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

(Voice) Now Mr Webb, based on your testimony and the de-briefing sessions with Commander Ross, after three weeks the Phoenix supposedly arrived at the alleged new planet whereupon Ross and Kane were revived. Scans of the planet were then made that indicated the presence of clouds, an atmosphere along with a “mass and gravitational pull, similar to Earth.” Apparently there was oxygen present and evidence of a seascape and vegetation but no evident sign of life. Such conditions do somewhat remind one of what planet, Mr Webb?

(Webb) Yes, yes. Remarkably earth-like. But remember, it was suspected to be a twin of our planet!.

(chair swivels)

(Voice) What a remarkable coincidence, Mr Webb! What are the odds of an earth-like planet appearing in our solar system, its existence completely unknown to us until now when it was miraculously discovered by the Sun Probe One mission? And then you magically leap into action and concoct an insanely expensive mission to visit this supposed new planet.

Now here we come to the important missing piece in this cosmological puzzle you appear to have crafted: The inconclusive findings of life. There seemed nothing for it but for the two astronauts to make a surface landing in their shuttle craft, Dove to investigate the planet.

According to Ross, during the descent the Dove sustained damaged in a thunderstorm and crashed in a mountainous area, during which Kane was seriously injured. Now here’s a really pertinent bit of the story in which Ross maintained that he had the initial impression of an alien craft approaching their position. Real Twilight Zone stuff. But alas, the two astronauts were picked up by…...by whom, Mr Webb.

(Webb, Sighing) A human search and rescue team.

(Voice) Exactly where, Mr Webb?

(Webb) mNear Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

(Voice) Where, more broadly, Mr Webb?

(Webb, In a resigned tone of voice) Earth.

(Voice) And lo and behold, the two men are flown back to the Space Centre. Interesting that all communication had thus far been conducted in English. You do find that interesting, Mr Webb? And all this happening in just three weeks on a mission that was supposed to last six weeks!

(Webb) Look, after the return of the two men, myself and our security personnel, Matt Neuman and Lise Hartman conducted an interrogation of commander Ross, much like what I’m being forced to endure right now. Ross categorically denied that he had aborted the mission.

(Voice) Yes, Mr Webb, we are aware of this and the unusual results of Ross’ electronic medical check. Had you been caught unawares? We are also aware that you quickly ordered a total security blackout on news of the astronauts’ return to earth. By the way, we congratulate you on this as the less the world knows of this event, the better. Which of course the world never will know about. Of course, your motives for doing so are quite transparent. Even your opposite number in the Soviet Academy of Space Science agreed to cooperate. Just how far did your scheme extend? Only authorised personnel were permitted to have access to the results until the computers had been thoroughly rechecked. It seems that you were quite desperate to cover all your bases, Mr Webb. What a web you did weave!

(Webb) Very funny. Of course, it was all unexpected. From the interrogation it was determined that Ross believed that he and Kane did not turn back, that they completed their mission and that they reached the new planet. However, Ross did concede that the entire mission would have had to have taken six weeks to complete and the fact that they returned after only three weeks, well….he couldn’t explain it. Nor could Ross explain that he and Kane had crashed not on the new planet , but had in fact crashed on Earth. The conclusion therefore was that they had indeed turned back. And the question remained: “Why? Why? Why!”

(chair swivels)

(Voice) I think we see where you’re going with this, Mr Webb. An unimaginably costly bogus mission seemingly having failed in its objective requiring a scapegoat to take the fall. If he aborted the mission and turned back that would explain his denials. The other possibility would be that Ross genuinely believed he had made the journey to this supposed new planet, and was as surprised as everyone else that he had landed back on Earth. Whatever the scenario, it would appear to anyone that Ross had turned back and aborted the mission, causing its ‘failure.’ Voila, your scapegoat! What does disturb us about this convenient (to you) scenario is that Ross was considered to have been “the world's most experienced astronaut and the leading scientist.” So, why had something like this happened?

(Webb) Look, you’ve got this all twisted up! I had so much at stake and so much to lose for the mission to fail. “The Council felt railroaded into this project from the start.” I firmly believed they were “going to turn like a pack of wolves” when they found out it had failed.

(Voice) Interesting choice of words, Mr Webb, “railroaded.” Oh, we think you really had a lot to gain from your mission’s failure. At that stage, no-one from the Council knew what had happened and you weren’t about to enlighten them until you had your hands on the evidence for what happened in the form of the Phoenix’s flight recorder. When Kane died of his injuries, where were you, Mr Webb?

(Webb) I went to visit him hoping he could shed some light on what had happened.

(Voice) How convenient! You were the last person to see him alive. The only other person apart from Ross who could give a first hand account of what happened and he rather fortuitously dies - in your presence, if you don’t mind!. Isn’t it true, Mr Webb that the Phoenix shuttle was programmed to crash with the intention of causing the death of the two astronauts thus eliminating any possibility that either one could provide any information pertaining to any element of this criminal scheme of yours? How surprised and alarmed you must have been that both men actually survived forcing you to act quickly and adopt another course of action to protect yourself and your interests.

(Webb) You must be insane! Of course I strenuously deny such an absurd accusation.

(Chair swivels)

(Voice) Tell us, Mr Webb. What kind of substances did you arrange to have administered to Ross and Kane. Psychotropic or hallucinogenic? Something experimental? Certainly not just sedatives or medication to maintain bodily functions during their hibernation. And what about during their medical examinations after their retrieval from the crash site?

(Webb) What the hell do you mean? This is a new one you’ve flung at me!

(Voice) Oh, we are merely referring to the mounting evidence of Ross’ altered perceptions of reality, Mr Webb. His claim that according to his perception people were driving on the wrong side of the road and his inability to read printed text because it appeared backwards to him. Ross became convinced that everything had changed and was reversed. The only conclusion for him was that he was indeed on the mysterious unknown planet, where everything is a mirror image of his own planet. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Way out there crazy astronaut dumped on dippy doppelganger world! A great change of tack on your part, Mr Webb.

(Webb) Wait! You think I orchestrated this alteration of Ross’ perceptions of reality? I didn’t even believe Ross at first. I believed that he believed it! I only became convinced when Ross demonstrated his ability to read reflected text. What about that, eh? And …..and Kane's postmortem results showing that that his internal organs were all on the wrong side of his body. What does that say about your stupid theory?

(Voice) Mr Webb. You know as well as we do that people can be trained and conditioned to accomplish all sorts of seemingly unbelievable things. As for machines….you yourself expressed distrust towards them...that is until they serve to provide confirmation of what you want to be seen and heard. In fact Mr Webb, you went on to feed and encourage Ross’ theories about two parallel Earths and of his counterpart (and yours) from this world experiencing similar events back on his Earth.

(Webb) Yes! Yes! He proposed “a complete duplication of matter, a situation where every single atom, every molecule….is duplicated here, except that it's in reverse.” According to Ross, the two planets have a “physical connection” whereby “one is the mirrored image of the other,” actually existing and not merely a reflection. “For every person on one planet, there is a double on the other” – doppelgangers, if you will.

(Chair swivels)

(Voice) Listen to yourself, Mr Webb. You exp ct us to believe that you had come around to accepting such a preposterous notion as that when anyone hearing of such an idea would conclude that the proponent of such idiocy is a madman? Which, by the way was most likely your intention all along.

(Webb) What about my proposal to get Ross to retrieve the flight recorder from the orbiting Phoenix and then return to earth with the evidence?

(Voice) Oh, yes. You would have liked to get your hands on that for obvious reasons. But in case you couldn’t, other shall we say….arrangements were made to ensure the truth was covered up and any potential problems made to go away – before you yourself went away with all that you managed to swindle out of deep pockets of the mission’s backers.

Now, Mr Webb, let’s wind things up with EUROSEC’s construction of a new Dove craft that Ross jokingly christened ‘Doppelganger.’ Here’s the real fail-safe part of plan designed albeit somewhat on the run to eliminate all traces of evidence pertaining to your diabolical scheme. In order for the Dove to be able to dock with the Phoenix you stated in a previous session with us that the controls had to be reversed. Now what happened after Ross’ spacecraft launched?

(Webb) Oh, very well. When Ross attempted to dock with Phoenix the Dove’s electrical systems malfunction thereby crippling the spacecraft and causing it to reenter the atmosphere and fall back towards the Space Centre. With extensive damage to all systems, Ross was unable to effect a landing at EUROSEC. Communications between Launch Control and the Dove failed. Eurosec wanted Ross to maintain automatic approach system unaware of Ross’ situation which required a cut to the automatic approach system. The result was Ross’ craft crashed into a stationary spacecraft killing him and obliterating a large portion of the Space Centre.

(Voice) Yes indeed, Mr Webb. As well as all evidence and records of Ross's presence on the non-existent doppelganger-Earth having been rather conveniently lost in the disaster. So, you see, Mr Webb, there is absolutely no evidence of any mysterious planet where everything is reversed and is populated by doppelgangers of everyone on our own planet. There is, however plenty of evidence to suggest that this entire mission of yours was nothing more than a wealth and power generating scheme designed for your benefit and whoever else might have been associated with it.

(Webb) Who in the hell are you people? Why don’t you show yourselves? Why are you perpetrating this farcical charade?

(Voice) ‘We,’ Mr Webb? We never show ourselves but we do exist the world over - in the so-called democratic West, in theocratic and autocratic regions, in all major academic, technological, political, military and corporate entities. Put simply, we love the status-quo of the current arrangements, despite the perceived episodes of chaos and conflict along with global inequality and environmental degradation. It all suits our purposes and interests very nicely. What doesn’t suit us, Mr Webb are efforts such as yours which serve to disrupt the status-quo. It matters not if you are a US President, a corporate heavy weight, or a powerful tech entrepreneur. If you get in our way and disrupt the staus-quo, we will step on you.

Now, just imagine if you will, the people of this planet suddenly discovering that there is a twin planet of Earth that is inhabited by doppelgangers of each and every person here. Imagine the chaos and disruption that would ensue. If that other planet is indeed a mirror image of Earth and its inhabitants, no doubt the same kind of dislocation and chaos would occur there. If we cannot seem to get on very well with each other on our own little world, how could we expect to get on with a twin planet of our doppelgangers? There is simply too much at stake for two such planets to even acknowledge each other’s existence.

Somewhere on this twin planet there is a ‘WE’ who are possibly at this moment conducting this same interrogation with a certain individual called Jason Webb in which the same conclusions are being arrived at. No, Mr Webb, neither planet will acknowledge the existence of the other on the grounds of…..maintaining global status-quo. Neither of the planets’ populations will ever know anything pertaining to the matter because there is simply nothing to know.

(Webb) So you by telling me this you are in fact admitting the truth of what I said concerning the existence of the other planet…..

(chair swivels)

(Voice) ‘Truth,’ Mr Webb? WE determine what is true. The planet does not exist, has never existed. The entire mission to locate it was fabricated by you for your own personal ends. All those who were associated with the project both here and abroad are either dead, gone missing, or have been silenced or discredited. Which leaves you, Mr Webb. Given your status and rather influential contacts, we have no option but to use alternative measures to neutralise you. It will not serve our interests to have too much attention drawn to us. We must warn you, however that your psyche and reputation will take a bit of a hammering. In the end though, you’ll simply become a non-person, along with I suppose your presumed doppelganger?

(Webb) You can’t get away with this!!! The truth is always destined to prevail eventually! It was my fate and destiny to be responsible for such a remarkable discovery! Only I had the will to realise it!

(Voice) ‘Destined’ Mr Webb? Oh, I see. You like everyone else has been fed a diet of sanctimonious cliches and life-lessons via education, the media and entertainment industry, politics and so on concerning destiny and God-forbid, ‘free will.’ It is mankind’s destiny to do such and such. Or, it is in our hands to shape our own destinies by the exercising of our free-will and blah, blah etc, etc., Or the old chestnut: ‘The future is what we make of it.’ It is WE who have been largely responsible for encouraging all that tripe, I’m afraid Mr Webb. In actual fact, the ‘truth’ is what WE say it is and yours and everyone else’s fate and destinies are in OUR hands to shape as we will. And please Mr Webb, don’t get us started on the so-called ‘Soul.’ It is no surprise that most people are so willing to sell their ‘souls’ in exchange for power, wealth, longevity, beauty, comfort and convenience. By so doing, WE in fact come to eventually own all of their ‘souls.’ After many more sessions with us – and there will be many more – you’ll find our what we mean by all of this Mr Webb…..

The spotlight suddenly goes out leaving a crestfallen Jason Webb in total darkness.

(Forward to some years later)

There in a wheel chair sits a physically and mentally frail former EUROSEC director, Jason Webb. The once powerful, confident, arrogant and influential mover and shaker is now a crumpled and defeated shadow of his former self-confident and arrogant persona, now confined to a wheelchair, a resident of a nursing home. Running through his thoughts are names: ‘Glenn Ross,’ ‘John Kane,’ ‘Dr. Pontini.’ The only witnesses to what happened (if it happened) now gone. All records, X rays, documents (if such ever existed) all destroyed. Who would believe him? Perhaps that man sitting in a wheelchair opposite him knows the truth and believes me, he thinks. Suddenly and determinedly Jason rolls his wheelchair (of which he alone now is momentarily in full control) forward quickly, trying to make contact with his doppelganger, but instead crashes into a mirror containing his own horror-filled reflection and dies taking the final link to the ‘truth’ with him…..

Points of Interest

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun was the first major live-action production by the Andersons who are best known for their puppet television programs such as Thunderbirds. The film’s story was originally conceived as a television play.

In many ways, the film strives to actively demonstrate that it is intended for grown ups especially when you consider that the Andersons' previous productions might have been seen as being pitched at young audiences. It is as the film was proclaiming, “It is the end of the ‘60s and it is now time for everyone to grow up!” The film certainly served as a bridge between the Andersons’ previous beloved on screen puppetry and the later live action TV series UFO and Space 1999.

The film was shot between July and October 1968 at Pinewood Studios and on location in England and Portugal.

Overall, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun performed poorly at the box office during its initial theatrical run. However, it has since gained a cult following.

Roy Thinnes who plays Colonel Glenn Ross of NASA is probably best known for his starring role in the series, The Invaders.

Ian Hendry who plays Dr John Kane, a British astrophysicist and head of the Phoenix project was said to have been affected by alcohol and was claimed to have been visibly intoxicated during the filming of the Dove crash sequence.

Patrick Wymark who played Jason Webb, the director of EUROSEC was also said to have been affected by heavy drinking which supposedly caused him to slur his lines and requiring numerous takes of a particular scene. Nevertheless Wymark's portrayal of Webb was the film's standout performance. In fact, in many ways he owned the film with his character moving about like a force of nature about to explode volcano-like in his ruthless attempts to orchestrate proceedings to fit in with his agenda.

The illusion of a mirror Earth was created byreversing the film negatives using a process called "flop-over" which saved the production time and money building specially reversed props and sets.

In order to create the scene in which the EUROSEC board hold an international video conference on high-resolution viewing monitors, instead of using real viewing monitors the crew cut screen-sized gaps in a wall and placed the actors playing the conference delegates behind them. Silver paper was added to reflect the studio lights and simulate a high-resolution image, with altered eye-lines creating the illusion that each delegate is looking into a camera. This was done due to the high cost of colour TV back then and the need to avoid black and white in keeping with the film's futuristic setting.

The film's well-received special effects were produced at Century 21 Studios on the Slough Trading Estate where more than 200 effects shots were filmed. The design of the Phoenix spacecraft was based on the Saturn V rocket. During filming, the six-foot-long (1.8 m) scale model accidentally caught fire and had to be completely rebuilt. The launch sequence was shot in the studios' car park against the actual sky to create a sense of realism.

Dr Hassler's undercover activities, featuring his use of an artificial eye containing a micro-camera is one of numerous examples of really cool gadgets that featured in many films and series of the ‘60s, such as James Bond and Mission Impossible.

Some people have suggested that Journey to the Far Side of the Sun stands as being quite inferior when compared to the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, it has been suggested that some elements from 2001 have been used in Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. I have to say that at least I managed to keep awake during Journey probably because it actually had a story, dialogue you could hear and characters you could care about. 2001 may be considered to be a work of art, but if it’s art you want, go visit an art gallery. I admit that I did manage to fall asleep half way through it!

To conclude, why not compare the film to "The Parallel", an episode of The Twilight Zone that explores the concept of alternate realities through the story of astronaut Major Robert Gaines, who returns to a world that is subtly different from the one he left.

Title: The Parallel

Season: 4, Episode 11

Air Date: March 1963

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