‘Alien III’ by William Gibson

(Revised draft of screenplay, from a story by David Giler & Walter Hill)

Three queens, mutoid aliens, countless face-huggers, chest-bursters and more than a few treacherous “company men” form a potentially apocalyptic threat to Mankind in this, sadly cancelled, version of the second sequel to Ridley Scott’s superb ‘Alien’ (1979).

Cyberpunk author Gibson is widely acclaimed as the saviour of modern SF, or at least he was during the past decade! Here, his trademarks of masterly action sequences and slick handling of future technologies create a strongly convincing scenario of culture crashes and future schlock.

At the end of ‘Aliens’ (1986), we saw Ripley, Newt, Hicks and a damaged Bishop drift off into hypersleep having survived the attacks of the aliens and their queen on planet LB-426, “Acheron” (Hell, by any other name). The complement of space marines gone, they have the troop-transport starship Sulaco all to themselves until a navigation error puts them off course, and in violation of the space treaty of an independent ‘Union of Progressive Peoples’. Commandos from the UPP station “Rodina” board the Sulaco but are instantly attacked by aliens! They beat a hasty retreat taking the torso of Bishop with them.

The Sulaco cruises through UPP space, and winds up at the Colonial base, “Anchorpoint”, where Ripley, Newt and Hicks are revived. All three are baffled by the absence of Bishop, having slept through the UPP intrusion, and the port authorities keep them in the dark in an attempt to contain and suppress information about the aliens. Meanwhile, secret experiments are being conducted by both UPP and the Colonial Administration that sent the Sulaco expedition to LB-426 in ‘Aliens’. Teams of civilian and military scientists succeed in cloning and mutating alien tissue samples collected from the Sulaco, but with disastrous results.

The action is split between the two opposing stations of humans who, inevitably, are forced to unite against the rapidly growing (in every sense) alien menace. Ripley isn’t in this story much – she’s dispatched to Earth quite early in the proceedings, on medical grounds. Newt and Hicks remain on Anchorpoint as they’re the only witnesses to what these alien monsters can do, and their knowledge becomes vital in later alien-human conflicts. New characters of various ethnic origins (Vietnamese, etc) will come as no surprise to fans of Gibson’s SF novels and his penchant for mega-corporation intrigues and cutting-edge technologies is also plainly obvious.

The paranoia and loss-of-humanity themes last seen in ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and ‘The Thing’ (1982) are very much in evidence here. Alien DNA combines far too easily with the human variety, and all possibilities of meaningful co-operation between Man and Alien are decisively flushed out the nearest airlock when the adaptable alien’s predatory nature is proven time and again. Suspense and conspiracies take a back seat in the fast-moving final stages, as a running battle develops between fleeing human survivors of Anchorpoint and pursuing alien hordes. The climactic action is relentless and horrific, as Hicks and his motley band head for the lifeboats, only to find the creatures waiting in ambush.

With so many effects and sets required to turn this epic SF horror into film, it’s small wonder the producers took one look at the $90 million estimated price tag and rejected Gibson’s draft! The movie eventually produced at Pinewood reportedly bears little resemblance to this and prospects for any measure of success for the much troubled project took another dive recently with the appointment of David Fincher as director. He’s best known for Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ video…

Welcome to the Videodrome

After the nomadic TC9, normal service is now resumed with our 2nd Annual Orient Excess. About this time last year, we predicted that Eastern culture was going to be BIG. Thanks to things like ‘Akira’, the Black Sunday festivals and Channel 4’s ‘Chinese Ghost Story’ season, this has come true and hopefully, things will continue to expand. At the moment I’d far rather sit down in front of a randomly selected Hong Kong action film than a randomly selected American horror movie…

This is despite the twin problem of getting hold of them to start with and then trying to understand the damn things. If you visit a Chinese video library, the reaction to a ‘gwailo’ wanting to join varies from surprise – “Are you sure?” said the girl in Videosino on Shaftesbury Avenue here (probably the best place to start if you’re in the area, despite a hefty £30 deposit) – and at worst, a flat refusal, with some very nasty stories about places with bad attitudes. Generally, it helps if you can mention a few names, just to prove you’re serious: Tsui Hark, John Woo & Chow Yun Fat tend to get good reactions.

Once you have your anime or Hong Kong film, you still have to work out what’s going on. If you’re lucky, it’ll have subtitles, though in many Hong Kong films, half of each line will be missing due to pan-and-scan and what you can see will only vaguely resemble the language we know (I’ve seen the phrase “I’ll give you a decent burial”, spoken in English, become “I’ll give you a dace and barrel”). Best not to try and read them, just let them wash over you – spot a verb here, a noun there and don’t worry about the rest.

Even then, you still have to filter it through Western culture. I’ve not bothered greatly about that here – I could have spent ages wondering if I was laughing in the right places, but it’s perhaps better just to enjoy them on whatever terms you can, as you’ll absorb the culture by a process of immersion. I would ask tolerance, however, since what may seem perverse or sick to you might be absolutely natural to the Japanese. There’s an entire new world out there waiting to be discovered. Take the plunge, and you’ll be in for a delightful experience.

One date to ring heavily in your diary, in a variety of fluorescent colours. 26th October sees a joint lmaginator/Eastem Heroes triple bill at the Scala here in London. ‘A Better Tomorrow III’, ‘Class of Nuke ‘Em High II’ and ‘Nekromantik II’, with Jorg Buttgereit there as well. For more details, send an SAE to Imaginator, Unit 1, Hawk House, Peregrine Park, Gomm Road, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP13 7DL. I’ll be there, and suggest you should be too, unless you want to risk Chow Yun Fat, the Troma boys and Mr.Buttgereit popping round for your kneecaps!

Thanks to John London at Copyprint for his sterling work last issue (sorry about page 42!), Anthony Cawood, Dan Pydynkowski, Helen McCarthy, Paul Mallinson, Paul Higson, Damien Drake, George Houston, Alun Fairburn, Stefan Kwiatkowski, Brian Bower, Steve Moss, Graf Haufen, Sally Young and the other Associates, Peter R.Evans, Claire Blarney, Greg Stark, Ken Miller, Rick Baker (without whom Firm Britz would have been very plain!), Gerald Smith and my psychic twin Jim Swallow. TC9 was available from FP, Fantasy Inn & Psychotronic Vids, all in London, plus Videodrom, Berlin.

ART ED EXTRA: The Kanju on the cover of TC6 and in this issue are “miyako” (capital, metropolis) and “kuzu” (rubbish, waste, trash, rags). Literally “Metropolis of Filth”!

Contents

Trash City – Issue 10

‘Summer’ (hahaha!) 1991.

TC hits double figures and celebrates by going down the pub, lusting after barmaids who look like Phoebe Cates, topping up the cholesterol levels at the chip-shop, popping into the video shop on the way home (late-opening stores are a true indicator of civilization), renting something Oriental with no plot but a lot of fu and going to bed to dream about a live-action version of ‘Dirty Pair’ starring Winona Ryder and Nastassja Kinski.

“The implausible plot would definitely have benefited from a more light-hearted approach”: Video World’s anonymous reviewer writing about ‘Miracle Mile’, proving that a) you don’t need to understand a film to write about it and b) intelligence is an optional extra for the writers on that magazine.

TC-shirts – Yeah! They’re here! And, boy, were they worth the wait. Now, you too can have a wonderful full-colour painting of everyone’s favourite German actress, wielding a blood-spattered chainsaw while not wearing any clothes. Choose from two exciting sizes (Large or Extra Large) and two groovy backprints (either “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw” or ‘The T-shirt they tried to ban”). These ultra-rare shirts (only a total of 50 exist) cost just £12, including postage. Order now: supplies are limited, so any delay may mean you might not get the size or slogan you want, though if we don’t have it, we’ll do the best we can.

Editor, most of the words + T-shirt supremo: Jim McLennan
The rest of the words: Peter R.Evans, Dean Heathcote, Tony Lee, Des Lewis, Andrew McGavin, Steve Welburn
Pictures: Per Porter

Subs: 75p/issue ($2 Europe, $3 elsewhere). Back issues: TC9 for E1/$2/$3, all others out of print. Cheques, etc, payable to Jim McLennan. All letters, money, tapes, bribes, Kinski dippings and Winona Ryder’s underwear to:
7 Tummons Gardens. S.Nortvood Hill, LONDON, SE25 6BD.

  • 1-3 The Usual
  • 4-5 Ripley’s Believe It or Not
  • 6-9 Steve, where’s the comics piece?
  • 10-13 The Things on the Mat
  • 14-18 Film Blitz
    MIYAKO KUZU
  • 20-23 En-Chan-ting
  • 24-27 Anime Nasties
  • 28-31 Tokyo Recall
  • 32-37 Firim Britz
  • 38-39 Gunhed: The Movie
  • 41-43 (Fe)mail Order
  • 44-45 A close look at Pandora’s Box…
  • 45-47 Incredibly Aggressive Shrubbery Show

DISTRIBUTION
We’re currently keen to get TC into some more shops. If you know of anywhere in your area that might be interested, and you’d be willing to wave a sample copy of this wonderful ‘zine at the owner, let us know. If you’re willing to extract payment for copies delivered as well, so much the better, as that’s always the hardest bit! No pay, save perhaps free TC, and little glory, I’m afraid. However, you will get our undying gratitude and God will no doubt shower you with liquorice allsorts in Heaven. But see him/her/it about that, especially if you don’t want the blue ones.