Whether you're buying for loved ones, loathed ones, ones you barely know but feel an obligation to get something something for or yourself, it's hard to go wrong with a well-chosen toy as a gift. But it's hard to know just what toys you should be looking at, which is where we come in; we've split our choices into three categories: Play, Display and Making Your Life Better, which is to say things that are useful (or, in one case, useless but kind of essential nonetheless). Click through to see our selections.

For Play
LEGO, action figures and things for you to hit other people with safely. After all, isn't that what "play" really means?

For Display
For some people, toys are things to keep on shelves, on their walls or in boxes. Here're a few ideas for the serious collector.

For Making Your (Or Someone Else's) Life Better
In which we suggest gifts offering education, amusement and/or something to hold onto at night. Yes, even that last one.

Additional research by Alex Eichler.

Star Wars Mustafar Volcano Kit
And talking about learning, who knew that the climactic battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi would lead to an educational toy teaching kids how real volcanoes work and why, when you're in a life-and-death lightsaber battle with your former teacher, it's really, really stupid to let them cut your limbs off. Remember: Volcanoes + Ewan McGregor can turn you into a cyborg crybaby.

(Actually, all of the Star Wars Science toys would make perfect gifts. Especially the Force Trainer. Not that we really, really would like a Force Trainer, Hasbro. Of course not. Unless you happen to have one handy, of course.)

Alien USB With Illuminated Tongue
Yes, I know; you're all sick of the novelty USB gadgets by now, but read what this one is called again. Look at the part that says "Illuminated Tongue" and ask yourself very seriously, how have you managed to get this far in your life without one?

Terminator Salvation Fuel Cell Lighter
Some would argue that there's nothing toylike about a lighter, and normally they'd be entirely right. But this is a lighter that looks just like the nuclear fuel cell embedded in the chest of every Terminator, which practically makes it a Transformer, right? Just think of everyone you'd be able to impress by whipping this out and explaining the unnecessary story in public!

Plush Mecha Godzilla
You can't have a toy guide without at least one plush toy for you to lose your heart to and dream of snuggling up next to every night, so why not the one that is unsuited for plush toy treatment? Yes, many would've considered a robotic replica of a giant lizard that rampages throughout Tokyo toppling buildings and killing people to be an unlikely candidate for cuddly toy translation, but look at his little shiny tiny arms, those "love me" eyes and tell me that your heart doesn't melt for reasons other than his firey breath.

[Steve McGhee via Super Punch]

This piece of awesomeness comes from Contamination aka Alien Contamination, the masterpiece by Luigi Cozzi, who previously directed the amazing Star Wars ripoff Star Crash — the one featuring a mascara-wearing David Hasselhoff fighting androids in a stop-motion sword duel. Having so perfectly captured the spirit of Star Wars, Cozzi moved on to Alien, with... uh, mixed results.

Monday

The week starts off softly, with nothing worth watching until 8 p.m., when you have too many shows even for TiVo to choose from. Shall it be the second night of the so-disappointing-I-may-cry The Prisoner on AMC? New episodes of House on Fox (in which House treats a porn star and decides to bring together his dream team of minions) or Heroes on NBC (in which Tracey loses control of her ability, Matt fights inside his mind with Sylar and OH MY GOD PLEASE MAKE IT STOP ALREADY)? Or a marathon of nature doc redux Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel, which offers six hours of stunning footage and soothing Sigourney Weaver voiceover?

I'm saying TiVo Planet Earth for when you need to be reminded how amazing life can be, and watch House, because you know they'll get some good jokes out've the porn star patient.

Tuesday

While The Prisoner finishes up its run over on AMC at 8pm, ABC's V decides that it's time to copy - Sorry, I mean, "homage" - another sci-fi classic as Erica is forced to team up with a Visitor officer to protect Visitors from death threats in this week's episode, "Wow, do you remember Alien Nation with its buddy comedy pairing of human and alien cops? We sure do." Oh, wait. It's actually called "A Bright New Day."

(If you're in the mood for something a little more classic, Syfy is running an Outer Limits marathon from 8am through 3pm.)

Wednesday

With no new episodes of Mythbusters, you might as well spend the day either (a) not watching television, or the much-more-likely (b) flipping between Syfy's The Twilight Zone marathon (8am through 3pm) and AMC's classic run of Young Frankenstein (1pm), Ghostbusters (3:30pm) and, um, Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (8pm). Someone's told them that T3 isn't a comedy, right...?

Thursday

As if the traditional Thursday evening crush isn't enough, Syfy are willing to suck your life away with a First Wave marathon from 9am through 3pm, and AMC are willing to contribute with the original Stargate movie at 2:30. Before you know it, you'll be choosing between Flashforward on ABC (Everyone keeps trying to solve their FFs just like they've been for the last few weeks, except Bryce is finally getting off his ass and wondering about his future girlfriend a bit more) and Vampire Diaries on the CW (Jeremy takes up drawing and Elena discovers something terrible, which may just be a future script for the show), both at 8pm.

And then you have to choose again between Fringe on Fox (The truth behind the Observer! And Walter wants a milkshake, with guest-star Kelis. Okay, sadly that part about a guest-star isn't true) and Supernatural on the CW at 9 (The Winchester Bros. team up with Bobby, Ellen and Jo to send Lucifer back to Hell. Don't be surprised if things don't go to plan, considering it's still relatively early in the season). We might just watch Community and 30 Rock instead, though, and catch up with everything else online later, if that's okay with you guys.

Friday

Relive the first wave of post-Lost network television with Syfy's Invasion marathon (8am through 3pm), before switching over to watch Dustin Hoffman worry about his paycheck in Outbreak on AMC.

Let's be honest, Fridays are really all about the evening shows, though; Smallville finally tries to get to the bottom of Lois' future abduction/visions on the CW at 8pm (Kneeling before Zod is optional, I believe), while CBS' Ghost Whisperer is worried about someone dying at the same time, which makes no sense. Wouldn't that just mean she'd have someone else to whisper to? Why do they never think these things through?

At 9pm, you can choose between Medium on CBS, wherein Allison develops a strange sensitivity to light, or Syfy's Stargate Universe, wherein everyone catches their breath and uses those weird psychic projection stone things to talk to those they've left behind. Alternatively, you could switch over to Cartoon Network for a new episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, before ending the night with the latest episode of Sanctuary at 10pm on Syfy.

Saturday

Syfy tries to get your attention with a triple bill of cut-rate dragon movies (In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale at 9pm, Fire And Ice at 11:30 and Dragon Sword on Sunday at 1:30 in the morning), but there's no way that can compete with AMC's quadruple bill of the Alien movies: Alien starts at 5:30, followed by Aliens at 8pm, Alien 3 at 11 and Alien: Resurrection at 1:30 on Sunday morning. The first two, at least, are worth it.

Sunday

Oh, people. You all know by now that Sunday is Venture Bros day, right? I don't know what else to tell you aside from that, apart from the episode being entitled "Self-Medication". Oh, and that it's on Cartoon Network at midnight, and is really the most essential piece of television in the entire week. Don't leave home without it.

(Update: Now with correct spelling of Paul's name. Sorry, Paul.)

Empire Online caught up with Alien progenitor Ridley Scott, and got the details on when this futuristic movie is going to start, since it's a prequel for a future film.

"The prequel will be a while ago," he explained. "It's very difficult to put a year on 'Alien,' but [for example] if 'Alien' was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior."

I wonder if this prequel will recreate the super old technology and green screen computers that ran everything on the futuristic space ships, if so the crew if going to have to buy up a load of old school computer screens.

[seek&speak via Super Punch]

Script review site Scriptshadow got a hold of the Shadow 19 script, which was purchased by Warner Bros. with Keanu Reeves set to star. (A grain of salt is indicated, of course: We're assuming Scriptshadow read the real script, and this isn't a hoax.) The project eventually fell apart, and Spahits ended up successfully pitching his idea for the Alien prequel to Fox and Ridley Scott. Spoilers for Shadow 19 below.

Shadow 19 may have fallen by the wayside, but its blood-pumping, hard sci-fi, action flick plotline promises great things for the Alien prequel. The script introduces us to space marine Conrad Vance, already outfitted in his mecha suit and about to be launched into an off-world battle. Vance is a warrior, but also a survivor, the brilliant strategist who always comes back from battle. It's just our introduction to Vance and the sorts of military technology that exist in this future, but Scriptshadow assures us it's perfectly thrilling in its own right:

And in a battle that made me cum in my pants, Vance takes the offensive. He rips a turret off the thing, enters the Colossus, and starts to kill every living thing inside like a goddamn bull in a China shop. Of course, the look on all of the officer's faces is pretty fucking priceless when Vance uses his jump-jets to blast through a ladder-well, collide into the ceiling of the bridge, fall, land, and proceed to slaughter the Hegemony scum ED-209 style. Kudos to you, Mr. Spaihts. I never had multiple orgasms while reading the first ten pages of a screenplay until Shadow 19 (and I've read a lot of scripts).

After this successful battle, Vance is quickly whisked off to a top secret mission that brings him to the State Science Agency, an organization of cyberpunk Scientists who are completely loyal to the Agency, not just by contract, but by design. The most advanced Scientists are fitted with a cybernetic crown, one that enhances their cognitive abilities and renders them capable of operating the Agency's technology with their minds, but also plugs them into the Agency permanently and irreparably, so that treason means death.

The Agency has created a secret sentient terraforming ship called Prometheus, and Prometheus has been sent to transform the planet Erix into a habitable world. One of Prometheus' submachines, known as a Crawler, has broken down, and Vance has to brave the hostile planet in order to repair it. The Agency also has a device that sends a projection of Vance to Erix rather than Vance himself, so that when he dies (something that happens repeatedly), he has an endless videogame supply of "extra lives." So, Vance is sent to Erix over and over again until he can figure out how to survive long enough to repair the Crawler. Meanwhile, he develops a relationship with a mid-level Scientist, forcing them both to question their loyalties to their respective organizations. And there may be evidence of intelligent life on Erix, but the Agency is determined no Scientist will live long enough to discover it. Eventually, the movie culminates in an enormous battle for which Vance has requisitioned Earth's most powerful weapons, a scene designed to please lovers of first-person shooter games.

Although Scriptshadow's review indicates some flaws in the script (Vance's repeated attempts to survive Erix are, apparently, at points repetitive), they claim it's an impressive piece of work, even just on paper:

Shadow 19 is a gunmetal paean to id Software and cyberpunk. A hymn to boys (and girls, are you out there?) who spent many a night playing Doom, or any videogame, really, and you were so engrossed in the virtual world the next time you looked out the window it was already dawn. It is a love letter to fans of smart and ambitious science fiction.

It's a movie we might never see, but at least we might get shades of Shadow 19 in the Alien prequel.

Shadow 19 [Scriptshadow]

Professor Paulie Panther arrives in Boney Borough, a near-future Levittown constructed after an unnamed war, after a strange plant appears near the local high school. Paulie is a rugged individualist, a poet, a botanist, and a drug-addict, a combination that qualifies him to update another professor's textbook on the hallucinogenic properties of North American plants. He soon realizes that inhaling the fumes from the plants causes him to feel the emotional and physical sensations of those around him. At first, it seems like an opportunity to make the connections that have eluded him all his life, but he soon realizes his personality could be swallowed by the town's growing hive mind. What follows is a long, strange trip into post-war nostalgia, small towns as superorganisms, and the question of whether individuality truly makes us happy.

Body World earned Shaw an Eisner nomination for best digital comic (though he ultimately lost out to the online version of Carla Speed McNeil's Finder) and, more recently, an Ignatz nomination for Outstanding Online Comic, and Pantheon plans to release a print version next year.

[Body World]

Some people interpreted last week's top 10 list of silly alien prosthetics as hating on low-budget science fiction, or dissing the hard work of makeup artists — and that was definitely not the intention. But when you've seen the same few ideas crop up again and again, you tend to get a bit jaded.

For me, personally, Star Trek in the 1990s and early 2000s ruined me for boring humanoid aliens. After the endless parade of people in vinyl pajamas, with different smushy bits of latex on their faces every week, I got rubber-nose fatigue. There's a lot to love about 1990s Trek — Deep Space Nine was frequently brilliant and prescient, and Voyager had some standout episodes — but the infinite assembly of silly faces was not one of the things I loved.

Oh, and the picture above is from Davosmith's amazing Flickr set of Manchester's Fab Cafe. Here's another image from the same set, featuring another one of the creatures on this list:

So here are ten aliens that were obviously done on a shoestring budget, but which absolutely knock your space boots off:

10. The Daleks, on Doctor Who.

The evil genetically engineered cyborgs on Doctor Who are like mini-tanks with buzzing bee voices, and they scared the pants off generations of British (and some American) kids. They've had their ups and downs — if the first Dalek story you saw was "Day Of The Daleks," "Destiny Of The Daleks," "Remembrance Of The Daleks" or the recent one where they turn people into pigs and then dress in zoot suits, you won't understand what the fuss is about. Watch "Genesis Of The Daleks" or "Dalek." (Before you jump on me in comments, I do like "Remembrance," except the Daleks wobble horribly and look just decrepit.) In their prime, though, the Daleks glide along, rasping with anger and pointing their terrible egg-whisk guns. They're utterly cheap — and horrifying. And you only occasinally Runners up: debatable whether the Cybermen are aliens, but they do often look cool. Also, the Draconians and Zygons make the rubber-mask thing look brilliant, and the Forest of Cheem also doesn't look bad at all. I also like the Slitheen, but only design-wise.

9. The Aliens from The Arrival.

Directed by David "Pitch Black" Twohy, this 1996 alien invasion film was probably made for three Snickers wrappers and a handful of arcade tokens — but I really love the look of these aliens, and they way they move on their weird satyr-ish horse legs. Here's a slinky alien transforming itself into a hawt babe, probably because it just watched Species. Also, I love the flaps that cover up its brain, and how they undulate. Nice stuff!

8. The Visitors from V.

They look human most of the time, but when we get the occasional glimpse of their real lizard faces under their human masks, it's super-effective — as long as we don't linger. Here are a couple of choice moments. I love Diana picking at the shreds of her human disguise, like they're a scab (at about 4:00 in the first video). And the speech in the second video is the greatest thing ever:

7. Greedo and the other cantina aliens, in Star Wars.

Weirdly, later live-action Star Wars movies have never featured aliens that felt as interesting and lively as the first glimpse we got in that cantina scene. Of course, we've already exposited about our love for Greedo, but all of the quick glimpses of aliens in this scene have a liveliness that makes you feel like they're each the star of a cool story. Not bad for an underdog film with a tiny $8.5 million budget (not much even in 1977) whose crew was busy trashing the set and making fun of the Wookiee costume.

6. The Jem'Hadar in Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

They actually jumped out at me when I was compiling pics for the post about silly-looking facial prosthetics last week — there was a picture of a Vorta surrounded by Jem'Hadar troopers, and I had to crop the Jem'Hadar out of the image, because they actually looked kind of cool. Something about the way their prostheses work with their faces really feels realistic, and all of those scenes of them struggling with their addiction to ketracel white feel engaging rather than run-of-the-mill. Runner up: Species 8472 in Voyager had some moments of genuine creepitude as well.

5. Black Oil in The X-Files.

A sentient alien virus that can live in hibernation for thousands of years, it appears as a liquid, not unlike crude oil. But it can move on its own, and it's sentient, and it can take people over. There's nothing cheaper than just having some black goo oozing around, and yet it's completely convincing and compelling, and doesn't feel like any life form you've encountered on Earth.

4. The Aliens in District 9.

Obviously, this movie's still fresh in our minds, but the downtrodden aliens in the film look different than anything we'd already seen. Their twitching face-tentacles can't help grossing you out a bit, even as their big pleading eyes lay claim to your sympathy. With a budget of around $30 million, this film is the equivalent of Star Wars or Alien back in the day — a low-budget film that succeeds thanks to a lot of inventiveness born of desperation. And great storytelling, of course. I almost left this film off the list, because we've covered it so much lately, but it clearly belongs.

3. The Vorlon from Babylon 5.

These energy-based life forms are among the First Ones, and inspire a quasi-religious awe among people who see them. So its fitting that their headgear and robes look so alien and unfamiliar. As Sheridan tells Kosh at one point, he can't even tell if it's the same Vorlon under all that covering, or different Vorlons in the same guise.

2. The 456, on Torchwood.

To me, this is the absolute best way to do an alien species on a budget. Shroud it in toxic smoke — and mystery — and just show little glimpses of evil tentacles. The way these creatures shriek and spatter the walls of their enclosure with alien puke will stick in your mind long after you're done watching the miniseries "Children Of Earth." This official still is actually a better look at the 456 than we ever get in the actual television show — and even in this image, they're somewhat indistinct and obscene looking. They're the perfect mixture of mysterious and disgusting, just right for aliens who want to molest your children.

1. The Xenomorph, from Alien.

The studio originally only wanted to give director Ridley Scott a $4.2 million budget, until he showed them storyboards and Mobius illustrations. But, says Scott in a recent interview, "The [revised] budget started out at $.8.2-million and ended up at 8.6, which I think in those days was still relatively cheap. We didn't have the money to do pretty well anything... But in a funny kind of way, you get very clever when there is very little money, because it makes you think." Scott had a stroke of luck when writer Dan O'Bannon took him aside and showed him H.R. Giger's art "like he was showing me a dirty book," and they brought in Giger to design — and sculpt — the alien costume and other alien artifacts. But the other key, says Scott, was disguising the fact that this was still a man in a suit:

We started with a stunt man who was quite thin, but in the rubber suit he looked like the Michelin Man. So my casting director said, ‘I've seen a guy in a pub in Soho who is about seven feet tall, has a tiny head and a tiny skinny body.' So he brought Bolaji Bodejo to the office, and he was actually from Somalia, funnily enough," Scott remarks, having much later directed BLACK HAWK DOWN, which was set in Somalia. "I said, ‘Do you want to be in movies,' and he said sure. And he became the alien. I had him for two months. In the cockpit, there's a pack of cigarettes that says ‘Bolaji.'

Thanks to Alan Bostick, Alasdair Stuart, Madeline Ashby, @Nightwyrm on Twitter, Marlin May, Andrea Zanin, Melinda Adams, Rina Weisman, Micky Shirley, Susie Kameny, Greta Christina, Serene Vannoy, Rus McLaughlin, Minal Hajratwala, Annelise Ophelian, Seth Kaufman, David Fraser, and James Limbach for suggestions!

The Thing

There are two movie versions of The Thing, which is itself based on a short story by John Campbell called "Who Goes There," but every iteration shares the same basic structure. An alien beneath the ice of Antarctica gets thawed out by a lonely group stationed on the continent during winter. It slowly picks off members of the group, perhaps most spectacularly in John Carpenter's movie version, which is packed with terrific, gory effects of alien/human slaughter.

"At the Mountains of Madness"

This classic short story by H.P. Lovecraft is about a group of explorers who discover an ancient city buried beneath the ice in an Antarctic mountain range. Within the city, they find evidence that Earth's earliest inhabitants were aliens who took up residence in the once-temperate South Pole. They lived in a state of advanced civilization, occasionally having problems with other alien groups (like Cthulhu's spawn, which live in the sea). But finally their city descended into decadence, and the polymorphous slave beings known as Shuggoths began to take over. Eventually it emerges that some of the Shuggoths still live, and the human expedition may have released them upon the world.

The X-Files movie

The 1998 movie that came out of the popular alien-paranoia TV series includes a final set of scenes that take place in a secret underground lab in Antarctica, where aliens are being studied. We know the aliens are dangerous, and are associated with the black oil that has been mind-controlling several humans in the show. As the movie ends, a spaceship beneath the lab rises up and takes off. More black oil to be unleashed on the world? Aliens finally freed from prison? We may never know.

Alien vs. Predator

A group of explorers travel to Antarctica (this plot is starting to sound familiar, isn't it?) to investigate a mysterious heat signal in an ice field. They discover a vast, underground structure that looks sort of like a temple. It turns out to be a holding tank for aliens, and a group of predators have awakened them in order to have a fun hunting expedition. Unfortunately the human explorers are caught between the predators and aliens, and some of them get used as alien-hatching vessels so the predators can have their fun. When things get out of control, the humans have to decide whether to ally themselves with the dangerous predators if they're going to escape alive – and prevent the aliens from being unleashed all over the Earth.

Alien

It's possible to claim that the original 1970s Alien movie is about ice-bound creatures awakening to kill, kill, kill. The aliens that Ripley's vessel stumbles across are on what seems to be a frozen planet.

"A Colder War"

In this short story by Charles Stross, a Cold War-era nuclear submarine finds a Cthulhu-esque creature beneath the ice. It's an even greater threat than nuclear war, and makes the cold war pale by comparison.

Mammoth

Perhaps one of the greatest kitchen-sink monsters ever created, this movie's eponymous creature is discovered frozen whole in the arctic ice. But when the ice melts and (of course) the mammoth escapes, we discover that not only is it a reanimated paleolithic beastie, but it's also controlled via wireless by a group of hostile aliens and it's got the power to suck people's lifeforce out using its trunk. So it's an alien-controlled vampire dinosaur. And it's pissed. Watch the alien vampire mammoth wreck havoc among drunken teens, including Summer Glau (!) at a rave in the forest!

Transformers

In the first Transformers movie, evil Deceptacon leader Megatron is found deep beneath the ice, and as he thaws, his evil world-destroying powers grow.

Demolition Man

In the movie version of Demolition Man, set in the near future, supercriminal Phoenix is thawed out of deep freeze to face trial. Unfortunately he kills everybody in sight and escapes, to engage in a zillion acts of crime in a city unprepared for such a dangerous criminal. Luckily the city is able to defrost our cop hero too, whose skills dealing with violence were honed during Phoenix's era.

Dinosaurus

In this flick from 1960, a team constructing a harbor on a Carribbean island accidentally unearth two dinosaurs, a T-Rex and a brontosaurus. Of course the kaiju are struck by lightning and brought back to life for a mega-rampage – though sadly they aren't controlled by aliens or capable of sucking people's souls out. A caveman is brought to life with them, and serves as is the friendly defrosted foil to the dinos.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

This classic 1952 Ray Harryhausen movie basically started the giant atomic monster genre. A "Rhedosaurus" is awakened in arctic circle by atomic bombs, and unleashes monstery, claymation madness upon the world.

Doctor Who, "The Ice Warriors"

A new ice age is sweeping over the world, and a team of scientists and maniacs is desperately trying to find a way to roll back the glaciers. And then they find a weird Viking warrior-esque figure trapped in the ice for millions of years... and when the ice defrosts, the figure awakens!

Heroes

At the end of last season's superhero soap Heroes, Tracy uses her freeze-ray powers to freeze . . . herself! She goes mega-icy and then shatters into a million pieces to save the son of her dead, ultrastrong mutant genetic clone "sister" Nikki. But she'll be back this fall in the new season, all thawed out and healed up and ready to engage in all kinds of evil.

Frankenstein's Monster

In this early-70s comic from Marvel, the Frankenstein monster emerges from an arctic glacier twice: Once to battle Dracula, who injures him; and a second time in the modern world, aided by Frankenstein's distant, gothy relative Victoria Frankenstein. Though revenge and killing were among his goals after his first thaw, by the time he thawed a second time he was ready to fall in love (with Victoria) and fight for great justice (with Iron Man). Frankenstein's Monster teaches us that taking a second ice nap can be redemptive.

Terminal Freeze

In this novel by Lincoln Child, a group of explorers living in "Fear Base" underneath "Fear Glacier" encounter – surprise – something they need to be afraid of. It's a frozen, catlike creature that they plan to defrost when they return to civilization. But unfortunately it defrosts before the group makes it home, and people start dying. This is yet another tale in the sub-sub-genre established by "Who Goes There," the short story on which The Thing is based.

Split Second is sort of an uneasy mash-up of Blade Runner and Alien, but it gains a lot from having Rutger in the starring role. It's the dystopian year of 2008, and water levels have risen so much that huge parts of London are underwater. This nasty creature (which I'm not sure is really alien) killed Hauer's partner years ago, and ever since, he's been a bad cop, living on the edge, taking chances and sticking it to the man. His superiors yell things like "You're off the case, Hauer!" And he just keeps plugging along. Etc. The creature also rips out women's hearts, usually in the bathroom for some reason, and you can hear the bottled up screams of all its female victims come pouring out when Hauer tears its heart out.

MTV News tracked down Weaver at Comic Con, and asked her whether she would be involved in the upcoming Alien film, to which Weaver replied that she couldn't imagine an appearance by Ripley:

Just this winter, Weaver was talking about the possibility of a Ripley-centric movie with no Aliens, so it's a relief to hear once and for all that we'll be getting back to the Xenomorphs. And, as awesome a character as Ripley (at least the original Ripley) was, it's probably time for her to step aside and let other characters show off their Alien-killing chops. Hopefully, this is just one of many signs that Scott is genuinely looking to tell an interesting story set in this universe, rather than simply milking the franchise.

[MTV Movies Blog]

Ever since Scott announced his intentions to make an Alien prequel, speculation has abounded as to whether Scott himself would return to the director's chair. Word was the commercial director (and Scott's daughter's current beau) Carl Erik Rinsch might take the reigns, but that Fox refused to greenlight the project without Scott as director. Variety now reports that Scott has agreed to direct his first Alien movie in 30 years, with Jon Spaiht attached to write the script.

Spaiht isn't a household name yet, but his philosophical science fiction romance Passengers made the 2007 Black List of best unproduced scripts. He's also scripting The Darkest Hour, a film described as "Independence Day in Moscow," for 9 producer and Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov, as well as a feature for Disney titled Children of Mars. Reportedly, Spaiht delivered a prequel pitch that wowed Scott and the studio.

So, what is this brilliant idea? The new film will allegedly be a direct prequel to the original Alien, which means we may get to see what occurred on the derelict ship that Ripley and her crew discover in the first film. Or perhaps we'll see shades of William Gibson's idea for Alien 3, and trace the xenomorphs to their origin.

[Variety]

The four megastars met on stage as part of Entertainment Weekly's "Wonder Women" panel. Weaver, of course, starred in the Alien movies, plus Ghostbusters and countless other genre classics. Saldana is playing Uhura in the new Star Trek movies as well as an alien in Avatar. Dushku has co-starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and starred in Tru Calling and Dollhouse. And Mitchell is moving from Lost to V this year.

How Weaver got into playing Ripley:

Weaver explains, "I was the one who didn't want to do science fiction. It wasn't until Ridley Scott took me and showed me the pictures and the eggs had little [H.R.] Giger faces on them, and I realized I hadn't seen anything like this before."

What's next on Lost and Dollhouse:

Mitchell says she loves playing "complicated women" like Juliet, and she doesn't feel Juliet is slippery – she's just telling the truth as she sees it, but sometimes she takes wee shortcuts to get to the truth. So will she be back on Lost? "The best thing to say is it just depends if Jack's plan works or not. Which is amazing, because then it's not my fault."

Dushku says in Dollhouse season two, we'll be seeing more of Echo's glitches, but Echo will continue to emerge as a real person in her own right, distinct from her original personality, Caroline. "We'll see more of Echo as a composite. She's glitching and she's bring out all the characters."

Saldana on taking on Uhura:

Saldana says she wanted to convey the "normalcy" of being a woman of color in a respected position, among a bunch of men. "As a woman, an American woman, a woman of color, to be able to be granted an opportunity to play a character that symbolizes strength... a woman my mother wanted to be with when she was a little girl, is nothing but a humbling position to be in." And there are "very interesting" ideas for the second Trek movie, she says. "I couldn't be more excited."

So why aren't there more female action heroes?

Says Weaver:

The challenge that some writers take on very well, like Joss Whedon or James Cameron... They're not trying to create a woman action hero, they're creating a character who has a certain intelligence and drive and ferocity. That is the core. What they are trying to do, who they are trying to save, etc. Hollywood goes a little crazy, trying to figure out what you're supposed to wear. I feel grateful that I got to wear actual clothes. I never thought about being a woman, I was playing a person. I just think in writing, you just write it the way you write a man: they believe in things, they fight for things. There's a hero in each of us... and that's what Avatar is about.

In fact, Weaver mentions that the part of Ripley was originally written to be a man, but then she won the part instead. "Because she was better," Saldana adds.

So how do you get more awesome female roles and less drek? Allow Saldana to elaborate:

If we continue, as women, to see this as a battle, it will take so much energy away from what we are. What it takes is education. When i have to fight an army of men, and try to convince them that I shoudl wear pants for an action scene, where I'm running from one building to another, and jumping, and they are convinced that I shoudl do it in a short skirt and Gucci boots — fighting that small battle takes education. We are trying to teach how a women should be created, and how a woman should be treated. [When a male creator does get it right, the correct response is] a little pat on the head like "You did it." (She says this, like she's talking to a small child or a puppy.)

Later, Saldana added: "I do think if we continue to do it, one day we won't have to meet with our produciers and writers and directors and say, 'I don't have to understand why my character has to sleep with the lead guy just because she digs him.'"

Adds Weaver:

Jim Cameron was saying earlier that science fiction is sort of an investigation into what it is to be human. There are no rules. It's sort of a reflection of real life. Anything goes. Happily in this case, they weren't trying to control what women did in science fiction. It wasn't an important enough genre, and it just slipped through.

So what's going on with Wonder Woman?

Everyone on the panel agreed that it just takes the right script and the right take on the character. "People are taking passes at it," says Dushku, who presumably knows about Joss Whedon's attempt. "I think the stakes are set high for Wonder Woman, and Lynda Carter is so memorable."

Says Saldana: "They need to find the right writer to bring out all the stuff rom the comics, all the beautiful layers, and add all of the Neo stuff from the Matrix, instead of just this beautiful girl with beautiful buns and a great rack and a big smile." (She does a big fake smile with one pinky as she says this.) Someone asks about Megan Fox playing Wonder Woman instead of a woman in her thirties who can bring more stature to the Amazon princess, and Saldana responds:

I happen to have a huge crush on Megan Fox. I'm not hatin on that possibility. Do you want the real answer? I think it's just 65 year old men just want to see 25 year old little girls, but those are the people cutting checks not only in Hollywood but in America. I have to question: why they won't share a decision like that with a younger crowd that's part of this generation? There aren't enough african American superheroes or women or even Asian American. Have you ever met a superhero named Juan Gonzales? I would kill for that.

Oh, and this scene is probably work-safe... we think. If only we'd known about this scene when we put together our video compilation of shower scenes.

In Alien From The Deep, aka Alien degli Abissi, a plucky activist and her cameraman infiltrate an evil corporation that is dumping nuclear waste and radioactive materials into an active volcano. What could possibly go wrong, right? Sadly, they wake up some kind of extraterrestrial monster that's been sleeping under the volcano all this time, and it's immune to almost every kind of weapon.

Luckily, it turns out the creature isn't immune to being rammed with a construction truck, which the woman does in an obvious shout-out to the "Get away from her, you bitch" scene in Aliens. (Her post-decontamination underwear are even intended to make us think of Ripley, supposedly.) In any case, the movie's not content with having the female hero defeat the monster in a Ripley pastiche — the two guys have to step in and help out, with a specially designed monster-killing flamethrower. This clip also showcases how ridiculous-looking the monster actually is. It may be bigger than the Ridley Scott Alien, but that's about all it's got going for it:

Even as more women are becoming astronauts and getting to pilot the space shuttle, science fiction has shown tons of women taking the helm. Here are some of the most awesome, in no particular order:

Lady Sharrow in Against A Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

We don't get to see combat specialist Sharrow doing that much piloting in this book — but when she does take the controls, she makes it count. The one sequence where she does some fancy flying is one of the best moments in the book.

Carolyn Fry from Pitch Black.

I don't know how I managed to forget her — I actually had her on my list, and had grabbed this cool pic of her in advance. She manages to bring a dead ship down in spite of incredible odds — and sure, she tries to jettison her passengers. But she's just being sensible, after all.

Sue Parsons from Virtuality

As with Sharrow, Sue Parsons spends most of her screen time doing other things — mostly, like all the other characters on this show, bickering and freaking out about virtual reality nightmares. But when she does actually get to handle the Starship Phaeton's controls — watch out. She does an incredibly complex series of maneuvers while giant bombs are going off in her wake. Makes all the drama totally worth it.

Jenna, from Blake's 7.

This smuggler is the best pilot around — there's no competition, except maybe that arrogant twerp Del Tarrant. Jenna manages to take the controls of the Liberator, the most super-advanced ship in space, and master them almost immediately. And she's able to take it on manual and do some fancy flying, on occasion.

Saint-Emxin from Battle Beyond The Stars.

She's a mean Valkyrie fighter pilot, who more than holds her own in the movie's crucial Star Wars-inspired firefights. Han Solo not only couldn't pull off her headgear, he also couldn't outfly her. (I almost included Padme Amidala in this list, since she pilots a ship in Attack Of The Clones — but could Amidala really hold her own against Saint-Exmin? I think not.)

Tak from Invader Zim.

The "hideous new girl" shows up hoping to do a better job of invading Earth than Zim, and she has the ability to hypnotize humans into doing her bidding — but she also pilots her own ship.

Faye from Cowboy Bebop

Faye is an awesome fighter pilot, and even held her own in a dogfight with Spike. Runner-up status also goes to space trucker V.T., aka Victoria Terpsichore.

Carol "Foe Hammer" Rawley in Halo.

She does some pretty nifty flying as the pilot of Pelican transport Echo 419 on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. She specializes in doing lots of missions involving hostile insertions and rescues, making her stand out from the rest.

Ana Khouri in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

This assassin joins the crew of the Nostalgia For Infinity, intent on killing one of the crewmembers, but then two different digital entities fight over control of her, and thus of the ship. Also a killer pilot is the ship's de facto captain, Illia Volyova.

Mary Raven from Ignition City.

This grounded space pilot journeys to Earth's last spaceport, Ignition City, to find out what happened to her dad, in this new comic by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani. Space-jockey Mary Raven is determined to find out what happened to her dad, and she won't leave Ignition City until she gets some answers.

Lt. Shane Vansen from Space: Above And Beyond.

According to this site, she's "one of Earth's most celebrated pilots," piloting the SA-43 Hammerhead space fighter into battle.

Corp. Ferro in Aliens.

Okay, sure, she gets killed after speaking only a couple lines of dialogue. But she has cool sunglasses, and she manages to put the ship down through a lot of turbulence.

Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers.

Many of the badass pilots in this movie are women, and Carmen (Denise Richards) is the most memorable of them. She's a pilot in the SICON fleet, who pilots the drop ship, and even helps on the ground when things get rough.

Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.

She doesn't just look good in a slinky jumpsuit, or boogieing next to Buck — Wilma's an ace fighter pilot in her own right, and a lot of episodes see her flying off solo to deal with the bikini-clad menace of the week.

Aeryn Sun in Farscape.

She's a formidable fighter generally, but she's also a former Peacekeeper pilot, and some of her best moments involve her taking the helm of a ship — like the season two finale, when Crichton is flying away with Scorpius' mind controlling him, and Aeryn chases after him in her own ship.

Yoninne Leg-Wot from The Witling by Vernor Vinge.

We don't actually get to see much of her piloting skills, since she and her companion Ajao Bjault get stranded on the planet full of telekinetic aliens early on. But she does turn out to be resourceful, and despite being unattractive by Earth standards, she helps win over the "witling" of the story's title, Prince Pelio.

River in Serenity.

Okay, so Serenity's real pilot is, and always will be, Wash. But you can tell, at the end of the movie, that River is gearing up to be a pretty great pilot in her own right. And in the series of movie sequels that unspool in my daydreams from time to time, she's piloting the ship all the time.

Manda in Burning The Ice by Laura J. Mixon.

Manda CarliPablo's stigmatized because she's the only colonist on a barren gas giant who's not a twin or triplet — her other clones died before they were "born" — but her isolation turns out to be a good thing, as she becomes the best pilot in the colony and explores the unexplored regions of this new world — discovering an alien race along the way.

Turanga Leela from Futurama.

Despite being captain, she's also always ready to take the helm of the Planet Express ship, and her lack of three-dimensional vision doesn't seem to interfere with her amazing piloting skills.

Jaina Solo from the Star Wars expanded universe.

The daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia didn't just inherit her mom's Force powers — she also became a kick-ass pilot, like her dad. She flew the Millenium Falcon on a few occasions. When she got caught flying the Merry Miner, an unarmed mining ship, during the Yuuzhan Vong war, she managed to dodge the aliens' attacks until help arrived. And then she became one of the New Republic's most valued starfighter pilots.

Captain Beka Valentine from Andromeda.

Thanks to everyone who suggested adding her — Beka Valentine is, among other things, the Andromeda's first officer and pilot, taking advantage of her better-than-human reaction times and strength.

Tanni from Mutineer's Moon by David Weber

Here's the key sequence:

"And," MacMahan added gently, "Tanni will be your pilot."

"What?!"

"Tanni will be your pilot," MacMahan repeated mildly. "I'm speaking now as the commander of a military operation, and I don't have time to be diplomatic, so both of you just shut up and listen... we can't afford anything but our very best pilot behind those controls. You're good, Colin, and your reaction time is phenomenal even by Imperial standards, but good as you are, you have very little experience in an Imperial fighter.

Tanni, on the other hand, is a natural pilot and the youngest of our Imperials, with reaction time almost as good as yours but far, far more experience. The overall mission will be under your command, but she's your pilot and you're her electronics officer, or neither of you goes."

Kathryn Fairly in Space Camp.

A group of teenagers get to go aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a test-firing of its engines. But the mean android named Jinx decides to — what else — jinx them by making the space shuttle blast off for real. They're stuck in orbit, without enough oxygen to get home. And Kathryn (Lea Thompson), who was struggling with the "multi-axis trainer" that's required for shuttle pilots, manages to ace the real-life situation that simulator creates: a flat spin after the shuttle's reorbit burn. She brings that bird down safe and proves she's an awesome pilot.

Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.

As I said before, these are in no particular order — but if they were, Starbuck would be #1 in any list. She's clearly the best pilot among Battlestar's flyboys and -girls. Adama always refers to her as his best pilot, and she pushes herself harder than anyone else. Kat may have tried to challenge Starbuck's impressive kill rate, but she never really had a hope.

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown. Special thanks to Pete Gofton, Brian Williams, Erin Souza, Ira Wile, Jordan Hoffman, Austin Grossman, Ekaterina Sedia, and @soapboxx on Twitter.