Yes - the music score is sublime, as you say - and composer Barry Gray was a genius in his own time. He is one of the best film composers who ever lived in the history of cinema & television.
*At age 86, actor Roy Thinnes is still alive. His ex-wife, who also played his wife in JTTFSOTS, died in late 2023 at the age of 80. Oddly, another actress with the same last name of Loring (Lisa Loring) who played "Wednesday Addams" on the original 1960's "The Addams Family" also died that same year of 2023 - at the age of 64. Stranger still, neither Lynn Loring nor Lisa Loring were born with the surname "Loring" - in both cases they were stage names.*
Love this film. It inspired a long scifi role playing game campaign of mine in the 80s, involving several ideas, plot ideas and characters from the film. Great cast, top music (as always from Barry Gray. )
JTFSOS was one of the most interesting and enjoyable ScfFi films that I had seen up to that point (1978). I was too young to quite comprehend the plot and complexities of the film, but the cool planes and rockets sucked me in at 7 years of age. I still watch it today from time to time, dated, surely but still fun and a lot of great memories.
Caught it in the late 1970's on a local 2 am "B-movie" TV channel. The special effects blew me away & the concept of being trapped on a mirror planet gave me nightmares! Lol
It's suggested that when coming to America it was renamed from it's original, but I remember this as a kid [loved it] under the name Doppelganger and I'm in the states. This would have been aired on TV in the mid '70's.
I enjoyed this immensely when I saw this on tv in the seventies. I was already a fan of Sylvia & Gerry Anderson productions through Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, and Space: 1999.
I remember watching the film along with UFO in syndication as a kid in the early 70's. I moved back home 11 years ago and found a dvd of the film. I loved re-watching as an adult. Truly a classic of sci-fi cinema.
Thank you for a nifty and respectful (but honest) retrospective of a childhood favorite that I never stopped liking, even when I recognize its snoozeville moments. And I never knew it was a Twilight Zone ripoff! That's a bummer. Derek Meddings RULES! If his name's on a flick I'll see it, no matter what!
The movie sure has its quirks and scientific dead ends, but I must say I came to enjoy it more in recent years. I recall first seeing it as a teenager in the cinema when it was first released. Today, its music, furnishings, overall style and design, plus the fabulous model work, make it a truly exceptional, yet flawed, fantasy film.
They used to show this regularly as the afternoon movie on one of the New York City TV networks. I'd love to see it again, but it doesn't seem to be available online. Thank you for this.
A formative film for me as a teen. Unlike a lot of typical sci-fi and popular movies, it dared to bring sophisticated concepts, uncertainty and discomfort into play, and it really stands out for it's distinctive style. There is one nerdy inconsistency which is overlooked which is that if the mirror image difference was valid down to the molecular level, anyone from our earth would be unable to digest some of the food elements, which have helicity (anyone remember Olestra?), but the idea of the electrical polarity being reversed was brilliant.
'UFO' was way, way, way, ahead of it's time and I own the series on DVD. I remember 'The Champions', but I have never seen 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'. Man, Roy Thinnes was spectacular
I didn’t know all these actor’s were gone,now?Okay,so….they’ll live on,in this film 🎥 as it were?I didn’t know that there was another;‘doppelgänger related’film in the Twilight Zone?That’s interesting!🤨 A person that I knew,liked this film 🎥 as well!His name was;Darrell Fee’s.❤
I saw the movie when it came out with my auntie and I’ve just bought the DVD. Not the greatest movie but Derek Meddings special effects were incredible. Miniatures are always better than CGI. But then I’m old and Thunderbirds rules!
What was funny about the movie in retrospect was that the symbol for Eurosec now denotes the Euro. It's as if one put dollar signs on American rockets. It comes across as a commentary on the expense of building all that stuff.
Gerry Anderson wanted to make sci-fi action movies and his wife wanted to play with dolls. So that led them to making a puppet show for TV. By the time they got to Space:1999 they could barely tolerate being in the same room together and they finally divorced. I always thought that Gerry must have led the most frustrating life.
Funny I was just thinking about finding this film to watch again as it’s been many years! I always enjoy ambiguous endings, that make you think , thanks!!
I remember this long forgotten gem from my boyhood in the late 60s. Fascinating premise, well presented, though the model work, reminiscent of Thunderbirds (now I better understand the Anderson connection with the film), was not that great - it bothered me even back in the day - by today's standards. 2001 had raised the bar for space scenes that wouldn't really take hold until Star Wars. Still, it was a career high for Roy Thinnes and cast.
I've always liked this film. The lead character obsessed with getting the mission off the ground is what raises the movie to a unique level. The nonsensical doppleganger stuff is redeemed by the Caligari ending. Anything goes once we realize at least some of the events exist in his mind! (Spoiler alert). It is DEFINITELY an underrated movie.
The film has splendid production values throughout it, from the legendary Derek Meddings visual effects work to its lavish looking sets, and a fine cast. It falls apart by dwelling on too many irrelevant plotlines for me. A troubled marriage, an affair (edited out), the politics of uniting nations to embark on the outer pace mission, and finally preparing one of the astronauts for the mission by showing his training. This all was of absolutely no interest, it wasted precious time. The film needed to hit the ground running by establishing what the mission was and then getting underway onto a thrilling adventure. Similar to Fantastic Voyage, or Ice Station Zebra. The denouement of having the mysterious planet merely being a mirror earth was a big letdown. Even the scriptwriter acknowledges this here. The ending is murky & depressing. The planet needed to be an alien world with different topography, continents, and lifeforms. I'm a big fan of the Andersons, and really wanted this to be a thrilling & successful film for them and we fans. It is merely impressive looking eye candy.
Having seen other sci-fi productions about parallel worlds ("Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," etc.), and having enjoyed the Earth-1/Earth-2/Earth-3 stuff in DC comic books, I didn't mind the mirror-Earth concept one bit. So I liked this movie--up till the final ending scene, which I found to be a complete cop-out.
I remember a DVD Comment from Stlvia that after seeing "Journey..." Stanley Kubrick wanted to take her out to dinner(so he could use her special effects crew) when she said no he hung up on her(Sylvia laughed "at least he was honest!") terrific movie one info bookstated "the ending makes the movie!') 💎 Auckland New Zealand 2024
There was a 1973 TV movie called "The Stranger". Its concept is the same as "Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun". A US spacecraft is returning from a mission when it is caught in an anomaly that throws the ship off course. When the astronaut wakes up, he's in a hospital room. He soon realizes that he isn't on Earth, but a mirror planet, except that it's run by a totalitarian style government. To them, he's a threat, because the stranger is a free thinker.
Suggest you WATCH the Parallel...you have described it quite inaccurately sadly.Its one astronaut and theres no mirroring! I literally watched it yesterday, its similar but to be fair you clearly hadnt watched it..! 😮
I was describing Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. And I have watched The Parallel. I've watched every TZ episode. The ONLY thing I said about The Parallel is that the theme of Journey is reminiscent of it. The rest of what I said is about Journey. I hope that clears things up.
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094 yes it does, my apologies for misunderstanding, phew, enjoyed rest of it and agree it may certainly have influenced it!! Both are good watches
@@richardryan1846Thank you, that’s great. By the way, did you ever read The TZ Companion entry about The Parallel? I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently the script suggests that the astronaut’s wife realises he’s not the same man because he’s not the same in bed! But TZ was under pressure from TV networks at the time to sanitise everything. It ended up so subtle that it doesn’t come across at all.
TBF at 3:20 you did describe The Parallel as "everything there is a mirror image". You likely intended to say copy...as it is a copy with minor differences... His rank, the pickett fence, etc... You are correct that this film is an elaboration of the basic 25 minute story on TZ in the early 60s. Similarly Star Trek, "The Cage" is an elaboration on a TZ episode with Roddy McDowell and Susan Oliver. Planet of the Apes (though not from a TZ as many thought) does borrow the twist reveal from a TZ episode.
Brilliant documentary. Found out facts about the movie JTTFSOTS--it concepts being an inspiration behind UFO, a classic alien invader TV series. Many thanks for posting this, Mr. Sherlock. Too bad it was a box office flop due to its disjointed plot lines. 😊👽🛸🚀
All-time fave, this movie. Loved it as a kid. Have a copy of it now and still watch regularly. The music in particular is sublime.
Yes - the music score is sublime, as you say - and composer Barry Gray was a genius in his own time. He is one of the best film composers who ever lived in the history of cinema & television.
It's pretty good for adult viewers too. I mean, his wife secretly took the pill when he wanted to have a kid!
Great work, Adrian
Thank you! :)
Thanks, I enjoyed that. I loved watching it on TV as a kid…and recently rewatched it after purchasing the blu ray.
I actually saw this film 🎥 while it was still in the Cinema houses. I was in my teens, but enjoyed it immensely!
*At age 86, actor Roy Thinnes is still alive. His ex-wife, who also played his wife in JTTFSOTS, died in late 2023 at the age of 80. Oddly, another actress with the same last name of Loring (Lisa Loring) who played "Wednesday Addams" on the original 1960's "The Addams Family" also died that same year of 2023 - at the age of 64. Stranger still, neither Lynn Loring nor Lisa Loring were born with the surname "Loring" - in both cases they were stage names.*
Interesting presentation with an excellent narrator.
Love this film. It inspired a long scifi role playing game campaign of mine in the 80s, involving several ideas, plot ideas and characters from the film. Great cast, top music (as always from Barry Gray. )
Nice!!
I always had a soft spot for this film. A very enjoyable couple hours of sci-fi junk food. Rip Gerry Anderson. Great video!
The gentleman with the cigar is Lord Grade, who died in 1998. He ran the Associated Television Corporation and its subsidiary, ITC Entertainment.
And Atv tv
JTFSOS was one of the most interesting and enjoyable ScfFi films that I had seen up to that point (1978). I was too young to quite comprehend the plot and complexities of the film, but the cool planes and rockets sucked me in at 7 years of age. I still watch it today from time to time, dated, surely but still fun and a lot of great memories.
Caught it in the late 1970's on a local 2 am "B-movie" TV channel.
The special effects blew me away & the concept of being trapped on a mirror planet gave me nightmares! Lol
It's suggested that when coming to America it was renamed from it's original, but I remember this as a kid [loved it] under the name Doppelganger and I'm in the states. This would have been aired on TV in the mid '70's.
Yeah!I still have this movie!🎥 And,it’s a classic,here!I love that motion picture!❤It’s hard to believe,that this movie 🍿 was made in the 1960”s!😊😊😊😊😊
I enjoyed this immensely when I saw this on tv in the seventies. I was already a fan of Sylvia & Gerry Anderson productions through Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, and Space: 1999.
I have a distinct memory of seeing this just before my 10th birthday in my small-town usa theater.
Outstanding!!
I don't know why I've never got round to watching it.
I remember watching the film along with UFO in syndication as a kid in the early 70's. I moved back home 11 years ago and found a dvd of the film. I loved re-watching as an adult. Truly a classic of sci-fi cinema.
Thank you for a nifty and respectful (but honest) retrospective of a childhood favorite that I never stopped liking, even when I recognize its snoozeville moments. And I never knew it was a Twilight Zone ripoff! That's a bummer.
Derek Meddings RULES! If his name's on a flick I'll see it, no matter what!
The movie sure has its quirks and scientific dead ends, but I must say I came to enjoy it more in recent years. I recall first seeing it as a teenager in the cinema when it was first released. Today, its music, furnishings, overall style and design, plus the fabulous model work, make it a truly exceptional, yet flawed, fantasy film.
They used to show this regularly as the afternoon movie on one of the New York City TV networks. I'd love to see it again, but it doesn't seem to be available online. Thank you for this.
An excellent documentary, well done.
A formative film for me as a teen. Unlike a lot of typical sci-fi and popular movies, it dared to bring sophisticated concepts, uncertainty and discomfort into play, and it really stands out for it's distinctive style. There is one nerdy inconsistency which is overlooked which is that if the mirror image difference was valid down to the molecular level, anyone from our earth would be unable to digest some of the food elements, which have helicity (anyone remember Olestra?), but the idea of the electrical polarity being reversed was brilliant.
I suppose also Thalidomide?
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094 Ah - interesting!
Hunh. I now think I did see this film, I'd just forgotten it. I never realized this was a film, I always thought it was some television film.
Superb film and a great concept.
Whoa, I stumbled across this film years ago and couldn't remember it.
Found it in a book I have on horror and sci Fi movies.
Totally enjoyed "Journey to the Far Side f the Sun" as well as UFO and later Space 1999
'UFO' was way, way, way, ahead of it's time and I own the series on DVD. I remember 'The Champions', but I have never seen 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'. Man, Roy Thinnes was spectacular
Si c'est celui auquel je pense, le film s'appelle "danger, planète inconnue".
Le film est génial, très intelligent.
I didn’t know all these actor’s were gone,now?Okay,so….they’ll live on,in this film 🎥 as it were?I didn’t know that there was another;‘doppelgänger related’film in the Twilight Zone?That’s interesting!🤨 A person that I knew,liked this film 🎥 as well!His name was;Darrell Fee’s.❤
And,we love ❤️ the Ufo show,as well!Cheer’s!😊
That was interesting .Funny you didn't mention Herbert Lom.
I always loved this movie.
I saw the movie when it came out with my auntie and I’ve just bought the DVD. Not the greatest movie but Derek Meddings special effects were incredible. Miniatures are always better than CGI. But then I’m old and Thunderbirds rules!
What was funny about the movie in retrospect was that the symbol for Eurosec now denotes the Euro. It's as if one put dollar signs on American rockets. It comes across as a commentary on the expense of building all that stuff.
Great actor he also had the main role.in THE INVADERS. great series nice to know is still alive
Gerry Anderson wanted to make sci-fi action movies and his wife wanted to play with dolls. So that led them to making a puppet show for TV.
By the time they got to Space:1999 they could barely tolerate being in the same room together and they finally divorced.
I always thought that Gerry must have led the most frustrating life.
Funny I was just thinking about finding this film to watch again as it’s been many years! I always enjoy ambiguous endings, that make you think , thanks!!
I remember this long forgotten gem from my boyhood in the late 60s. Fascinating premise, well presented, though the model work, reminiscent of Thunderbirds (now I better understand the Anderson connection with the film), was not that great - it bothered me even back in the day - by today's standards. 2001 had raised the bar for space scenes that wouldn't really take hold until Star Wars. Still, it was a career high for Roy Thinnes and cast.
I've always liked this film. The lead character obsessed with getting the mission off the ground is what raises the movie to a unique level. The nonsensical doppleganger stuff is redeemed by the Caligari ending. Anything goes once we realize at least some of the events exist in his mind! (Spoiler alert). It is DEFINITELY an underrated movie.
Nicely put!
Well done.
What a treasure this mini documentary! Please, what soundtrack is this that starts at 5:31 minutes? Greetings from Brazil.
Has the Adrian Sherlock mark of quality on it
You're too kind, Bob! :)
parents took us to see it, I liked it, some scary moments when it crashed
The film has splendid production values throughout it, from the legendary Derek Meddings visual effects work to its lavish looking sets, and a fine cast. It falls apart by dwelling on too many irrelevant plotlines for me. A troubled marriage, an affair (edited out), the politics of uniting nations to embark on the outer pace mission, and finally preparing one of the astronauts for the mission by showing his training. This all was of absolutely no interest, it wasted precious time. The film needed to hit the ground running by establishing what the mission was and then getting underway onto a thrilling adventure. Similar to Fantastic Voyage, or Ice Station Zebra.
The denouement of having the mysterious planet merely being a mirror earth was a big letdown. Even the scriptwriter acknowledges this here. The ending is murky & depressing. The planet needed to be an alien world with different topography, continents, and lifeforms. I'm a big fan of the Andersons, and really wanted this to be a thrilling & successful film for them and we fans. It is merely impressive looking eye candy.
Having seen other sci-fi productions about parallel worlds ("Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," etc.), and having enjoyed the Earth-1/Earth-2/Earth-3 stuff in DC comic books, I didn't mind the mirror-Earth concept one bit.
So I liked this movie--up till the final ending scene, which I found to be a complete cop-out.
Ha historias que funcionam muito bem em curta metragens, como um episódio de "Twinlght Zone", mas nunca num longa metragem.
I remember a DVD Comment from Stlvia that after seeing "Journey..." Stanley Kubrick wanted to take her out to dinner(so he could use her special effects crew) when she said no he hung up on her(Sylvia laughed "at least he was honest!") terrific movie one info bookstated "the ending makes the movie!') 💎 Auckland New Zealand 2024
Thanks. Doppelganger means "double goer".
Also just saw Thinnes on the X-Files
I loved this film.....maybe TCM will take pity on us and show it
I would bet there's quite a few copies floating around on the net.
There was a 1973 TV movie called "The Stranger". Its concept is the same as "Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun".
A US spacecraft is returning from a mission when it is caught in an anomaly that throws the ship off course. When the astronaut wakes up, he's in a hospital room.
He soon realizes that he isn't on Earth, but a mirror planet, except that it's run by a totalitarian style government. To them, he's a threat, because the stranger is a free thinker.
Is that the movie where there are three moons?
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094That's the movie.
There’s a nod to First Men in the Moon. Jason is in the same situation at the end of the film as Arnold Bedford was.
Oh yeah, good point! Watched that again recently. A great film!
Closed caption ?
The ship called "Doppelganger" bears a resemblance to Thunderbird 2 ship.
It does, yes, it's classic Derek Meddings!
It actually looks more like the lifting bodies NASA experimented with in the early 1960s.
Great movie, but I do wish it had a more upbeat ending…
The poster at 9:52 would have worked better if the North and South American continents on the second Earth had been reversed.
Would have made the reveal too obvious I would guess.
You need a real mic to step up the quality
I think Patrick Wymark and Ian Hendry were drunk most of the time they were on set. I like the film but it is a silly idea.
Good Movie, Bad Ending.
Suggest you WATCH the Parallel...you have described it quite inaccurately sadly.Its one astronaut and theres no mirroring! I literally watched it yesterday, its similar but to be fair you clearly hadnt watched it..! 😮
I was describing Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. And I have watched The Parallel. I've watched every TZ episode. The ONLY thing I said about The Parallel is that the theme of Journey is reminiscent of it. The rest of what I said is about Journey. I hope that clears things up.
@@adriansherlockdamondark.1094 yes it does, my apologies for misunderstanding, phew, enjoyed rest of it and agree it may certainly have influenced it!! Both are good watches
@@richardryan1846Thank you, that’s great. By the way, did you ever read The TZ Companion entry about The Parallel? I thought it was pretty funny. Apparently the script suggests that the astronaut’s wife realises he’s not the same man because he’s not the same in bed! But TZ was under pressure from TV networks at the time to sanitise everything. It ended up so subtle that it doesn’t come across at all.
TBF at 3:20 you did describe The Parallel as "everything there is a mirror image". You likely intended to say copy...as it is a copy with minor differences...
His rank, the pickett fence, etc...
You are correct that this film is an elaboration of the basic 25 minute story on TZ in the early 60s.
Similarly Star Trek, "The Cage" is an elaboration on a TZ episode with Roddy McDowell and Susan Oliver.
Planet of the Apes (though not from a TZ as many thought) does borrow the twist reveal from a TZ episode.
Brilliant documentary. Found out facts about the movie JTTFSOTS--it concepts being an inspiration behind UFO, a classic alien invader TV series. Many thanks for posting this, Mr. Sherlock. Too bad it was a box office flop due to its disjointed plot lines. 😊👽🛸🚀