ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Thinking Outside the "Plot"!
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As I get older and wiser (or perhaps just wizened) I've discovered that the bad movies from the 1950s look even worse now, and the mediocre movies have begun to look really awful.

But the good ones (even the "fairly good ones") seem to hold their own against the ravages of time, especially if a bright fellow takes the time to ponder the concepts presented by an intelligent plot.

This movie is a fine example. I’m bettin’ if I’d seen this one in 1958 when I was ten years old it would be one of my all-time favorites today. The sets are extremely good, the special effects are admirable, the cast it terrific, the story is so interesting they remade it as Alien — sort of — and the sets are extremely good (the 2nd best spaceship interior after the C-57-D).

For me the weak link in this otherwise strong chain is the monster suit. I would have preferred something much less bulky and slow-moving for a creature that evolved on Mars and slithers around in the ship’s air ducts like Bruce Willis in Die Hard.

Maybe something like these?


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~ A Question for the Members: If the filmmakers had used a tall, slender man in a suit which gave him maximum mobility — something like a bit like my drawings above — would this creepy, almost reptilian version of the Martian been even more effective?

~ My Theory: Maybe so, but the existing creature is certainly scary enough for this kind of movie, and it must have been a hit with the kids in 1958.

In addition to the sets, the FX, the cast, and the story, it's really the basic concept that gives this movie the ability to stay relevant right into the 21st century. Hollywood today would be quick to make a sequel with a bigger budget and most of the same cast.

The story might go something like this.

Three ships are sent back to Mars to investigate the strange Martian survivors of a previous civilization (based on the speculations of the characters in this movie).

After landing on the Red Planet, they set up a prefabricated base camp with perimeter defenses that include an electrified fence, since the folks in the first movie found out that the creature responded to an electrified ladder between two the decks.





The creature attacked the crewmen in It! The Terror from Beyond Space to extract water from their bodies. So, water would be the bait the characters in this sequel would use to lure the creature into a trap.

The object of the mission would be to communicate with the creatures (if possible) and learn more about them for scientific reasons, or to capture one alive and take it back to Earth if the creature-or-creatures prove too hostile to deal with peacefully.

Generally speaking, the story would involve the challenges of surviving on Mars, attempting to make contact with the creatures, discovering that they are smart enough to be a genuine threat . . . but NOT smart enough to establish peaceful relations with.

The climax would involve an exciting scene in which the leader of the Martians (the alpha male, so to speak) would survive a mass attack on the humans’ defenses and almost prevent their successful emergency blast off.

But the humans would succeed in lifting off after the creature makes it aboard their ship, and they not only survive its vicious attacks, they manage to trap it in the cryogenic tank designed to keep it alive and incapacitated until they reach Earth!

Wow! Great idea for a movie, eh? I can just see it in my widescreen high definition Mind’s Eye!

What do you guys think?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)