Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin' 60s - Volume 6: Spaced Out Magic Carpet Rides by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

“Now we know how she feeds at least”

The next morning, Brockman enters the cabin and sees Paul who appears to be asleep on duty. He tries to wake Paul, who slumps over in his chair. Brockman then pronounces Paul dead while Laura goes back to check on the alien passenger. Paul's wrist shows evidence of a wound and bleeding. Suddenly Laura's scream alerts the others. The crew then observe the alien lying on her back deeply asleep and apparently satiated with a trickled of blood on the corner of her mouth. It appears as if “she's gorged herself with fresh blood and now she's digesting like a boa.” Brockman observes, "now we know how she feeds at least." Allan declares that "she's a monster" and simply wants to destroy their deadly passenger.

Brockman proposes another course of action and it involves considerations that may very well apply to our own civilisation when we eventually come into contact with an extraterrestrial alien species:

“How can we expect her to conform to our ideas of proper behaviour. She's not

necessarily aware that she has done wrong, wrong - from our point of view that is, but she's much more than just an animal. She comes from a highly evolved planet,

technologically evolved, yes. But what about their social structure? Moral concepts

as we recognise them maybe non-existent in their society. They may be some sort

of intellectual insect which…. probably feed on the blood of some lower form of

animal life on that planet as we do on ours.”

Brockman then suggests as a temporary solution to their dilemma that they feed her with blood plasma.

“Into the wastes of outer space; it's a fitting grave for an

astronaut.”

After Laura reports the situation to Farraday, Paul Grant's body is given a space burial service. Allan is disturbed by the fact that there seemed to be no sign of a struggle when Paul was killed. Brockman believes that a form of anesthetic in the alien’s saliva allowed her to feed without any resistance from Paul. Allan seems to be unconvinced and feels that something else was involved.

“It sounds ghoulish.”

For a time the alien is successfully fed on the ship’s supply of blood plasma and if that was to run out then the crew will resort to using transfusions of their own blood to supply her with the nutrition she requires.

Later, while Brockman records his notes on tape, his attention is suddenly drawn to the presence of the alien standing at the entrance to her room. The strange buzzing sound is also emanating from that direction. The alien seems to appear and then disappear like a phantom as she approaches ever closer toward the commander. It is quite evident that the alien is exerting a kind of hypnotic power over his will and senses. Brockman struggles against this force and tries to draw his gun and point it at the alien but drops it as he mentally succumbs and sinks into the illuminated vortex of her eyes.

“Makes me sick even to look at her.”

The next day with Brockman dead, Allan decides to secure the alien by tying her down securely to her bunk-bed. He is now fully convinced that she hypnotised his crew-mates before killing them and consuming their blood. In accordance with Farraday’s orders, Brockman's body is to be returned for autopsy.

During the next sleep cycle, Laura lies in her bunk asleep in the same section of the cabin where the alien is secured. While Alan is reading a book in the forward section of the cabin, the alien begins to awaken. Employing a power which seems to emanate from her mind and through her eyes, she manages to burn through the ropes securing her arms to the chair. The alien vampire’s shadow then passes over a sleeping Laura as she moves towards her next prey, Allan.

Laura suddenly awakes, gets up and notices the ropes limply lying on the empty bunk-bed. As she slowly makes her way to the control room, a wet slurping sound can be heard signalling the vile activity taking place out of sight. Laura’s worst fears are about to be confirmed by the shocking vision from hell that meets her eyes: the alien crouched over Allan and greedily feeding vampire-like on his blood. It is a sight that is at the same time both terrible and sensual. Gone is the bold red colour of the alien’s form-fitting outfit. It is replaced by something closer to skin-tone suggesting nudity, something sexual or perhaps reflecting the fact that she is drained of nourishment and needs replenishment?

Laura and the alien engage in a physical tussle during which Laura manages to scratch the alien's back. Her adversary notices with horror her own green blood on her fingers and runs off shrieking – the only sound we have heard coming from her lips.

Allan is on the floor gradually regaining consciousness while Laura applies a bandage to the wound on his wrist. When Allan declares that he is alright, he and Laura go to check on the alien predator. They soon find her laying on a bed, dead with a pool of green blood on the floor below her outstretched arm. Allan deduces the reason why she wouldn't allow the blood sample to be taken from her: she's a haemophiliac and would bled to death.

“To them we're just animals to be eaten. We can't let these

creatures breed on earth.”

After the Oceano eventually manages to land on Earth, Laura opens a cabinet to discover that it is filled with red pulsating eggs lying in a green gel. Allan conjectures that the alien is of royal decent and is possibly a queen of her species and “that's why they sent her. She wasn't just an ambassador, she was a queen. A queen bee. Maybe this is how their society is set up. A queen who does all the breeding. Or maybe their planet was dying and they just sent her to bring her kind to Earth.” Allan is convinced that they must destroy the eggs while Laura reminds him that it’s “not for us to decide. Scientists from all over the world have been waiting for us to bring back something living. They'll keep them under control.” On this shaky note of faith, suddenly more eggs are discovered when another cabinet is opened. Perhaps there are eggs secreted all over the ship.

“You brought back something unique and marvellous from

another world - you can be very proud.”

“But doctor, they're deadly!”

With a disturbing lack of decontamination procedures, Farraday bustles in with his staff to retrieve the eggs after brushing off any objections to retaining them for study. The implications for the future of humanity are suggested by a close-up of the red pulsating eggs on a tray being borne by one of the staff…….

Points of Interest

Queen of Blood (a.k.a. Planet of Blood) is a 1966 science fiction horror film produced by George Edwards and Samuel Z. Arkoff and directed by Curtis Harrington. The film is based on the screenplay for the earlier Soviet feature film Mechte Navstrechu (A Dream Come True). Special effects footage from that film, along with footage from the Soviet science fiction film, Nebo Zovyot (Battle Beyond the Sun) were used.

A Dream Come True was about a queen from another planet and Harrington wanted his film to be about a vampire in outer space so he made that character a female to match the Russian footage.

Queen of Blood was released by American International Pictures as a double feature with Blood Bath.

Director Harrington made Queen of Blood back-to-back with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which also incorporated footage from the Soviet films. Both films starred Basil Rathbone.

The film was shot at Major Studios in downtown Los Angeles and was shot in six days largely due to the use of a non-union crew who were required to work long hours.

In the film the alien vampire paralyses her victims with her glowing eyes, and employs a beam of heat from her eyes to burn through a rope that has been used to secure her arms. The effect of the alien vampire's glowing eyes was achieved by directing pencil-thin beams of light into Florence Marly's eyes.

If you feel that the plot is somewhat familiar then you’ll recall It! The Terror From Beyond Space made several years earlier and the later sci-fi classic, Alien made in 1979.

During the first half of the film, Queen of Blood recycles footage - mainly long shots - from Soviet movies and incorporates American segments and new dialogue to produce something which does work together and has some degree of coherence. The Soviet footage is a testament to the Russian film makers of the time but its overuse during the first half of the Queen of Blood tends to slow the tempo down quite a bit. The best part of the film is the second half leading up to and featuring the onboard scenes as the crew of the spaceship contend with their deadly passenger and the overall atmosphere surrounding the voyage back from Mars.

A novelization of the film, written by Charles Nuetzel, was published by Greenleaf Classics. The cover illustration featured a nude Florence Marly as the alien queen.

Haemophilia which the alien vampire queen was afflicted with, became known as the "royal disease" because it is an hereditary disorder once common among the royalty of Europe who often married one another and were often related.

“One should not be shocked by anything we find out there.”

(Farraday)

No truer word may be spoken when it comes to encountering ‘intelligent’ life outside of our own planet. When we do eventually encounter extraterrestrial life, we may need to dispense with our previous preconceptions about what that life will be like. For example;

• How reality is perceived: May be vastly different (incomprehensible?) to our