ALIEN AdApted (AgAin And AgAin)
169
the Weyland Company (it is powerful, it colonizes planets, and it is just as
ruthless as indicated in the first film), and about the universe in general
(the unit of colonial marines that accompany Ripley are apparently trained
in what they call “bug hunt,” indicating that there must be other known
species on other planets). At the same time, some questions/gaps become
more pertinent: what exactly is the situation on Earth (what kind of society
is extant), what exactly is the role and position of the Weyland company,
what exactly is Ripley’s family background, why, how, and where are other
planets colonized, and so on. With the conjoining of the Alien and the
Predator universe, the questions, gaps, and conflicts multiply: is there any
relation between the Predator and the space jockey species? If, as we learn
in Prometheus, the space jockey species also colonizes planets (including
Earth eons ago) and has created the alien creature as a biological weapon,
why does it want to annihilate humanity (as is suggested at the end of the
film), and how does it then happen that the Predator species has been using
the alien creature for millennia as part of an initiation ritual on Earth (AvP)?
It becomes obvious that with each new storyworld instalment in a fictional
universe (not to mention the joining of entire fictional universes), not only
are there added new facts, characters, settings, and storylines, but also new
gaps, incongruities, and indeterminacies. All of what is there and not there
in the already extant universe then interacts with all of what is there and not
there in the new storyworld addition. As consumers of this fictional universe,
we consume one storyworld after another, in a particular syntagmatic order
(depending on when and to what we have access), and – if we assume that
very few people are likely to consume each and every storyworld text for a
given fictional universe – paradigmatic selection. 25 As a result, depending
on which particular storyworld constellation/selection we are familiar
with, a particular set of gaps, incongruities, and indeterminacies arises. 26
Thus, the legally sanctioned fictional universes of franchises created
through franchise storytelling and media convergence already are palimpsestic, “jazzy,” and multi-laminated. It is not a prerogative of participatory
25 The particular syntagmatic and paradigmatic order in which we consume the storyworlds
of a fictional universe actually depends on a large number of factors, among them our particular
predilections (whatever their cause), the canonicity of a given storyworld, but also of a particular
medium, and so forth.
26 Another source of complications is the divergence in the quality with and degree to which
particular storyworlds in different media are “furnished.” Compare, for example, early and more
recent computer games, or the board game version of a movie installment. Even the quantitative
and qualitative difference in narrative and aesthetic detail/elaboration between the various
Alien films is a possible source of friction.
169
the Weyland Company (it is powerful, it colonizes planets, and it is just as
ruthless as indicated in the first film), and about the universe in general
(the unit of colonial marines that accompany Ripley are apparently trained
in what they call “bug hunt,” indicating that there must be other known
species on other planets). At the same time, some questions/gaps become
more pertinent: what exactly is the situation on Earth (what kind of society
is extant), what exactly is the role and position of the Weyland company,
what exactly is Ripley’s family background, why, how, and where are other
planets colonized, and so on. With the conjoining of the Alien and the
Predator universe, the questions, gaps, and conflicts multiply: is there any
relation between the Predator and the space jockey species? If, as we learn
in Prometheus, the space jockey species also colonizes planets (including
Earth eons ago) and has created the alien creature as a biological weapon,
why does it want to annihilate humanity (as is suggested at the end of the
film), and how does it then happen that the Predator species has been using
the alien creature for millennia as part of an initiation ritual on Earth (AvP)?
It becomes obvious that with each new storyworld instalment in a fictional
universe (not to mention the joining of entire fictional universes), not only
are there added new facts, characters, settings, and storylines, but also new
gaps, incongruities, and indeterminacies. All of what is there and not there
in the already extant universe then interacts with all of what is there and not
there in the new storyworld addition. As consumers of this fictional universe,
we consume one storyworld after another, in a particular syntagmatic order
(depending on when and to what we have access), and – if we assume that
very few people are likely to consume each and every storyworld text for a
given fictional universe – paradigmatic selection. 25 As a result, depending
on which particular storyworld constellation/selection we are familiar
with, a particular set of gaps, incongruities, and indeterminacies arises. 26
Thus, the legally sanctioned fictional universes of franchises created
through franchise storytelling and media convergence already are palimpsestic, “jazzy,” and multi-laminated. It is not a prerogative of participatory
25 The particular syntagmatic and paradigmatic order in which we consume the storyworlds
of a fictional universe actually depends on a large number of factors, among them our particular
predilections (whatever their cause), the canonicity of a given storyworld, but also of a particular
medium, and so forth.
26 Another source of complications is the divergence in the quality with and degree to which
particular storyworlds in different media are “furnished.” Compare, for example, early and more
recent computer games, or the board game version of a movie installment. Even the quantitative
and qualitative difference in narrative and aesthetic detail/elaboration between the various
Alien films is a possible source of friction.