One of the opening scenes in Alien ³, when the prisoners salvage what's left of the EEV and recover the bodies, was almost entirely redone in the 2003 Assembly Cut of the film. There are aspects of both cuts I really enjoy, so I've created a new version of this sequence made up of parts of both. Structurally it is closer to the Assembly cut, with the Assembly Cut shots of Andrews typing and Clemens tending to Ripley, but the EEV shots are mostly from the Theatrical Cut as I feel these are the more visually interesting of the two.
The reveal shot of Hick's body is from the Assembly Cut, while the shots of Bishop and Newt are from the Theatrical Cut, although the information card that appears on screen for these shots has been removed. The audio has been reworked to fit the new cut and the sequence still ends with the shot of the oxen and the prisoners on the beach to suggest that's how they got the shuttle out of the water.
Of all the individual changes to Alien ³ in the Assembly Cut, probably the the most widely known was changing the Xenomorph's host from the dog to the ox. While I completely understand the all the reasons some people prefer this alteration, the scaling of the chest burster, the religious symmetry, even that it was David Fincher's preference, I simply could never get on board with it.
For me the Rottweiler, Spike, always just made more sense. For starters there was just a lot more infrastructure in the story to support it. With Spike's involvement removed, Murphy sticking his head in the vent and talking to him makes no sense. In earnest, the ox never really made any sense to me at all. People would say what sense does it make for them to have a dog at a prison? But there are numerous possibilities that could lead Spike’s path to Fury 161. Perhaps he was a guard dog before they downsized the prison? Perhaps he was the pet of a previous warden who died on the job?
Regarding the ox, what possible reason would Weyland Yutani have to travel a drove of oxen across the galaxy to this prison colony, for the inmates to tend to? They're not farming them for meat, and the prisoners can’t stand them. One of the men, Frank, comments "There's only seven of the friggin' things left, then we're done with them". Any involvement of the ox in the Assembly Cut always seemed contrived to me. Not to mention, and apologies to anyone who prefers the ox, but... lame.
Before we had a dog who we had established in the film, a beloved pet. We watched it encounter the Facehugger, we saw it injured by the attack, and Murphy's concern for it. And then we see Spike’s tragic, confusing, and painful final moments interspliced with the most emotional scene in the movie. Now we have no establishment of events beyond Murphy holding up a goofy, oversized fake looking prop and asking "What's this?". The heart-wrenching funeral is now mixed in with the terrifying Alien emerging anticlimactically from a totally character-devoid, already dead cow.
Not to mention the most pressing reason for my own bias, which is that an Alien who takes its characteristics from a dog, specifically a breed known for strength and aggression, is just infinitely cooler than one born of an ox.
I haven’t removed the ox scenes from the film. Contrivance aside they’re not immersion breaking and perhaps there’s a reason they’re there that I’m not aware of. I’ve included the scenes as much as possible without contradicting the dog being the host, because they help build the world and develop the menacing prisoners and their thoughts on Ripley.
But for Project A34K, the ox-burster never stood a chance.
This cut was made for straightforward continuity reasons.
After Murphy's death, Warden Aaron speaks to Clemens over the radio, instructing him at Superintendent Andrews request, to report to "Vent shaft-22, on the second quadrant". Clemens obliges, to find Murphy shredded to pieces by the fan, and only identifiable by his boot.
Later during a rumor control meeting, when addressing the prisoners, Andrews states that what was left of Murphy was found in "Vent shaft-17", contradicting Aaron.
I was able to track down the original workprint video, which had Aaron saying "Vent shaft-17". Cleaning up and using this audio means that Aaron and Andrews no longer contradict each other. This was the only salvageable element from the original workprint of Alien ³.
