Catch Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay By William Gibson Translated By Pat Cadigan, William Gibson Offered In Script

dawned on me about a third of the way into the book that the reason it took almostyears to see this screenplay as novel, was because it was bad.
Not only was the story all over the place, but it also felt as if it was written by someone who had just barely been familiar with the movie and literary world of Aliens.


The dialogue was rough, the exposition even so, I don't know if this is due to the fact that the novel almost qualifies as a novella in length, but absolutely nothing was described in any kind of detail.
Scenes are confusing, characters placements and actions unclear, There was considerable length added to the reading of the book simply due to going back and re reading pages to try to suss out what exactly was happening in any given scene.


This was not a reading comprehension issue, this was a writing composition issue,

The plot was muddled, the new alien gimmick half baked and unclear, The mystery as to what the alien cells were doing with synthetic blood went nowhere, There really is no story that drives to be told at all in this mess of a screenplay turned book.
The subversive aspect of removing Ripley from the entirety of the book was "different" but simply didn't add anything, except perhaps to not use a woman's trauma and fight for her life to drive a story.


You could have replaced every single character that was carried over from the Aliens movie, set this as a standalone, and it still would have been equally devoid of any kind of connection to the reader.
There were no character arcs, and I tried to constantly see this story as something "on screen" as a movie.
There was very little in terms of movie magic that could have made this work, and the "climax" was barely there.
The only good scene in my minds eye was in the meeting room where the first alien appeared out of Welles, and even then that scene was rough.


I am sorry if this review comes off as harsh, Way before Alienhit the cinemas, there was a time when Sigourney Weaver was not keen on doing yet another Alien film hence this first draft script from William Gibson.
Taking the series in a Male action hero direction with Hicks and Bishop, this adaptation contains a lot action and a lot Aliens than the comic adapted second revision released earlier last year.
And as you would guess, it's sometimes a bit rough around the edges as the story has not been refined through multiple revisions as the movies were.


But with those set aside, Gibson's Alienis a wonderful take on what now has become a very 'by the numbers' series.
Instead of re telling Alien, Gibson's version explores into the conflict between global powers and the corporations that inevitably run them as they fight over weaponizing the Xenomorph biology first.
Topics such as Alien DNA experimentation are explored, many of which had obviously influenced Alien Convenant decades later,

Is it a perfect story No, not by any stretch but what Aliendelivers is not only a different direction for the series, but also an interesting alternative universe where Hicks, Newt and Bishop are able to carry on a franchise that was otherwise ended with the character of Ripley.
I gave a book I enjoyed reading just three, Why

Like a lot of people, I really enjoyed the "ramping up" that occurred between Alien my favorite monster movie and Aliens my favorite Vietnam movie.
More action, xenomorphs, peril! But Aliens wasn't just the ramping up of the threat, It was a solid story with great characters and story arc,

Well, it appears William Gibson's screenplay for Alienswas JUST "ramping up", More people in peril, xenomoprhs, variety of xenos,

Pat Cadigan did a very good job with that they were given, but they not only didn't try to get out from under the shadow of Aliens, they whole heartily embraced it.
Nearly every page has Hicks remembering something a character from Aliens said and when they ran out of quotes they just created new ones.


I LOVE the Aliens universe, I love scenes of Colonial Marines blasting away at hordes of xenos, This book ticked those boxes and , which is why I enjoyed it,

But in the end I felt like I was reading the novelization of a bad sequel to a great movie.
As anybody looking at this item will probably know, this is one of the earlier script drafts for an Alienmovie made into a novel.

The plot has been summarised already so I won't re hash that, but suffice to say it deviates greatly from what ultimately appeared on screen.

It's quite dramatically different and does feel like it's trying to maintain the tone of 'Aliens', which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you do start to see why it wouldn't have worked as a movie.

As a book, however, it's great the actual writing by Pat Cadigan is excellent, and I did enjoy the focus on other characters.
It's a wonderful way to see what could have been, and I hope that Fox / Disney allow of this type of 'lost' stories to be published.
It's just not good enough, Yes I know there were reasons for removing Ripley Newt from the Film but having the main character in this version as Hick should be brilliant.
It isn't because the plot is contrived and the main character feels completely different from the one in Aliens.
This book is a barely fleshed out screenplay draft and although there are some good ideas which could have been used in subsequent films, it is hampered by an eyebrow raising plot, cliched characters and does not in any way take the story forward from Alien and Aliens.


I finished this book so much appreciative of either film version of Alienand even Alien Resurrection is better than this.
It's easy to dislike sequels but let's get things in perspective, This book may be of interest for what we missed but we should be very thankful for that, Huge fan of the Alien franchise from top to bottom, I know all about the varied scripts and production issues with Alienhence why I preordered this book without hesitation.
Having read it I can say that I enjoyed it but I do get why they passed on this one.
Theres enough here to cherry pick from to mold and shape into a good story but as is its just not cohesive enough.
This franchise is dire need of some TLC not in the form of a retcon or reboot, Someone, somewhere must have a solid idea on how to relaunch this series with grace, I recommend this book to diehards only casual fans enter at your own risk, Despite a few changes to William Gibson's first draft, this is an excellent novelisation of his script for Alien.
It's what the third film should have been, although the last act would have stretched the film's budget just a tad.
Pat Cadigan has already said that she'd adapt Vincent Ward's script for Alienif offered the opportunity, With a few minor adjustments, that could easily become a sequel to this novel, During the rollercoaster production of the Alienfilm, a number of different scripts by different writers were written and discarded.
Ultimately, the film used a mishmash of ideas that the various scriptwriters had come up with, resulting in thefilm we're all familiar with.
The first script written for the film was penned inby cyberpunk writer William Gibson, Gibson wrote two drafts of the script, both of which have been recently adapted into print form, The latter was adapted in a graphic novel, and the former has been adapted into the present novel, about which this review was written.
I don't know why Pat Cadigan was chosen to adapt the script into a novel, She is a newcomer to the Alien universe, and I had not ever heard of her, However, she has quite the resume, so you'd think the novel would be in good hands, Unfortunately, the final product proves otherwise,

The plot of "AlienThe Unproduced Screenplay" is substantially different from that of the film, At the end of the second Alien film, Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop are asleep aboard the Sulaco, In this new version of events, the Sulaco drifts through space controlled by the Union of Progressive Peoples UPP, a throwback to Soviet socialists on earth.
After a short though tumultuous visit, the Sulaco continues on to space station Anchorpoint, where the majority of the novel takes place.
Stowaway aliens quickly make a mess of things, and venerable hero Corporal Hicks must step up to the plate and face the galaxy's most fearsome creatures.


I'm not entirely sure who is to blame for the rather poor product that is "AlienThe Unproduced Screenplay.
" Since both Gibson and Cadigan had a hand in the final product, I'd say they both share in the blame.
First of all, let's tackle the lackluster story, When the script was penned in ', the plot ideas would have been quite a lot fresher than by today's standards.
There was no Alien expanded universe at the time, so that particular story idea had not been visited ad nauseum like it has in so many Alien novels already.
The novel produces some interesting evolutionary ideas about how the Aliens procreate, but those already feel like old hat, readers having already seen similar ideas in many other Alien novels.
Having Hicks as the protagonist is kind of lame, but again, we have to consider Gibson's original idea that Ripley would return as heroine in a future Alienfilm.
I also think you could have cut out the parts of the story taking place in UPP space and still had a largely coherent story.
So, while the story of the novel may have been effective when penned as a script decades ago, it does not hold up well by today's standards.


While I can excuse the plot deficiencies due to poor aging, I surely cannot excuse the unpalatable prose.
I understand that the author was aiming for a writing style with an ornery attitude, but it just came across

as obnoxious.
The humor falls flat, there is excessive hyperbole, and italicized emphasis litters every page, The dialogue is inane when faced with certain death, all the characters seem to be able to muster are some unhumorous one liners that induce some serious eye rolling.
Description is confusing to the point of being non sensical, I was constantly confused about what was going on, and about the physical descriptions of the settings, Basically, the book was just reduced to people going from point A to point B, in no particular hurry, and for some confusing reason you forgot about ten pages ago.
When it becomes convenient for a character to die, they do just that like clockwork, The author does include some uncomfortable descriptions of violence and gore that feel right at home in an Alien novel, and she can be commended for that.
However, such descriptions often accompany totally unbelievable evolution in Alien procreation,

While an interesting idea to bring William Gibson's script to life, the final product leaves much to be desired.
One of the poorest Alien novels to date, perhaps the book would have fared better in the hands of a veteran Alien writer, such as Alan Dean Foster, Steve Perry, or Tim Lebbon.
However, I do appreciate Titan books trying something out of the ordinary, and bringing some lost story ideas into the light.
If you are a die hard Alien fan, you might give this adaptation a shot, Otherwise, check out some of the other great Alien titles that have been written over the years, .