Rupert Dolby (Studio Dolby) and Travis “Alien” Noakes first began work on ALIEN : Broken Covenants as a passion project in late 2022. As fans of grimdark fantasy (Warhammer), H R Giger’s design and sci-fi horror (ALIEN), the fanboys were keen to produce a pro-level, world-building contribution from Cape Town for ALIEN’s global fanbase.
Like a true ALIEN fan, Travis was disappointed that Sir Ridley Scott was not given the opportunity to complete the mooted trilogy of ALIEN : Prometheus and : Covenant with a well-deserved third film. Both Prometheus and Covenant charted an exciting new direction by spotlighting the threat of AI in the “person” of David 8. This villainous synthetic could pose as big a threat as the Xenomorphs to his human enemies, and other space colonists.
At its heart, the ALIEN franchise is about sci-fi terror- the delicious horror of humanity being exposed to the unfamiliar in the depths of space. In the cinematic franchise and its novelisations, the Xenomorph threat seemed to have been well-explored in ALIENS 2, 3 & 4, plus ALIEN Romulus. However the unfinished prequel’s trilogy left many questions regarding David 8’s potential trajectories. At the same time, there was also an opportunity to contribute ideas towards the ALIEN aesthetic. There are many under-explored areas of the franchise, such as the Union of Progressive People’s empire and also Giger-esque robots leading up to the Auton uprising (2379). Plus the desirably-enigmatic Engineers.
At school, Rupert and Travis were keen roleplayers, and tabletop-wargamers, with their close friends, Leonidas “Loni” Sapkidis and (Dr) Charles Baillie. Prompted by Charles’ return to painting WH40K miniatures for stress relief, the geeks were impressed at just how this hobby had evolved in drawing on software apps, plus providing wide scope for crowdsourced contributions from fans online. At the same time, the strongest brands (like Games Workshop’s Warhammer) were using licensing to drive massive hits (Space Marine II) and completely unexpected productions (Nurgle plushie, anyone?).
With decades-long experience in graphic design and brand development, Rupert and Travis were keen to learn about the meeting ground between fan productions and the license holders of the ALIEN franchise. It’s owned by Disney, with the cinematic universe’s development led by 20th Century Studios, while that for the televisual is led by Disney Studios. There does not seem scope for fan-led contributions, since neither accept unsolicited submissions of creative material. These include, but are not limited to, scripts, artwork, and product prototypes. 20th Century Studios is highly influential in shaping the ALIEN brand, through its sub-licenses to developers. Notably, Titan Books for official novels and Free League Productions for its award-winning ALIEN roleplaying game. With the latter, fans may become involved by crowdfunding the development of its RPG on kickstarter.com, much like those for another hugely-popular sci-fi horror RPG, Mothership’s development via Tuesday Knight Games.
When Studio Dolby and Create With first started collaborating on David 8’s trajectory, we thought it might make an interesting source of visuals for a sci-fi horror RPG module. For example, Rupert prepared this illustration for a scientific research moon-base in whose lower levels David 8 could begin work on his terrAI’s seeds for an autonomous synthetic civilisation.
As a welcome break from his academic research routine, Travis worked on a plot to explain David 8’s travels. It charters a fifty-year narrative arc for terrAI’s development and founding. This sought to expand the ALIEN universe far beyond its Xenomorph-fixation, whilst extending the critique of trans-humanism embodied in David 8’s duplicitous actions in Prometheus and Covenant. In each chapter, the idea of different types of ‘broken covenant’ is used as a thematic device. It’s tackled repeatedly in diverse ways (much like scenes in ‘Lost in Translation’, The Brutalist or the TV series ‘Vigil’), plus from different viewpoints.
In planning their fan-fiction novel’s look, Studio Dolby and Create With wanted Broken Covenants to mark a return to the positive attributes of H R Giger’s exploratory, hand-crafted, visual aesthetic. Each chapter would be introduced with an original illustration for suggesting the excitement and mystery that is ALIEN. With Rupert fast-making strides on completing the illustrations (many of which will actually feature in a sequel to Broken Covenants), Travis decided that their novel should stretch back for readers unfamiliar with David 8. Particularly, his warning in the Advent short film (2017) to Weylandt Yutani regarding the fate of the USCSS Covenant and its colonists.
This also provided an opportunity to suggest cinematically impactful visuals. Reflecting ALIEN inspiration such as that draw-joppingly awesome scene from Prometheus in which David 8 enters the Orrery to see a 3d hologram of an Engineer crew manipulating a visual of the universe, selecting its galaxies, solar systems, whilst also revealing the DNA of its planets’ lifeforms. David 8 slowly steps into this hologram, marvelling at it, before selecting our solar system and holding the Earth in his hands, rubbernecking at the African continent. But I digress…
While Travis found plot-building fun-to-do, science-fiction writing proved difficult. Create With searched Upwork for suitable freelancer to translate the plot into a sci-fi novel. Robert Walcott proved the most qualified, plus the keenest on ALIEN. From December 2023, Robert started contributing a new chapter every month or so, in response to Travis’ chapter brief and Studio Dolby’s illustrations.
Recognising that the franchise license-holders may already be developing work on David 8’s trajectory, Create With and Studio Dolby organised a 24-page hardcopy synopsis of the proposed story’s arc. The first version was emailed to Titan Books on Saturday, the 13th of July, 2024. Following ALIEN Romulus’ success, two hardcopy synopses with a revised plot were posted on the 30th of September to Scott Free Productions in the UK and US. Below are videos of the respective books so that you can see their quality {Big up, ORMS print room and Studio Dolby!}.
With the ALIEN franchise having ‘many balls in the air’, it wasn’t unsurprising that Create With has received no feedback from Titan Books or Scott Free Productions to date. But at least Create With showed good faith in reaching out to salient ALIEN license-holders.
With Robert elaborating the plot with unexpected twists-and-turns, a need to split the Five Act novel in two became apparent. A typical ALIEN novel from Titan Books is less than 300 pages long, but we were over 200 pages, well-before hitting Act Three’s end at Chapter 17! In response, Act 4 will be the start of a second novel….
Fortuitously, the completion of the first novel tied in with ALIEN Day 2025. Officially promoted by 20th Century Fox beginning in 2016, 26.4 has come to be seen by fans of its iconic space-horror franchise as an unofficial holiday. The date nods to the moon “Acheron” in ALIENS being first known as LV-426 (hence 4/26). ALIEN Day presents an opportunity for passionate fans to show their appreciation of the franchise. In our case, an ideal target to share ALIEN : Broken Covenants with fans.
A new challenge emerged- how best to share the novel as a creative, non-commercial, and transformative storyline inspired by the original works? Rather than languishing on its collaborators harddrives, Create With wanted fans to be able to view the finished version for free online. After a thorough search, we chose Archive of Our Own (AoOO). The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) behind AoOO is a fan-run non-profit dedicated to the preservation of fanworks. As our work was intended purely for artistic expression, not profit, its publication on AoOO dovetailed well with OTW’s ethos. Like AoOO’s contributors (should), we respect the copyright owners, whilst believing our work qualifies as fair use. It offers a fresh plot and aesthetic perspective, without infringing on the original.
Ultimately, our book seeks to build on the achievements of Ridley Scott’s prequels, whilst growing the ALIEN universe. Readers of https://archiveofourown.org/works/64030441 can look forward to David’s changing point-of-view, plus more on the Union of Progressive Peoples’ (UPP) space he flees to. The sequel will expand on a UPP solar system, its Black Projects sites, and the Hyperdyne company. Project Phoenix and its terrAI(rium) will also be elaborated on as new role-players in the ALIEN galaxy, with some surprise Engineer elements blended into our heady mix.
For those wishing to view ALIEN : Broken Covenants as a digital novel, Create With and Studio Dolby have made the AoOO 2025.1 novel version available in (1) an e-publication (epub) file, and (2) also in Adobe Portable Document File (.pdf) linked from createwith.net.
Dedicated to ALIEN’s loyal fans, and its creative mastermind, Sir Ridley Scott, GBE.
Constructive feedback welcome
Create With welcomes well-justified criticism for improving this novel before its first dropshipped version completes production. Readers alerting us to major errors will be eligible for a complimentary hardcopy of the drop-shipped novel after its linked from a https://www.createwith.net. Please share your suggestions by July.
Intellectual property and legal enquiries
The moral rights of this creative work’s author, illustrator and sponsor are hereby asserted. Kindly direct all related correspondence to Travis Noakes via owner@createwith.net .
Create With Cape Town™ is represented by Taberer Attorneys. Legal enquiries should be emailed to Mr Roy Taberer via connect@tabererattorneys.co.za .
P.S. At a meta level, ALIEN : Broken Covenants is also an educational project for its collaborators. They are exploring the challenges and opportunities in making a contribution to a powerful Hollywood-owned franchise all the way down from Cape Town in the Global South. Help welcome!
