Corrected entry: 1. As captain, why send yourself, the only other pilot (Cain) and the weakest and most timid member of the crew (Lambert) to investigate an unknown and possibly dangerous planet? The better selection would have been Cain, Ripley (whose duties as warrant officer seem to be unclear) and one of the engineers, Bret or Parker. 2. Are we really to believe that the chain smoking and slightly built Lambert could help Dallas carry Cain's limp, space suit laden body thousands of meters, across rugged terrain back to the Nostromo? 3. The Nostromo can navigate itself to Earth through deep space - a navigator is not needed. 4. The Nostromo is just a 'tug' so why does it need a science officer and a lab filled with science equipment? 5. All the elaborate buttons and switches on the bridge and med lab have no labels or designators - how does the crew know what they're turning on or off? 6. Dallas makes two flippant decisions. First, to take off from the planet with needed repairs still underway. And second, to remove the face-hugger from Cain's face even thought it might kill him.
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Correction: All character decisions, not movie mistakes. But there are some valid explanations: 1. Lambert's technical abilities were needed to decipher the alien equipment. 2. Lambert carried the lighter end (feet-end of the stretcher), and they likely made several rest stops. 3. Another character decision. 4. A science station doubles as sickbay and is needed in case they run into alien unknowns (like the situation in the movie). 5. Well trained people don't need labels on buttons. For example, expert typists can use a blank keyboard. 6. Not flippant decisions, the ship was able to take off and trying to remove the face-hugger was a calculated risk.
BocaDavie ★
Maybe the normal tugs owned by the company don't have a fully equipped science station, but the company would make sure this one did due to the nature of their mission.
It's more than a tug boat. It's a refinery that processes ore.
No, Nostromo is a tug towing the refinery, which is not part of the ship. The vessel detaches from the latter when they touch down on LV-426.
Jukka Nurmi