The Cold Forge "Snatchers" - Explained

[@MrPist0ler0]

I must admit, the mental image of a XX121 xenomorph flinging poo all over the place is pretty hilarious.

[@london_james]

Best comment 😆

[@minicle426]

They also star in British Tea ads.

[@toasteddingus6925]

Acid, burning, melting poo hahahaha

[@irina1296]

Alien 3 introduced the most exciting thing about Xenomorphs - they took features of their hosts. Alien 3 deserves a big respect just because of that. Amazingly interesting video as usual, my dear Alien Theory

[@pilotwhaleproductions5880]

irina1296 Its weird to think but I guess without the runner alien it isn’t obvious that happens. I already kinda assumed that was a thing when watching the first two films

[@Xenomorphine]

It was the first to canonise it (not as far as it should have done, IMO), but the idea of host traits being assimilated was spoken about, as far back as the original film's production.

[@loopymind]

We are talking about the Assembly Cut right?

[@silent_stalker3687]

irina1296 Get a queen face hugger And get a SJW And what do you get out of it?

[@brbrbuckeye]

I think that movie is a gem that's under-appreciated.

[@chasefeller1279]

this was definitely one of the best alien novels to read. I wish they would make this into a movie. I would love to see it.

[@GDeNofa]

I’ve just finished the book and gotta say Dorian could have been the successor of General Spears from Earth Wars. Both were evilly insane.

[@Davesobscurevideos]

Im a little late on this comment, but I think he’s even closer to the WY operative from the very first Aliens comic run. I can’t remember his name but he was very similar.

[@skywardcloud7396]

I thought the same exact thing!

[@johnnythompson3734]

@@Davesobscurevideos if I remember correctly I think the man's name was Patrick Massey from the earth war.

[@morbidone88]

@@johnnythompson3734 factsv

[@thorthompson9556]

As someone who has had a stoma, I really felt for Blue. It made me touch my scars where it used to be, and wince. It's a great read. It actually made me go back to Alien Isolation and play it through again.

[@geneobrien8907]

I got stuck pretty early on and quit, I'm not a very good gamer I guess!

[@matttown8763]

I LOVED this story. Not just because its set in the Alien universe but also because I thought it was really well written with complex characters. Also, as an ecologist/biologist, whenever I had thought about what the facehugger was implanting into the host (because it's not in there eating the host initially and the fact that they copy the genetics of the host), i thought it must be some substance like in this story. I always imagined it working like a gall wasp. Gall wasps lay eggs into the buds of trees. The egg has a chemical which causes the bud to mutate into a home/food for the grub. Different species of gall wasp create different shaped galls. I'm really pleased that this has made it into some of the Alien cannon somewhere.

[@RedJax69]

I loved the Cold Forge, crafting a more lived in world of Alien with Weyland-Yutani and the characters. I hope it get a sequel or something.

[@luapdd1]

It does! Into Charybdis or something similar ots called

[@hancock63]

Just an FYI: an autopsy is an examination of a human corpse by dissection. An examination of a Chimpanzee would usually be called a necropsy.

[@Menaceblue3]

*[The more you know.jpg]*

[@silent_stalker3687]

hancock63 And a live dissection/necropsy is Vivisection

[@pyroparagon8945]

@@silent_stalker3687 "live necropsy"

[@silent_stalker3687]

Pyro Paragon ‘What is dead shall never die’

[@sigmacademy]

Oh great Cthulhu, I am not worthy! XD

[@tahustvedt]

Cold Forge is a brutal story that I would love to be bombarded with as a movie.

[@user-MidwayDisc]

Thanks for covering Alien: Cold Forge it was such a fun read. You should do a video on the religious group from Alien: Covenant prequel novel called Alien: Origins by Alen Dean Fonster.

[@stofosaurus]

There's a review by alpha rookie that sums up the book pretty well. So please, Alien Theory, don't waste your time reading that crap. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHvYXmqJmJ6XfKs

[@kierankelly1629]

Long term Alien Universe fan. Cold Forge blew me away, I'd rank it right at the very top, right after the first two films.

[@MasterDownUnder]

I just listened to the Audible version, and it was awesome! It did leave a lot of unanswered questions, but there was so much it did do that was good value.

[@richardsdead]

Didn't know about this book but this sounds fantastic and should be done as a comic

[@terminatorx8285]

Haven't read this yet, I'll have to change that. Thanks for the information on it. I always know I'm gonna here something useful & entertaining every time you make a video. Just finished reading 'Alien- River of Pain'. Very good, for anyone who hasn't read it, read it lol.

[@shaun906]

i downloaded the audiobook, long but worth it.

[@terminatorx8285]

@@shaun906 yes, but for sure worth your time.

[@shaun906]

they are always more about humans then how they interact with the xenomorphs, but the chaos as control is inevitably lost makes exciting listening with enough visual descriptions to form a good clear picture (ive seen all the movies 1000s of times thou)

[@aaronanglea]

For some reason I like your alien 3 videos best

[@selfrighteousjerk2739]

As usual excellent vid and commentary. And an extra kudos for making comparatively uninteresting material entertaining.

[@rvl480van5]

Loved reading "Cold Forge". It was an awesome read.

[@kintero27]

Now read Alien Phalanx

[@queenxenomorphthequeenalie4697]

Nice video Alien Theory i still love watching your old videos Xenomorphs are awseome and more badass than Predators !

[@zane9785]

Very awesome indeed

[@thegamingpredator7439]

Try me

[@southy98]

Dorian's probably one of the best characters to come out of the expanded universe. Everything about him screams "complete monster", but it's done in such away that you can't help but be amused by it.

[@MichaelRose87]

This is great stuff. I love your channel!

[@jalenyoho7336]

Wow, I'm glad I discovered your channel, never read the comics but loved the movies, I live for lore like this. I thought skyrim lore was cool until I found you. Keep it up!

[@zmbklr101]

I wasn't sild on the embryo stuff at first, but in an Alien universe where the black goo and the Engineers exist and are such a huge part of the Xenomorphs' mythos it grew on me. Kinda like the Engineers did, I guess.

[@chembleton]

this channel is so go and the content from the whole Alien genre/ecosystem is so realisitic that I often forget this is fiction

[@kyuss89]

Finally read this book! Pretty intense. Huge fan and this is the first book in the Alien universe I have read. Definitely gonna read more!

[@Sjar86]

Just finished reading the book guys and its a good read, i recommend it as it goes into detail of how the facehugger delivers the embryo into hosts.. and of course how studying xenos always leads to disaster.

[@guttersnipe7439]

Great stuff...i like your delivery

[@atroposmoirai2298]

I did not know this... Thank you so much for educating me.. great video as always. It was a nice treat to have after my second job.

[@Denruter]

Just went through some of these books in the last couple weeks. I liked them all except for Prototype. But Phalanx was pretty awesome. The Bug Hunt short stories were amazing.

[@seanwhitehall4652]

1:04 well I ended up here because I could not sleep. That background pretty much ensured this is my life now.

[@DrawingCyberpunk]

Addicted to alien? Hell yeah!!! I recently following you on Instagram, you have a good test!!!

[@Fulgrim2]

Ah, glad to hear some answers about how the facehugger/egg works.

[@scratchy996]

So the facehugger squirts a goo like the small eggs do in Covenant.

[@joshuafaust9042]

Hey man you are awesome and I appreciate what you do more then you know !

[@elektrozil9728]

If Chimp blood makes them run faster, imagine what Tigers Blood would do. The Alien would be in a constant state of Winning.

[@jacobjorgenson9285]

I see what you did there 🤣

[@GiroKuluBOWSER]

Awesome video once again!! I just spent last night binge watching everything on your channel, and I'm loving it. One thing I've thought about and would love your thoughts on, is if there is a true pure xenomorph form? Xenomorph always take traits from their host, so what might it look like if a facehugger impregnated another xenomorph, if even possible? Do you think that the queen is the closest the xenomorph form can get to no influence from a host?

[@phillsosa228]

I recently got into your videos and I really like them. Watching these has made me want to start reading these comics myself. I was wondering if you could tell me what the chronological order is for the epics like nightmare asylum and so on. Please and thank you.

[@mrgrimsle5627]

Amazing as always.

[@TheSkepticalPanda]

It’s nice how the book explains more about the lifecycle of the creature.

[@xedalpha1]

Personally loved the book. Dorian was by far the best character and seeing the world through his eyes and watching his narcaccism and sociopathy develop into psycopathy and finally into a full blown god complex was very compelling. His view on the world was as twisted as it was fascinating to read. I also enjoyed it's more in depth view into how the xenomorphs prefer their hosts afraid, as if it tenderises the meat. Great book, just binged it in a whole day.

[@jamallabarge2665]

Dorian always had the god complex. Dorian reveled in power over others. He liked ruining people just to enjoy the hurt that it gave them. He graduated to physical violence as the book went on. "Whatever it takes for me to get away from this sinking investment alive and in one piece". He was a frustrated artist, a trait that his father crushed with ridicule. At the end he returned to that impulse.

[@jamallabarge2665]

I enjoyed how the author described modern manage tricks - SMART goals and the like. We older folk survived the Corporate Raiders of the 1970s. People lost their pension funds to these raiders. Later the Corporate Raiders went international - George Soros is the best example.

[@porcu12345]

I loved Dorian but hated how he left the escape pod, risking his own life, to kill someone that was guaranteed to die regardless of what he did. Didn't make sense to me after the lengths he went to in order survive and later to get the escape pod codes. Even though he's unhinged near the end, he's still very much in control, calm and calculating. I can't see his character realistically leaving the escape pod and risking almost certain death to kill someone that was dead already.

[@minicle426]

@@porcu12345 Been refreshing to have seen an antagonist get away with it.

[@cromlek]

Great channel. Thank you.

[@ryanquinn2683]

Fantastic Work! Just a musing but would an anti-cancer medication potentially delay or reverse the formation of a chestburster?

[@silent_stalker3687]

Ryan Quinn Probably not, unless it’s the cyanide kind If it’s radiation... well there’s the body bursted, and the boilers

[@davetherave7279]

read this recently, pretty decent. xenomorphs were bred from chimps which is quite a scary thought! they were very aggressive in the book..... Dorian Sudler, as a character, was the best part of the book. an absolute.prick of a character bit funny. keep the videos coming bro.....

[@amandajas6287]

I just read this book yesterday. Like, all of it. In one sitting. I read it cover to cover in just over 8 hours. A fantastic story. I can only hope that the newest book, Colony War, which released yesterday, will be as good.

[@javierfavela2255]

Hey Alien Theory, Plz do the Queen Mother next!

[@JayAHafner]

This was my favorite of the novels of the franchise.

[@moewzers9136]

An amazing book

[@alexanderstilianov]

A facility full of chimps. Reminds me of that terrifying level in System Shock 2 where chimps that were experimented on lurk in the dark and jump out screaming and clawing and some can even attack you with psionics. It's one of the few things that actually scared me in a video game.

[@cypress_8690]

I wish they made a movie out of it! Loved the book!

[@darklink539]

Hey I just read this and it's great spooky read. A little overcooked maybe, but it's supposed to be. I appreciate your videos

[@NidlohIsCrazy]

Love your videos

[@andrewilson453]

super excellent video, well done

[@tonnig6077]

Great info, Thanks!

[@Mustang_Dan]

Cold Forge was so damn good. Way better than any of the recent Out of the Shadows, River of Pain, Sea of Sorrows stuff.

[@SP-cp3qu]

Cold Forge did a great job getting the atmosphere of the Alien universe

[@barrybigplums]

Just finished the cold forge audiobook.....it’s worth listening to just for the awesome character Dorian

[@lando8913]

I hope one day they hire you to voice a computer reading off information about some xenomorph biology or something in one of the movies, lol.

[@leonryuko970]

This is definitely one of the more interesting xenomorph types in my opinion.

[@amysanchealarz3794]

If Dorian was a decepticon he be a a Delorian

[@blueshiftrobs]

Great. Shame You couldn't do a dvd compilation of this legally.

[@Dronz93]

Damn it was going to buy that today... dont know why I didn't. Loved the Sea of Sorrows novel.

[@LordBloodraven]

I like that the researchers came up with a new name for the xenos. When names are absent, any group of people will provide their own names for the creatures they encounter. Snatcher worked for what these scientists observed. Understandably, Marines still refer to xenomorphs as 'Bugs' given their sense of superiority and initial mindset that these creatures can be squished as simply as bugs back on Earth.

[@jasonbeougher8420]

I wanted to know if you were ever going to talk about the alien king story

[@Unxpekted]

Do you have any hints on the next Alien film or TV series?

[@VredesStall]

@00:20 Imagine just how much faster a 'Snatcher' would be if its host was a Cheetah😳😳

[@lukepatterson8676]

So me and my Fiance have been binge watching the ALIEN series we started from Prometheus and we just finished alien3. What we both don't seem to understand is if David was the creator of xenomorphs (if we are not mistaken). How were there eggs in a random engineer ship in ALIEN the first movie. When they landed and looked into the engineers ship they didn't find jars. They just found eggs and the carcass of a pilot engineer with the armor still in place, where it seems a chest burster popped out. Is that the same ship from Prometheus? Or a different ship entirely with no jars but eggs. Which would be confusing because they would need either a queen. or maybe a human specimen like Shaw to make the eggs like in ALIEN covenant. Another thing id like to ask is why in the earth war is newt and hicks alive???? Is this an alternate universe I'm up to date on your narrations but I just don't understand the absence of Ripley. I'm sure I missed something or the answers are fairly obvious but it's been bugging me for literal DAYS NOW. If you could maybe make a comprehensive updated timeline maybe connecting books and the movies alike and splinter timelines if there are alternate stories. My brain needs closure xD

[@sathanasluciferii]

there really is no "proper" timeline, the best you're probably going to get is, hey Alien was made back in the 70's before they even knew it was going to be a big hit. Prometheus and covenant are seen by most fans of the franchise myself included as being garbage and therefore not in canon with the original movies. alienanthology.wikia.com/wiki/Aliens:_Earth_War should help.

[@sathanasluciferii]

The cons of a story being told backwards =[

[@lukepatterson8676]

Thanks I'll look into this then 😀 I just wished that we could take everything related to aliens such as every comic, novilization, movie etc. And attempt to string them together with a timeline and see how it could pan out and make SOME sense. If anyone could do it it would be ALIEN Theory. We just watched resurrection and we really hated it by far the best movie to us is Aliens the 2nd one.

[@lukepatterson8676]

@Lucy Logan thanks =")

[@RobTutt17]

Luke Patterson unfortunately the only sensible way to watch the series, considering Ridley has yet to finish his prequel series, is in release order...NOT chronological order.

[@Brianna-ys7qp]

Be wild if they had these in a movie. I think they would be stronger & more aggressive... I guess it would be similar to the one in the 3rd movie.

[@barryauguste9734]

Amazing understated video AT....incredible in it's implications! I must obtain this novel right away. Personally, I have always disdained the term "zenomorph' - a throw-away term uttered once in 'Aliens' which has since incredibly become canon since. The term xenomorph (lit. "alien form"-from Greek xeno-, which translates as either "other" or "strange", and -morph, which denotes shape) was first used by the character Lieutenant Gorman in Aliens with reference to generic extraterrestrial life. It is a pathogen. It's terminality is instantaneous as you describe and in this one instance, the old drunken fart may have stumbled onto something cutting-edge. The media tends to focus more heavily on epidemics that involve patients with horrible symptoms, such as those caused by Ebola. But according to the latest reports, such viruses are not likely to be the ones involved in the next big pandemic-if there is one. After studying the most likely scenario surrounding a global pandemic, researchers found that it will likely involve an RNA virus-a type of virus that has RNA as part of its genetic makeup. Such viruses are typically airborne and mutate quickly, allowing them to change to a form that could kill millions.. So we may be on the cusp of such seemingly mutation anyway. Anyway, I digress. The release of RNA into organisms such as triggered by the black pathogen as experimented with by David on Shaw and all of the organisms gathered by him on the engineers planet annihilatied the indigneous life-forms. Pretty strong stuff and the imagination curdles at the thought of its effect on Origae-6 (if he ever gets there, thanks Disney). Thank you AT.

[@statealchemist000]

Long live the Hive!

[@Mr-ns9yt]

statealchemist000 “did somebody call for an exterminator”

[@chrissnyder8415]

Hate that name for them but love your videos

[@jackiesantos2121]

I like the alien stories from novels and Comics they made some good stories

[@matthewporter5048]

Great book!

[@MichaelGerrard]

Sounds like a good book, thanks sharing this sneak look into it. I think the name "Snatchers" is a bit pants. It should have a more menacing name. Maybe just calling it Alien is the best because it sort of elevates the creature to be the king of all aliens.

[@jpelletier03]

On a whim, I used an audible credit to purchase The Cold Forge . . . wayyyy better than I was expecting. Highly recommend if anyone's interested.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

Didn't Gibson's first draft feature Ape Aliens?

[@dutch5140]

I love your content but please tell us what happened to Alien Theory español voice contest

[@AlienTheory]

It’s still open I’m still going through entries

[@skylx0812]

Sounds a little similar to the function of the Borg nanoprobes that restructure an infected hosts DNA and any technology they encounter. There was a Voyager episode where the probes took a sample from a crew member and grew a Borg fetus in a maturation chamber the probes constructed on the ship.

[@jamallabarge2665]

I read the Cold Forge. The idea of using a microorganism to change the host's DNA to form a parasite is interesting. The bacteria is injected into the host from the face hugger first does some work on the host genetic code then changes it to create a good adult Alien. I'm not sure that 'cancer' is the right word here. Definitely started as a tumor which organizes into an organism. A lot of the Cold Forge was about the Company, the ruthlessness of their management and their cruelty. I hope that Dr. Marsellis got her cure. Been nice to see that.

[@TactWendigo]

I'm late but I just finished this book and I enjoyed it except that the numbers of xenomorphs seemed to be all over the place, almost like their were as many as however the story needed at that point in time with how many died throughout the book.

[@sam-ku9tj]

Do the rage war and what is this bacterial substance the face hugger uses to rewrite dna?

[@yux.tn.3641]

nearly finished reading it and yeah it's a good book (though it does start off slow) it gets much better after chapter 12 👍👍

[@bentrinker1937]

the slow start is a HALLMARK of all alien books and movies. you always go about a third of the way through the book /movie b4 things go wrong

[@techticianlarsproductions6180]

Reading this book atm actually

[@christrefz3195]

Sounds like they're trying to tie in some of the new mythos from Covenant. Making a connection between the Alien and those pods that would spray black goo spores that infect the host, causing them to grow a neomorph. In this case face huggers are the delivery system for the spores or something like it, causing the host to grow a xeno.

[@Angel_volkor]

so every one knows the space jockey ship in alien right, but my theory is that davids ship is the same from the first movie and after david released the black goo, he filled the ship with eggs and sent it out into space leaving him stranded on the planet calling for the alien covenant crew since he no longer has the engineer ship. the reason the eggs are larger is Maybey because he had more time to work on them. David just lied about the crash all together and the crash wasn't his , but that's just my theory.

[@Darth_Melek]

With the way that the Facehugger carries the code of the Black Goo in it, it also explains the premade behevior of all Xenomorphs that was probably set by David. The Xenomorphs had this intresting behevior of a survival as a hive and none of them saw themselves as an individual. But this leads me to my question and theory. What if the Big Chap from Alien was a some sort of defect? It's behevior was different from all the Xenomorph's we've ever seen, cannonically not even trying to build a hive, just trying to survive on it's own. My theory is that the Facehugger that attacked Kain was defective with it's code, not implementing the hive function which led to a creation of a Xenomorph with a blank translucent dome with no intention of making a hive and furthermore thinking itself as an individual. Do you guys think that my theory makes sense? Also sorry for the long post.

[@Darth_Melek]

Lucy Logan so what’s your opinion then?

[@kaltonian]

To cross one with a borg drone would be interesting

[@MrFedoraFilm]

Snatchermorph

[@howardmiller5381]

Sounds like xenomorphs arising from street walkers.

[@fatherbewithme]

This book was damn good! Dorian was scarier than the Aliens

[@amysanchealarz3794]

Where did the eggs come from

[@jordantucker9799]

I know what I want for christmas. :D

[@kierankelly1629]

it's a fantastic book, breathes new life into a tired formula.

[@lassejohansen3679]

I would love to see Cold Forge made into a movie with Henry Cavill playing Dorian Sudler. I have Cold Forge the audiobook and just minutes after hearing the introduction of Sudler, I imagined him as Cavill. Also I would love to see Stephen Lang as commander Dan Cardozo.

[@dbexodia10]

Just realized that the cover art does not match the description given in the novel. It's smooth in the novel, but ridged on the cover.

[@electricfire6929]

I watched this video at night time and for some reason I got heavily creeped out

[@jayw9879]

several listens now.... I need to know wtf went on with Doc Blue!!...... I listened out of order, Charybdis then cold forge.. and although i have an inkling. id love to know the details!!!

[@brucewayne1708]

👍

[@QuiffyPiffy]

Cool

[@BrokenEyes00]

Sounds like the prize isn’t the xenomorph but the face huggers payload. I wonder if it would be possible to harvest the facehuggers... chemical cancer fluid... and weaponize it instead. A “ tranquilizer” gun with “Xeno ammo” would be a far more efficient delivery method, and safer for the user as well. I wonder what an alien born out of a elephant, great white shark or whale would look like and how much the host would influence the adult Xeno.

[@sigmacademy]

Don't think it would be possible with conventional facehuggers (genetic engineering, perhaps). The thing is that those animals are too big, as the facehugger uses its tail to hold onto the host while impregnating it. Also, those animals have pretty big mouths - it would simply munch on the facehugger. ;)

[@BrokenEyes00]

Marinus van Zyl I forget what do they show her face hugger impregnate the dog/ox? Like it actually doing its thing? Reason being the positioning of the mouth relative to the neck of either animal is different compared to a human. And what I was thinking was more of in line with the idea that you’re using a tranquilizer dart filled with face hugger goo to impregnate those animals.

[@xedalpha1]

That's actually one of the character's main goals in the book, the creatures themselves are actually a secondary concern for her. The problem is of course if you try cutting it out it'd just melt the instruments. The book treats it more like an evolution of the black goo from Prometheus, which is nice continuity.

[@BrokenEyes00]

xed alpha wonder if there’s a way to get the face huggers to deposit its black goo payload essentially into a mannequin head, or use a technique not unlike how they milk poisonous snakes of their venom. I mean thr ovalmorphs (eggs) and facehuggers are apparently capable of sending hosts through spacesuits at least, so putting one (egg) in containment and then having person nearby to get it to open up to release the face hugger is an easy enough matter. The trick is so doing face hugger safely and getting into this it’s payload, if you could solve that then the acidic fluids of the face hugger become a non-issue. A blue whale xenomorph, now that would be nightmarish.

[@xedalpha1]

Spoiler Alert * * * * She uses her synthetic body (which she pilots a la Avatar) and simulates organic fear until the hugger is on her face, then when it relents upon realizing its a synth, she essentially uses the synth bod's strength to 'milk' it' dry into the android's stomach and store it for later. Could it be injected into any organic later like a whale or T Rex or does it need the hugger to adapt the toxin to the host? Who knows?

[@drunkdave5677]

Hello friends. I started reading this book last summer but just really didn't like it. I put it down about 1/3 of the way. Just didn't like the writing style. Anyone enjoy this book or even praise it as a great alien book? Is it worth it to finish? No spoilers please. Also, I didn't watch the video yet. I will when I either read it or enough of you tell me not to. Thanks

[@yux.tn.3641]

the book does start off slow but it gets better 👍

[@o9slayer7o18]

So face huggers dont plant eggs. They plant the black goo and the body does the rest?

[@Knowledge01]

these videos keep me creeped out

[@alqu6375]

If the Xenos eat meat, okay I guess, but why didn't the Alien in the 1st movie not eat the Cat?