This would have made a much better film. The voice acting was a mixture of great and fair. Bishop was a treat to have from Lance Henriksen, bút hið age was apparent in his voice, cutting into the emersive experience.

The story itself felt like a light touch on the Alien universe, with only two new developments in works building: the contagion aspect of alien procreation (which Cameron resurrected in his prequels) and a synthetic hybrid. All together it feels like had this been adapted to the screen it would have made for a fun third film but not a stand out favorite. ( )

William Gibson's (unused) script for Alien III, turned into an audio drama. There are parts of the Alien franchise which I really like (the first movie, H.R. Giger), and stuff I don't (basically everything else), but this would have been a great movie. It has the best elements of Alien, space marines, and space communists! Plus a deeper plotline behind the Alien plotline. The audio drama was also presented well. ( )

This was a much better story than the Alien 3 film, which is pretty much all that need to be said.

The opening is a recap of Aliens and where it left off. It then picks up the characters while they're in stasis on the sulako. From there we get a thrilling tale of the xenomorph and their remarkable ability to survive and reproduce. And the inevitable stupidity of scientists, corporate executives, and military leaders who can only think of experiments, money and weapons and completely ignore the bigger picture. The roles of Bishop and Hicks are reprised by the original actors, which was a huge plus.

The cast pulled off a wonderful performance that was believable. I could picture it in my head as a movie. Hicks and Newt didn't just die in a crash (yes I'm still salty about that) and we got what was a 'Alien' level adventure. I would definitely read/listen to more stories that follow this canon. ( )

Audio Dramatization of the Movie that never was
Review of the Audible Audio edition (2019) dramatized and directed by [author:Dirk Maggs|28715]

The original Alien III screenplay (1987) by cyberpunk author William Gibson never reached production. Early director Renny Harlin had rejected it and by the time the final Alien³ (1992) reached production with director David Fincher, the 1987 script (with its Soviet-Union-inspired United Progressive Peoples component of characters) was out-dated. David Fincher had his own ideas on top of an interim Vincent Ward screenplay. The final product ended up being a mixed bag with the studio taking the production away from Fincher to the point that he has disavowed it along with the later re-edits that were made.

For the 40th Anniversary of the original Alien (1979) movie, Audible Studios commissioned an audio dramatization of the Gibson screenplay. Dramatist and director Dirk Maggs has made a fantastic audio enactment of the screenplay and has enhanced it considerably with added scenes and characters. Producing a screenplay without the visuals requires an increased amount of narration and description that was not present on the page*. The main addition is a full 12-minutes of introductory backstory that basically recreates the entire conclusion of the Aliens (1986) film. That may sound unnecessary, until you find out [mild spoiler] that fan favourite Ripley spends most of the Alien III screenplay in a non-speaking comatose state. So that action set-piece was the only way to give Ripley a stronger cameo. Actress Laura Lefkow does a spot-on impersonation of Sigourney Weaver in this role.

No spoilers about the rest of the plot. I will say however, especially in this age of disrespecting fan favourite characters (e.g. Disney Star Wars, Season 8 Game of Thrones etc.), that the Aliens characters get a proper continuing story here (although the reduced Ripley role was surprising, did Gibson think Sigourney Weaver wasn't returning?). Original Aliens actors Michael Biehn and Lance Henrickson return as Hicks and Bishop, with the child character Newt voiced by Mairead Doherty. I did find the increased cast (22/23 voice parts) a bit hard to follow, so I ended up assembling the following Cast of Characters (in order of appearance as best as I could work out) Listing:

Returning Characters from Aliens
Bishop, an android, survivor from LV-426 (Lance Henriksen)
Ripley, 3rd Officer & survivor of Nostromo & survivor of LV-426 (Laurel Lefkow)
Carter Burke, a Weyland-Yutani executive (in brief flashback scene) (Tom Alexander)
Corporal Dwayne Hicks, a Colonial Marine, survivor from LV-426 (Michael Biehn)
Newt (nickname of Rebecca Jordan), child survivor from LV-426 (Mairead Doherty)
Mother, voice of Computer (Lorelei King)

United Progressive Peoples (UPP) Commandos who board Sulaco when it drifts into the UPP Sector
Kurtz, UPP Commando Captain (David Seddon)
Desolas, UPP Commando (called Juanito by the Captain) (Cliff Chapman)
Chang, UPP Commando (Rebecca Yeo)

Crew at Anchorpoint Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility
Jackson, Operations Chief at Anchorpoint (Siri Steinmo)
Tully, Charles A., biolab tech, a crew member on Anchorpoint (Dar Dash)
Spence, crew member on Anchorpoint (Samantha Coughlan)
Rosetti, senior scientist, crew member on Anchorpoint (Martin McDougall)

Weyland-Yutani Weapons Division visitors to Anchorpoint Station from Gateway Station
Kevin Fox, a Weyland-Yutani Corp Weapons Division officer (Keith Wickham)
Susan Wells, a Weyland-Yutani Corp Weapons Division officer (Barbara Barnes)

Further Crew at Anchorpoint Station
Walker, Chief Mechanic, crew member on Anchorpoint (Harry Ditson)
Sterling, biolab team, crew member on Anchorpoint (Andrew James Spooner)
Tatsumi, biolab team, crew member on Anchorpoint (Dai Tabuchi)

UPP Crew at a Cybernetics Laboratory in Rodina Station, a UPP facility
Colonel Doctor Suslov, principal science officer at Rodina Station (Michael Roberts)

Voice Communication from Gateway
Stoddard (voiced by ?)

Further UPP Crew at Rodina Station
Jorje Rivera, Diplomatic Officer at Rodina Station (Ben Cura)
Nevsky, a Science Officer at Rodina Station (Graham Hoadly)

Further Crew at Anchorpoint Station
Halliday, ecotech at the ecomodule in Anchorpoint (Sarah Pitard)

The audio production, foley effects, ambiance and soundtrack music for this was excellent. It would certainly rate a [5] along with the cast performances. My only reason for a [4.5] rating is that I had to assemble the Cast of Characters myself.

Alien III was available as a free Audible Original for members as of May 30, 2019. It is expected to be one of the free Audible Originals for members in June 2019 (available June 6, 2019) after which it revert to a standard price.

Trivia and Links
*The original William Gibson screenplay is available online here.
You can read the rather long production story of Alien III (1987) to Alien3 (1992) on Wikipedia here ( )