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"Well, not much to say, is there? Death was instantaneous."
"No shit."
Clemens and Aaron (from Alien3)

Jonathan Clemens[1] was a Weyland-Yutani Corporation employee and a former inmate at the Fiorina "Fury" 161 Class C Work Correctional Unit. Although he completed his sentence at the prison, he stayed when the facility was officially closed down by Weyland-Yutani, becoming the chief medical officer to several inmates that likewise decided not to leave. He was killed by a lone Xenomorph that was born in the prison in 2179.

After Ellen Ripley arrived at the facility, she and Clemens became close, eventually sleeping together. Clemens was later killed by the Xenomorph in the infirmary where he worked.

Biography[]

Early life and imprisonment[]

Jonathan Clemens was born in 2128. As a young man, he proved to be a gifted student at medical school, with a particular aptitude for recombinant synthetic chemistry.[5] He graduated in the top 5% of his class[6] and was considered "most promising", despite the fact he had secretly become addicted to morphine. His addiction remained undiscovered and apparently under control, and he began his first residency in due course. During this placement, Clemens endured a 36-hour shift in an emergency room, after which he celebrated and ended up getting heavily drunk. A boiler explosion at a fuel plant led to his being recalled to hospital, where Clemens, in his intoxicated state, prescribed an incorrect dose of painkiller, leading to the deaths of eleven of the thirty casualties of the accident.

As a result of his negligence, Clemens was sentenced to seven years incarceration on Fiorina 161 for manslaughter resulting from gross incompetence,[1] ruining him professionally. He did, however, successfully overcome his morphine addiction whilst in prison. Although he served his full sentence and was eligible for release, a combination of attachment to the inmates he had come to know and a realization that he would likely never find employment as a doctor anywhere else led Clemens to stay on Fiorina as the prison's medical officer. At this time, Clemens' medical license was reinstated with a class 3-C rating.[1] When the facility was closed down in 2175 and several inmates elected to stay, Clemens remained with them.

Encountering Ripley[]

"Where are the others?"
"They didn't make it."
"What?"
"They didn't survive."
Ripley and Clemens, discussing the fate of the other Hadley's Hope survivors (from Alien3)

When Ripley's EEV crashed on Fiorina 161, it was Clemens who, as the prison's sole medical staff, tended to her injuries and nursed her back to health. When she regained consciousness, it was Clemens who informed her that both Newt and Corporal Hicks had perished in the EEV crash (although, unbeknownst to him, Hicks was actually alive, and Turk had died in his place). Confronted by this revelation, Ripley demanded to be shown the EEV wreckage, and Clemens duly escorted her there, informing her of how her companions had perished — Newt had drowned in her cryotube while Hicks had been impaled by a support beam. Unsatisfied, Ripley further requested Clemens carry out an autopsy on Newt's corpse, which, despite his reservations, he performed, declaring afterwards that evidence indicated she had indeed drowned. Almost immediately Superintendent Andrews confronted Clemens about performing such a procedure without first notifying him, but Clemens managed to explain the situation in a manner that made his actions appear necessary, despite clearly being at odds with Ripley's story.

When Ripley was forced to shave her head and body to defend against the lice that plagued Fiorina, Clemens stood guard outside to ensure none of the inmates troubled her. As he continued spending time with her, he also explained a little of the prison colony's history. Shared feelings of affection and loneliness meant that they eventually ended up sleeping together.

Suspicions[]

"Look, I'm on your side. I want to help. But I need to know what's going on, or what you think is going on."
Clemens, to Ripley (from Alien3)

The next day, Clemens called to the scene of Murphy's death, where he discovered Andrews and Aaron already surveying the area. While Andrews was satisfied that it had been a simple accident, Clemens was less sure. A distinctive burn mark he located nearby in the vent shaft, caused the the Dragon's acid blood, further fueled his suspicions. Andrews subsequently instructed Clemens to rendezvous with him at his office, before leaving with Aaron.

Jonathan subsequently confronted Ripley in the prison's scrapyard with this information, convinced that she was keeping the truth from him, and while she would not explain her fears he agreed to help her as best he could. He then left to meet up with Andrews in his office, where the latter confronted Clemens about his increasingly close relationship with Ripley, which he strongly disapproved of. After a brief argument, Andrews told Clemens to leave.

When the disturbed inmate Golic was accused of murdering Boggs and Rains, two more victims of the Dragon, he was restrained by Clemens, Andrews, Aaron and Dillon and taken to the infirmary. His story of a "dragon" that killed the prisoners was met with scorn, at least until Ripley confirmed it, at the same time confirming Clemens' suspicions that she had been hiding something. Despite pleading with Andrews, the warden confined her to the infirmary alongside Golic.

Death[]

While at the infirmary, Clemens was pressed by Ripley to explain the bar code on the back of his head. Though hesitant, he eventually relented and explained the incident that led to him being incarcerated, as well as the bar code being tattooed on his head.

Clemens then asked Ripley if she still trusts him with a needle, and she declares that she does. After Jonathan injects her with serum, the Dragon suddenly entered the infirmary through an overhead ventilation shaft. Upon retracting the needle, he is suddenly attacked through the hospital sheets by the Dragon, which lifted him into the air and smashed his skull in with a Headbite, before throwing his lifeless, bloodied body to the side. The Drone then attempts to attack Ripley, but at the last moment refuses and instead returns to the vents with Clemens' corpse, mauling it even further.

Personality and Traits[]

"I think it might be better if I left, I find you... unpleasant to be around."
Clemens, to Andrews (from Alien3)

Clemens was something of an outsider who preferred to be left alone.[7] In fact, beyond his official capacity as the prison's medical officer, he rarely interacted with either the inmates or the limited staff on Fiorina 161.[8] He would often go for walks by himself on the planet's surface, when the weather allowed this.[9] Despite his preference for solitude, he had a particularly frictious relationship with Andrews, who viewed Clemens as "insolent, possibly dangerous", a situation that only deteriorated as Clemens became more involved with Ripley.

Despite initially treating Ripley as nothing more than a patient, the two quickly became close, largely as a result of Ripley's direct advances. Clemens remarked that both of them had been out in space for a long time, and their union was no doubt a direct result of this loneliness. While on Fiorina, Clemens used his knowledge of chemistry to distill alcohol for his own personal consumption, using a machine for generating medicinal alcohol that he had reprogrammed.[5] While strictly against the rules, he managed to hide this activity from both Andrews and the other prisoners.

Behind the Scenes[]

Development[]

The character of Clemens was derived from several individuals found in earlier unproduced scripts written for Alien3. Specifically, he is something of an amalgamation of Packard from David Twohy's unproduced script and Brother John from Vincent Ward's later unused script, both of whom serve as doctors or healers amongst their respective peers. Like Clemens, Packard is a medical officer at a prison facility who later joins forces with the protagonist. Obvious similarities with Brother John include a sequence where John is alone on the surface of his world and witnesses Ripley's EEV spectacularly crashing into water nearby (scenes depicting Clemens similarly observing the EEV crash in Alien3 were originally deleted from the film, but later reinstated in the extended Special Edition). In the novelization of Alien3, Clemens' downfall is linked to the fictional drug Midaphine.

Trivia[]

  • Clemens' addiction to morphine shares similarities with Kane from Alien, who was also ruined professionally by an addiction to medication as part of his backstory. Dr. Kuhlman from Alien: Isolation would later share a similar medical addiction.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 S. D. Perry. Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, p. 132 (2014), Insight Editions.
  2. Clemens' actor's (Charles Dance) height at the time was 6ft 3 (190.5 cm), so that is also how tall Clemens would have been.
  3. Vincent Ward (writer), David Fincher (director). Alien3 (1992), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
  4. S. D. Perry. Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, p. 136 (2014), Insight Editions.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Alan Dean Foster. Alien3, p. 89 (2014), Titan Books.
  6. Alan Dean Foster. Alien3, p. 150 (2014), Titan Books.
  7. Alan Dean Foster. Alien3, p. 82 (2014), Titan Books.
  8. Alan Dean Foster. Alien3, p. 20 (2014), Titan Books.
  9. Vincent Ward (writer), David Fincher (director). Alien3 Special Edition (2003), 20th Century Fox [DVD].
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