SIHA 2020

inside the vivarium; Imogen Poots (left), alien (right)

Back in March, I began my annual search (SIHA) for an interesting film about space aliens. I later abandoned all hope of finding a new (in 2020) interesting depiction of aliens and decided to award a retro-SIHA for the best Hollywood aliens of the 1950s. But first...

 

Vivarium

...sadly, it is often the best movies that get the least hype. ¾ of the way through 2020, I finally began seeing Vivarium on some lists of good science fiction films for 2020 (example). My imagination began running wild when I saw descriptions of Vivarium as a film about an alien child being raised by a human couple.

Vivarium poster

The Horror

My interest cooled when I learned that Vivarium is some kind of fantasy horror flick, not what I would count as science fiction.

Grendels in 2014

After seeing director Lorcan Finnegan's comments on the film, I lost interest in actually seeing Vivarium. 

 

However, I still love the idea of our world being inhabited by aliens who most people are unaware of. That plot element plays a major role in the Exode Saga where aliens such as the Grendels have long been visiting Earth.

Mega-sized Krell technology.

Retro-SIHA

My favorite science fiction aliens in a movie from the 1950s are the long-dead Krell of Altair IV in Forbidden Planet. A copy of the movie screenplay from 1954 is available here.

The screenplay included the "prediction" that humans would first land on the Moon at the end of the 21st century. Many of the old science fiction stories failed to anticipate the government-funded Apollo project that put men on the Moon in 1969. Some speculative fiction writers imagined privately funded efforts to reach the Moon, and maybe that was what Irving Block and Allen Adler were thinking would be Humanity's path to the Moon when they wrote their story about interstellar travel.

United Planets Cruiser C-57-D lands on Altair IV.
What is fictional science and technological basis
of the mysterious blue force-field that allows
the interstellar spaceship to gently land on planets?

Another darling technology of the Golden Age of science fiction was the spaceship powered by atomic energy. In the imagined future of Block and Adler, "atomic propulsion" was perfected by the year 2200 and that allowed humans to visit the other planets of the Solar System.

It offends the sensibilities of science fiction story tellers that spaceships have a speed limit in our universe. Block and Adler imagined a future in which quanto-gravitic hyper-drive allowed space cruiser C-57-D to travel from Earth to Altair in just one year.

Inside the Krell power-plant.
Twenty cubic miles of fusion
reactors, all self-repairing and
over 200,000 years old.

I like the idea that Altair IV, the planet where the events of Forbidden Planet takes place, was not the home world of the Krell. The star Altair is only about a billion years old and depictions for the film of the land on Altair IV make it look like a world too young to have evolved its own plants and animals. Maybe some day we will have a sequel to Forbidden Planet that takes us deeper into the galaxy where the core worlds of the Krell Empire can be found and some artificial life remnants of Krell civilization still reside.

Asimov's Influence

By the time I first watched Forbidden Planet, I had read Isaac Asimov's stories about travel across the galaxy using hyperdrive and I was also familiar with his positronic robot stories. One of the ideas explored by Asimov in his fiction was that there might be strange effects of hyperdrive on human brain function. This concept is front and center in the screenplay for Forbidden Planet. The crew members of cruiser C-57-D must receive special drug injections when they make the transition between hyperspace and conventional space.

                                              Related: see spaceoline.

 

part of the screenplay

When first watching Forbidden Planet, I had also previously seen teleportation in Star Trek, and the idea of landing your interstellar spaceship on a planet seemed gauche. What is the magical technology that allows cruiser C-57-D to gently settle onto the surface of Altair IV? 

 

image source

Anti-gravity
I suppose it is anti-gravity technology, but for some reason the screenplay depicts the spaceship as turning off its anti-gravity system just before landing C-57-D on Altair IV. There must be one system for creating artificial gravity for the crew while in deep space and another system for letting the cruiser gently land on a planet.

Pop-Psychology

In the Ekcolir Reality.

The crew of cruiser C-57-D has been subjected to "conditioning lectures" and the ship's cook has had "shock treatment" during the long voyage to Altair. I've previously blogged about pop-psychology ideas like magically powerful hypnosis that crept into Golden Age science fiction stories. The screenplay for Forbidden Planet is full of such things.

Beyond the silly pop-psychology, another annoying aspect of Forbidden Planet is that cruiser C-57-D is a war ship equipped with gun ports and "blasters" and run with military precision by Commander J. J. Adams. The exploration and scientific research craft Belerephon visited Altair IV about 20 years previously and cruiser C-57-D is on a mission to investigate the fate of the Belerephon and its crew. 

 

                                                   First Contact

Dr. Edward Morbius, immune to the
mysterious "planetary force" that
killed all the rest of the crew
of the spaceship Belerephon

As soon as cruiser C-57-D is scanned by radar from the planet's surface, Commander Adams has the crew prepare to start blasting, just in case this is first contact with space aliens.

I understand that the USA had just gone through WWII and another war in Korea, but it is never explained why a war ship is sent to Altair IV. Sorry to disappoint fans of military science fiction, but the itchy finger of Commander J. J. Adams does not get to blast any aliens. 

 

Quickly following the radar scan comes a radio message from Dr. Edward Morbius, the only survivor from the crew of the Belerephon. Dr. Morbius is a philologist, and we have to wonder why the small crew of the Belerephon included a philologist. Apparently, it was because Morbius hated conditions on Earth and wanted to live on a new planet.

Robby

Dr. Morbius immediately tells Commander J. J. Adams that it is not safe for him to land cruiser C-57-D on Altair IV. Of course, the hard-headed Adams completely ignores this warning from Morbius, just as anyone responsible for the lives of his crew would do.

After landing on Altair IV, the high-ranking crew members of cruiser C-57-D step out on the surface and are met by a robot: Robby. Robby is a clunky robot that looks like a man in a rubber suit. Robby was built in the far future, sometime past the year 2200, with the help of super-advanced Krell technology, and this is the best robot that could be thrown together by Dr. Morbius?

To make a life-long companion for Alta,
Robby is gradually made into a sexbot.
Alternate movie poster in the Ekcolir Reality

I suppose I can understand that somebody at MGM wanted to add a bit of comic relief to this movie, thus we got the silly cook of cruiser C-57-D asking Robby to brew up 60 gallons of alcoholic beverages, but why did the movie poster show good ol' Robby carrying a woman, a scene that is not in the film?

What if a version of Forbidden Planet had been made in the Ekcolir Reality, a Reality in which women dominated the early days of science fiction? Imagine poor "Alta" Morbius (played by Anne Francis) growing up on Altair IV and facing the possibility of a long lonely life after her father dies. 

 

Dr. Kerby's mechanical geisha, Andrea

Imagine that in an alternate Reality, working with the help of the Krell teaching machine, Alta learns how to make good ol' Robby into her desired companion for life rather than the clunky robot delivered by MGM in our Reality. 

 

Sadly, human-robot sex was not going to be part of a movie in the 1950s of our Reality. However, in the 1960s, Star Trek brought us Dr. Roger Korby and his mechanical geisha, Andrea.

Wishing for Shore Leave

Sci Fi in 1954, before invention of the penis

After a year in deep space, the all-male crew of cruiser C-57-D are naturally hopeful that they might find some female companions on Altair IV. 

 

Alta in the Ekcolir Reality

The Girl Has A Gift

In the screenplay for Forbidden Planet, one of the crewmen of the spaceship immediately upon meeting the robot, asks Robby: "... which are you, male or female?". Apparently Robby does not need a penis because "he" does everything by "positronic transfiguration"!

As clunky as Robby appears, the robot has amazing abilities that stem from advanced Krell technology. For example, Robby can perform molecular analysis of substances and reproduce any particular molecular structure, in quantity. Thus, when the ship's cook needs a supply of alcohol, Robby can precisely reproduce the brand of liquor that the cook prefers. The soldiers from Earth are impressed: Robby has fantastic abilities that cannot be matched by Earthly science and technology.

image source

Commander Adams questions Dr. Morbius about the fate of the other members of the original scientific mission to Altair. Dr. Morbius explains that everyone else from the Belerephon crew were all killed, most of them torn to pieces by some unseen force. 

 

This is the point in the screenplay where the daughter of Dr. Morbius, Alta, walks on stage. Alta was born on Altair IV, then her mother died. Having only known her father, Alta is delighted to meet the soldiers from Earth. 

 

The Science of Unicorns

part of the Forbidden Planet screenplay

In the screenplay, Alta is soon showing off her pet tiger, a wild animal which is perfectly tame in her presence. The ship's doctor from cruiser C-57-D speculates that because Alta is a pure virgin, she has fantastic telepathic powers based upon the quantron waves that her brain produces.

Blasting the tiger.

With Alta the virgin holding their attention, none of the soldiers from cruiser C-57-D seem at all surprised that she has a pet tiger, two pet deer and a flock of birds that she can call with a whistle. Later in the script, we learn that there are also chimpanzees on Altair IV. Viewers of the film might have assumed that somewhere on Altair IV, away from the desert where Dr. Morbius lives, there are native lifeforms just like those of Earth. But how so, on such a young planet?

How can Krell "educator" technology be
compatible with a human brain? Answer.

Blasters 1, Science 0

In the screenplay, as soon as Alta (inevitably) falls in love with Commander Adams, Alta is depicted as no longer being able to telepathically control the tiger and it attacks. Adams destroys the tiger with his blaster. In the screenplay, it is suggested that Alta's ability to magically tame a tiger is just like the ability of Earthly virgins to tame unicorns.

Aliens: The Krell

the Krell laboratory

Finally, more than halfway through the screen play, Commander Adams discovers that for the past 20 years, Dr. Morbius has been studying and using the advanced alien technology of the Krell, which is all hidden underground. Dr. Morbius explains that 200,000 years ago, the Krell visited Earth and brought back to Altair IV various Earthly lifeforms such as tigers.

document display technology

The screenplay suggests that the Krell were almost crab-like, with broad bodies and with more than two arms and more than two legs. Dr. Morbius shows off some of the Krell technology, including a device that can display millions of pages of Krell documents. Morbius seems surprised that he can't find all of the microfilm that must hold the documents. The screenplay makes references to "tubes" still being the basis of Earthly high technology. Sadly, the future Earth depicted in Forbidden Planet, set in time beyond the year 2200, still had not discovered the transistor.

The Plastic Educator

the "mind reading" machine

Another Krell device, when attached to the head of Dr. Morbius, creates a small-scale replica of Alta when he thinks about her.

By repeated use of the Krell mind-reading technology, Dr. Morbius achieved a brain boost, thus allowing him to construct Robby the robot. By the time when I first saw Forbidden Planet, I had previously read Isaac Asimov's 1957 story "Profession". 

 

Krell technology

When he was writing, "Profession", I wonder if Asimov was influenced by having seen Forbidden Planet. In Asimov's story, the children of a future Earth were first provided with the ability to read and then later provided with technical skills by "learning machines" that directly modify the synapses inside human brains. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that nanites might be able to provide a method for rapid transfer of knowledge into a human brain.

Of course, all the Krell HiTek™ devices need power. Here is how the screenplay describes the output of the vast (20 cubic miles) underground Krell nuclear fusion power-plant: "... the number ten raised almost literally to the nth power of infinity!"

Just hours after the horrible
death of Dr. Morbius, Alta
blissfully weds the Commander.

When Dr. Morbius sleeps, his unconscious mind magically activates the Krell mind-reading technology and a "monster from his id" is materialized and attacks the crewmen of cruiser C-57-D. The crew fights back with "neutron disintegrator beams". According to the screenplay, Alta, asleep and "dreaming", is able to telepathically sense the danger that Commander Adams now faces.

The Unicorn Whisperer

The whole "monsters from the id" concept is enunciated by the ship's doctor who uses the Krell "educator device" to boost his own mental powers. 

 

death by the unconscious

The ship's doctor also explains that the Krell destroyed themselves, unable to control their own "thought projector" technology. Finally realizing the danger of Krell mind-reading technology, Dr. Morbius destroys the Krell power-plant, causing a nova-like explosion. With their astrogator dead, can cruiser C-57-D escape from the explosion?

 

Robby the robot saves the day and efficiently pilots C-57-D away from Altair IV before the planet is destroyed in the fusion reactor explosion. Alta and Adams return to Earth, where a million years in the future, Humanity will not make the same mistakes, having learned from the example of the Krell.

interstellar travel in 1956

I award a retro-SIHA to Forbidden Planet and the Krell. I would still like to see a sequel in which it is shown that the Krell were not destroyed by their unconscious thoughts and an artificial life remnant of their civilization still exists in the galaxy.

 

Related Reading: Asimov's synapsifier (1950).

                               SIHA 2019      SIHA 2021

                              Allen Adler in another Reality

Next: "Grean Fiction", a story inspired by Forbidden Planet

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