Alien War was a total reality experience that first appeared in the UK, in Glasgow, in 1992. It had a lot of success and then opened in London’s Trocadero Centre in October 1993. Guests were ushered into a rescue mission led by live Colonial Marines and hunted by Xenomorphs in the pitch black. The attraction closed there after a flood in August 1996. We’ve managed to track down three men who lived behind the pulse rifles: Steven Pyatt, Doug McCarthy and Toby Greenfield.
They recount the gruelling audition process (where 4,000 applicants fought for 40 spots), the chaos of leading celebrities like Sigourney Weaver through the dark, and how the attraction’s technical wizardry paved the way for their own careers in Hollywood special effects. They appeared on Episode 131 of the AvPGalaxy Podcast. You can watch the interview below and read on for a transcription. Please note that the accompanying transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Signing Your Life Away
Aaron Percival: How did you learn about Alien: War?
Alien War Poster
Doug McCarthy: I was at Rolls-Royce for six years straight from school, which is now Leavesden Studios, funnily enough, doing military helicopter engines. From there, I went on to tour for four years with a couple of bands around Europe. Then I saw an advertisement and went for the audition at Alien War. After I got the job, I got into film and I spent over twenty-five years in special effects and as an armourer for quite a few major films and television shows. I am pretty much retired at the moment, but from time to time I still go back in to have a play with special effects.
Steven Pyatt: Before Alien War, my story is much more interesting. I was one of those kids at school who was too intelligent for his own good and did not know what he wanted to do. So, I left school and bummed around for a few years until I was practically unemployable. I would go somewhere looking for a job and they would look at my resume and say, “Oh, you worked here a month, there two months, here three weeks. If we take you on today, you will be gone in a month.” So, I became unemployable. Then I thought, “I know, I will join the army.” So, I joined the army instead. I did that from about nineteen years old to twenty-one years old. I left the army after some time in the desert, went home, and got a job working for the government in a security position. I ended up being a security controller for the British government in the Docklands area.
I was in my office one day when the radio came on with the Capital Radio job search. They were looking for the usual: plumbers in Peckham, carpenters in Clapham, then “Space Marines at the Trocadero Centre.” I thought, “What the hell was that?” Of course, I was very familiar with Aliens because that was in 1993. If you were not a cinema projectionist, the only place you could see a movie in those days was if they put it on television or if you went to the cinema to see it. I think I had seen it once. My shift finished at 7:00 in the morning on the day of the audition and I went straight from work. I got there about half-past seven and there was no one there.
I went down to McDonald’s and, being a quite large chap, I bought half of McDonald’s. I was walking down the street eating five or six breakfasts and there were a couple of people there. One of them was Lee Marshall and I think the other one was you, Doug.
Doug McCarthy: It was me. Anthony was in front of me, then there was someone else, then me and big Stu, and then you.
Steven Pyatt: Yes, I was about fourth or fifth in the queue. I managed to switch around with you and Stu at some point. I went in before you did, did I not?
Doug McCarthy: Yes, I think it was your military training.
People queuing to audition for Alien War.
Steven Pyatt: Well, when you are the first five in the queue, it does not matter who goes first. You know you are going to get seen first.
Doug McCarthy: We all go in together as a group of about eight. We sat down downstairs and then we were given the script and about three or four seconds to learn it. Then, one at a time, we were thrown onto the stage to perform.
Steven Pyatt: Do you still remember the first two lines you had to call out from the scripted ones?
Doug McCarthy: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Weyland-Yutani Alien Research Facility.”
Steven Pyatt: Then you had to remember three things at all times. One was to listen to the Marine and follow his orders. The third one was ad-libbed. I went in there and I said, “Obey the Marine’s orders at all times, stay with the group at all times, and do not, and I repeat, do not feed the animals.” There was a laugh from the dark. I walked in there about eighteen months out of the real army, so I walked in there with a crew cut, bomber jacket, camouflage trousers, and boots. I had a military bearing and walked on the stage, and someone in the dark went, “Him!” I was quite confident at that point, even before I had done my audition, that they liked me. I must have looked like the most typical soldier you had ever seen at that age, twenty-three years old. But the other guy here, the one who is not saying much, has a better story than us two. He did not have to do the audition process.
Toby Greenfield: I joined Alien War in Bournemouth. I was recuperating from a bad car accident and I was not working. My sister phoned me up to say she had just seen an advert in the Evening Echo. She said, “All you have to do is dress up as a Marine and stand around on trade stands for the summer season in the Bournemouth International Centre, the BIC. Here is the phone number.” So, I rang this number and they said, “Oh yeah, alright. Saturday, 10:00 at the stage door of the Pavilion in Bournemouth.”
I turned up and there were hundreds of people there. I thought, “Blimey, jobs must be short in Bournemouth.” Anyway, it was my turn to go in. I was handed a script and told I had five minutes to learn that and then I was on stage. I had no idea what I was doing there. I had nothing to do with Aliens or Alien War. Anyway, I walked out onto a massive stage and about six rows back, there were half a dozen people sitting. I did the lines and they said, “Yes, can you wait backstage?” The next person was told, “No, we do not need you, you can leave.”
At the end of several hours, there were about thirty-five or forty left. We were all filed onto the stage and one by one we had to step forward and, in the style of an American Marine, give our name and some other information, then back in line. They counted us off and said, “You, we want you to stay. You can go, you can go, you can stay.” At the end of that, there were only about twenty people left. We made up all the Marines, all the plants, all the aliens, all the front-of-house staff for Bournemouth. Then, of course, training came. When Bournemouth shut after the summer season, I was asked by Gary Gillies if I would join London. I became a part of that in the very early days, along with Julia Peters, who was also a Marine, and Jeff Parsons, who was an alien—a very good alien. Also, Bill Thomas, who had joined in Aberdeen. He was the technical man for Alien War from Aberdeen through Bournemouth and London until it closed.
Aaron Percival: That is some dedication, travelling from one end of the country to the other.
Steven Pyatt: When there was a queue outside the Trocadero, there were 4,000 people who turned up for forty vacancies. So, they had the best actors they could possibly imagine out of those 2,000 people. We were standing in the queue and this guy walks out in the Marine gear with another person and a toothpick. He had this big black machine-gun looking thing. Then he almost immediately got police attention, did he not?
Toby Greenfield: Several hours later, I was the only one on the street at the time in the gear and I had a pulse rifle. This big red van pulled up and all these armed policemen jumped out. “On the deck!” I was spread-eagled on the ground.
Steven Pyatt: No one thought to tell the local police that there might be people with fake machine guns on the street outside the Trocadero. They obviously were not taking any chances.
Aaron Percival: So, Toby, you came from Bournemouth. Steven, you heard it on the radio?
Steven Pyatt: I lived in the Docklands, so I had maybe a twenty-five-minute journey.
Aaron Percival: And Doug, where did you learn about the opportunity?
Doug McCarthy: I was living in Watford at the time and I was just grabbing a sandwich when I found a newspaper. I never read newspapers; I am just not into it. But I just happened to open this page and it said, “20th Century Fox’s Alien War London.” I thought, “That sounds interesting. What is that?” I had always wanted to get into special effects as a child. I thought this would be fantastic. So, I sent a letter in, phoned up, and they told me to send my CV. I did not remember telling them I had performed before, but I wrote a CV. I had been working at the time for Carroll and Dempsey, which was a props company for the film industry. I put all that down. I used to drink with the local American Marines and I had a short, flat haircut. That is how I got invited along. Then I did not realise I was having an audition. I had never acted in my life. It was a bit of a shock for me.
Steven Pyatt: No one knew what it was for because it was supposed to be top secret.
Toby Greenfield: I knew at that point, but I was not auditioning, was I? You were. You already had the job.
Steven Pyatt: We had to write in to get a place and the address was Weyland-Yutani at the Trocadero. They wanted a picture of you to show off your build. So, I got my mates to take some pictures of me stripped to the waist and sent it off with a letter addressed to “Dear Mr. Yutani.”