throw them away. I was running through titles and they all stank. I didn't like any of them. One morning at three o'clock, Ronny's apartment, I'm typing away and the characters are saying the alien this and the alien that and suddenly that word alien just came up out of the typewriter at me. I said, Alien, it's a noun and it's an adjective. I said, Yes, that's it! I have the title!

- Dan O'Bannon, Star Beast: developing the story.

Space Jockeys Skull by Chris Foss

The three explorers are back aboard the Snark sharing with the rest of the crew what they had found. With a device called a data stick. Eventually, the wind outside clears, on the horizon a Pyramid can be seen, the dead creatures drawing of a triangle begins to make sense so the three explorers head off on a second expedition to investigate the pyramid.  They arrive at the base of the pyramid and discover there is no visible entrance so one of them decides to scale the side of the structure to see if there is an opening at the top. At the top, he finds an opening but cannot see to the bottom.

“The pyramid and the Derelict were still the subject of a see-saw debate when I came on the project. Would love to have shot it, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it would have been wonderful in a three-hour version. What finally cracked it it was the budget. We just had to get rid of it.

- Ridley Scott, Book of Alien

Data Stick as used by the crew of the Snark designed by Ron Cobb

Assembling a tripod device over the opening one crewman makes his descent into the unknown depths of the pyramid. He eventually reaches the bottom. He's inside what appears to be a tomb like structure with strange and unusual Hieroglyphics from floor to ceiling. Exploring the tomb further he finds a group of 'Urns' similar to the one found in the derelict craft only these are sealed.  While inspecting these urns something happens. One of them begins to open, and a small tentacled creature leaps out and attaches itself to the helpless crew members face.

Early Facehugger concept by Ron Cobb

After a while, the two remaining crew scale the side of the pyramid and decide to pull their friend out of the structure. When he reaches the top, they are shocked at what they see. The man is unconscious with something attached to his face. They haul him out taking him back to the Snark for medical attention. When they get back, they are refused entry because of quarantine laws but eventually make it inside. The helpless victim is taken to the auto doc to see if what they can do and see if they can remove the strange creature on his face.

An examination by the ship's medical computer reveals that the creature has inserted a tube down his throat, which is depositing something inside him. Then it is discovered that the parasite's blood is a horribly corrosive acid which eats through metal -- they dare not kill it on the ship.  Ultimately it is dislodged from its victim and ejected from the ship, and they blast off from the Hell-planet. However, before they can seal themselves into suspended animation for the long voyage home, a horrible little monster emerges from the victim's body -- it has been growing in him, deposited there by the parasite... and now it is loose on the ship.

After the facehugger drops off it dies and starts to decompose, the creature's acid drips on the deck eating through the metal. One of the men manages to pick it up with a medical instrument and runs to the nearest airlock before the acid causes any damage to the ship.

Early Cocoon Concept By Ron Cobb

A series of ghastly adventures follow. They trap it in an air shaft and a man has to crawl down the shaft with a flame-thrower -- it tears a man's head off and runs away with his body -- a man is crushed in the air lock door and the ship loses most of its air in a terrific wind storm -- another man is burned to death and then eaten by the creature -- and another is woven into a cocoon as part of the alien's bizarre life cycle. Finally there is only one man left alive, alone on the ship with the creature, and only six hours till his air runs out; which leads to a climax of horrifying, explosive jeopardy, the outcome of which determines who will reach Earth alive -- man or alien.

Picture taken from original Draft

The original idea was to fill the shuttle full of explosives and lure the creature onto the shuttle launching it into space before detonating the explosives.  Three men remain and are left behind as bait.  The two men who go after the Alien become its victims, the last man standing activates the ships self destruct system and attempts to escape to the shuttle.  Being cut off by the alien the survivor tries to deactivate the self destruct sequence only to discover it's too late and tries the shuttle one more time.  The coast is clear, no sign of the Alien, he manages to escape in the shuttle.  The creature makes itself present. It was hiding inside the shuttle, in a panic the survivor runs inside a locker.  Suiting up and branding a spear type object stabs the alien, opens the hatch blowing the creature into space.  The alien grabs the man almost pulling him into the vacuum of space along with it.  Eventually, he recovers back inside and activates the shuttles jet engines destroying the alien.

Now that we've had a brief look at the original story let's look at Dan's first concept of the alien pyramid and creature's life cycle.  In the final film, the creature's first stage an egg, or 'Spore' in this version, which contains the facehugger. The facehugger attaches itself to a host and impregnates it with an alien embryo which later bursts from the host's chest killing the host instantly.  So where does the pyramid come into all this? And why does it contain the alien 'spores? And what about the alien culture who built the pyramid? What happened to them? What was the Space Jockey doing there? Well, to quote Ash, “There is an explanation for this you know.” 

“In Dan's original conception the Alien Race had three entirely different stages of it's life cycle. First, the egg, which is tended by the third stage adults and housed in a lower chamber of the breeding temple. When ready to hatch, the egg is placed in the middle of a sacrificial stone and a lower animal, the equivalent of an alien cow, is then led on to the stone. Sensing the warmth, the face-hugger springs out, attaches itself to the animal and deposits a foetus into the stomach. The face-hugger soon drops off and the foetus develops inside, eventually chewing it's way out and killing it's host. This creature, the chest-burster, is the Alien's second stage, and it simply runs about eating, mindlessly carnivorous. At this stage the creature is still controlled and nurtured by the adult Alien's, until the chest- burster begins to lose appendages and becomes a mild, intelligent creature. Capable of art and architecture, which lives a full, scholarly life of 200 years. 

“At some point a cataclysm causes the extermination of the adults of this unique race leaving no one to tend and nurture the young. But in a dark lower chamber of the breeding temple a large number of eggs lie dormant, waiting to sense something warm. Years later, the Space Jockey's race comes to this planetoid. The Jockey's are on a mission of exploration and archaeology and are fascinated by this marvellous temple and unknown culture. One of them finds the egg chamber and gets face-hugged. He's rescued, but no one knows what's happened. They take him back to their ship and continue their exploration of the planet's surface. When the Chest-burster erupts from the Jockey it goes on a killing rampage until it is shot and killed. The Alien dies, but immediately decomposes and it's acid eats through the hull of the Jockey's ship, leaving them stranded on the planet. The Jockey's radio out a message that there is a dangerous parasite on the planet, that nothing can be done to save them in time and that no one should attempt a rescue. Then the Jockey's slowly starve to death...”

-Ron Cobb, Alien Portfolio.

Originally, the Space Jockey wasn't a visitor from another world but one the adult alien's from the planet itself.  The only survivor of the cataclysm which wiped out the entire species.  However, this concept was changed back and forth until it was decided to make the creature an alien from elsewhere.