| Doppelgänger | |
|---|---|
 Film poster displaying the US title |
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| Directed by | Robert Parrish |
| Produced by | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson Donald James |
| Written by | Gerry Anderson Sylvia Anderson |
| Starring | Roy Thinnes Ian Hendry Patrick Wymark Lynn Loring |
| Music by | Barry Gray |
| Cinematography | John Read |
| Editing by | Len Walter |
| Studio | Century 21 Cinema |
| Distributed by | Rank Organisation Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 27, 1969 (US premiere) October 8, 1969 (UK premiere) |
| Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Doppelgänger is a 1969 British science-fiction film directed by Robert Parrish. The film was released in the United States as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, a title by which it is now better known.[1] The film's plot details how the crew of a spacecraft journey to a previously unknown planet on the far side of the Sun, only to seemingly find themselves returning back to the Earth. The storyline is similar to an hour-long episode of the Twilight Zone, entitled "The Parallel".
Contents |
Plot
The film begins with the discovery of a mysterious planet orbiting the Sun in a position directly opposite to Earth, an idea reminiscent of the "Antichthon" or "Counter-Earth" proposed by the ancient philosopher Philolaus. The European Space Exploration Council (EUROSEC), working in conjunction with NASA, assigns British astrophysicist John Kane (Ian Hendry) and American astronaut Colonel Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) to a mission to survey the unknown planet.
For their long voyage onboard their spacecraft, Kane and Ross are put into suspended animation and are maintained by a pair of machines controlling the functions of their hearts, lungs and kidneys, meaning that they will have no recollection of the journey. When they awaken, they begin to orbit the planet and conduct an initial survey. Finding that the planet has a breathable atmosphere but no trace of life, they decide to proceed with a surface landing. Suiting up, they go through an access tunnel to reach their lifting body lander, which slides out of the rear of the mothership.
As Kane and Glenn enter the atmosphere, the ship's controls begin to short out and malfunction. They lose all control of the craft, which clips the top of a mountain before crashing into rocky terrain. After the two men get clear of the burning wreckage, a suited figure transfers them to an unfamiliar, hovering ship, which turns out to be an air-sea rescue craft.
It would appear that the Kane and Glenn have somehow returned to Earth instead of landing on the other planet. They are discreetly returned to the space centre, but Kane dies from injuries that he sustained in the crash. Ross is grilled by the EUROSEC officials who accuse him of aborting the mission; he denies turning back, insisting that he and Kane did in fact arrive at the other planet, and that he cannot explain how he is now on Earth.
Eventually, Ross puts together a number of clues to arrive at the disturbing conclusion that this is not Earth at all, but that he is indeed on the planet he set out to find — a planet identical to Earth with the exception that it is a mirror image of its counterpart. At first, his wife Sharon (Lynn Loring) and colleagues at the space agency think that he is mad for claiming that signs, and even the layout of his apartment on the spaceport's base, are all backwards, but begins to persuade the EUROSEC director, Jason Webb (Patrick Wymark) that he is perfectly sane by easily reading documents and written directions shown as a reflection in a mirror. Webb is convinced when the base doctors take X-rays of Ross and discover that the layout of his internal organs is the reverse of theirs. Ross theorises that everything that is taking place on this planet is also occurring on his Earth, which would mean that the Ross of this world is experiencing the same events on the other side of the Sun.
It is decided that Ross should try to return to his Earth, and a spare shuttle is prepared in which Ross will return to the original spacecraft that brought him and Kane across the Solar System. There is a problem, however: if everything else runs backwards on this planet, there is a strong possibility that electrical polarity is also reversed. On the other hand, electricity may be universal, meaning that it has the same polarity on both worlds. With no definite answer, Ross and the others decide to take a gamble and reverse the polarity of the shuttle.
Naming the craft Doppelgänger (meaning "double" in German), Ross takes off and docks with the ship to retrieve its flight recorder. During the docking sequence, however, the electrical systems malfunction, indicating that electricity in fact has the the same polarity on both Earths. Ross loses contact with mission control as Doppelgänger detaches from the ship, hurtling towards the ground with the automatic approach system locked on. This disables all the other systems, meaning that Ross has no flight control as he descends, unable to communicate with the space centre, into the atmosphere. When ground control becomes aware of the situation, the autopilot is remotely disengaged, but it is too late, and the shuttle crashes into a second mission rocket. Ross is incinerated in the collision, which causes a chain reaction that completely destroys the space centre in a style typical of Gerry Anderson productions.
The final scene shows an elderly Jason Webb, long ago dismissed as the head of EUROSEC, in a mental institution and telling staff about the now decades-old events (all evidence was destroyed in the Doppelgänger disaster). In his dementia, he sees his reflection in a mirror mounted in front of a window. In an attempt to touch his mirror-self, he plunges through the mirror and window and falls to his death.
Crew
The film was produced by Gerry Anderson, best known for producing television series using the puppetry technique Supermarionation, indeed utilising many of his greatest techniques, primarily the use of models and pyrotechnics. It also has an innovative score by Barry Gray which, like the earlier Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, makes extensive use of an Ondes Martenot, particularly during the "sleeping astronauts" scene. However, the soundtrack is still unavailable. The success of this film led to Anderson producing live-action series for television, beginning with UFO, which recycled a number of props, actors and music from the film.[1]
Showings
Some UK television screenings of this movie have been derived from an incorrectly-prepared master.[1]
In order to create the illusion of a mirror-Earth — such as reversed writing and vehicles driving on the "wrong" side of the road — the film was shot as normal, but the mirror-Earth sequences were then subjected to an optical process known as "flop-over", which created the mirror-image effect. This proved to be much a quicker and cheaper technique than building sets and props with reversed elements and having to close roads in order to shoot sequences involving driving on the wrong side.
At some subsequent point prior to a UK TV screening, TV company staff viewed the print supplied by the film distributor and, not being familiar with the plot, concluded that the mirror-Earth sequences had been optically reversed in error. A second flop-over was applied to return the image to normal, and this went on to become the standard transmission version from that point onwards. This version, if screened, makes viewers think that a "mirror" Colonel Ross has landed on the "real" Earth.
DVD releases
The film has been released twice on DVD in the United States. A Region 2 version was released in September 2008, courtesy of Universal Pictures.
References
- ^ a b c Doppelgänger at Fanderson
External links
- Doppelgänger at the Internet Movie Database
- Doppelgänger at Allmovie
- Doppelgänger at Rotten Tomatoes
- Doppelgänger at the TCM Movie Database
- Doppelgänger at Fanderson, the official Gerry Anderson appreciation society
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