Prometheus predictions.

As a huge fan of the Alien movies I'm very excited as to the rapidly approaching release of Prometheus. The movie by Sir Ridley Scott that deals with the mysterious 'Space Jockey' race featured briefly in the beginning of the origonal Alien movie. Who are they, what are they, what are they all about and what connection do they have with the ALIEN itself? Hopefully we find out in Prometheus.

Myself I've thought about the last point a fair bit: the connection between the Xeno's and the Jockey's and my prediction is this. The Space jockey's worship the Alien, they worship them in a similar way that the aincient Egyptians worship cats. The reason the Jockey's worship the Alien is because the Alien has unique properties. These properties has given the Space Jockey race enormous technological advancements. Organic biomechanical ships, medical advancements masivly increasing life expectancy and the elimination of disease and so on. The Alien is the cornerstone of their entire civilisation. However, there is a price. The Jockey's reverance to this devilish creature was their undoing. Due to the Xeno's life cycle where an impregnated host has to die to allow an infant Alien to live the Space Jockey's race slowly became extinct due to their need both spiritually and technologically for the ALIEN. At first the ALIEN could be controlled but over time that control was lost and they were doomed. Now the Jockey race is all but extinct, with a few nomadic offshoots scattered here and there across the galaxy.

This roughly fits in with the Prometheus legend, the unique properties of the Alien provides the Space jockey race with their 'fire' from their 'gods' and the parasitic life cycle of the Alien where the infant Alien bursts through the chest of the host. Is the price of the 'fire knowledge' the 'eagle ripping through the liver of Prometheus as punishment' for this knowledge.

This would also explain why in the Alien Universe the Weyland Yutani corporation is obsessed with obtaining samples of the Xenomorph creature, for these same properties.

The above is my theory as to the revelations in Prometheus. It's a theory I have had for well over a year. It was debunked, however I stand by my prediction. Will I be right? We shall see in a few weeks when Prometheus is released. I can't wait!

Prometheus Parallels

Watching the Prometheus trailers I was surprised to see a similarity between a couple of unused drawings I did for the Alien Encounters the Art of Superior Fanpower since 1979 documentary and scenes from the Prometheus movie trailers. Now I'm not offended I consider this a coincidence, well I hope so!
The way I see it the makers of the movie are thinking along similar lines to the fans and I've been an active member of the Alien franchise fandom community for the past 4 years. My artwork is readily avalible online. Read on and make up your own mind.

The lower picture is of a Space Jockey starship on some kind of circular landing pad which the ship perches on. My drawing on top, is of a different Jockey ship but held in place by a similar pad. I drew this in 2009 just before Prometheus movie was announced.

My view of the Space Jockey race is that their ships are organically grown rather built so no two ships are alike. My drawing shows a selection of ships in a starport of some description.
(Click pics for bigger image.)

                                                                                                                                               

The second unused picture from the documentary is of a human exploration starship I've named Zodiac encountering a Space Jockey ship emerging from a dome like pyramid. This drawing although doesnt share any design parallels to Prometheus it does share a scene where the Prometheus starship of the film sees the Space Jockey ship trying to escape after emerging out of the ground.

Now as i've mentioned Ive put all of these similarities down as pure coincidence, that the film makers either by accident, coincidence or intent have listened to what the fans want and incorporated that into their own plans for the story. That to me can only be a good thing. The amount of times film makers ignore the fans or view them with some kind of contempt. I don't think that is the case with Prometheus.  

Still i found the above just a tad uncanny! Someone said to me, 'They are watching you!' I replied, 'I wonder...!'

Here are a few more of my drawings that were used in the Alien Encounters documentary please click on them for a larger view. The image below is what I believed the Space Jockey to be like if it were a living breathing creature based on the skeletal remains found by the protagonists in the origonal Alien movie. The drawing was a huge A2 size high!

 

  

The drawing above is what I imagine the Space Jockey homeworld to be like. Two twin planets linked together by a huge biomechanical growth that erupted from the center of each planet and took a million years to grow to its current state. This semi sentient growth is filled with strange flora and fauna, a biomechanical wonder and nightmare combined.

I've wondered how the Alien franchise would evolve and change if it were ever to return to the silver screen. I'm a little pleased that some of my predictions however minor, were spot on it seems!

Sir Ridley: Give me a job on Prometheus 2, I have a few ideas!

Links:
Alien Fanpower Page 
New Road Films

Starhyke Show Update

Back in the mists of 2011 I blogged about a new independent Sci-Fi comedy show, Starhyke that was launched on DVD..

See here: My Starhyke Review.  (Thanks to the Starhyke creators aka Andrew Dymond and Claudia Christian for liking my original review!)

Well a UK TV channel recently started showing the first series. Showcase TV has started showing episodes on Friday and Sunday afternoons. Great stuff! Keep a look out for it!
Who says madcap styled humour was dead, not these guys! I thought it was a well put together little show that has a lot of promise and laughs! My kind of humour!
Hopefully now it has found a channel, it will get more attention and a second season can be eventually comissioned.
(I want to know what happens to Dotty! I like Dotty, mad as a box of frogs! Whoops! Possible slight spoilery thingy there!)

If you like madcap style humour, give it a look!

'Starhyking across the universe! On the starship Nemesis with a bunch of berks!'
(Sung to the tune Star Trekkin' by The Firm!)

Showcase TV,
Sky Ch 201
Fridays/ Sundays around 2pm.
Subject to change.

Showcase Schedule.

Starhyke Facebook Group

(Yes, that is the awesome Sir Patrick Moore in a cameo role! Yes the chap bottom left as if you didn't know!)

Alien Universe fan painting and fan fiction.

This is a piece of fan art i created based on the Alien/ Prometheus movie franchise. A human scoutship encounters a second Alien derelict adrift in a nebula. What horrors lay within its strange hull.... A pen line drawing, digitally watercoloured using Art Rage Pro. Click pic for large version.

The scene is based on a short piece of Alien fan fiction I scribbled years ago called Alien: Infinity. Its set around 50 years after Alien 3.

Alien Infinity: fan fiction synopsis.
The scoutship above finds this Alien ship after a tip off. The crew go aboard where one of the crew finds the pilots chair empty. He gets into the chair where by the ship tries to physically merge with the hapless crewman. The crewman is torn apart by this machine but somehow hes still alive, fused with the ship. The rest of the crew tow the ship back to a space station to huge press publicity where scientists and military begin to probe the vessels secrets.

The Alien Crewman is found to be alive, this 'Space Jockey' is in suspended animation, he is awoken and after much alarm at his awakening as he attempts to escape, he is captured. Using telepathic communication he tells the protagonists in the story he was part of a convoy to deliver Alien eggs to the homeworld of another alien race the Space Jockeys are at war with. A war they are losing.

It turns out the Alien was genetically engineered as the perfect weapon of war. Its spores were meant to be delivered to the enemy homeworld where they would multiply and destroy the population. The Space Jockey ship, part of a convoy, was attacked and the pilot had to hide in a nebula in suspended animation where he remained for thousands of years due to ship malfunction. The Space Jockey recognises the human race and tells them an awful secret. In creating the Alien, various DNA traits were sampled across a thousand worlds. Part of the Alien structure was based on the DNA of primitive humans abducted thousands of years ago.

At this time Alien eggs are found onboard the space jockey ship but are quarantined. However an agent of the Weyland Yutani Corporation steals an alien egg and smuggles it away. However it breaks open and the Facehugger inside infects the agent. Hours later the chestburster bloodily emerges and the Alien gets loose. In the intervening hours the Alien multiplies. The space station security police and the military fight a losing battle to kill the aliens. The station is evacuated as military warships arrive to torpedo the station and destroy it to stop the Alien getting loose.

Eventually in the fighting, the Space Jockey and the protagonists find themselves trapped on the Space Jockey starship. The Space Jockey says he intends to complete his origonal mission. The warships try to stop the ship from leaving but the Space Jockey destroys them using his ships advanced weapons before destroying the station himself.  However he is killed when an Alien spore infects him during a three way fight between the heroes, the Space Jockey and a number of Aliens that get on the ship. What emerges from the infected Space Jockey is an Alien ten times more lethal than an ordinary Alien.

This super Alien kills much of the remaining heroes however its killed when a crewman lures it outside the ship where its blown away by the ships weapons at point blank range.

The story ends in a twist when the crewman from the beginning of the story, still fused into the ships systems gets his desire to go home to earth confused with the ships origional orders in his deranged state. He seals off the heroes from the bridge area as he jumps into hyperspace back to Earth, not to go home, but to bomb it with the Alien spores thinking its the enemy homeworld of the Space Jockeys...

The follow up to this synopsis would have seen the survivors of the above incident joining an expediction to the Space Jockey Homeworld. Information obtained from the Jockey ship. The mission would be to find information which could help in the fight against the Aliens which are now loose on earth. The mission would have seen the protagonists enter basically a Gigeresque hell...

This fan fic was written about 5 years ago, it's not based on anything to do with Prometheus. It would be interesting as a fan, to see if the new Prometheus movie is anything like my own hopes and ideas.

I'm looking forward to Prometheus!

Hardwar Re-Imagined project 2012

This year I hope to get my Hardwar Re-Imagined project well underway. Ive already made a good start with my Police Cruiser aircraft in my gallery:

A little about Hardwar...

Hardwar was a game released back in 1998, created by Software Refinery based in Leeds England. The game was a freeform trading and combat game similar to the Elite series of games. The difference was it was set on a planet rather than deep space. The player played a fighter pilot in his ship, trading among the buildings and hangars of a city called (Misplaced) Optimism. A cratered colony metrapolis on the surface of Saturn's moon of Titan. The colony was cut off under mysterious curcumstances 100 years before when the corporations pulled out. Now its a fight for survival among the 50,000 residence and multitude of factions which makes up Mis-Ops. As you trade and fight you make more money for better equipment and aircraft and as you progress you unravel a plot that could destroy the city and everyone in it.

The game over the years achived cult status among a small group of fans and a few attempt to remake the game have either dried up or are still ongoing. The game was very much ahead of its time. Techno soundtrack, full motion cutscenes with real actors, graphics and AI ahead of its time. The story was quite dark and had a slight penchance for black humour. The whole atmosphere of the game and the way it was put together makes it one of the most unique games evermade. There has been nothing like it since.

My Re-imagined project is to take this game and redesign the vehicles/ equipment/ buildings as if the game was made today with todays graphics in mind. Its a project to help me work on a singular project practicing my conceptual ideas and design something completely different without losing the idea of the game.

My police cruiser is a good start.

Here are some cutscenes from the game so you can get an idea of what im talking about!

General gameplay footage in HD:

Combat gameplay HD:

I'm currently working on a Swallow, and Moon Taxi arcraft redesigns. Keep watching.

StarHyke: Review

I've recently enountered a little known British Science Fiction comedy called Starhyke. It was made back in 2008/9 and stars Babylon 5's own superb Claudia Christian in the lead role. I'd heard various comments about this show and when i saw it on sale I decided to buy a DVD copy.

I was pleasently surprised, its a funny, witty clever little show with great special effects, stories, acting.  It shamelessly sends up science fiction like a mad thing! For a sci-fi comedy it works. True it wont beat Red Dwarf which always will be king of the sci fi laughs however Starhyke knocks the frankly terrible Hyperdrive rightly into third place. It reminds me a little of the old Captain Kremmen cartoon in the 70's made by the late great Kenny Everett with a contempoary slant. Very madcap, slapstick styled humour.

The show also has a solid ensemble cast with experience in science fiction and comedy. Jeremy Bulloch who played Boba Fett in Star Wars, Suanne Braun, Hathor in Stargate SG1 and featuring special guests in the form of Red Dwarf's own Danny John Jules and the ever awesome Sir Patrick Moore. 

I'm surprised the show hasn't been picked up by one of the many digital channels here in the UK. Starhyke is better than a lot of the comedy crap thats out there today. If you are looking for the very PC styled humour thats about today, truck on. If you like wild, mad, send up sitcom styled humour, this is for you.

The show is made with love and care and it shows. The DVD has all six episodes and a bonus disk packed with bloopers, auditions, makings of etc.

A great first season attempt and deserves a lot more attention and a second season!


Goto: www.starhyke.com
I bought the DVD from here: www.play.com 

Artwork showreel 2010

Here is my video show reel to some of my artwork. It was made back in 2010 and hopefully i will be soon updating it when time permits.
The gorgeous music is composed and performed by my very talented friend Brendan Perkins.
It features artwork used for an as yet unreleased documentary all about the Alien movies fandom.
If you click on the video you can see it on You tube, select 720p HD to see the art and hear the music in all its glory.

Hardwar redesign project update.

I've recently been working on artwork for a remake to the cult 1998 computer game Hardwar. I was already working on a personal art project redesigning the game with modern computing in mind, when the opportunity arose to join a proper concerted effort to bring the game up to modern standards. The project is still in very early stages, no release date set as yet.
In the mean time here is a sketch from of my origonal art project.

Police Cruiser: At least with us you know what the time is, have a safe flight sir...!

Judge Minty, a Judge Dredd fan film.

I have recently been drawn to a new fan film currently in production in the UK. Based of a character from the 2000ad comic strip Judge Dredd a future law enforcement officer. Judge Minty is about one of those future cops. An aged Judge at the end of his career is shot in the line of duty. Laments as the loss of his judgement and the fact he can no longer continue the line of work he loves. The story follows him as he takes retirement/exile from Mega City into the cursed earth wastelands. 'Taking the Law unto the Lawless.'

Ive been a fan of 2000ad and Dredd ever since i was a kid, and although i liked the 1995 movie based on the comic book it wasn't really the Dredd i grew up with. This fan film is the first thing ive seen that has so far come close.

If the finished product is as good as the teaser below, then this could be one of the best fan movies ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2JhQXCjTLY Teaser trailer.
www.judgeminty.com Film website.

Police Bastard

My friend Simon is drummer with a Birmingham based punk band called Police Bastard! (Great name!) Now I've recently done a flyer poster for them to advertise their forthcoming UK/ European tour.

The flyer is a simple Photoshop 7 manipulation. I'm also working on a few other ideas for them, watch this space.

Click the link on the right of the page for their MySpace page.

A novel idea

I have so many ideas. That's the trouble with being a creative type, sometimes you have either not enough ideas, or too many. I have too many, I have books and pads and bits of paper piled up all over the place with many doodles, notes and assorted scribbles! I need a bloody librarian to sort through it!

One thing I like doing which adds to this barely organised chaos is writing a little story based on a design. I will write a little background to a spaceship or creature design. No one ever sees these little notes, more for my own pleasure.

Well over the past few months I've assembled my notes and organised them into a story, several in fact and I've begun to turn my hand to writing a novel, a friend Rob Glenn has done exactly that, he's written several novels and got them published. I actually designed the cover for his last novel called Sinema (see picture) and he's given me plenty of encouragement to give it a try.

I have scribbled enough material over the years for three stories, a Matrix type of story, (Three: working title and the one I'm working on.) One set 1000 years from now (Eden: working title) and centres on a future society/alien invasion and one set on the cusp of the end of the world. Its going to be fun but hard work. I like action packed, pacey stories with a twist in the tail and that's the type of story i intend to write, basically what i like! If other people end up liking them, so much the better!

I'm almost at the end of the first chapter of Three, I'm just writing as it comes into my head, for a long time I didn't know how to proceed but I read that the best thing to do it just write naturally. When you go back over your work later that's when you realise the mistakes you made or extra bits you want to put in/take out. Its interesting stuff!

New art project: Hardwar Re-Imagined.

I've been working on a new personal project called Hardwar ReImagined. Hardwar was an old game made back in 1998 that has received a small yet loyal cult fan base. The idea basically is for me to use my artistic skills to redesign the game as if it were a modern game to be run on modern contemporary hardware. Besides i'm one of those cult fans!
Here's a screenshot of the original game.

This is a Police Fighter or 'Moth' as its known in game overflying a huge dam.
I will post my progress on here as an when.

Battlestar Galactica ends...and i can't say i'm impressed.

I've read so many sci-fi novels over the years, and many of them use God or the implication of God or fate to explain away the ending of their novels. To me this smacks of one of three reasons: Time constraints, lack of ideas or unable to explain away the story leading up to the last chapter.
I was dismayed that the wonderful series ended on exactly this note. It was all God's Plan. It was all fated on faith. A whole plethora of plot threads and the best they could come up with after five years was 'God did it'
Thanks a bunch.
I will say this for the finale: the first half of the finale was an awesome battle sequence, however it went south fast in the second half. A big battle, a story does not make. Also Battlestar is known to be a very bleak show, and the finale ended on a uncharacteristic chirpy note. I was expecting, and hoping half the cast got killed off, not one of the major cast got offed. Very disappointed. A typical over sentimental end. I also felt the finale was rushed, there was enough material to extend the show for another season, but the powers that be either didnt want or care to continue the show beyond the fourth season and they needed to wrap the show up quickly.
In all i have to say i was rather deflated by this ending, it could have been so much, much better than it was...

Woking Town: First Light

I took this while on night-shift in Woking town centre at around 0530 hrs last week.
I usually keep a small compact camera with me in case of a nice sudden picture.
I tweaked this in photoshop.

Christmas comes FAR too early...

OK, enough is enough...
Its 19th of October and they have started Christmas advertising on the telly.

On behalf of the exasperated general public i say: FUCK OFF