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After writing the first three Alien novelizations, Alan Dean Foster was MIA for a bit, with other authors tackling Resurrection, AVP, and Prometheus (no one bothered to adapt AVP: Requiem). So it was great to see him return to the fold for 2017’s Alien: Covenant, and the author even penned an entirely original prequel novel subtitled Origins that led into Covenant’s on-screen events. Now THAT’s how you make up for lost time!
As I’ve mentioned several times in previous editions of this column, modern novelizations tend to stick pretty close to the version of the movie we saw. Updated technology (emailing PDFs of script changes wasn’t possible in the ’80s) and increasingly skittish producers don’t allow for as much diversion as we used to get, so I was not surprised to see that Foster’s take on Covenant wasn’t nearly as different as his previous adaptations were compared to their own finished films.
That said, there’s still enough extra meat on these bones to make it worth reading, especially if you (like me) thought that the weakest parts of Covenant were the ones involving the Xenomorphs. It seems that Foster agreed because all of the movie’s best parts – i.e., the ones involving David and/or Walter having philosophical discussions with each other or the other characters – are all much longer here, while the alien stuff is pretty much the same as we saw it on screen in 2017.
That said, he actually includes a scene that was cut (or never filmed, or entirely his invention!) where two alien beasts fight each other for some reason. It would have happened around the time that Daniels (Katherine Waterston) and Lope (Demián Bichir) escape from the temple where most of Covenant’s second half takes place.
In the movie, we see the “Praetomorph” (the one that came out of Capt. Oram) chasing after them before boarding their escape ship, but here, one of the surviving “Neomorphs” (the ones that spawned from the two soldiers shortly after they arrived on the planet) returns and they duke it out. It’s a quick enough bit of business, and I wouldn’t say it was exactly necessary, but it probably would have provoked a few cheers among audience members to see it in action.
Speaking of this sequence, as it’s also around the point where David and Walter have their own fight to the death, in Foster’s account of the events, it’s much less obvious that David has survived the fight and is impersonating Walter. Not only does he never make it clear with his prose (referring to him only as Walter throughout the rest of the book’s pages), but he also changes the scene where Daniels is put to sleep in her cryotube.
Ridley Scott gave us the chilling bit where she realizes it’s actually David just as she is put into hypersleep (sweet dreams!), but here, she never figures it out. It’s unknown if this was indeed a late-game decision that never made it to Foster’s inbox (both versions were filmed), or if he just chose to skip on doubling down on her grim fate. Still, it’s pretty much the only actual major CHANGE in the book versus an extension of existing material.
(It’s worth noting that Foster lobbied hard to keep Newt and Hicks alive in his Alien 3 take (only to be rebuked), so there is precedent for how much he wants to avoid making things worse for his Alien heroines.)
Everything else is of the “added character development” variety, particularly in the first act. Now that we all know James Franco is human garbage, it’s actually kind of fun that his only real on-screen appearance (besides a quick video Daniels watches) is him waking up and instantly being immolated. Alas, in reality, he filmed several scenes as the ship’s captain, only for all of them to be deleted to speed things along (some are on the Blu-ray and–despite the actor’s unwelcome appearance–are worth watching).
But they’re still intact here, and Foster also takes time to establish who is married to whom, cementing the “all of the characters are couples” element, which the final edit left so vague that viewers might not have even realized.
One character in particular comes off much better here: Amy Seimetz’s Faris. Her character was, unfortunately, part of the most ridiculous scene, where she repeatedly fires a shotgun around explosive material in an attempt to kill the rampaging alien and also responds to getting blood in her face (including her open mouth) by going outside the room and locking her colleague inside, as if she wasn’t also spreading contamination.
Here, however, she is repeatedly concerned with the quarantine rules (very Ripley-esque!) and doesn’t get that blood spray on her. So when she locks Karine (Carmen Ejogo) inside the room, it’s actually the correct “for the good of us all” play instead of a stupid, pointless decision as it appears on-screen.
Also, regarding seemingly stupid decisions by the characters, there’s more of their initial landing on the planet. Here, Walter gets out first and tests the air before giving them the OK. In the movie, they all just get out instantly without masks or hazmat-type suits, which seems very silly. In fact, Foster spends a lot of time justifying things that don’t seem to make any practical sense, up to and including the amount of “general living” space on the ship that wasn’t necessary since the ship was just transport for everyone except Walter. Per Foster, these were aesthetic decisions to make the people feel more at ease for the brief periods they would be awake on the ship.
We’re also treated to more of Oram (Billy Crudup) and his religious beliefs, something Scott’s final edit only briefly addresses. His background even helps them decode the message they receive, likening it to speaking in tongues and asking the computer to do more filtering to decipher it. In the movie, Tennessee (Danny McBride) just recognizes the John Denver melody. Speaking of his character, some of the pilot’s funnier lines are not here, though one can assume that McBride ad-libbed them in the first place.
But most of the added material involves Walter or David, and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see all of this on-screen. Michael Fassbender was absolutely terrific as both characters, and it’s worth reading the nearly 350-page book (much longer than Foster’s novels for the other sequels, even though those had longer runtimes than Covenant*) just to get those added bits and imagine the actor chewing his way through those lines.
There’s even more of the infamous fluting! Not only does the “I’ll do the fingering” sequence part go on longer, but David actually encourages Walter to compose a piece on his own, giving him the instrument to take with him when he returns to his group. Walter then discovers his programming won’t allow him to “create“, per se, but David suggests he CAN experiment, allowing him to come up with some kind of original melody. It’s an intriguing concept, further suggesting the idea that David wants Walter to help him in his quest to create new life (as part of his lifelong rebellion against his own creator, Weyland), only for his poking to strengthen Walter’s humanity.
I know this isn’t most people’s favorite Alien entry by any means, but I think this presents a clearer and overall better version of the story. The smarter character decisions make the action scenes go down easier, and in between them, we are treated to more fleshed-out roles for nearly every character. On top of all that, you get more time with the fascinating Walter/David relationship, which, to me, was always the best part of the movie anyway. Ridley Scott’s clear disinterest in the alien scenes is quite apparent on-screen, but Foster’s version has all that stuff live up to the franchise’s highlights while giving more dimension to the people who said the alien is dismembering. A win-win, really.
*Before you “actually” me: his Alien 3 novel more or less reflected the “assembly” cut, which runs around 145 minutes.
