Timeline

1. Bio-engineers colonise a geologically and climatically stable planet 2. They begin terraforming 3. They create experimental lifeforms, releasing them into the ecosystem 4. They exterminate those species which become troublesome, and use favourable species as beasts of burden, or for dubious amusement 5. They achieve their goal: bio-engineering a protoplasmic slave race of amorphous, telepathically responsive creatures 6. As the civilisation flourishes the alien city expands into underground realms 7. But the slave race develops rudimentary intelligence, and begin to revolt. 8. The bio-engineers win a long and bloody war of subjugation 9. The civilisation begins its long decline, punctuated by wars with other alien races and a gradual withdrawal from the surface world. 10. Thousands of years later, a team of human researchers and scientists discover the alien ruins. 11. While exploring the complex, the human scientists awaken bio-engineers from a frozen stasis, and are subsequently killed and dissected by them. 12. The recently awakened bio-engineers, descending through the city, are decapitated by members of the protoplasmic slave race that emerge from the abyss. 13. Surviving human explorers encounter the slime-covered remains, and are pursued through the city. They reach their craft and fly home. 14. On their return, they vainly try to convince a disbelieving mankind of the danger posed, warning of total human annihilation. No, this isn't my postulated timeline for Prometheus, but the chronological (not narrative) sequence of H.P. Lovecraft's novel "At Mountains of Madness". Previous posters have recognized H.P.L. as an influence on Giger and Ridley Scott, and I am posting this synopsis to suggest ideas that may find parallels in the film. Regards, S.P.