Demon Seed (1977)

A chilling prescient and deceptively complex sci-fi thriller of a film

Directed by Donald Cammell
Produced by Herb Jaffe
Screenplay by Robert Jaffe, Roger O. Hirson
Based on novel, “Demon Seed” by Dean Koontz
Music by Jerry Fielding
Cinematography: Bill Butler
Edited by Francisco Mazzola
Production companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Herb Jaffe Productions
Distributed by United Artists (United States), Cinema International Corporation (International)
Running time: 94 minutes
Box office: $2 million

Cast

Julie Christie as Susan Harris
Fritz Weaver as Alex Harris
Gerrit Graham as Walter Gabler
Berry Kroeger as Petrosian
Lisa Lu as Soon Yen
Larry J. Blake as Cameron
John O'Leary as Royce
Alfred Dennis as Mokri
Davis Roberts as Warner
Patricia Wilson as Mrs. Trabert
E. Hampton Beagle as Night Operator
Michael Glass as Technician #1
Barbara O. Jones as Technician #2
Dana Laurita as Amy
Monica MacLean as Joan Kemp
Harold Oblong as Scientist
Georgie Paul as Housekeeper
Michelle Stacy as Marlene
Tiffany Potter as Baby
Felix Silla as Baby
Robert Vaughn as voice of Proteus IV

Film Clip

A human has created

a machine…

Now the machine

wants to create

a human!

*********

“A beautiful woman…

A master computer…

The most shocking act

Of creation ever imagined!!”

*********

A woman...

imprisoned

and

forcibly impregnated

by an

artificially intelligent computer!

“Fear for her!!!!”

Read on for more.....

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: "The Day Of The Triffids" (1951)

Steve Sekely’s 1962 film version of Wyndham’s novel is perhaps the best known with other superior adaptations that followed with the 1981 and 2009 BBC TV mini-series. Each seems to approach the story from the standpoint of the prevalent concerns and preoccupations of the era in which they were made.

The 1962 film version seems to opt for a more sci-fi / horror angle at the expense of Wyndham’s story with its backdrop Cold War considerations and fears along with philosophical discussions of the nature of human civilisation.

John Wyndham’s classic science fiction story opens with a man called Bill waking up in a hospital room to find the world he once knew utterly transformed - a world gone blind overnight!

The opening chapter contains an atmosphere of dread as Bill senses without the aid of his sight that the outside world sounds more like a quiet Sunday rather than a typical Wednesday. There is an overwhelming feeling of something not at all being quite right.

With only his sense of hearing to guide him, the striking of the clock indicates that it is now nine o’clock. However, the time his bandages were supposed to be removed was at eight – what on earth has been happening in the meantime?

Unknown to Bill, while he had been asleep after his eye operation, a cosmic event caused the majority of the population who witnessed it to go blind.

Added to the horror of mass blindness is the danger posed to humanity in the form of a plant known as a triffid.

Humanity in its complacency, however did not count on a cosmic event causing global mass blindness and providing the triffids with an opportunity to escape their confinement and become THE apex predator with human beings becoming their prey. For the triffids you see, cannot see but are drawn to noise and therefore their prey cannot avoid them for long! 

What of are some of the changes and differences between the book and the movie?

Wyndham’s Novel	Sekely’s 1962 Film Version
The triffids had been contained and were farmed to produce a vegetable oil substitute and help to ease the global food supply problem.	The light show of the meteor shower has caused the triffids and the plants have somehow been mutated by the event.
Bill is a biologist and triffid expert who had been hit by a triffid.	Bill is a merchant navy officer, who missed the meteor shower because he was in hospital with his eyes bandaged after an operation
Central female character is part of the important love story.	Central female character reduced to screaming damsel in distress.
Josella is saved by Bill from being beaten in the middle of the street. -Modern woman for the times. -Unmarried by choice. -Author of ‘Sex Is My Adventure.' -Gained a notorious ‘reputation.’ -Self-reliant Appearance of Susan later in the story.	No Josella! Just a screaming biologist, Karen!
Crowd panic, chaos in the streets with loss of sight and reason. Few traffic accidents due to suddeness of blindness overnight.	Car and bus crashes and wreckage along with train and pane crashes.
Greater sense of isolation and no communication with the rest of the world.	Bill hops across to France and Spain and radios seem to still function
Coker kidnaps Bill and Josella to help with his plan to look after and feed the blind. His plan falls apart when a sickness starts killing off people in London.	Coker is a British tourist in France.

What individuals and a society will do and the choices that are made in the face of a calamity is a central feature of Wyndham’s story. So too is the question of the value of our cherished moral and social belief systems when put to the test by the sheer necessity of survival. Placed along side Windham’s novel, the film version is little more than a disappointing monster movie with ordinary special effects and little substance. Of greater interest are the subsequent TV mini-series versions and their respective treatments of Wyndham’s story.

*************** 

I wonder how long it will be before Wyndham’s story along with the various screen adaptations are consigned to the bonfire by the PC lunatic brigade on the grounds of insufficient minority representation, gender discrimination or cruelty against vegetation! I’m off now to enjoy my copy of the film classic, “Gone With The Wind” while I can before the final Fahrenheit 451 solution is applied.

I'll try not to knock over any statues or monuments on my way by being dragged along by swirling currents in a sea of slogans spewing out of mindless moronic mob mouths whose sense and knowledge of history extends as far back as this morning's breakfast. I may need, however to dodge any microbial passengers that have hitched a ride on them!

Full Movie

Audio drama link

Epub / PDF Link

Audiobook Link

©Chris Christopoulos 2020

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: 'The Body Snatchers' by Jack Finney (1955)

In the small Californian town of Santa Mira, medical doctor, Miles Bennell begins to notice that something is not quite right with its inhabitants. On the surface, the good folks of Santa Mira seem to be themselves, but in ways that Miles can’t put his finger on they are definitely not themselves.

Miles, together with his high school sweet heart and returning divorcée, Becky Driscoll and good friends Jack and Teddy Belicec, soon uncover an alien plot involving an invasion of this slice of small town America. They discover that people are being copied by means of large pods and replaced with duplicates who appear and behave just like them but who display no discernible human emotions and seem to lack human spirit and soul.

Can the invasion be prevented before it spreads beyond the borders of Santa Mira?

Can the surviving humans of this town resist the invaders and avoid the fate of their fellow townsfolk? 

Will human individuality be crushed by the forces of alien conformity?

Trailer

Spoilers follow below…..

'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' (1956)

Broadly speaking, there isn’t a great deal of difference between Finney’s novel and Don Siegel’s screen adaptation. One difference involves the Belicecs and Becky who in the film version succumb to the alien pod plot.

Unlike the start of Finney’s book, the film opens with Miles in a hospital emergency room. His appearance is disheveled and his behavior suggests insanity, even more so considering his wild story concerning an alien invasion. The tale he tells doctor Hill is the subject of the film’s plot.

The ending is also different in the film version whereby Miles (the lone voice of truth) is seen desperately flailing about in the middle of the night on a highway screaming at oncoming traffic and directly at the audience, "They're already here! You're next! YOU'RE NEXT!"

Back in the hospital emergency room, evidence comes to light of a crashed truck carrying what appears to look like giant seed pods. Upon hearing this, doctor Hill leaps into action and notifies the FBI who no doubt will get to the bottom of all this and all will be well soon. A relieved Miles has finally managed to persuade the doctors who were about to have him committed that his story is true.

***********************

Finney’s story and the original film adaptation have been viewed by many as being a commentary on Communism, the conformity of 1950s America or even on the paranoia of McCarthyism at the time.

On a more universal level, the story can be viewed as being an examination of the loss of human individuality, sense of identity, and all that constitutes who we are as individuals.

Whatever the case, Finney’s story in whatever format it appears maintains its relevance as it can be viewed through the unique lens of any particular era thereby giving it an enduring quality.

PDF LINK

Audiobook

Film Blog Post

"They're already here! 

You're next! "

With the current Carona-19 global pandemic, you will have already been a part of or at least viewed many Zoom, Facetime or Skype video chats.

Have you noticed what's been going on in the background of so many of them? It would suggest that the alien body snatchers have returned to Earth and taken over the bodies of humans in lockdown, forcing them to feature bookcases in the background of their video sessions!

My guess is that these aliens in their pursuit of trying to imitate our emotions, have somehow turned into anally-retentive entities with a weird obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

How else to explain the plethora of coloured-coded books arranged according to size and other strange criteria? What is it with that?? Could it be that........

"YOU'RE NEXT!" 

Note: Check out the Double Feature Page for a new collection of classic sci-fi films featuring: 

UNINVITED GUESTS FROM SPACE!!!

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: “Colossus” by DF. Jones (1966)

“THIS IS THE VOICE OF WORLD CONTROL. I BRING YOU PEACE. IT MAY BE THE PEACE OF PLENTY AND CONTENT OR THE PEACE OF UNBURIED DEATH. THE CHOICE IS YOURS: OBEY ME AND LIVE, OR DISOBEY AND DIE!”

Move over HAL!!! 

Get ready Terminator & Skynet!!!! 

For, here comes…….

COLOSSUS!!!!!!

Colossus: The Forbin Project is a 1970 American science fiction film from Universal Pictures, produced by Stanley Chase, directed by Joseph Sargent, that stars Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, and William Schallert.

The film is based upon the 1966 science fiction novel, Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones. The story involves a supercomputer named Colossus that controls the United States' military defense system. After being given full control, Colossus becomes sentient and goes beyond its programming by linking with a similar Soviet system called Guardian.

Having control of both superpowers’ nuclear missile arsenal, Colossus is in a position to force peace upon the world on its own terms. Our every move and our very fate is in now in the hands of a machine. Colossus has purloined our cherished theory of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ and applied it as a way achieving that crazy Cold War theory’s implicit aim!

The growth of artificial intelligence and our concerns over its possible outcomes make this film both timely and relevant despite the passage of time and, in some viewers' minds, its feeling of being somewhat dated. The story is in fact quite prescient in terms of the way artificial intelligence and its purposes and uses have become a kind of Pandora's box that could unleash a whole raft of unforeseen consequences upon humanity.

Colossus was given the task of avoiding nuclear Armageddon and achieving world peace, freedom from hunger and disease. Fine! But in order to achieve that objective, what steps would need to be taken? What consequences could arise and for whom? What would be the end result? Failure to ask the right questions could result in a fate that is distinctly Orwellian.

The film adaptation of Jones’s story is very good, containing as it does a pleasing mix of intelligence, humour, satire and drama. The book version explores the makeup of the characters associated with the Project more thoroughly, as well as the contentious relationship between Forbin and the US President. The appearance and personality of the latter comes across quite differently to the film version's president who seems to be somewhat Kennedyesque.

I fully recommend reading DF Jones’ novel and viewing the film version. You might also like to read Jones’ The Fall Of Colossus, and Colossus And The Crab.

Colossus PDF read

Colossus by DF Jones (Borrow)

Movie Script

Full Film Link

CBC Radio Drama Download

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: “The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Crichton

Trailer

Summary:

When all but two of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a US space satellite (Scoop VII), the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency.

Dr Stone and his team of top scientists consisting of Drs. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall, transfer to a secure hi-tech facility, known as Wildfire, which had been constructed as a base in the event of an alien biological life form being returned to Earth from a space mission.

Such an event appears to have happened and it is up to the scientists to try to isolate the alien life form while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old Sterno drinker with an ulcer and a six-month-old crying baby have managed to survive.

As the scientists continue with their study of the alien life form, they are about to be confronted by the dual danger of its having mutated along with the lab’s fail-safe nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape!!!

************** 

Comparisons

The Andromeda Strain was made into a movie in 1971 and was directed and produced by Robert Wise. The film and the book quite closely parallel each other with a few minor deviations such as the Peter Leavitt character being a female, Ruth Leavitt in the film version.

[Spoiler alert paragraph!!!!]

The ending of the movie also differs from the book. In the book, Stone speculates that the Andromeda Strain will migrate up into Earth’s upper atmosphere where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting its growth and where it will mutate into a benign form. In the movie version, the now benign mutated bacteria drifts out over the Pacific Ocean into which it falls to be destroyed by the salt water.

Context

Crichton’s novel was written within the context of the Cold War and the resulting space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The political and military conflict between the superpower rivals forms an important part of the backdrop to the events in the story. For instance, Project Scoop is part of a U.S. government program for the development of biological weapons. Should a Scoop satellite come down in a major city in the Soviet Union, war would likely result and that is why it was decided that the Russians would not be informed about the likelihood of any deadly disease occurring. The kind of Cold War mentality that was evident would dictate a preference for a few million Russians dying of disease as opposed to many hundreds of millions of people dying as a result of nuclear war

Assessment

I personally favoured the film treatment of the story. In the original book version, I felt that the story was bogged down by far too much scientific exposition, detail and explanation of processes involved. There were moments when I literally nodded off!

Audiobook Online

PDF Download

©Chris Christopoulos 2020

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films:“The Four-Sided Triangle” by William F. Temple

 

William F. Temple's novel of 1949 was an expansion of his short story, The Four Sided Triangle published in 1939!

In both Temple’s novel and the 1953 film adaptation we have two scientists falling in love with the same woman (Lena). Having invented a duplicating machine, the dilemma it is hoped will be resolved by creating another Lena.

The question is: Can the use of a scientific device that can reproduce anything possibly be a solution to the eternal love triangle?

Temple’s novel delves more thoroughly into the characters' difficulties and sorrow before and after the duplication of a second Lena. There is also a greater emphasis on philosophical and moral considerations as well as on the relationships between the characters.

The story is told from the point of view of an aging doctor who was involved in the events and lives of the characters. It is very well written, in a style that sadly belongs to another era in which words and their use actually mattered!

Four Sided Triangle (1953) is one of the earliest movies about cloning / duplicating a person. Like the original book version, the story involves a love triangle which soon develops into a four sided love triangle with the addition of a complicating fourth side. The film is in the tradition of Frankenstein-type films in which a man almost takes on the role of God and creates life with terrible consequences for himself and those around him.

Four Sided Triangle is a thought-provoking and engaging film despite its low budget constraints and somewhat disappointing ending.

Full Film

OR

Full Film Link:

Blog Post: Full Film Review:

PDF Download Link


Check out both the Classic Sci-Fi Double Feature Page AND the Classic Sci-Fi Radio Play Page. Both pages feature new (classic vintage) material all about “ROBOTS!!”

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci-Fi Films: “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells

Science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds was written by H.G. Wells and was first published serially by Pearson's Magazine in the UK. and by The Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. in 1897.

The War of the Worlds is set in the late 1890s in England and is one of the earliest stories to feature an alien invasion of Earth and the subsequent conflict between humanity and the invading extraterrestrials

Wells’ novel is a first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians.

Wells may have used the British impact on indigenous Tasmanians as a model or template for his own story which offers a consideration of what could happen if the technologically advanced Martians did to Britain what the British had done to the Tasmanians. 

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (ebook)

or

The War of the Worlds 

(ebook)

The War of the Worlds 

(audiobook)

or

The War of the Worlds 

(audiobook)

Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds was part of CBS’s "Mercury Theater on the Air" program and was based on the H.G. Wells’ story of a Martian invasion. It achieved notoriety through the widely reported effect it had by frightening many listeners who thought Martians had really invaded and were attacking.

During the broadcast, Welles was to interrupt a music performance with apparent news reports of a Martian invasion in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Many startled listeners missed the broadcast's opening, which mentioned that it was a work of fiction. The show was supposed to have caused widespread panic and hysteria across New Jersey and the country. More than likely it generated a lot more anger and annoyance!

War of the Worlds 1938 Broadcast
(download)

The year 1953 saw producer George Pal's and director Byron Haskin’s film adaptation of Wells’ novel. In the film, a small town in California is attacked by Martians as a prelude to a worldwide invasion. At first the residents of the town are thrown into a bit of a flap when what looks like a flaming meteor lands in the hills. Scientist Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren are among the first to arrive at the site of the meteorite crash. Soon after, an alien war machine emerges and begins killing and destroying with a death ray. The aliens possess machines that fly and hover and are protected by force fields. Even the military is no match for these alien invaders. The race is on to discover the aliens' weakness – if indeed they have one!

Trailer

The War of the Worlds (1953)

(My Blog Post)

In 2005, Steven Spielberg released his adaptation of War of the Worlds. The film can be seen as being a reflection of the time and events surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath. The story begins in New York City, and this is where the alien attack first begins. The scenes that follow the destruction of the city would remind audiences of the horror and trauma that accompanied the events of 9/11.

Trailer

The new BBC One three-part series is set in Surrey at the turn of the 20th century, in keeping with Wells’ original story. Although I haven’t as yet seen it, I’m hoping that this adaptation does not follow the trend that has been evident in many of today’s film and TV efforts and depictions: an infusion of feminist effluvia, modern PC / inclusiveness check box criteria and inappropriate grafting of 21st century concerns on to a past historical setting. Then again, despite recent sci-fi on-screen disappointments I probably ought to reserve judgment! In the end, it's a testament to Wells' story that it keeps re-emerging so long after its original publication.

The War of the Worlds BBC (2019) Clip

Additional Note:

I have indeed since been fortunate enough to watch BBC One’s War of the Worlds and I must say that overall, it is quite well worth watching. It is good to see yet another well-made science fiction TV series coming out of Britain.

There do seem to be a few references being made back to HG Wells’ original story from the opening narration, setting and time period, to the nature of the alien tripod machines through to the consideration of the effect of British colonialism. I felt that this last point could’ve been made in a far more considered and reflective manner than was the case.

The treatment of the story is not surprisingly made with modern audiences in mind. For instance, unlike Wells’ story, we have in addition to male characters, a central unconventional female protagonist who tries to make her way through a rather admonishing conservative patriarchal society. At least it is not laid on too thickly and rammed too forcefully down audiences’ throats as has often recently been the case in other films and series.

Instead of focusing exclusively on the carnage and destruction being visited on the earth by the aliens, the series almost uses that as a backdrop to an exploration of the relationships between the characters and the kinds of choices they find themselves forced to make depending on the circumstances they find themselves in.

I must say that I had to modify my original preconceptions about the series and found myself being pleasantly surprised. My recommendation is that you should go ahead and enjoy it for what it is and try not to be too nit-picky about it.

BY THE WAY!

Just to whet your appetite......

Here’s a link to a full-length presentation involving a fictional Martian (based on War of the Worlds) invasion of the earth in 1913 in the style of a docudrama. The Great Martian War 1913–1917 is a 2013 Canadian/UK made-for-television science fiction presentation, that appears as if it is an episode from the History TV Channel. WOW!

The Great Martian War 1913–1917

©Chris Christopoulos (2020)

Sci-Fi Stories That Inspired Classic Sci Fi Films: “Forbidden Planet” by W. J. Stuart

To begin with, the film Forbidden Planet (1956) was actually loosely based on William Shakespeare's, The Tempest. This sci-fi classic film in turn went on to influence other films and series of that genre including Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a play that is set on an island near Italy where Prospero, who had at one time been Duke of Milan, and his beautiful daughter, Miranda, live with a spirit servant called Ariel and a strange wildman called Caliban who is Prospero’s slave. Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including the King of Naples and Prospero's treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero's slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself of his master, but is thwarted by Ariel.

Magic, betrayal, love, forgiveness and repentance are among the main themes dealt with in The Tempest.

The sci-fi movie, Forbidden Planet (1956) is set in the year 2371 on a desert planet called Altair-4, where the crew of the Cruiser C-57-D arrives on a rescue mission and to determine the fate of a group of scientists who had been sent there decades earlier. When Commander John J. Adams and his crew arrive, they discover only two people: Dr. Morbius and his daughter, Altaira who was born on the remote planet. The questions that need to be answered are:

What happened on Altair IV? 

and 

Why is it that only Morbius and Altaira are the sole survivors?

Shortly before the film was released, a novelization appeared that was written by W. J. Stuart (Philip MacDonald being the pseudonym he wrote under). His story largely follows the events and characters depicted in the film with some minot alterations and additions. In the novel, the story is told from the point of view of three different narrators: Dr. Ostrow, Commander Adams, and Dr. Morbius.

The novel goes into far greater detail concerning the mysterious Krell and their disappearance. In fact, before viewing the film, it would pay to read the account in Stuart’s novel of Morbius’s repeated exposure to the Krell's brain boosting technology and how it ultimately led to his and the Krell’s own downfall, both of whom did not take into account the role played by their imperfections and primitive base drives.

One of the added story elements that was not present in the film involves Dr. Ostrow’s dissection of one of the dead Earth-type little primates whose internal structure suggests that it had never been alive in the way we would understand a biological organism as being alive. This creature along with the other animals are therefore conscious creations or constructs of Dr. Morbius using Krell technology that can project matter in any form. And what of the power to create life? Can such hubris and arrogance be permitted? - “We are, after all, not God."

Movie clip: Id Monster

Forbidden Planet PDF Download

Forbidden Planet Radio Play Download

Forbidden Planet Full Movie Link

Blog Post Movie Review

I’ll have the last of the sci-fi films from the 1950s for your consideration early in the new year. After that, I’ll present a fairly random selection of what I consider to be among the best classic sci-fi films from the 1960s – 1980’s. They wont be dealt with in any particular chronological order and quite a few films will not be included at all.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and the very best for 2020! Thank you for stopping by this blog and I sincerely hope you managed to find something of interest.

A special thought and prayer for those people here in Australia who are enduring horrible drought conditions and bush-fires. May things turn around for the better as soon as possible!

Donations to help individuals and communities affected by bush/wild fires and the ongoing drought can be made at:

Rural aid

Buy a bale

Red Cross

Salvation Army

©Chris Christopoulos 2019