Pop Culture WI: No Alien

General Tirpitz · May 20, 2017

Watching this video, I was again reminded how much the Alien franchise has influenced video game industry and got me thinking. Let’s say that for some reason Alien never gets made. What effects this would have on popular culture, especially scifi?

One big one I can think is Metroid. It wouldn't probably get done ITTL, as Alien directly influenced it.

Nivek · May 20, 2017

General Tirpitz said:
One big one I can think is Metroid. It wouldn't probably get done ITTL, as Alien directly influenced it.

Yeah Metroid as we knew is gone, maybe the gameplay elements would land in Kid Icarus or another game series(maybe a Lode Runner clone?) but the whole space themes are butterfly away.

Sci-fi is massively affected and horror movies too, i think we could get more scifi in star wars mold and horror would be the jason-mayer-kruger trinity in style of monster.

General Tirpitz · May 20, 2017

Nivek said:
Sci-fi is massively affected and horror movies too, i think we could get more scifi in star wars mold and horror would be the jason-mayer-kruger trinity in style of monster.

H. R. Giger's influence on scifi aesthetics would be also removed, or at least significantly curbed. No Bork in Star Trek for example, or at least they would look very different.

samcster94 · May 20, 2017

A lot less women in scifi

Archibald · May 21, 2017

Yup, Sigourney Weaver / Ripley had a lasting influence.

Jape · May 21, 2017

A little known 'video nasty' called Star Beast reaches B-movie cult acclaim in the early 1980s...

phx1138 · May 21, 2017

Might see SF (finally!) move away from monster movies, toward real stories. Maybe "Enemy Mine" does better. Maybe something based on Beam Piper's work gets made, instead, or maybe something of Heinlein's (Red Planet? I Will Fear No Evil is too controversial, & IDK if The Moon is a Harsh Mistress would survive adaptation

); Bova's Duelling Machine is to SPFX heavy. Maybe somebody from the Golden Age? Or a pastiche of the Dorsai?

Nivek · May 21, 2017

General Tirpitz said:
H. R. Giger's influence on scifi aesthetics would be also removed, or at least significantly curbed. No Bork in Star Trek for example, or at least they would look very different.

Umm would we get Ginger influence something else? maybe in traditional horror? his necromicron design were as awesome as creepy.

Finn Morgendorffer · May 21, 2017

Nivek said:
Umm would we get Ginger influence something else? maybe in traditional horror? his necromicron design were as awesome as creepy.

Ridley Scott could instead direct a Lovecraft adaptation and bring Giger in on that. At The Mountains of Madness?

Hadley · May 22, 2017

Nivek said:
Yeah Metroid as we knew is gone, maybe the gameplay elements would land in Kid Icarus or another game series(maybe a Lode Runner clone?) but the whole space themes are butterfly away.

No Doom either, which would make a big impact on the first-person-shooter genre.

Nivek · May 22, 2017

Hadley said:
No Doom either, which would make a big impact on the first-person-shooter genre.

There still Wolfstein, maybe a more direct sequel to it? or another idea for their new FPS for Id?(an early quake?)

General althist · May 29, 2017

No "Case of the Killer Pizzas" episode of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.