Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars Why? Well, why not? But then, Why? Why force Ellen Ripley into ANOTHER nightmarish alien encounter in between the first two movies (Alien and Aliens), an encounter that is a wee bit reminiscent of both? It’s a little creaky and cruel to do what writer Tim Lebbon and director Dirk Maggs and an ensemble cast of actors do to Ripley in Alien: Out of the Shadows (2016), an Audible Original Drama. This drama adapts Lebbon’s novel like a radio drama with sound effects and background music. And how things in Maggs’ 4.5-hour drama are arranged so that nothing that happens here can affect Ripley’s experience in Aliens increases the contrivance quotient. The drama is entertaining sf horror with solid characters and an anti-corporation ax to grind, so I want to answer my raised-eyebrow Why? with a whimsical, Why not? However, when I think of all they could have done without the constraining presence of Ripley, I start wondering again, Why? In the prologue (about the only calm part of the non-stop action drama) Ripley settles into the lifeboat shuttle Narcissus with cat Jones, dictating log messages to summarize the events of the first movie before going into hypersleep, hoping to be rescued in a year or so. Cut to the orbital mining space station Marion as its two drop ships (Samson and Delilah) return from a disastrous mission picking up miners from LB178, a planet their company has sent them to mine. It turns out that aliens have hitched a ride in Samson and Delilah and have been forcing unwanted “pregnancies” on the crew and miners in the appalling alien way. The drop ships crash into the Marion, seriously damaging it, killing its captain, and knocking it off orbit, so that in 90 days it will burn up in the atmosphere of the mining planet. After assuming command, Chief Engineer Chris Hooper has the crew seal off the Samson in a loading bay because it’s packed with aliens (the Delilah has been destroyed). Fast forward 77 days. Ripley’s Narcissus has docked on the mining orbital. Upon being woken, Ripley is shocked to learn 1) she’s been asleep for 37 years, 2) there are aliens shut up in a drop ship on the doomed orbital that’s “rescued” her, 3) the Marion is not 15 days from burning up in LB178’s atmosphere but two, and 4) Ash, the android who was so keen in the first movie to fulfill the Weyland-Yutani Corporation’s Special Order 937 by bringing a “viable” “creature of interest” home with him no matter what, human crew expendable, has uploaded his “mind” to the Narcissus’ computer system. Ash couldn’t get into the Marion’s computer systems, could he? The only way out for the eight surviving crew members of the Marion (plus Ripley) would be to jam into the Narcissus and head for the solar system in hopes of being rescued. To make that happen, they’ll first have to clean the Samson free of however many aliens are lurking inside it (the plan being to catch the nine-foot critters in sturdy nylon cargo nets, watching out for their ten-foot spiked tails, talons, double jaws, and acid blood) and use the drop ship to make a hit and run trip down to the mining planet to get an energy cell for Narcissus (which is down to 10% juice). For weapons, Hoop, Ripley, et al have two acid guns, bolt firing flare guns, and plasma torches. Who knows how many aliens are down there waiting for more humans to “impregnate” with their toothy babies? The drama is that kind of time-ticking-improvise-your-way-out-of-(or-into)-hairy-situations horror suspense story. There is much violent mayhem, graphic sight and smell and sound, buck-up banter, desperate situations, and creepy alien sound effects. It’s well done. But there are contrivances, like the only usable energy cell for Ripley’s Narcissus being down on the mining planet, and—well, I won’t mention others to avoid spoiling the plot. Ash’s presence is neat: voiced by Rutger Hauer, the android is calm, creepy, and crazy. He gives regular “progress updates” to Weyland-Yutani, in which he reveals what he’s planning for Ripley and company, thus heightening suspense. Unfortunately, Ash repetitively summarizes the situation way too often, saying multiple times things like, “I no longer have a body, having uploaded my consciousness into the Narcisuss computer,” or “I am monitoring the helmet feeds of the landing party,” or “Ellen Ripley, who was the warrant officer on my former ship the Nostromo is here.” Maybe the drama was conceived in episodes, requiring Ash to bring listeners up to speed each time a section begins, but it makes for flabby storytelling. In addition to Hauer’s fine performance, the voice acting is all convincing, the Ripley actress Laurel Lefkow channeling Sigourney Weaver and Corey Johnson doing a natural-born laconic engineer leader in Hooper. It’s disappointing that apart from Ash the only negative character is the only British-English speaking character, Science Officer Snedden (?), who finds the aliens “beautiful” and “fascinating” and spends way too much time “recording” things alien, so we assume it’s only a matter of time before she learns her lesson the hard way. Why is such a character the only one with a British accent? Of course, the old Corporations-Are-Bad schtick is on full display here, and the big villain is Weyland-Yutani: “They want something they can sell over and over at an inflated price. Medicine. Or weapons.” There are vivid descriptions, as of the alien secretions that look like organic melted plastic. There are neat lines, like “A drunk with a gun on a spaceship. What could possibly go wrong?” There are, alas, too many corny lines: “You good?” “I’m Good.” Or “Stay sharp, people!” Or “Come on folks, saddle up and move out.” If people really say such things like in real life, I bet it’s cause they watched a lot of action movies and TV shows! There are plenty of f-word utterances (e.g., “WTF?”), but the line is drawn at mf, which is abbreviated “mother.” Finally, I’d recommend this only to diehard fans of the Alien movies in dire need of another Alien fix. View all my reviews
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