Spaceflight IC-1: An Adventure in Space

As earth has become more uninhabitable a desperation journey to a new planet that is going to take years to complete goes awry when the ship's captain becomes completely unreasonable. The crew is made up of husbands, wives, and children, picked out by earth super powers to start a new colony. As well, the ship also carries some other passengers who've been frozen, to be thawed out and revived when they get to their far off destination. The story goes in several interesting directions, with a mutiny led by the ship's doctor, the captain who's wife hasn't gotten pregnant (which provokes classic insecurity symptoms), not a good development for a captain of a space ship carrying humanity's last chance at avoiding extinction, the kids on board, the shifting allegiances between the crew, etc... However interesting the film is thematically, it suffers from a lack of resources, looks incredibly cheap, and has an unknown cast that utters a lot of bad lines.

A spaceship on the way to populate the new world "Earth 2" endures a mutiny when the tyrannical leader tells a woman with a critical disease that she can't have a second child. People argue a lot. There is a "closed circuit man" (a head in a glass case) and people whose bodies have been frozen (to later be revived upon arrival). Not much to entertain or surprise here and almost what I would call a "non-ending". The most recognizable cast member to me was child actor Mark Lester.

Spaceflight IC-1 (1965)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sometimes if you don't have the correct budget for your screenplay then it's best to just put the project on hold until you can raise more money. This British science-fiction has a pretty good story but sadly very little to nothing is done with it. Earth is pretty much on its dying legs when a group of people are sent in a spaceship to find another planet. The only catch is that it's going to take twenty-five years to get there and within the first year the crew grow tired of the rather mean captain so a mutiny takes place. Okay, this story might have worked had it been written better but there's also the problem with the sets. These sets aren't quite on the same level as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE but not for a single second do you really feel like you're in outer space and the lack of anything technical on this ship tells you that this journey wasn't going to last very long. Also, you have to wonder why these people were picked to go find this new planet and especially since they're all rather boring. The screenplay has a good idea but sadly the writers do very little with it. The majority of the time the people are just sitting around being asked whose side they're on, if they'd take part in a mutiny and whether or not the ship should be turned around. None of this is all that entertaining and it doesn't help that the performances are on the weak side. SPACEFLIGHT IC-1 could certainly be remade and I think the basic story is interesting enough to where a talented director and writer could do something more with it. Pay attention to the first funeral sequence where the words spoken are the lyrics from The Byrds' "Turn, Turn, Turn." How this happened and what the story to this is something I'd like to hear more about.

Low-rent at every conceivable level, this overheated British space opera has a turgid script, laughable "special effects", ham acting--except by lead Bill Williams, a reliable American character actor who usually plays a good guy but here does a good turn as the ship's tyrannical captain--flat and dull photography and isn't worth spending your time on. The story of a crew being sent on a 25-year journey to a habitable planet because Earth is on its last legs had possibilities, but hack director Bernard Knowles shoots everything in the most boring, unimaginative ways possible, without anything even remotely resembling thought, flair, or any kind of style whatsoever. Even low-budget veterans like Edward L. Cahn or Sam Newfield would have given some pizazz to this suffocatingly dull, plodding cheapo. Don't bother with it.

The premise of the story is good but the execution is just awful - sets, acting, script. It comes across like a TV soap opera and quite low tech given the time when it was made. I could see this as a series given they were only 1 year into the mission. Except for the people in hibernation event that leads to the death of Mead, the remaining plot points could used in a western.

Interesting, the guy with head in the glass had such a minor role. He was not allowed to talk to Earth -- why? In most sci fi movies these characters are the go to experts or the evil one but the majority of the action was not in the operation room.

It was devoid of the usual meteor shower or other external threat found in many movies and focused on the personal conflicts.