That version of Alien 3 strayed a little too far off the straight and narrow for Fox's liking, and so they eventually passed on Gibson's take (it probably also didn't help the xenomorphs were somehow genetically modified with some of the goo from Bishops innards, which doesn't make any sense). The second attempt to crack the shell of Alien 3 came from Eric Red, best known for writing the horror films The Hitcher and Near Dark. Red's script was produced under duress, with the writer managing to spin out a finished draft in less than two months. He would later describe the draft as "the one script I completely disown because it was not 'my script". It was the rushed product of too many story conferences and interference with no time to write, and turned out utter crap." Which is a bit harsh. There were some solid ideas in there, beginning with some more Space Marines finding the Sulaco from the end of Aliens torn apart by xenomorphs, with the creatures eventually settling down on a small-town USA city in a type of bio-dome in space, culminating in an all-out battle with the townsfolk facing hordes of Alien warriors.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
