Captain Dallas

Captain Dallas is one of the main characters featured in the 1979 film Alien. He is played by actor Tom Skerritt.

Biography
Dallas was a freighter captain in the early half of the 22nd century. He was the captain of the commercial towing vessel the USCSS Nostromo. In 2122, the Nostromo was on a return trip from the Solomons when the ship's mainframe computer (dubbed "Mother") intercepted a distress beacon originating from somewhere in the Zeta II Reticuli system. The computer prematurely awakened the crew from hypersleep with instructions to investigate. Upon awakening, Dallas went to the mainframe to get an update on their position and mission parameters. After learning about their course being re-routed, he alerted the crew and ordered them to track the beacon. They traced it to a small planetoid, which later came to be known as Acheron.

Dallas led an away team to the planet's surface to investigate. During the expedition, they came upon the ruins of a derelict space craft and the remains of its pilot. Dallas' second in command, Commander Kane encountered a deadly organism, which attached itself to his face. Desperate to save him, Dallas tried to have Kane brought back on board their drop ship, but Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, refused to let them back on board, citing quarantine laws and possible contamination from the organism. Science Officer Ash countermanded Ripley's orders and allowed Dallas and the others back on board. Dallas admonished Ripley for refusing to obey a direct order.

The organism used Kane as a living incubator and midwife for an even more dangerous species of alien known as a Xenomorph. The maturation rate of a Xenomorph was extremely rapid and within hours it had grown to its full adult height (over seven feet tall). The Xenomorph killed Kane and engineer S.E. Brett and was hiding in the ship's ventilation shafts. Dallas elected to go on the first search for the alien and armed himself with an incinerator as he began crawling through the air ducts. He came upon the Xenomorph who captured him and dragged him off to another part of the ship. There, the creature secreted a resin and used it to place Dallas into a type of cocoon. Its purpose was to use Dallas as a host body for another Xenomorph, much in the same way that Kane was used to give birth to this particular alien. Ripley eventually found Captain Dallas secured to the hull of the ship and he begged her to kill him. Ripley complied and put Dallas out of his misery with her incinerator. His remains were further destroyed when Ripley blew up the Nostromo in an effort to destroy the alien.

Notes & Trivia

 * In the original theatrical cut of Alien, Dallas died when he first came upon the Xenomorph. The scene where Ripley incinerates Dallas' body was included only in the 2003 Alien Special Edition.


 * An image of Captain Dallas is briefly seen on a video display in the 1986 sequel Aliens.