Back in the days when VCR tapes were how we watched movies at home, I took my youngest son over to the nearby Blockbuster to cruise for videos. He was a science fiction fan and tuned into both the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, equally available at the store. But as he browsed, I was delighted to find a section of 1950s era SF movies. I hadn’t realized until then how many older films were now making it onto VCR, and here I found more than a few old friends.
Films of the black and white era have always been a passion for me, and not just science fiction movies. While the great dramas of the 1930s and 40s outshone 1950s SF films, the latter brought the elements of awe and wonder to the fore in ways that mysteries and domestic dramas could not. The experience was just of an entirely different order, and the excitement always lingered. Here in the store I was finding This Island Earth, The Conquest of Space, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Forbidden Planet, Rocketship X-M and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Not to mention Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Note that I’ve linked to some of these but not others. Read on.
Image: Dr. Carrington and his fellow scientists of Polar Expedition 6 studying how the Thing reproduces in the greenhouse of an Arctic research station in 1951’s The Thing from Another World.
Naturally, I loaded up on the SF classics even as my son turned his nose up at this ancient material, with its wonky special effects and wooden dialogue. I never did make him a fan of older movies (not even after introducing him to the Quatermass films!), but just after I began publishing Centauri Dreams, I ran into an SF movie fan who far eclipsed my own knowledge of the genre. Larry Klaes was about the first person who started sending me regular comments on the articles here. That was just after I turned the comments section on in 2005. In the years since he has become a friend, an editorial confidant and a regular contributor.
Klaes on Film
Larry has been an author for most of his life, and he has demonstrated that for the past two decades with his extensive work for Centauri Dreams. His essays have ranged through astronomy, space science, and the history of humanity’s exploration of the heavens. Equally to our purposes, Larry has also had a life-long fascination with science fiction, which helped to spur his interest in space and related subjects from an early age.
You’ll notice that a number of the movies I mentioned above are linked to Larry’s articles on them. The ones without links are obvious targets for future essays. A look through the archives will demonstrate that Larry has tackled everything from 1951’s classic The Thing from Another World to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He’s written in-depth analyses (and I do mean in-depth) on more recent titles like Interstellar and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. I disagreed with him completely on Interstellar, and disagreements are what make film criticism so much fun.
Moreover, Larry is the kind of film enthusiast who isn’t content simply to put forth his opinions. He digs into the research in such a way that he invariably finds things I had never heard of. He finds clips that illustrate his points and original screenplays that clarify directorial intent. He finds connections that most of us miss (see his treatment of 1955’s Conquest of Space in relation to the Swedish film Aniara and the genre he labels ‘Angst SF’). His coverage of Avatar was so comprehensive that I began talking to him about turning his essays into a book, a project that I look forward to participating in.
Larry’s latest is a deep dive into Aniara, little known in the US, with its depiction of off-world migration and a voyage gone terribly wrong. The film possesses a thematic richness that Larry fully explores as the passengers and crew adapt to dire circumstances with the help of immersive virtual reality. When I read this, I decided it was time to give Larry space in a separate section, as the blog format is too constricted for long-form work. Have a look at the top of the home page and you’ll now see the tab Klaes on Film. The Aniara piece is there, inset into a redesigned workspace that offers ready navigation through the text.
Image: I loved the film but Larry’s look at Interstellar makes incsize points about film-making, public perception and the development of the interstellar idea.
All of Larry’s film essays are now available in the new section, but thus far only the current one on Aniara is embedded in the new format. I’ll be seeing to it that all of the essays are reformatted going forward, so that the disadvantages of the blog format for longer writing are eased.
The goal is to create a space for film criticism that acknowledges the hold the SF genre has acquired over the general public, in many cases inspiring career choices and adjusting how the average person views the interstellar challenge. This is a long-term project, but my web developer Ryan Given at StudioRTP is brilliant at customizing the site’s code and he knows where we’re going from here. I couldn’t keep this site going without Ryan’s expert guidance.
As my own passions in film are by today’s standards archaic (I’m still a black and white guy at heart), I’m glad to have someone who can tackle not just the classics of the field but also the latest blockbusters and the quirky outliers. And I wouldn’t mind seeing Larry’s thoughts on the TV version of Asimov’s Foundation either. Let’s keep him busy.
I will look forward to reading some of his critiques and information on a number of my old SciFi film favorites. I collect SciFi movies and TV shows, some of which are really good. Sadly, US Sci-Fi movies have generally become of rather poor quality of late, rehashing the same basic plots. But there are exceptions, sometimes by Indie titles with low budgets, but with real Sci-Fi ideas.
Some TV shows are now lost forever, especially those from the UK’s BBC archives, due to the transition from film to videotape that was subsequently wiped (this was before anyone thought that viewers wanted to rewatch old shows. The Quatermass TV shows from the first miniseries, “The Quatermass Experiment” only have 2 surviving episodes of the 6 broadcast episodes. Other TV SciFi series were almost lost completely, or have some surviving episodes. “A for Andromeda” is a good example. Early Doctor Who episodes were often lost, although some have been recovered or reconstructed in various forms from film stock, audio, scripts, and on-set photographs.)
As forvideo, before rental stores appeared in the mid-1980s, I recall new movies on VHS were priced at 80 pounds sterling. I bought my first, as a used copy, for 20 pounds, from a store in London’s Tottenham Court Rd. It was Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan. Once DVDs appeared, it was off to the races, especially as prices declined both in real and absolute terms.
Online streaming services and YouTube offer a good cache of old Sci-Fi, although they can be transient, as they can be removed. If you want to watch them again, they should be downloaded to preserve access. I recommend some Russian and Eastern European titles of the 1950s/1960s, with either subtitles (best, IMO,) or English dubs. With AI, subtitles can now be generated without effort, although they can be poorly done. As a Stanislaw Lem fan, there was a Hungarian short-run show of Lem’s character, Pilot Pirx. It has now been translated. Hokey “special effects”, but they adhere quite well to the short stories in Lem’s “Tales of Pirx the Pilot”. There is also “The Inquest”, a Russian-Polish movie about one of Pirx’s missions. Several East German movies were quite good, although the Communist propaganda can be rather too obvious. (I expect Hollywood movies shown in the Soviet bloc were thought too blatantly capitalist propaganda!). Some were butchered by Roger Corman to make US versions, where the plot and dialog was almost ridiculous, especially when one can compare the 2 versions.
May we be watching these movies and TV shows for as long as we can enjoy them. I am reminded in an early ST:TOS, in which Spock remarks that TV was a transient technology that disappeared. Little did Roddenberry know that fans wanted to rewatch episodes indefinitely. TV, at least VOD libraries, seems to be a growing market, not a disappearing one!
Alex I hope you enjoy reading my essays. It is indeed lamentable how many older television series have been lost because of those who could not see their value beyond anything purely monetary. Hopefully what is left will remain preserved and appreciated by current and future generations.
Thank you for bringing up these programs and films of stories by Stanislaw Lee. The author is still underappreciated in the West – just as Aniara remained little known outside of its native Sweden.
My hope is that the 2018 film version and my new essay will serve to correct this situation. After all, an epic science fiction poem written by a future Nobel Prize winner doesn’t come along every day.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/1-angst-science-fiction-and-our-journey-begins/
So far my favourite SF author – Ray Bradbury – has not been successfully translated to film. There’s a quality about the text which no director seems to have captured, at least for me. It has something to do with childlike wonder and endless summer days.
I think that The Martian Chronicles, which you can watch at archive.org, is a pretty compelling rendition of some of his stories.
Andrew, I have always found Ray Bradbury to be an author who wrote prose almost as poetry. His works have a genuine soul at their cores that cannot be easily translated into other mediums. Especially by those who lack his skills and soul.
Perhaps that is fine. Not everything needs to be turned into a film or television series. Some things are better left as literature where the reader has to use their own minds to conjure up the imagery and ideas.
I think animation may be a good format.
Ray’s words must be unchanged, but A.I. art has different looks. Something like STAR WARS VISIONS.
Each tale needs its own style.
An amusing take on SF by Dwayne Day
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62729.msg2746736#msg2746736
The old 1950s, 1960s science fiction films, I’ve seen all of them seem to have more psychological truths in them. The exception being Avatar. More action in the newer movies and less psychological concepts like Avatar II. The same with the TV series like the re release of Battlestar Galactica.
I do like the feel of the 1950’s science fiction since the latest knowledge of the solar system which made the planets not habitable by human life had not sunk into the collective. Monsters and aliens from Venus and Mars were still possible. I still liked these moves as a kid and teenager even though I knew that Venus and Mars were not habitable and Mars was thought to have a thicker atmosphere and possible snow and rain. Robinson Crusoe on Mars was released just before Mariner four photos of craters and atmospheric pressure test from the attenuation of radio signals as Mariner four passed behind Mars and re emerged on the other side tell how thick the atmosphere was through how much the radio signal is blocked going through an atmosphere as discovered that Mars atmospheric pressure was everywhere below ten millibars which is less than one thousandth of sea level pressure on Earth.
This Island Earth had the aliens telling us that you earthlings assume you are the most advanced civilization in the galaxy, an idea said in other science fiction films which is still applied to today even though most of the g class stars are older than ours.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (TDTESS) had advanced races that were treating us as teenagers who needed to become responsible adults. Like cop movies with the moral that “good people” could mend their ways and not face the death sentence. Very much a “we have a big stick and will use it if you don’t clean up your act”.
The Thing From Another World (1951) (TTFAW) in contrast, the Martian[?] was entirely antagonistic to Earth life, much more in the War of the Worlds thematically. Apart from the spacecraft, just how advanced were the Martians?
This Island Earth (1955) (TIE) was very different. Earth had the know-how to build energy systems that the aliens did not have, and needed to fight their losing war. Only the alien, Exeter, had the empathy to help the 2 Earth protagonists safely escape back to Earth. (If only that FTL spacecraft had survived…)
Quatermass and the Pit (TV series) (1958-59) (QATP) now had the Martians as an advanced race much older than us, doing genetic experiments to create advanced humans. That Martian race died out, but left a genetic trace that produced a hive mind that undergoes periodic “race purges”. Another example of an advanced species that ultimately self-destructed, although altruistically uplifted our remote ancestors. [Clarke’s “Childhood’s End” (1953) had a similar theme, where Karellan’s species was a dead end, but humans could be successfully uplifted.]
All very different takes on ETI. There are other takes, too, somewhere on this spectrum. Some with anti-Communist messages, such as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1955), which seems to be thematically updated in the current TV series “Pluribus” (2025-). The BBC’s Dr. Who spinoff, “The War between the Land and the Sea,” is a more nuanced version of the Dr. Who “Sea Devils” with its more usual dangerous monsters of the month.
While SciFi is going through an explosion of new writers, new TV and movies, at least they have more ideas than the similar explosion of Westerns in the early to mid 20th century, which repeated the same few themes, endlessly. It is a pity that there are so many tired retreads and “blockbusters” with endless sequels, when there are so many great SciFi stories, some classics, that have never been made. Supposedly, Villeneuve will eventually make “Rendezvous with Rama.” We’ll see.
Alex, although it is not impossible, based on the time the film was made (1951), the Thing could have come from Mars:
A script draft had the polar station scientists speculating that the being came from a colder world with a thinner atmosphere, which could be Mars as known both then and now.
In the 1938 story the film is based on, “Who Goes There”, the Antarctica station scientists determine the Thing came from another solar system, one with a blue star and a planet hotter than Earth.
You are also sadly right that many films and productions these days are retreads rather than something new or at least attempting to go in truly bold directions.
Hopefully that will change, because I have so had my fill of the current superhero genre.
@LJk
Yes, I recall that the scientists speculated about the Thing coming from Mars.
I happen to be reading Peter Watts’ collection, “Beyond the Rift.” The first story is The Things about the creature as an advanced life form written in the first person[s] as it maintains mental contact with every separate being that it takes over, from the humans on the 2 bases, and even the huskies, based on the 1982 film version of The Thing, rather than the 1951 version.
. Hollywood has become very risk-averse. Hence, the endless sequels of “sure things.” Movie directors are saying that some of their most innovative films could no longer be produced today, for example, Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future”. OTOH, TV seems far more innovative today.
Alex, in my essay on the 1951 version of The Thing, I have a link to the story The Things. It is a fascinating take on the creature not explored by any of the film versions or even the original short story. Yet another type of alien species to ponder.
Alex, in my essay on The Day the Earth Stood Still, I have numerous questions on Klaatu’s society determining what would be good or bad behavior on our part?
For one example, if only one country decided to launch nuclear weapons into space, would the alien police force punish everyone on Earth? Or just the transgressors?
Would this also mean humanity could not explore and settle space except under their strict guidelines? Would we be a truly civilized species or just an adjunct to these apparent overlords? Is this any better than determining our own fates?
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2022/09/21/the-decision-rests-with-you-the-day-the-earth-stood-still-seven-decades-later/
And yet we have, especially in the US, an increasingly violent police force. Don’t we accept such laws as necessary for civilized society, or at least certain segments of that society? Isn’t rule by the minority any different from aliens ruling us? Under Jim Crow laws, were not the white male ruling minority effectively “aliens”, determining what Black Americans (and women) were allowed to do in their jurisdictions? Isn’t Attwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” a similar dystopia?
Any situation where the population is unable to change their living arrangements because a minority forbids it is essentially the same thing. Is Gort any more problematic than the feudal barons’ knights slaughtering peasants for some real or perceived infraction?
While the American Revolution was successful, as was the French Revolution for a short while, most revolutions fail once those in control can exert their violence. While we are currently being “asked” to accept AI in all sorts of situations, is a human police force following an AI’s orders any less frightening than a robot Gort unleashing terrible violence? Is a wealthy country invading a smaller, poorer one, any different from the robot control in TDTESS? We are currently facing 2 madmen who declare they will use nuclear weapons to get their way. Gort might be a reminder not to do this. It is no worse than a wrathful G*d destroying cities or flooding the planet. [I should reread your piece on TDTESS before I go any further.]
I think Invasion of the Body Snatchers was actually commenting on a different issue. There is a scene at 1:12 in the video at archive.org – rather dumb, but illuminating: the rebels are lured out by the sound of a radio, thinking that it represents true human emotion surviving in the world. This should call to mind the substantial battle once waged against “canned” or “robot” music, which ended the work for live musicians in movie theaters and, well, almost everywhere else, except for a favored few. Where music was once a mode of communication, played by humans with feeling, it became a commodity, and indeed a chronic imposition of enforced moods on the wider public.
Nowadays, if you walk through a college campus and find that rare brave soul in Buildings and Grounds who sings a beautiful song while working, you tend to assume that they are, at best, aspiring, and will never really find an audience. All the others don’t dare to lift their voices. I fear the advent of AI will bring the same dynamic to many political and recreational forums. One day, if they could post at all, a person who simply comes up with an idea on their own, without being told what to think by an AI, might face the same KH!KH!KH!KH! of shocked violation from the pod people, as a worker of average talent who sings on the job rather than playing the store sound system might expect today.
@Mike Serfas
Your comments on the loss of musical performance in our recorded age reminded me of an incident that occurred when I was in college, back in the 1970s.
I was studying late, alone in the vast empty cafeteria of the student union, drinking gallons of coffee and smoking endless packs of Marlboros, when suddenly two hippies rushed in. One sat at a piano that had been brought in for some musical event, the other had a pair of bongo drums. They launched into the incomparable Nicky Hopkins piano part of the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”. They were flawless, obviously they had rehearsed this for a long, long time. It was magnificent, and I still feel the hair at the back of my neck go up when I remember it. Its six minutes of pure joy I will take to my grave’
Woo-Woo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7dtk0m_FUA
I was rather pleased with Avatar when the first installment of the franchise arrived in 2009, even though it had its flaws.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2009/12/23/avatar-vision-or-mere-entertainment/
Perhaps part of what pleased me is that it inspired my children and their friends who saw Avatar with us to freely speculate if their were indeed other intelligent beings on other worlds after we came home from the theater and exited the car, where we encountered a real starry sky above us. Yes, it felt like a moment from a film, but it was real.
The first sequel left me disappointed, however. Saturated with CGI and overlong.
The third version I have yet to see, but I do find intrigiung the idea there is a group of Navi who do not essentially worship Ewa, the planet-spanning intelligence of Pandora.
I have yet to review This Island Earth, although I have seen it several times. I am not as enchanted with this film as others are, as I found its rather poor science and other lapses in logic hard to admire, especially from a film that was supposed to be a step above the typical B-grade films of the genre of its day.
But we shall see. :^)
I will say I always get a kick out of the main alien scientist Exeter stopping to explain to the two humans about the entomology of the mutant they are presently being threatened by in terms they can understand.
Now that is the mark of a true scientist, no matter what planet they come from!
I enjoyed correspondence with Larry after reading a previous essay here on Centauri Dreams. I look forward to engaging with his sentiments on films, some of which are my favourites. Regarding Avatar, I have difficulty sitting through them (and mostly don’t bother). One of my sons suggested that if they had been produced as fictional nature documentaries they’d have been much better films.
Hi David, I’m very glad you enjoy my essays. It was nice talking with you in the past and I look forward to future correspondence.
I think your son has hit on an excellent idea regarding the presentation of native life forms on Panorama. A fictional documentary could not only be entertaining but allow for some real learning in the process.
Such an idea was done in 2004 with Alien Planet here…
https://youtu.be/vdFbD0CAewI?si=LpTQviYCYWkSGB7I
At the time of the New Horizons flyby of Pluto, I was thinking (again) about questions related to things like “the hold the SF genre has acquired over the general public” and the reasons we explore space. One line of thought offered on the whole picture in my Backyard Naturalist newspaper column up here in Maine.
http://www.centralmaine.com/2015/07/22/pluto-and-beyond/
I love Centauri Dreams, by the way. It feeds my sanity. Thank you, Paul.
Wonderful to have you here with us, Dana. I’m going to dig into your newspaper column — I absolutely love Maine!
Is it “Klaes” like “class”?
Asking for a friend! 🤣
Who stumbles/ mumbles each time coming on Larry’s last name in print…
BTW, I am delighted to see this worthy addition to the site, Paul.
Glad you like it, Michael! I’ll let Larry answer the pronunciation question.
Hi Michael. My last name is pronounced as KLAYZ, with a long A.
I hope this is helpful to your friend. ;)
I also hope they enjoy my essays, especially the new one on Aniara, the 1956 epic science fiction poem and 2018 film it is based on.
I’m pleased to say that this is how I’ve been pronouncing your name in my head all along, but I wasn’t absolutely sure until now.
Has anyone watched the 2021 – present series called Invasion on Apple TV?
I’m working my way through 3 seasons at present. It’s slow going at times, but otherwise pretty good.
Yes. But I won’t give away any spoilers. The aliens are quite good, albeit inscrutable.
@LJK –Is this old gem available on video?
My interest in science fiction began with a bang when I watched this as a kid on TV (Sunday Showcase c. 1960)! It was terrific, not just as sci-fi, but as legit drama. And look at that cast! Here is the Wikipedia entry:
“For the October 18 telecast of Murder and the Android, Alfred Bester scripted a teleplay adaptation of his cyber-crime story “Fondly Fahrenheit,” first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (August 1954).[3] The science fiction tale of a rampaging robot took place in the year 2359 amid futuristic sets designed by Ted Cooper. Produced by Robert Alan Aurthur with a cast of Kevin McCarthy, Rip Torn, Suzanne Pleshette and Telly Savalas, the drama was reviewed by radio-television critic John Crosby in his syndicated column.
“Murder and the Android was nominated for a 1960 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and was given a repeat on September 5, 1960, the Labor Day weekend in which that Hugo Award was presented (to The Twilight Zone) at the
World Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Sunday_Showcase
I believe Alex North directed.
Aniara (2018) is available to buy or watch ($3.99 rental) on Amazon Prime. [or *cough* download *cough*]
There is also the Swedish opera version (1960) on YouTube. In Swedish, but without any subtitles, Swedish or English. Someone should fix this.) AFAICS, there is no streaming version with subtitles. This version is B&W, but looks gorgeous with the spare set.
Sorry Alex,
I’m afraid I phrased my request awkwardly. The video I’m trying to locate is the Sunday Showcase production of “Murder and the Android” I mentioned in my earlier post. It must be available, at least in kinescope, somewhere. If anyone knows where I can buy it, please let me know.
The official online home site for the film version of Aniara has multiple selections for viewing and owning Aniara here:
https://www.magnetreleasing.com/aniara/
The televised opera from 1960 and other adaptations of the 1956 epic poem may be found in the Resources section of my Aniara essay here:
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/10-further-refrences-resources/
Information and links to other adaptations of Aniara may also be found in Section 9 of my essay, titled the Music of Aniara.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/9-aniara-the-musical/
Hi Henry! While I could not find your request online, apparently there is a copy at the Paley Center for Media. See here…
https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item?q=once&p=119&item=B%3A02661
Definitely a video I would like to see for myself, thank you for bringing it up.
@LJK –Hi, Larry
Re “Murder and the Android”/”Fondly Fahrenheit”
I’ve been trying to track down a copy of this video for years, with no luck.
I got in touch with Kevin McCarthy (through his agent) and asked him about it and he could recall being in it, but could remember little else about it. He mentioned he would try and contact Rip Torn about it but I never heard back from either of them. I chose not to press the issue.
I can’t overemphasize how impressed I was by this production, its overall quality really bowled me over, and I wanted to see it again to see if it still affected me as an adult as much as when I was a pre-teen. Many years later, when I read “Fondly Fahrenheit” I realized this was one of the earliest attempts to do serious science fiction on a prestigious television venue. This is especially the case when one considers the quality of the cast! I recall getting a hopeless crush on Suzanne Pleshette!
Count me a great fan of this myself, Henry. What memories.
@Henry
When I read that “Murder and teh Android” was based on Bester’s “Fondly Fahrenheit”, I recalled that I had recently read that short story. It was in the collection I have at home: Starlight: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester.
Given your praise for the TV version and its general high appraisal, I would like to watch it myself, and add it to my SciFi video collection.
The IMDb.com listing Murder and the Android has a number of reviews, somewhat differing in the plot, and not at all the “Fondly Fahrenheit” story from the book. Were the reviewers memories false, or was teh story heavily rewritten for the TV?
I wonder if some features influenced other TV and movies. For example, one reviewer remarked that the very human look of the robots and needing an “A” identifier on the forehead is similar to the “H” on the holograms of dead humans, like Arnold Rimmer in the TV SciFi comedy series, “Red Dwarf”. An android slave taking over its master’s role was the plot of SciFi episodes dimly remembered, but also the mainstream movie The Servant (1963). The Star Trek: original TV series had android replicas of people, such as Roger Korby in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Asimov used a similar theme in his robot story, “The Bicentennial Man”.
Interestingly, there is a mental problem, the Capgras delusion where the person believes familiar people have been replaced by duplicate impostors. In a turnabout, P K Dick’s “The Impostor” is a replacement who believes he is a human. A similar theme is “The Counterfeit Man” by Alan Nourse, which was televised as an episode in the 1960s BBC’s “Out of the Unknown” SciFi series.
@Alex
As far as I can remember (I saw this as 12 year old!) “Murder and the Android” was extremely similar to “Fondly Fahrenheit”, with a few exceptions probably due to the difficulty of portraying certain scenes in the limited conditions and resources available to live TV at the time. For example, a destructive ground car accident and fire in the short story was replaced by some other catastrophe on the production which I can’t recall. But other than that, the story and the major themes remained intact, no doubt due to Bester having written the teleplay as well. As far as I can tell today, the tale was faithfully interpreted on TV.
The anti-hero, Vandaleur (renamed Valentine in the script) and played by McCarthy, is forced to move from planet to planet with the police close on his trail because his defective android (Torn) goes berserk and kills people when the ambient temperature exceeds a certain level. Vandaleur cannot dispose of the android because its the only thing of value he owns, and because it would implicate him as an accessory in the android’s crimes. He earns a living by renting him out to people as a skilled worker.
The story delves deeply into the Freudian implications of their relationship (Bester incorporated much of the psychological theories popular in the 1950s in much of his work (Tiger, Tiger; Demolished Man, etc). I believe the red “A” on the android’s forehead was not transferred onto the teleplay version. Neither were the horrific displays the normally sedate android exhibited when he went into one of his murderous rages. But as I mentioned, its been a long time since I was 12, I can’t swear my memory is still dependable. That being why I would like to watch a video, if it is available.
There were several fantasy/sf films of that era that affected me deeply as a child; “The Thing”, “War of the Worlds”, and that great old sword and sandal epic “Ulysses” starring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. I have all in my video collection, but not “Murder and the Android”.
Henry,
Generally speaking, I do have fond memories of 50s and 60 “playhouse” series on television. Of course, I was in grade school, and most of it went over my head, but there were elements ( including s/f) that I wanted to get back to.
One of the sources of such was “Playhouse 90” and it actually did premier with a science fiction borderline story “Forbidden Area” with Rod Serling and Pat Frank as co-authors and lead Charlton Heston ( pre 10 Commandments) trying to avert a disastrous WWIII. Most of the pieces that followed ( as well as this original production) have dropped from memory or view, but yet they were striking productions, telling a lot about our own civilization back then. For that reason I am tempted to dig around for leads when I can.
Science fiction was rather scarce on Playhouse 90, but there were several, and did a search for “Murder and the Android” just in case. But another thing about Playhouse 90 was that the late 50s and early 60s had several imitators in format. I have a sneaking suspicion that I saw the end of an android murder
story “playhouse” format broadcast around 1960 on a Sunday night. Who know, possibly followed by the Ed Sullivan Show.
Playhouse 90, fortunately, remains largely in tact today on video tape at several websites. Other “playhouse” series that the US networks offered in those days were “Armstrong Circle Theater”, one with United State Steel in the name that appeared to last long enough to raid the s/f rack once in a while.
When Star Trek came along, I suspect that the Theater producers and writers remaining figured that they would send scripts in that direction.
Henry,
My apologies. Reading and re-reading your entry above, I gradually came to the discovery that I DID see the last few minutes of the screen play you were talking about – Murder and the Android. All the leads and memories were tracing back to the same source. And even catching only the end, it was compelling enough to remember after decades.
So, I guess this entry is a correction or update to the 27th December entry…
Hi Larry
I’m a big Sci fi fan myself, due to work and family reasons I haven’t watched too much the last few years.
Paul It was Larry who encouraged me to reach out to you and try and comment and engage a bit more so I do hope you like the emails I send through, I had read some of your articles in the past now and then but became a more regular follower since you emails were setup.
Yes Larry had become one of my top online astronomy friends and I usually message him once a day.
I must be old as I can remember hiring out Videos too.
Some posts back I read an epic review from Larry and posted up an epic response!
Keep up the good work Paul and Larry.
Thanks very much Edwin. I am truly grateful for our connections and correspondence, along with your connections with Paul. I also appreciate your additional information on my essays and the other posts in this blog.
Unless my memory betrays me, I met Larry when I brought out To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek and we’ve been fast friends ever since as lovers of space endeavors and science fiction (books, films, TV, music). Given my own specifics and wearing my hats of molecular biologist and of SFF author & editor, I see the blind spots in both the science and the art of spacefaring, stemming primarily from its traditional demographic. Larry’s nascent (and, with luck, long-lived) column will no doubt be erudite and constructive. As Anson Mount says, Hit it!
Thank you very much Athena, for both your kinds words here and being my friend. Your writings and knowledge are also deeply appreciated.
You are also proof that having backgrounds in both of the Two Cultures brought up by C. P. Snow is critical to truly understanding our increasingly complex and merging cultures.
Now I have so many articles to binge… Thanks for the post, Paul.
A very detailed review of Aniara.
As regards the Angst, it is a Swedish movie, and while the Swedes are not Russian, they are Russian-adjacent. The Russian culture is known for its “it will only get worse tomorrow.” There is a reason their national anthem is in a minor key!
Although not mentioned, the Aniara is a microcosm of the Earth (Buckminster Fuller’s “Spaceship Earth”), and like the Earth that is breaking down, so does the Aniara. A metaphor for the Earth?
Given that the poem was published in 1955, predating Carson’s “Silent Spring” (1962), if it was intended as some sort of warning about environmental destruction of the Earth, it was prescient.
The same scenario was played as a comedy/satire in the TV series Avenue 5
I also think that “Snowpiercer”, a train that is self-contained and travelling indefinitely around a frozen Earth, is a similar story, albeit more of a social critique.
Alex, I looked up the Swedish national anthem. It is indeed the opposite of bombastic…
https://youtu.be/TvhzRsjNyMg?si=EwX5BYvy9vOpqJPO
You are certainly right that Eastern European literature does not often believe in a happy ending. Perhaps because Europe has been through and seen so much for centuries and is overall more cynical due to long experience; in contrast, the United States is still a young pioneering culture that needs to hope for a better tomorrow in a new untamed land, as they see it. Just my generalized take.
Aniara is indeed about how humans are mistreating Earth. The 1956 poem focused on the Cold War while the 2018 emphasized climate change, but they are both in agreement that human civilization has become far more material and less caring about its home planet. That warning, sadly, has not changed.
I dedicate a whole section to Avenue 5 in my Aniara essay. I did not learn of the likely connection at first, but when I started watching the series and the similarities started sinking in… oh boy! I was blown away that someone could turn Aniara into a comedy.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/7-televised-angst/
I agree in general about Snowpiercer being Angst Science Fiction, even though it does not take place in space. However, considering the terrestrial environment they exist in, it might as well be space.
Thrilled that Paul and Larry are boldly going where Centauri Dreams has not officially gone before! but I am so disappointed by the pronunciation of Larry’s last name: “Klaze” instead of “Class” as in class act, which he is.
My interpretive design career has its roots in Science Fiction. Winning a 5th grade book cover contest for Clarke’s Dolphin Island, drawing endless lasers, underwater cities, and Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea inspired craft.
Has Larry written about Lem and Tarkovsky’s Solaris? A kind of Russian 2001 and equally profound IMO.
Cheers and happy holidays to all!
And to you as well, my friend. The good thing about Larry is that there are so many good films for him to dig into in the future!
I have written an essay in its own right on Solaris in my larger Aniara essay, which you may read in this section here:
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/6-the-golden-era-of-angst-sf-cinema/
Aniara had some definite inspiration from the 1972 film version of Solaris, as you will see.
William I want to thank you for the compliments. I promise I will do my best to keep things classy, despite the difference in pronunciation.
I would also love to see your winning book cover, if that is at all possible? And please explain what one does with interpretive design.
LJK,
Thanks, but alas no. The cover was a construction paper collage and long gone as are all my futuristic designs from those years. Who would not kill for a time machine, right?
My career as an interpretive designer encompassed the design and implementation of science and history museum exhibits around the world.
At TVIW 2017 I did a SETI exhibit design workshop. Start this clip at 08:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUOeAPB5A3w
You can also find my X-FILES Science proposal on my LinkedIn page…
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sgpd_x-files-science-pitch-deck-activity-7305582928292372481-FZuF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAPMkh4B3TAWNj1el8POhMEap9me6JLy43c
Enjoy, and I look forward to reading about Solaris!
ad astra, Scott, ( still cursed by being called by my middle name)
I wonder if these old masterpieces could be up graded with AI , creatures and so forth. I found many of the stories quite good but the graphics and special effects poor.
Would it really be necessary? I was not at all pleased with how they remastered the special effects for the original Star Trek series.
Not only did I feel it was unnecessary but I found the CGI effects inferior to the original practical effects!
I agree.
Lucas also redid Star Wars: A New Hope, adding new effects and altering the Solo/Greedo shooting in the Cantina to make it look like Greedo shot first.
When colorization was new, many black and white movies were colorized to try to attract audiences who did not like black and white movies. (My children were among those who wouldn’t watch B&W movies.) The colorization was poor. The SciFi movie “20 Million Miles to Earth” can be seen in both the original B&W and colorized versions for comparison.
In some cases, modern colorization with far better techniques can be useful. Peter Jackson showed images from WWI that were brought to vivid life with color. But many movies look better in B&W, especially classic film noir, where much of the feel of the story is enhanced by the deliberate contrasts of the monochrome “palette”. I recall that when colorization was started, several movie directors complained, taking exception to their works being changed.
I think P K Dick used the idea of removing cigarettes and smoking from old movies in one of his stories.
Generative AI will be able to do this soon, as well as make the fights between protagonists far more realistic. All those Kurosawa movies with samurai and ronin slicing up opponents with katanas. All those classic westerns where the villain doesn’t bleed from being shot. All those movies where riders on horseback are killed by cannon shot, but the horse recovers and runs off, can be remade, like that scene in the newest Napoleon, where the horse is torn open by the shot. Ghastly, but probably far more realistic of the horrors of war. Such special effects can be used on new movies, but there will be a huge opportunity to manipulate the scenes in old movies to apply all those special effects retroactively.
I just wish they would leave those movies alone, or at least give the viewer the choice to watch the movie in its original or manipulated versions.
The thing here is we look at it as if it is poor but it’s because we have seen it before, others have not. The younger generation have different expectations. I personally would like to see as an experiment how AI would handle it.
Movies are pieces of art, not products to improve. Would you consider it OK to redo classic paintings to “update” them? Add perspective and realism to pre-renaissance paintings? Or perhaps make Rubens’ women slimmer to match more contemporary aesthetics of beauty? Should all paintings be hung with their updated versions nearby for comparison, or just the updated versions to save wall space?
One can change musical arrangements, or change costumes and even the words of plays, because these are transient performances, even if they are recorded. The source is always kept and not altered. With gallery space limited, how would originals compete with updated versions on a commercial basis? The same happens with streaming art, music and videos. The only acceptable updates are “Director’s Cut” movies because the original was altered by the studio, not the director. But how frequently do streaming services offer a choice of versions, and there are several of Scott’s 1982 Blade Runner. Centuries, even millennia from now, how will audiences even know which version is which – theatrical, Director’s cut, extended, etc.? Will AI and careful databasing of versions keep track? Will audiences even care?
I appreciate that this sounds a bit like “Get off my lawn!”, but I know that even the idea of perfect copies of paintings is considered unacceptable by aficionados. A Star Trek “replicator” could make perfect copies of an object, down to the element and isotopic ratios, making the copies 100% identical to the original. Yet art lovers consider that even an indistinguishable copy has less value than the original. Is that a valid POV? This was a time when we displayed art posters on our walls, and the idea of perfect forgeries, made with transparency to ensure provenance, was pure science fiction, even as we grew ever closer to achieving it. (Even ST: TOS never considered transporter accidents where they acted as replicators. This was explored with Will Riker in ST: TNG decades later.)
As an aside, if replicator technology were possible, it would solve the problem of STL and the ethics of generation ships. Just store the crew in a “pattern buffer” and recreate them on arrival. Simples! And since we can already do this with robots by rebuilding them from blueprints and storing their “minds,” this is why I believe that artificial beings will be the means to spread humanity to the stars.
Back on topic. We can recreate versions of plays from the Ancient Greeks onwards, where the words are left as originals or translated. We can remake movies for a contemporary audience. We can even recreate some paintings in various ways to update them. Isn’t this better than altering the original and passing it off as a “better version” of what the creator wanted?
I started reading SF in 1953 , when my brother bought a SF anthology from the Scholastic Magazine , he did not like it and gave it to me. I am not sure I remember all that was in it except it was a selection of van Vogt stories , one of them made quite an impression on me. Far Centaurus , simple kind of josh story, Paul and I have a soft spot for it.
I went looking at a Dallas branch library in 1953 , they had a prominently displayed copy of Robert Heinlein’s Red Planet. That was it! I checked out all the SF I could find , once, when I asked the librarian where there was more and she started to show me the ‘juvie’ section , I had to insist , “where is the adult SF”… she did bat an eyelash , took me right to it.
Lord I must have read every Groff Conklin anthology , of which, there is an uncountable number. Which means I read almost every notable SF short story between 1940 to 1950.
I discovered the SF magazines by way of two of my friends who were SF buffs.
Between 1953 and 1960 I read just about all the SF published (an exaggeration, but a lot.)
Turns out one of my friends was a movie buff too. In the 1950s we saw 2 or 3 movies on a weekend in downtown Dallas , during summer vacation we saw 5 or 6 movies a week.
Being SF fans we looked for SF films, frankly, by count there were not a lot, we liked films like Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing , War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet, … a few more. Alas… we had to sit through Z movies like Queen of Outer Space, Cat Women of the Moon, … Plan Nine from Outer Space, … gad the number of low budget SF/Horror films where many, we came to call it the Steel Eyeball School of movie going.
One thing struck us, and it is still true, the number of SF films adapted from SF prose was very low… and frankly remains so. That is a puzzle,… consider two titles… Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit will Travel or Bester’s The Stars My Destination, and that’s just two from the 1950s … goodness there must be a good several hundred, plus (actually more counting short stories) prose SF stories which could be source material for SF films.
Yet , nothing, or not much, in the way of film or TV, some but an immense amount lies fallow.
Or,World building and technology was borrowed from the prose form, Forbidden Planet and Star Trek are prime examples of that, and just from the SF 1940 to 1960.
Only show I have seen that is totally faithful to the prose form , of sophisticated space opera, is The Expanse. Then, those authors are fans of the SF of the 1950s.
Al and I have so much in common, and have talked about so many of these things over beer at various conferences, that it’s hard to know where to begin. But Al, I have to say that the words that resonate most are your thoughts on Groff Conklin. For me growing up, his name was absolute magic. Everyone should read Bud Webster’s Anthopology for a wonderful, hugely readable account of all the science fiction anthologies back in the early days:
https://www.amazon.com/Anthopology-101-Reflections-Inspections-Dissections-ebook/dp/B00ALM58H2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22XV7MSB9MPL7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4sRTmJ44NmfdHvATu9wj8Q.O0uS_zZUY8N6ij_ocEND0-sFhQdWvf5k_-54QQ5pQeg&dib_tag=se&keywords=anthopology+bud+webster&qid=1766448235&s=books&sprefix=anthopology+bud+webster%2Cstripbooks%2C73&sr=1-1
Sad to think that Bud is no longer with us, but he is a wonderful chronicler of Groff Conklin and the early days of the SF magazines. Still more for us to talk about on the phone, Al, and at our next beer session.
Hi Paul & Larry
Some classics in there that I whole-heartedly enjoy, more than once. Some I have been unable to complete – Roger Corman’s abuse of Russian SF is noted. The least-watchable Corman re-edit is “Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women” which does unspeakable things to “Planeta Bur” (‘Planet of Storms’). And I do mean unspeakable, as the new footage spliced into the original features the titular ‘Prehistoric Women’ who are telepathic and thus don’t ever need to move their lips. The production of those segments is a prime example of guerilla film-making.
>Has Larry written about Lem and Tarkovsky’s Solaris?
An article on these two great SF movie is essential ;)
A library for SF films is a good idea, it allows to compare points of view on a work and sometimes to discover certain aspects of the films. 24 fps …the brain can’t record everything :)
We have to watch the great classics several times for pleasure but also because we never have the same perspective on the movie ; often we discover things that we didn’t see the first time ; it often happens to me I also like to compare with the original novel and sometimes with a remake (Solaris)
All these films also reflect a lot the spirit of a time. I think it is also important to understand the point of view of the filmmaker, his journey, his work theme, and the message he wanted to convey. Alas, it’s something that has been lost…
I like good cinema, the one that leaves an emotion; a questioning ; sometimes a good slap (Aldrich, Lumet) Cinema must make us dream; it is not necessarily with a big budget and full of special effects.
BTW I realize that apart from the 5th element of L. Besson, we don’t have a sci-fi movie about interstellar space in France! it reflects well a different approach to SF
Thanks to Larry for his writings.
You are very welcome, Fred.
As for Solaris, I have written an essay in its own right in my larger Aniara essay, which you may read in this section here:
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/6-the-golden-era-of-angst-sf-cinema/
LJK
Have not read all your essay (essays), so a side bar comment. Christiane Kubrick once commented that Stanley was a voracious reader of science fiction (self evident he was just voracious reader!). Kubrick said , to paraphrase, he did not think any SF film he had seen was faithful to the prose form.* I also seems he picked Clarke’s Childhood’s End as a possible property , but getting the option was difficult , and I think, Kubrick probably saw difficulties with Clarkes story as visual drama. I think he picked Clarke , to collaborate, because of that novel. Even tho The Sentential is a framework , one sees Childhood’s End fingerprints all over 2001, especially the ending.
In Clarkes Lost Worlds of 2001, Clarke writing about the story and screenplay in 1965 , Kubrick even , one day , suggested the introduction of the Karellens, but changed his mind the next day, much to Clarke’s relief.
Even tho , in Lost Worlds, constructed some alien worlds for the story, he did no use them I am supposing in conversation with Kubrick.
Kubrick had notions of showing aliens , but dropped that.
Kubrick denied that Sagan’s suggestion not to show ‘existential’ aliens influenced him, but apparently Sagan did make that observation in the one dinner he had with Clarke and Kubrick. Then, the essence of the Monolith Makers in 2001 conforms to Clarke’s 3rd law, I am thinking Clarke was pleased.
Hi Al. I certainly appreciate the detailed background story on what would become 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is hard to imagine the story going in any other direction than what it became, but yes, one can see some of the influences from Childhood’s End.
I read that Kubrick did not want to meet with Sagan ever again after that one meeting. However the idea Sagan implanted about not seeing the ETI did stick. I am glad for one because the alien concepts they did have would not have worked. See here…
https://youtu.be/9pqqCbqKiIc?si=RH4Yotn66iU0GXn_
Speaking of 2001, that planned then dropped opening with ten minutes of filmed interviews with real experts on alien life, has that ever come to light? It would certainly be fascinating from a historical context on humanity’s thinking of ETI.
https://youtu.be/Hm33QJNRBbI?si=LfxJfK2Ozjs21yKI
While I have yet to write exclusively on 2001, I do have an essay on 2010 where I naturally delve into the original story quite a bit.
@LJK
Just knowing that the book “Are We Alone”, the transcripts of interviews with scientists that were going to be used as an intro to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, exists was interesting. I ordered the book and look forward to reading what their various thoughts were about STI.
If you have the book, it might be an interesting essay for you to expound on.
Alex, I do not yet have this book, but I should. I am also amenable to your idea of reviewing what it has to day, thank you.
Here is a page with the mai details on Are We Alone for all interested parties…
https://books.google.com/books/about/Are_We_Alone.html?id=kZoCPgAACAAJ
Are We Alone?: The Stanley Kubrick Extraterrestrial-intelligence Interviews
Anthony Frewin Elliott & Thompson, 2005 – Body, Mind & Spirit – 254 pages
When Stanley Kubrick was working on the development of his classic movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, he arranged that 21 of the leading scientists in the world be interviewed on film.
This collection of those interviews represents scientific, philosophical and ethical considerations of the implications of the possibility of other forms of life.
LJK
I asked Doug Trumbull about that documentary in 2011 when he as at the 100 year Starship meeting Orlando. He said the footage did exist , because he wanted to make his own documentary about his extensive involvement with 2001, alas the Kubrick Estate would give permission. Trumbull said he had a lot of various materials from he days on the film, I wonder where that is now? He passed away before anything further could be worked out.
Are there aliens in 2001? See here…
https://youtu.be/KYcekxnsjyY?si=Ciz7UYZklxUKdbvV
Hello Larry, this is a very elaborate analysis especially for Solaris (I had never made the connection with Moby Dick :)
With Lem or Tarkovsky, we feel very well the spiritual dimension of the work that characterizes the Slavic side. (not always easy to access :) We feel it less in the version of Sonderberg’s film more focused on the characters from Clooney & Mc Elhone, but which is not bad either.
What I find fascinating in Lem’s novel is that he had the idea to imagine another form of intelligence without tentacles or laser guns, curious, but inaccessible for us; it develops the theme of communication not material (radio; light) but psychic. There would be so much to say about all this…
There is also a movie that takes a back seat but that I find interesting and that I like a lot – if only for the musical theme – it’s ‘Moon’ with S. Rockwell. I don’t say more for those who have not seen it…
I leave you, Santa Claus brought me a G. Bendford :D
Lem definitely was not a fan of most Western science fiction…
https://youtu.be/3qZoP6aPXnE?si=SletWeunVErw5pFM
If anything, Lem is a fine example to showcase that science fiction can be great, insightful literature as any other genre.
His Summa Technologiae (1964), a speculation on future technologies, especially computing, is remarkably prescient as we are only just reaching the point of creating them now. IMO, his speculations are still dazzling and mind-expanding.
The translated text is somewhat turgid. IDK if that is due to Lem’s writing or just a poor translation. Good translations of his various SciFi books read far more elegantly, especially the humorous ones, which makes me suspect a poor translation[s].
Wikipedia entry: Summa Technologiae.
Purchase at Univ Minnesota Press: Summa Technologiae
Did anyone ask Lem about Ursula K. Le Guin , Theodore Sturgeon or Cordwainer Smith?
From my reading Lem’s dislikes he just did not seem widely read in modern SF.
When I was in Poland about 15 years ago bookstore had featured SF had a bunch of Philip K Dick.
I do like the film Moon, even with its flaws in logic. Sam Rockwell was basically a one-man show here. Definitely has Kubrickian elements.
It was also made for just five million dollars. The practical special effects are just as good as those made for many millions more with CGI.
https://youtu.be/WWoDBcSW4_c?si=hGdTw8HwDOokta-h
Thank you for all your contributions, Paul. Wishing you a stellar New Year!
Likewise to all the readers and contributors. Let’s hope 2026 brings new and exciting discoveries in exoplanet science and astrobiology.
Your site has been an anchor through decades of Earthly turmoil, always reminding us that no matter what happens on this planet, we should still look above.
Kind regards,
Wojciech David Jacyk
Always a pleasure to see your name in the comments, my friend. A very happy New Year to you as well.
Forbidden Planet is the end all be all. Altair IV, C-57D, Bellerophon. 20 miles, 20 miles, 20 miles. The scenes thru the power plant are unforgettable and 1956 to boot.
Thomas. I tend to agree with you on this regarding Forbidden Planet. It was certainly also the beginning for both certain television series and other science fiction cinema.
See more here…
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2017/09/11/creating-our-own-final-frontier-forbidden-planet/
And here…
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2017/09/12/creating-our-own-final-frontier-part-two/
Although I do mention the 1982 classic film Blade Runner as an example of Angst Science Fiction in this section of my essay on Aniara, I feel that the film deserves a bit more exposition due to their similarities…
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/aniara_segment/5-deeper-meanings-for-aniara/
Taking place in the distant future year of 2019, the planet Earth is suffering from environmental collapse just as our globe did in the film version of Aniara.
As a result, most people have moved into space in “off world colonies”, where the population is told by the authorities they will have a chance to begin new and better lives in new lands, whether that is actually true or not.
A corporation named Tyrell has developed artificial life forms called Replicants: They look and act just like baseline humans but are mainly used for slave labor and treated like disposable machines.
Because the authorities realize their potentials to exceed and possibly replace humanity, Replicants are kept off Earth under the penalty of immediate execution by a police force called Blade Runners.
The film delves into what is human and the ethics of how we treat others who may be different and our world overall.
As Replicants are also deliberately given just four years to live individually, we are made to explore the concepts of what matters most in life and what is the best way to spend that time we have.
Here is a video on existentialism in Blade Runner:
https://youtu.be/p9kdvDCq4nc?si=Hd8-4bprtkd2P97m
This video asks if we are all just slaves in the system based on the film:
https://youtu.be/0VEDbWzEork?si=Ek6A6r989qYIH4ms