Forbidden Planet (1956)
This was an early influence on the original 1966 Star Trek. A ship and crew on exploratory
missions, the nautical themes and feel, a captain (with a sterling, catchy name, no less); a bridge, not-quite-military uniforms, that are not spacesuits -
It's kind of trippy to see them in a flying saucer, something we later
came to associate with *aliens*, not with us. Interesting, isn't it?
The special effects in this are really great, astounding in fact. How they
achieved some of this in 1956 without stop-motion animation just confounds
me. (Although the fire-beast trying to get through the force-field is stop-motion, very Disney/Fantasia).
The somewhat scary, lumbering robot - a throwback, an after effect from early movie monsters. And an early precusor to the robot in Lost in Space.
This is, in many ways, essentially a monster movie in a science fiction setting. They
*were* learning .. monster movies were a staple for so many years and their
conventions filtered over to these movies ...
But the feel of the crew, in the ship and landing on the planet, feels so much like "The Cage" it's unnerving.
-
Transporters .. the captain addressing the crew .. the captain having a
cool, bold name .. the nautical themes .. "our mission" .. Roddenberry
lifted a lot from this ...
Actors: that's Oscar Goldman as the communications officer; and the doctor
went on to become one of the Andromedans in Star Trek's "By Any Other Name" ..
This movie is just as iconic and trend-setting as Star Wars ..
