GazChap wrote:
NervousPete wrote:
I think Ash is a trustworthy source. It's just when his killswitch was engaged that he became somewhat problematic.
Only in the sense that his secret was out, so he had to nullify it.
He was, right from the start - before he even set foot on the Nostromo - programmed to bring back that Alien lifeform with all other considerations secondary, crew expendable. I don't think anything he says can be trusted (from the point of view of the other crew) because of that.
It's also curious (to me) that Ash's model of android clearly didn't have Asimov's laws programmed into him, whereas Bishop in Aliens did. I don't know for sure, but the implication is that the same company manufactured both Bishop and Ash (not Weyland-Yutani, but Hyperdyne Systems) and fitted behavioural inhibitors to the later models. I'm surprised the Company went along with Bishop being on-board knowing that.
Isn't the more likely conclusion that the company had various androids they can programme with various things, and in Ash's case they programmed him to get the alien back to earth, whereas Bishop was just on a standard marine escort routine? Ash was planted on board the Nostromo, after all. There may have even been a handful of Ash-like androids planted on other ships travelling around the arse end of space.
Mr Kissyfur wrote:
GazChap wrote:
It's also curious (to me) that Ash's model of android clearly didn't have Asimov's laws programmed into him, whereas Bishop in Aliens did. I don't know for sure, but the implication is that the same company manufactured both Bishop and Ash (not Weyland-Yutani, but Hyperdyne Systems) and fitted behavioural inhibitors to the later models. .
Bishop refers to issues with the Ash series "being twitchy" or something, and the implication was that that was why they added in the Asimov's laws since then.
Quote:
I'm surprised the Company went along with Bishop being on-board knowing that
Quite. Then again, they had a load of marines there who were supposed to do as they were told.
Also, it's unlikely they expected to see a colony of aliens with a queen and all - nobody did. Their plan was probably to get the marines to see what was going on, then secure the site, and then the company could come in later and made a fucking huge omelette. Bishop being there probably just didn't occur to them as a significant factor, plus he was obviously happy to obey Burke as a company rep (and the marines were obviously happy to go along with orders until the survivors essentially mutinied). Plus tampering with him at the last minute specifically for the trip with Ripley would have been a blatantly obvious ploy - if there'd been a change of androids at the last minute, she'd have found out from the others and probably blown it in two with a rifle.
Or, alternatively, Bishop could have been lying / unaware that his "GET THE ALIEN" routine would override his "DO NOT HURT SOFT PATHETIC HUMANS" one. How do we know he didn't pick up the queen on purpose? You'd think that kind of extra weight would have been noticed by a pilot, especially a robot. And, y'know, Alien 3 reveals that there was somehow a facehugger on board the drop ship after all....
LaceSensor wrote:
GazChap wrote:
There's the scene in Aliens where Bishop is busy dissecting one of the dead facehuggers, and Spunkmeyer wheels in a trolley full of stuff for him, and Bishop looks around at Spunkmeyer with this really weird, cold, dead stare on his face. I've never quite worked out whether Cameron intended that to be like a "red herring" that Bishop was a bad guy too or not, but it certainly seemed like it to me.
I always was creeped out by Bishop, especially when I watched this in my early teens.
He looks friggin' scary when he's shunting along the tiny little access tunnel thing with a torch under his chin.