Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Interesting premise; interestingly worked out; the strongest feature of this film is the emotional tension of the astronaut who knows a truth, but is unable to convey it to others. Overlook the weaknesses and just enjoy the movie, but be prepared for a certain level of suspense.

What if there were a parallel world to Earth's always hidden from us on the other side of the Sun?

This is the question that astronauts Roy Thinnes and Ian Hendry ask themselves when they discover a parallel world of Earth always hidden on the far side of the sun in this 1969 cult science fiction melodrama, released here in America as JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. The plot of the film was devised by British writers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the creators of such TV shows as "UFO", "The Thunderbirds" and "Space 1999". It is exceedingly weird at times, betraying the influence of "The Twilight Zone" and even Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The visual effects work of Derek Meddings, who would also later work on SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, holds up surprisingly well under the last four and a half decades of special effects advancements (including CGI); and while they are not really on the same exalted level of the Kubrick film, they are very superb. If you don't anticipate a STAR WARS-type of a film and can overcome the occasionally trite dialogue, DOPPELGANGER is a good film; it was good enough for me to rank it a '7' and consider it an undiscovered sci-fi gem.

Most people who enjoy this film enough to sit through it multiple times probably first saw it, as I did, during their childhood back in the late 60's - early 70's. It was one of the first science fiction movies I saw as a child and it made enough of an impression on me for me to remember it decades later. It was more thought-provoking than your average 1960's "space opera" and the special effects were among the best of its time (second, at the time, perhaps only to '2001' which came out about a year earlier). And although the people behind it were definitely influenced by Kubrick's earlier masterpiece, it contains enough original thought to be fascinating in its own right. Most adults who didn't see this movie when it first came out will probably be too critical to be able to enjoy it if they were to watch it now. As for today's younger audiences, they would probably tend to measure it by the standards of today's movies with their much more advanced special effects and simply dismiss the film as too archaic for their tastes. Unfortunately, this movie is probably destined to languish in ever-increasing obscurity as its original audience gets older and eventually fades away...

'Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun' is quite possibly the most underrated SF movie of the 1960s. It certainly has some flaws - especially the lack of character development, and a few ponderous sequences seemingly modeled on '2001: A Space Odyssey', released the previous year - but if you overlook them you'll find a quietly intelligent and fascinating movie that deserves to be rediscovered. The brains behind this movie were Gerry and Sylvia Anderson best remembered for their wildly entertaining marionette TV shows such as 'The Thunderbirds'. This movie was their first foray into live action SF and in some ways was the precursor to their 1970s cult series 'UFO'. Ed Bishop, George Sewell and some of the other supporting cast members went on from this movie to that TV show. The real stars however are Roy Thinnes, best known at the time for 'The Invaders', and Brit character actors Ian Hendry and Patrick Wymark. Hendry was the star of the little seen first series of 'The Avengers', and also appeared in Polanski's disturbing 'Repulsion' (alongside Wymark), and the camp classic 'Theatre Of Blood' with horror legend Vincent Price. Wymark appeared in another Price movie 'The Conqueror Worm', and starred in 'Blood On Satan's Claw'. Thinnes, Hendry and Wymark are all very good in this movie, albeit a little too cold and remote for my liking, but that is obviously the script's failing not the performers. I haven't mentioned much about the plot of the movie wary of spoiling it for those who have never seen it. Suffice to say it involves the discovery of a hereto unknown planet in our solar system. The less you know about it after that the more you will enjoy it. Overall, despite the script problems and one or two other minor criticisms I highly recommend this movie to all SF fans who prefer ideas over action.

A 'counter-Earth' is detected on the far side of the sun, prompting an ill-fated expedition. This live action 'hard-science' space opera was produced by 'Supermarionation' maestros Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and, although puppet-free resembles their popular 'strings-attached' actioners such as 'Thunderbirds' (1965): the miniatures are excellent in both design and construction, the scripts wordy and expositional, the story gadget-laden, and Barry Gray's music stirring. The first two thirds of the film is excellent, cumulating in a spectacular crash after which everything goes down-hill fast, as footage is wasted on trippy '2001-like psychedelics and eye close-ups and the premise shifts from merely dubious to outright ludicrous. The concept of a co-orbiting planet hidden by the sun has long been discounted (even if unseeable from Earth, gravitational effects would have been detected long ago - Neptune was predicted in the early 1800s based on perturbations of Uranus' orbit) and the follow-up premise, that it is identical to Earth, would require entire universe to be symmetrical around our sun. Although the story troughs when the focus shifts to figuring out how and why the astronauts came 'home' so early, it does sets up the final crash: more of the spectacular miniature destruction on which the film's cult-appeal rests. The pyrotechnics and model-work are outstanding and the scenes in space are imaginative and relatively realistic. The acting is generally good although, as Colonel Glenn Ross, Roy Thinnes bears the brunt of the disintegrating storyline as he bashes around looking a reversed writing and tries to convince people that he's is not mad. In attempt to distance this, their first live-action theatrical-release, from their juvenile TV features, the Andersons wrote in some 'adult' situations (birth control, marital strife, government sanctioned killings, etc), none of which add anything of interest to the story (the 'espionage' opening is very well done but the whole sequence belonged in a Bond film or a 'Man from Uncle' caper). Despite the ridiculous story and narrative weaknesses, 'Doppleganger' (the original British title) showcases the best of 1960s special effects (perhaps second to only to '2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)) and is well worth watching for the imagery alone.