I was nineteen when the first Alien film burst upon our collective consciousness and still today it remains the only film which succeeded in giving me nightmares for months. Thirty five years have passed and the film is celebrating another anniversary with the franchise as popular today as it ever has been.

In those past halcyon days there were few who were able to enjoy a film over and over, once it was out of the cinema, you were lucky if the movie saw the light of day in the new VHS format and in those days the machines and tapes were expensive enough so that few could afford them. No, if you wanted to relive the thrill of the film then your only cost effective way was to buy the novelisation.

Alien was lucky to be able to use the talents of Alan Dean Foster, a noted writer in his own right, Foster was to set a bench mark for movie novelisation. Prior to this most had been little more than rehashes of exactly what you had seen on the screen, nothing wrong with that, except a novel isn’t just a transposed screenplay.

Foster set about providing the Alien experience plus. With its greater length, dialogue could be extended, motivations explored and characters developed to a greater degree than was possible on the screen. Foster created a rich and complementary experience for the Alien fan.

Titan Books have rereleased Foster's Alien adaptation for the thirty-fifth anniversary year and whilst it a nice blast from the past, with the film regularly being shown on the televisions and anyone who wants a copy can watch it endlessly, the actual function of the novelisation has become a little redundant.

I would still recommend picking up a copy, Foster is a good writer and the book can expand on the story in a way the time limited film never could.

8

Charles Packer