version 3 - The Alien Encyclopedia

1. Preface
„In space, no one can hear you scream.“ ...do I need to say more I could make a long list of quotes
from the Alien movies to illustrate how present the franchise still is, even after over 30 years, probably
starting with „Game Over, man!“. But I don't want to bore you with common knowledge, because
if you read this, you may already know all these quotes in your sleep. I go out on a limb and
say that EVERY person has some kind of angle to these films, whether you're art house or mainstream.
Starting with the unsettling and sexually suggestive imagery to creating the first (and, surprisingly,
pretty much the only) female action hero of cinema history to Aliens featuring one of the
greatest movie showdowns ever.
And it didn't end with the movies. Like every successful movie franchise, the Alien saga has
spawned a vast Expanded Universe in the form of comics, novels, video games and even action figures.
But as fictional universes get bigger, problems arise. Things can easily get confusing, and
sometimes, also even contradict each other. Now multiply this problem, and you get a picture what
the folks doing Star Wars have to work with. I feel you, guys! Considering Alien, I'll get into this
problem in the „About this book“ section, but just take the first Aliens comics. They made these before
the third movie came out and of course, they contradicted Alien³, who can blame them They
tried to fix this in reissues, but still...
So, the need for some kind of guide arises that tries to make sense of the whole mess and provides
an overlook when the situation gets foggy. Unfortunately, a definitive guide to the Alien universe
has yet to be made. This is where this book comes in. And while we're at it, this is actually not the
first encyclopedia I have written. I have done this for the Matrix universe, too, and for some time, it
was available on www.matrix-faq.com. Long story short, the website is now defunct (personal
budget cuts...) and due to a USB stick formatting screw-up on my behalf, the guide is now completely
lost. Sorry, almost completely lost. There is still an old printed-out version of it in my belongings.
Perhaps, one day, when I get over how disappointing Matrix Revolutions was...
I write these words in late Summer 2011, with Prometheus, a new movie set solely in the Alien continuity,
looming over the horizons. Details are still sparse, but things look good. I may be right, or I
may be horribly wrong, but we'll see. In the meantime, come with me on a journey to the darkest
corners of the galaxy where, somewhere, the „perfect organism“ bides its time...
-Markus Friebe
P.S. The first entry I wrote for this encyclopedia was, of course, „Ripley, Ellen L.“