ALL SCI-FI

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"When Worlds Collide" had a budget of $936,000.

The live action scenes were shot in twenty-seven days.

Whoa! Feature films generally have three months to film.

The special effects took twice as long to do as the live action filming.

Paid off as WWC won the Oscar for Best FX that year.

The film premiered in L.A. on December 14, 1950.

Cecil B. DeMille was interested at one point in adapting both the novels "When Worlds Collide" and its sequel "After Worlds Collide."

Given DeMille's clout at that time, he probably could have gotten a lavish budget from Paramount Pictures for the movies. This would have been of enormous benefit to the visual effects.

And DeMille would have taken 3-months, or more, to shoot all the live action scenes.

The actor who appears after the first planet passes and asks "Are there any more for the helicopter" is Roy "The Invaders" Thinnes.

The actor who brings the rifles to the dormitory is Kirk "Superman" Alyn.

And to answer your question Bud about just how well humanity would react if this scenario were to ever become real: poorly.

I'm afraid that given the long mad, bloody, greedy history of the different civilizations on our planet it would not be a pretty sight at all.

Look at how the wealthy & powerful are all running to get their inoculation for the Covid-19 virus.

These are some of the same arses that denied the disease, would not wear masks, let super spreader events take place on their watch, and have stalled and blocked relief efforts.

These in turn would also be the same despicable, deplorable individuals to make sure they had the best seats on the space ark leaving a doomed earth.

Once on a new world they would secure their positions all over again and continue with their power grasping avarice ways at the cost of others.

There was a very good episode of "The New Twilight Zone" which dealt with a similar situation.

"Quarantine" from February 7, 1986.

After 324 years in hibernation, a man awakens to a Utopian future where technology has been replaced by psychic powers and biogenetics. The inhabitants trick the man into using ancient weapons in order to destroy a spaceship from the past carrying nuclear weapons.

*SPOILER ALERT*

As it turns out, this spacecraft left the earth during the outbreak of WWIII. On board are the politicians & military & industrial people who fled and now that it is safe to return are prepared to run things as usual. For their benefit only.

I found this quite a powerful and tragic story and what it had to say about humans, or at least some individuals.

The worst of us escape earth in this story and make sure they'll return when it is safe for them to seize power. Just like they had centuries before.

Item: I also believe that the scenes in outer space with the spaceship were one of the earliest uses of CGI for any television show at that time.

It is primitive by today's phenomenal standards. However, I give the producers of the show two big thumbs up for even attempting such a---then---brand new technology at the time.

[Bud Brewster]

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Holy mackerel! Get THIS, guys!

An article in International Business Times called —

Rogue Planets Approach Light Speed, Propelled By Supermassive Black Hole, Study Says

— states that a star and one-or-more of the planets which orbit it can be catapulted off into space at 30 million miles an hour (which is almost 5% of light speed) after whipping around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way!.

Here's an excerpt from the article.
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Rogue planets could be hurtling through space at speeds approaching 30-million-miles-per-hour--nearly 5 percent the speed of light — launched in slingshot fashion by the extreme gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole believed to be at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, scientists have calculated.

"These warp-speed planets would be some of the fastest objects in our galaxy. If you lived on one of them, you'd be in for a wild ride from the center of the galaxy to the universe at large," said astrophysicist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The hypothetical phenomenon occurs when an orbiting planet's star is sucked into Milky Way's supermassive black hole and the planet is catapulted away before entering the black hole's event horizon.

Another scenario involves a dual star system, in which one star is swallowed up by the black hole and its twin is ejected away, carrying with it any orbiting planets.

Astronomers have already observed stars careening through the galaxy at high velocities as a result of the dual star scenario. The first such star was observed seven years go leaving the Milky Way at a speed of 1.5 million miles per hour, UKPA reported.





Here's two other articles on the same subject.

Planets Could Travel Along with Rogue ‘Hypervelocity’ Stars, Spreading Life Throughout the Universe

Rogue Planets Could be Habitable

So, where's the story in all this?

Well, first of all, it explains one possible reason why the star Bellus and its planet, Zyra, were wandering through space in When Worlds Collide.





Obviously the theory above doesn't claim that wandering stars with orbiting planets would always be hyper-accelerated, so the relatively slow velocity we see in When Worlds Collide is entirely possible.

But what if a star about the size of the Sun, which had an Earth-sized planet orbiting it that was the home and advanced race, actually passed through our Solar System at a relatively safe distance from all the planets.

How long would it take for this rogue star system — which we'll call Stella Vega (which is Latin for "a star that wanders") — to travel the full circumference of Pluto's obit . . . 36,000,000,000 miles?

Well, since 36,000,000,000 miles divided by 30,000,000 mph is 1200 hours, then 1,200 hours divided by 24 hours is 50 days.

With that in mind, picture this.

A star and it's orbiting planet are rushing through the outer edge of the Solar System, and it will be headed back out into the void in just one month and 20 days.





During that time, mankind is stunned when we’re contacted by the inhabitants of the Earth-like planet in the rogue star system, and we establish friendly communications with this advanced, remarkably humanoid race.

These aliens use their awesome technology to tap into all the databases on Earth and absorb every scrap of information they can acquire during their brief 30-million-mph flyby.

Why do they do this? Well, that’s obvious.

The sad fact is that these aliens can never travel to other planets and meet the beings who live there because their own star system is passing all the others at 5% the speed of light!

In other words, they're effectively isolated from the galaxy by the simple fact that their planet is rushing by everything so rapidly, even their fastest starships can't slow down enough to land and meet the inhabitants of the worlds they encounter!

And even if they could land on a world they were streaking by, their home planet would quickly leave them behind, stranded on the alien planet! Baring the discovery of faster-than-light propulsion, it's highly unlikely their spacecraft would be fast enough to overtake their planet and allow the crew to return home!





But in this hypothetical situation I'm describing, the Stella Vagan's awesome technology allows them easily hack into our computer systems and collect vast amounts of information.

In the fictional situation I'm describing, these brilliant aliens are eager to repay mankind for the rare gift of new knowledge they've acquire during their lonely journey. And just to show their gratitude, they're willing to share a treasure trove of information from their own culture and technology.

Add to this the fact that the millions of inhabitants on Stella Vaga enthusiastically apply their own genius to solve some of Earth's problems, and they offer their solutions. The planet's inhabitants embrace this new challenge, and they hope to be as much help to mankind as possible before the communications link between the worlds becomes more difficult to maintain because of the increasing distance between them.





During the 50 days while Stella Vaga passes through the solar system, millions of interpersonal relationships would be created between humans and Vagans who transmit message to each other.

Sadly, all the members of both species know the ability to converse with their new friends is doomed to end eventually — and they can never have any physical contact!

One aspect of the advanced technology which the Stella Vagans share with Earth is the propulsion system they’ve developed over the last few decades, a spacecraft capable of reaching a speed of 15 million mph — which is 2.5% the speed of light.





They hope to eventually improve the efficiency so that it will equal or surpass the velocity of their hyper-accelerate star system and finally make it possible for the entire population of migrate to a world like Earth!

(Guys, here comes the best part of this concept!)

When the supercomputers on Stella Vaga upload the work of renowned scientist Miguel Alcubierre — a Mexican theoretical physicist — they discover an improved model of the formula which governs the way their propulsion system works.

This next part of my story isn’t science fiction. It’s science fact! Here’s what I found on the website called EarthSky.
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Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible within the laws of General Relativity.

So, what does that mean? Imagine the distance between two points is 10 meters (33 feet). If you are standing at point A and can travel one meter per second, it would take 10 seconds to get to point B. However, let’s say you could somehow compress the space between you and point B so that the interval is now just one meter. Then, moving through spacetime at your maximum speed of one meter per second, you would be able to reach point B in about one second.

In theory, this approach does not contradict the laws of relativity since you are not moving faster than light in the space around you. Alcubierre showed that the warp drive from “Star Trek” was in fact theoretically possible!
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This startling revelation causes the Stella Vagans to modify the propulsion system on one of the prototypes they’ve built, and they conduct a test flight which proves the starship can travel at 10% of light speed, just as Miguel Alcubierre theory proposes — which is a velocity of 67,061,662 mph.





As the rogue star system reaches the far edge of the solar system, the Stella Vagans launch a fleet of re-engineered starships back towards Earth. Leaving the speeding star system at over 60 million miles an hour, the starships race towards Earth at 30 million mph (cancelling half the planet's velocity away from Earth), and arriving in just 108 hours, or 4 1/2 days!





(I’m not making this up, guys. I did my homework. But if anybody finds a mistake in my calculations, please let me know. )

The Stella Vagans present us with all except one of the ships in the fleet, as a gift to express their gratitude for giving them the ability to escape from their rogue star system after being trapped on it for thousands of years!

They're also hoping we'll build more of the ships so that human's can visit Stella Vaga — as well as the planet in another star system they'll eventually migrate to.

The crew of the ship that will be returning to Stella Vaga with all the Vagans who brought the fleetto us offers to transport a group of carefully selected scientists from Earth back to Stella Vaga for an extended visit!

So, this wildly imaginative (and totally original) story has a happy ending, along with the potential for numerous sequels.
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~ By God, if this post doesn’t inspire a flurry of replies from the intelligent members of All Sci-Fi, I'll be very surprised!

Hey, what other sci-fi message board would offer such a great idea for it’s members to enjoy and offer their own thoughts about!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Yet another exciting and intriguing story idea from you, Bruce. It's original and uplifting.

A film or TV mini-series of your concept would offer a special/visual FX extravaganza!

And I love the idea of having two different civilizations contact one another and try to annihilate each other.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Must be the planet I was born on.

Farscape: So Creighton, do the people of your world have wars with other planets?

John Creighton: Naw, we haven't achieved space travel to travel to other worlds, so we just kick each other's butt on Earth.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

From author Bill Warren.

"George Pal's When Worlds Collide is modestly produced, and never comes up to the level of excitement implied by the title. But it is a good, workmanlike film, better than its reputation during the 1960s and 1970s indicated."

~ A rather harsh assessment of this film. Given the fact that George hardly was allocated a lavish budget for such an epic movie, and given the level of special effects technology in the 1950s, this remains an impressive achievement even today.

"The novel When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer was very popular, and a sequel, After Worlds Collide, soon appeared. Paramount acquired the property as a possible vehicle for Cecil B. DeMille, and extensive preparations were made."

Given the status in the film industry of the legendary DeMille, he'd have most likely been able to secure the robust financing to create spectacular special effects required for the film's premise.

"The End of the World" was the title that the studio intended to use.

~ Whew! Glad that didn't make it to the silver screen.

A number of memos and proposals were made from Paramount's original pre-production plans for the film.

"One of the most interesting notes was that two pictures be made, one dealing with the escape from Earth, the other with the arrival on the new world. The novelty of this idea cannot be over-estimated. Motion pictures have never done such a thing before.

The writer goes on to to say, if both scripts were prepared before any shooting was done, the company would be all assembled, a somewhat longer shooting schedule could be arranged, and the making of the second picture would be extremely economical from every cost standpoint."

~ This is indeed a revolutionary approach to film making for any major studio in the 1950s. The Salkinds would do this when they produced Superman & Superman II decades later.

"Another suggestion was that the destruction of the world occupy only about the first third of the film, with the remainder dealing with the adventures of the survivors on the new planet."

"A further idea proposed that instead of two wandering worlds, one of which destroys the Earth and the other of which it replaces it, only one pass through the solar system, taking out the Earth, while the survivors head for Venus, which was presumed to be in a geological state not unlike that of The Lost World — a place of steaming jungles, huge dinosaurs and primitive Tarzan-like men. It has been suggested that one of these men might be made the hero of the story.

The third suggestion was that the new planet be populated by a race of very brilliant men, who could speak English and would live underground."

~ These studio memo ideas are truly awful! I would guess that even in this era when the film was being discussed that scientists could give you some valid explanations as to the conditions on Venus. Not habitable at all.

~The race of underground geniuses who speak our lingo sounds like one of those atrocious B science fiction movies that were produced on the cheap.

[Bud Brewster]

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Before watching When Worlds Collide recently, I did what I often do prior to watching a classic — I find something new and cool about the feature.

Here's what I found today on Wikipedia about the original novel.
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It was first published as a six-part monthly serial (September 1932-February 1933) in Blue Book magazine, illustrated by Joseph Frank.
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Inspired by that fascinating fact, I did some cyber-digging and found the covers of all six Blue Book magazines which carried When Worlds Collide. None of them actually feature an illustration from the novel, but they are beautiful anyway!

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

[scotpens]

[Pow]

The basis of science fiction is postulating things that do not exist currently as one day existing. Also, it is fiction.

I found "Quarantine" intriguing as it explored an unconventional path for the future instead of merely showing us the cliche futuristic domed cities, flying cars, and ray blasters.

You can, of course, dislike psychic based stories and not believe in them at all.

And I certainly did not find the story of the wealthy & powerful saving their asses and escaping the earth now returning to start their exact same arrogant, ruthless, power grab games "rubbish" at all. It plays out as all to realistic if the circumstances of this episode ever came about.

[Pow]

From Bill Warren:

None of Pal's Paramount films were very expensive; it's unlikely that any of them (except for Houdini) had a budget much over a million dollars. Yet he still managed to make them look like epics, which is a major achievement.

Because the budget was relatively small, most scenes of world devastation had to be suggested by stock footage, and by a couple of effects shots of New York City being flooded.

When Worlds Collide is a straightforward narrative with few side issues intruding. John Hoyt's Stanton is a particularly obvious cliche: the odious and symbolically crippled millionaire. However, Hoyt is excellent in the role. The rest of the cast is serviceable.

Director Rudolph Mate's handling of the movie was basically constrained by the script, the budget, and the necessity of limited setups for the special effects to be inserted. But the picture whips along, and at 83 minutes, there is very little time to be bored. The actual planetary collision is an anticlimax. When the survivors land on Zyra, they walk down the ramp to a totally unsatisfactory matte painting.

Pal had planned to shoot a miniature for the landing sequence, but when Paramount insisted that the film be previewed at once, he used the Chesley Bonestell painting intended as a guide for the miniature as a matte painting.

Reviews at the time were favorable but unenthusiastic.

Although it's an entertaining film, and is still impressive and interesting, When Worlds Collide is inferior to the Pal SF film which followed, his best movie, War of the Worlds.

[Bud Brewster]

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Bill short-changes the movie, in my opinion.

When you consider how far above 90% of the science fiction movies made in 1950 this movie (and Pal's other films) are, it seems unfair to use phrase like "John Hoyt's Stanton is a particularly obvious cliche" — and — "The rest of the cast is serviceable."

Having just watched it recently in All Sci-Fi's Friday Live Chat I can honestly say that this movie is still a true masterpiece.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)