Anyone who has seen the original Alien knows that the film’s themes are tied to gender and sexuality. Between the facehugger forcefully impregnating Kane and H.R. Giger’s genitalia-inspired designs, the movie has a lot to say about private parts and the acts that involve them. So it should come as no surprise to learn that Alien actually made history by featuring the first transgender character in a major sci-fi movie.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t established until Aliens, and even then, just barely. Confused? Don’t worry, I can explain.

Joan Lambert’s Transition Is Briefly Mentioned

In the 1986 sequel, Ellen Ripley is forced to give a deposition to the Weyland-Yutani Corporation explaining how her crewmates on the Nostromo died. During the deposition, bios of the dead crew members are projected on the wall behind Ripley. It’s here where Aliens retroactively makes Alien a history-making, landmark film.

The bio for the Nostromo’s navigator, Joan Lambert, lists her as a “Despin Convert at birth (male to female),” with “no indication of suppressed traumas related to gender alteration.” In other words, Lambert was born a boy, and her parents presumably decided they wanted a girl instead. I sincerely doubt the newborn was vocal enough to lobby for its own gender reassignment.

Lambert Was Canonically Born Male

Ridley Scott never indicated that Lambert was meant to be transgender in Alien, but he’s never said anything specifically against it, either. And while it’s very likely someone added the detail during Aliens‘ production, the fact still stands that Lambert was canonically born male. It’s honestly not surprising if you know the Alien franchise’s history with gender.

A Post-Equality Future

Alien fans no doubt know how Dan O’Bannon intentionally wrote all of the characters in the movie without a set gender in mind. Reportedly, a note in the script explicitly stated: “The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.” He and Scott’s vision of the future was essentially post-equality, with men and women treated no differently regarding work or social status.

With that in mind, Lambert being trans doesn’t seem like a big deal.

It was such a non-issue that the ship’s captain, Dallas, was also transgender at one point. Promo materials for The Alien Legacy, a 1999 DVD collection of the (at that point) four Alien films apparently alluded to Dallas being born a female. With that reveal, Alien would have been the first movie in history to feature not one but two major trans characters.

A Progressive Premise Ahead Of Its Time

Sadly, there was a lot of backlash against Dallas’s trans identity, and his bio was changed before The Alien Legacy‘s release. Interestingly, his amended bio still hints that transitioning from one gender to another is common in the Alien universe. The final canon bio reads: “Sex: Male (Natural).”

In fact, everyone other than Lambert has the word “Natural” in parenthesis. This would logically indicate that being transgender is such an accepted part of society in the Alien universe that official documents actually specify when someone isn’t trans. It looks like at some point in Alien‘s alternate history, the world became a lot more progressive.

Breaking All The Barriers

Alien was already an essential piece of movie history for single-handedly creating the idea of a female action star. Having a trans character in Lambert just makes the movies that much cooler.

I just hope that we catch up with their then-progressive ideas at some point.