Some Random Thoughts On Alien 3, 'Space Beast', And My Headcanon

Space Beast was Fiorina 161 convict Robert Morse's first-person account of a "xenomorph" killing spree and the subsequent death of Ellen Ripley.

This pamphlet/novella was uploaded and circulated around the Frontier colonies between 2180 and 2183, before being banned by Weyland-Yutani because of the sensitive nature of the material included.

The Weyland-Yutani Report states:

"Despite its crudeness, Mr Morse's account of the events is particularly valuable, as the facility's audio and visual recording capabilities were inconsistent. Evidence at the site confirms much of his story."

In my headcanon, Morse's testimony is the basis for the movie we know as Alien 3. But, of course, there are, at least, two different versions of Alien 3 - the theatrical release and the "special edition" or "assembly cut" - which tells me there are, at least, two different versions of Space Beast.

And all of these are subjective. I'm a big fan of the "unreliable narrator" trope and this is an ideal way to seed it into the backstory of an Alien RPG campaign.

Robert Morse

Morse certainly wasn't present for all the action, what he heard of those moments would have been recounted during a period of incredible distress and chaos, and he had no one to "fact check" with after the event.

I strongly suspect that, as one of the few people ever to survive an encounter with a "xenomorph", while Morse seemed quite rational at the end of the movie, his psyche was probably severely damaged by the incident on Fiorina 161.

So, you could argue that Space Beast/Alien 3 doesn't tell the whole story.

Perhaps some people we are told died, didn't. Perhaps Morse wasn't the only survivor, after all?

And where is Morse? Surely Weyland-Yutani didn't just let him go after he was "debriefed"?

But if he's still incarcerated at The Company's pleasure, how did he manage to write and distribute Space Beast?

Was his account originally handwritten or an oral account of the events, then transcribed by someone else? If that's the case, did this other - unknown - person add or edit anything?

Perhaps, and this is my headcanon really reaching, the much-maligned Alien Resurrection was actually Morse's deranged attempt at writing a sequel to Space Beast? Some form of Ripley fan fiction?

• For more on Space Beast, check out this Xenopedia article.