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It's funny how time (and knowledge) can tarnish a film. When TAT first came out, I loved it. It effortlessly blended two genres that I personally liked. It was at once, Victorian science fiction (before the term "Steam Punk" was popularized) and historical fiction, a particularly creative category in which imaginary meetings of real and/or fictional characters/events connect and their subsequent adventures speculated. (Some good examples would be THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION-1976 and THE FINAL COUNTDOWN-1980.) However, as time goes by and research prevails, and; as the old saying goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction," then it becomes a burden for the individual to maintain a suspension of disbelief for the play itself when impartial facts burrow up from the grave. Jack the Ripper has been the subject of such intense scrutiny over the past half century that it is nearly impossible to accept the old, standard theory that he was a lone, serial killer. He is as much debated today as is Lee Harvey Oswald, perhaps more so as the Lone Gunman Theory has been all but erased. Not only that, but even certain, unsavory aspects of H. G. Wells' personal past have been brought to light such as his association with the Fabian Society. Nevertheless, Nicholas Meyer still presents a top notch tale. (He is, of course, the man who revitalized the Star Trek film franchise!) Unfortunately, the only way to enjoy it is to ignore an encroaching reality. Alas, that may be just as well. After all, Hollywood is, or was, the Dream Machine. And our dreams defy reality for our own benefit. Perhaps it is time to watch TAT one more time with that in mind. The dictum for that may be found in yet another classic Hollywood film, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962), from which this exchange comes... Ransom Stoddard: You're not going to use the story, Mr. Scott?

Maxwell Scott: No, sir. This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

***Spoiler Warning*** Read This Only if You Have Seen the Film!

ALTERED STATES operates primarily on three levels: One, as a sci-fi/horror genre thriller; Two, as an essay on the theme of Ultimate Truth Vs. Ultimate Love; And three, as a universal commentary on Science Vs. Mysticism. This third point seems more relevant today than in the past when the film first debuted.

AS works best as a genre flick, slipping easily into the Mad Scientist/Monster category with a psychedelic twist. Most of the reviews invariably and justifiably compare it to Stevenson's Jekyll-Hyde story. Personally, I find it more akin to Universal's MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS (1958). I will not rehash plot or story here as many other reviews do as I wish to target what I consider may be hidden or sublimated themes and representations, intentional or unintentional, which have, over time, come into sharper focus. When AS opened in 1980, it was at the vanguard of a wave of sci-fi/horror flicks that revisited the older scare films (mostly from the 50's) with a hip, new attitude (Alien, Ghostbusters, The Fly, et al). Due to its psychotropic drug theme, it became the biggest movie of "heads" wishing to "trip" through its imaginative imagery since Kubrick's 2001. This contributed to its box office and critical success along with its pedigree, being the brainchild of Paddy Chayefsky and Ken Russell. Although there was a brutal, artistic conflict between writer and director, with Russell managing to oust Chayefsky from the project to the extent that Chayefsky had his name changed in the credits; the collaboration nevertheless created a lasting piece of work that is now relevant in ways that most likely were not or could not be foreseen either artist. More on this later...

While the main goal of the protagonist (William Hurt as Dr. Eddie Jessup) in the story is to discover if there are links between levels of consciousness in the modern and primitive brains, what the character is really pursuing is a personal quest for truth. Jessup searches for the big truths of existence, such as 'what are we doing here?' and, 'who are we?' Along the way, he meets, falls in love and eventually marries anthropologist Emily (Blair Brown). Jessup's experiments activate a physiological transmutation, which culminate in him transmogrifying into a proto-hominid and later into a primordial, amorphous mass, which in turn opens a dimensional portal! These changes become uncontrollable and, at the climax, threaten to pull him out of existence or, out of our dimension. The only thing that saves him is his love for Emily, which allows him to anchor his soul back into reality. The actual main theme of the film is, Love is the Ultimate Truth of Existence!

Where I believe AS has transcended its era is in its juxtaposition of Science's dictatorial belief (for now) in the Evolution Theory and its inability to quantify the Divine Soul and its need for Love. There is more magic and mysticism in AS than science, yet I believe most fans of this movie do not see it. Here are my arguments: a) Jessup begins his journey stating he was brought with Catholic dogma but doesn't believe in G-d. His initial Iso-tank hallucinations involve twisted, religious iconography. This would be Jessup's personal truth based on his early understanding of religion and his current interpretation of it. The Heaven-Hell imagery would be very impressive on the psyche as understood by a child. Most adults who stop studying their faith after childhood tend to adopt these beliefs as images. We do not see what an adult Christian believer who has formed a mature relationship with G-d would see because that situation does not exist in this context. When Jessup travels to Mexico and "trips" on a concoction of Peyote, Psilocybin and his own blood, something new happens. He sees a nuclear mushroom cloud, a monitor lizard transform into Emily, then Emily into a Sphinx-like statue, himself into a statue, which both erode away to dust in a sand storm. The mushroom cloud is most likely just a symbol for the psychedelic mushrooms which "blow away" ones mind. That he is on a Victorian lawn chair with his wife would imply his hallucinogenic experience overshadows his family life. The Sphinx symbolizes ancient Egyptian/Babylonian mystery religions. From a Christian perspective, attempts to connect to other planes of existence are considered the same as trying to speak with spirits. This is forbidden because that is a step towards demonic possession. Indeed, witness the smile on the Indian shaman that spilled Jessup's blood into the psycho-soup. Blood magic is considered black magic associated with satanic ritual. It could also be read as that when Jessup's blood entered into the witch's brew, it created a portal into Jessup's soul that demonic entities could use to gain access. Did the Indians, adepts at magic, see into Jessup's vision? Bear in mind now that Jessup took with him a batch of that concoction. This would suggest that subsequent trips in the Iso-tank were Jessup tuned into his own personal dimensional portal. As Jessup continued to seek after his Truth, he wasn't following any kind of universal, evolutionary path, but was burrowing deeper and deeper into his own ideas about the nature of reality! Since Jessup was invested in Darwinism, he became a proto-hominid and later a mass or primordial goo that evolutionists still contend is the abiogenetic beginnings of life on Earth. Jessup's imagination then, is what he battles with in the climactic sequence where he beats his arm on the wall to bring himself out of his hallucination. Why then, does his illusion affect Emily when he touches her? As the concoction has the power to activate Jessup's pineal gland enabling him to turn into an apelike creature or a giant amoeba, it has the power to affect others as well. It could also be argued that that part of the story was in Jessup's imagination, however; I think it unlikely since the lab escape and explosion were played for real.

In conclusion, I doubt that either Russell or Chayefsky (although I never read the book), were making these connections. I stated earlier that their stormy partnership generated importance that neither could predict. It's recorded that Chayefsky bailed because he felt Russell was not giving proper deference to the dialogue, which Russell was contractually obliged not to change. Russell felt the dialogue was too technical, wordy and unrealistic and as a result, directed the actors to deliver their lines rapid-fire, overlapping, shouting or while eating. Chayefsky was one of the most intelligent writers in Hollywood at the time. Audiences came up to his level. Russell was one of the most visually bombastic and stunning of his era. Despite this difference in their approach and which eventually drove them apart, their respective contributions produced this work which we watch today with new eyes. Recent advances in technology and new discoveries in archaeology coupled with new interpretations of the old and new, testament now allow movie buffs like myself to see the "esoteric" Altered States. Chayefsky wanted Love to be the message. The Christian perspective is that G-d's Love is the Truth that will save us. Russell's contingent to make a visually stunning film gives us a memorable set of images that will stand the test of time. And it is with a bit of cheek that I end this review as Russell did the film, for immortalized now is Blair Brown's most lovely gluteus maximus.

Reviews of THE 27TH DAY on IMDB tend to go one of two ways. Either the film is lauded for its atypical intellectualization of whether mankind on planet Earth will check out through our own Hydrogen bomb foolishness or that of intergalactic interlopers; Or, the film is reviled for its simplistic, moralizing (especially its ending) and its retro vision (it was a product of the fifties, after all) of communist regimes. Personally, I find the moral question pondering in The 27th Day to be handled too simplistically and the attitudes of reviewers who think the film comes down too hard on the Soviets and the Chicoms of that era to be either woefully uninformed about life in communist countries or possessing little humanity themselves. However, that is not the focus of this review. Rather, I would like to point out an alternate narrative that emerges if one looks at the film not through the lens of science fiction, but instead, a supernatural one.

First of all, "The Alien", as Moss' character calls himself, appears seemingly out of nowhere to each of the five "abductees". Was this accomplished through electro-mechanical Teleportation (ala Star Trek's 'Transporter') or dimensional travel? I note that the subjects were all addressed by The Alien before they were taken and then "woke up" in what he called his spaceship. I also note that this is similar to the classic UFO abduction experience. While we are on the subject of the abductees, a commonly used term to describe their collection is "randomly selected", however, there is nothing to support that. Rather than being random, they all seem to share a moral code. (More on that later.) While in the flying saucer, The Alien tells them that they were snatched from their timelines and will be returned there at the instant they left. He explains this is possible because they are traveling at the speed of light. This doesn't make sense as he shows them on a viewer that they appear to be in orbit around the Earth. Are they orbiting the earth at the speed of light? Rather than deconstruct the theory of relativity, it is easier to manipulate the Time/Space Continuum by moving into or out of one's plane of existence. Such a maneuver could explain slipping the time barrier. So far, The Alien's actions are more consistent with a Hyper-Dimensional Entity (aka Angel/Demon) than an extraterrestrial.

Next comes the bargain. The Alien gifts each subject with a personalized weapon of mass destruction. The use of the weapons is conditioned by a meticulous set of rules: 1) The case containing the weapons is indestructible and can only be opened by its assigned owner using "thought waves". 2) Inside each case are three "bombs", each one about the size and shape of a AA battery. Each bomb has the power to destroy all human life (and only human life) in a 1500 mile radius. (That's a 3000 mile diameter kill zone!) The bomb only kills humans, it does not harm animals, vegetation or terrain. 3) Once the case is opened, each bomb can be activated by anyone. All the user has to do is speak the global coordinates designated by latitude and longitude of the bomb's blast center. 4) If the subject should die, the weapon becomes useless. 5) The weapon is only active for 27 days. After that, the weapon's "freshness date" expires and it becomes useless.

The Alien then explains why he kidnapped the five subjects. He says he is from a dying world that will be destroyed by a supernova in 35 days. His race is looking for a new world to inhabit. The assumption is that one of the five subjects will succumb to a destructive urge and clear the land for their new alien occupiers. They ask The Alien if his race plans to invade the earth. The Alien says: "Oh, no. No, our moral code does not permit us to invade nor to destroy any form of intelligent life. We are prepared to lend you a weapon, a weapon which will permit you to destroy yourselves without harming your planet. This weapon affects only human life. Nothing else will be harmed. It will be loaned to you for twenty-seven of the thirty-five days remaining to us. If at the end of that time, midnight of the twenty-seventh day, Greenwich Time, you've not used it, the weapon will automatically become harmless. You are under no compulsion to make use of the weapon." This also does not make sense. How can a moral code that prohibits the taking of intelligent life allow letting that same intelligent life exterminate itself by arming it with advanced weaponry? Such a moral code is a contradiction in terms. I assess that it is not a moral code, but rather a moral test. The film does not address this point but rather bulldozes ahead without considering alternatives. What happens next is the moral tale illustrated. This is where the moral character of the five abductees is tested.

They are American Jonathan Clark (Gene Barry), a cynical newspaper reporter. British Eve Wingate (Valerie French), a winsome English lass dating an artist. German (?) Professor Klaus Bechner (Geroge Voskovec), a scientist of either mathematics or physics. Russian Ivan Godofsky (Azemat Janti), a soldier in USSR. And finally, Chinese Su Tan (Maria McClay), a peasant woman who is introduced by showing Red Chinese soldiers kill her husband and destroy her village.

I stated earlier that these characters were all bound by a moral code of conduct. This is demonstrated by their actions. Su Tan, upon being returned to her timeline, commits suicide in anguish of despair, but doing so honorably before the shrine of her ancestors. The bombs in her weapon turn instantly into dust.

Eve Wingate tosses her case into the ocean with barely a thought. Not daring to possess that much power, she abdicates it immediately.

The other three hold onto theirs. Professor Bechner, his scientist's mind locked in thought on his predicament crosses the street absent mindedly and is knocked down by a car! He later recovers. Pvt. Godofsky is detained by his own Red Army and ordered to relinquish the secret of the weapon so the political and military leaders can use it for their own plans, but he refuses, under torture to obey. Only after days of harsh physical and mental duress does he then open the case and tell them how to use it.

Reporter Clark has a crisis of conscience and hides out with his weapon, only to turn himself in to his country's authorities later.

The plot is trite and boring, but the story is fascinating. Professor Bechner, working with the American military and adding his weapon to Clark's, test the weapon's legitimacy (something the Soviets don't bother to do) by setting one off in a remote area of the world where (supposedly) there are no other humans. A terminally ill scientist volunteers to be the guinea pig. Observed via television camera on a raft with some test animals from 1500 miles away, the coordinates are read out loud to one of the 'bombs' and sure enough, the scientist is disintegrated leaving behind his clothes and the unaffected caged birds and goat on the raft! Professor Bechner then begs to closely examine all the bombs they have. He notices numeric values and symbols in relief on them and suspects they hold a secret. By rolling the small cylinders onto clay, he imprints the writing onto flat tablets so that they can be better read. This is an interesting detail that is shown in the movie but never explained. In fact, one of the greatest mysteries on earth is that of the ancient Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals. They are Cuneiform seals in relief on cylinders of hard gem, such as obsidian. The ancient Babylonians used them to keep records. These seals are thought to be carved, but the actual process of their creation is unknown, nor is their age. Some experts date them to 3500 BC, but others say they go as far back as 7600 BC, before known writing existed! This suggests that The Alien's technology is based on an ancient science that is itself a mystery.

Meanwhile, the Soviets are planning to wipe out North America with their weapon. At the last minute, the worn out but present Private Godofsky lunges at the Soviet General just as he is about to read out the coordinates, having foolishly chosen the balcony of his Moscow office to do so. This heroic act buys time for Professor Bechner to read out his coordinates derived from his research, which causes the Soviet General to hear a high-pitched sound, collapse and die. Newscaster Mason Ward (the indomitable Paul Frees) announces on the radio: "Ladies and gentlemen, here it is! The bulletin we've been waiting for. Scientists believe we have been bombarded by invisible rays from outer space. Reports pouring in from all over the globe confirm sudden and unexplainable deaths. All the cases have shown the same symptoms. All heard a high pitched, almost super-sonic noise accompanied by acute agony and severe shock and followed by death. I know it's unbelievable, Fantastic; but the rays appear to have killed every person throughout the world known to have been a confirmed enemy of human freedom. Yes, the entire world is now united in a spiritual unity unparalleled in its history. There are those who might say it can't last. But let us pray it does." Bechner explains he got the idea because on the spaceship, The Alien said he offered them not "Life or Death" but "Life and Death." Flimsy? Dubious? Perhaps, but it does point at Biblical prophecy.

In the Book of Revelations, after the Dragon/Satan/The Devil is destroyed in torment forever, the followers of The Savior inherit the earth. Is THE 27TH DAY a parable of one of the books of the Bible disguised as a sci-fi movie?

ATV's 1970 TV series TIMESLIP was, for me, worth the effort. However, I probably won't be revisiting it again soon if ever. It has the interesting elements and common writing/production flaws that permeate UK science fiction shows of the time. One must take into consideration the sparse camera work and bad staging that comes with union enforced labor hours and low budget work ethic to compensate for lack of resources.

TIMESLIP has Time Travel, Immortality, Computer Domination over Society, Cloning, Mind Control, Environmental Degradation and ESP. That is probably a reason for its failure in that it tries to cover too many intriguing phenomena without serving any of them well. Teenagers Liz Skinner and Simon Randall discover a "Time Barrier" which transports them respectively to a Naval base in 1940, an Antarctic research facility in 1990, back to their own English village in 1990, albeit one that has changed into a jungle due to environmental damage, and finally to 1965 to the genesis of the antagonistic catalyst that propels the story.

THE WRONG END OF TIME introduces Liz and Simon, Liz's parents and the mysterious Commander Traynor played by Denis Quilley with Cheshire Cat-like presence. This adventure establishes the Time Barrier, located in a hole in the fence that surrounds an old, abandoned WWII base. The 1970 village where Liz and her parents live is just down the road, so the base draws bored kids to play there. Simon, a boy who is visiting the Skinners for the summer, is a brainy book reader while Liz is the happy-go-lucky "emoter" of the pair. The writers overuse this difference as a device to create dramatic conflict between them. Unfortunately, it detracts when we'd rather see them acting truthfully about their situation.

They "sense" the pulsations of the time barrier and "slip" through it into 1940, when the base was an active, secret research lab. Coincidentally, they arrive at the same time the base is being invaded by a German U-Boat Captain and his team on a commando mission to steal the lab's secret project. The project has something to do with RADAR experiments. Also coincidentally, the German Captain Gottfried (Sandor Eles) happens to have been in the same physics class at Cambridge as Commander Traynor, who also, coincidentally, happens to be the base commandant in 1940. It's implied but never discussed, that the experimental equipment may be responsible (ala The Philadelphia Experiment) for creating the time barrier. Liz and Simon, though not together, manage to respectively get back to 1970 to report what's happening. Traynor makes each of them go back to 1940 to find out if Gottfried found the plans for the project, implying Traynor is more than just a retired military officer. There's also a subplot with Liz's mom having telepathic empathy with Liz and is able to sometimes monitor what's going with them in 1940. There's also a subplot about Liz's father Frank coincidentally serving on the base at the time and getting his memory wiped by the aforementioned experimental equipment; And, there's also a subplot involving the local village publican (played by wonderful character actor Royston Tickner, who played Capt. Leckie in the excellent series Danger UXB) as the Nazi spy who signaled the U-Boat crew and who's still pulling drafts at the pub in 1970! Unfortunately, none of this is ever satisfactorily resolved. We never find out what the radar experiments were. Mom's ESP only works sporadically and with just enough salience to keep the character in the story. Dad's memory loss remains a mystery and the spy, though discovered, gets away without any kind of retribution. In the end, Liz and Simon duck through the time barrier and end up in Antarctica!

The next adventure is THE TIME OF THE ICE BOX. Liz and Simon land in the year 1990 at yet another research facility. At this frozen laboratory, they discover that a hand picked team is busy working on a Longevity Formula designed to extend human life. Coincidentally, Liz's mom Jean (Iris Russell) works there, but looks just like she does in 1970, due the Longevity experiments no doubt. Coincidentally, Liz's future self, twenty years older, also works there! Wouldn't that create a Time Paradox?!? Liz's older self seems to have forgotten all about her time travels with Simon and when prompted to remember, merely puts it off by saying something like, "Oh, that time barrier thing. Best to have left that behind!" Liz isn't too pleased with the way her future self turns out in 20 years. Beth is ambition driven, toadies up to the project director and derides her co-workers. Simon and Liz again go back to 1970 and inform Traynor what's going on. Traynor admonishes Simon to go back to the Ice Box and get the Longevity formula! The "Ice Box" as the scientists call their facility, is run by The Director, Dr. Morgan Devereaux (played by the marvelous John Barron), a strict leader whose authority is unquestioned until one of the research doctors and coincidentally, a test subject, dies from the treatment, aging many years in a few minutes! Then it turns out that the complex is controlled by a sophisticated computer which has a human interface that only Devereaux is allowed to connect to. Coincidentally, Devereaux turns out to be a Clone! And a bad one at that, who is deteriorating! Chaos ensues. The faulty clone who invented the faulty longevity treatment and controls the facility computer control goes haywire and the whole place starts to shut down and freeze up. (BTW, for those who know John Barron's comic turn as the company president C. J. in The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, with his clipped, rapid fire delivery, will get a big kick out of watching him self destruct in Timeslip.) Also, there's a subplot involving Liz's dad being kept in cryogenic suspension (basically, in a block of ice, ala The Thing From Another World) that never goes anywhere. As the Ice Box shuts down, Liz and Simon go through the time barrier and wind up in... THE YEAR OF THE BURN UP, also takes place in 1990 but in an alternate timeline and geographically back near their village. Here, society has split into two groups, those who live in the techno city state and those who are unregistered (called 'misfits'), living "off the grid", in primitive huts. This story unabashedly lifts from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, even calling some of its class strata Alphas and Deltas (Clones again!) Liz and Simon emerge in a hot jungle this time. They come across a misfit village and artists retreat run by Beth, Liz's future self again! This time Beth is much nicer, living as a sculptor and village leader. Simon also meets his future self, now called 2957, a director in the Technocracy. This character is hilariously played by David Graham who in 1970 is the doppelganger of Alexis Denisof's Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from Buffy/Angel! A grand plan calling for the rearrangement of the Earth and humanity has become an all controlling Ministry, building a sea wall across the Atlantic and diverting seawaters and rivers while herding the populace into mega cities! Something goes wrong of course and the planet begins to heat up, turning Britain into a jungle. Climate damage goes critical and the heat starts killing off all the flora. There's also a subplot with Beth and 2957 as star-crossed lovers. Finally, Commander Traynor turns up as an old man, the progenitor of the entire Technocracy, whom 2957 betrayed and deposed. Traynor went underground, a ghost in the machine, sabotaging the project causing the environmental meltdown. Liz and Simon escape through the time barrier.

The final chapter is THE DAY OF THE CLONE. Back in 1970, they are reunited with Liz's parents, whose father admonishes them for using the time barrier against his wishes. Even Traynor forbids Simon to use the time barrier anymore. He does, however, invite Simon to come to work for him in the new ministry that's just been created, a project "calling for the rearrangement of the Earth and humanity!" (Great Reset, anyone?) Simon declines the offer. Then things get weird. Traynor kidnaps Liz and takes her to a scientific research facility! Simon rescues her and they go back through the time barrier to... 1965! Morgan Devereaux is the head of the facility then and the visiting Traynor, whom it turns out is really a nice guy, is gassed, cloned and replaced by Devereaux, explaining why Traynor is so duplicitous throughout the entire series! Somehow, Liz and Simon use the time barrier and manage to make it all right again, even if little of it makes sense.

While the poor dialogue and plot holes kneecap Timeslip, it nevertheless is compelling to watch, at least from a 2022 retroactive POV in that it foreshadows many of the exact same themes which are running through our current societal ills. Predictive Programming is a retro label that can be applied to almost any sci-fi project because so many of the themes, usually having to do with technological advances, are prevalent today. They got the power of the computer correct, but no one saw the internet coming. Cloning equals stem cell research. Global warming in 1970 has certainly manifested itself if not in actual disaster mode then at least as a media threat. The main flaw is the time barrier itself. It doesn't seem to have any rules other than as a convenience for transporting Liz and Simon into their various adventures. How does it know to move them from 1940 England to 1990 Antarctica in the one adventure? Why do Liz and Simon fail to ask the most pressing and obvious questions to their future selves about their pasts? All of the adult characters treat the time barrier's existence like a nuisance rather than a life, changing encounter with an unexplained, phenomena. And in its final act, the time barrier acts as a character itself with its own solution for the evil Traynor clone.

This nearly 60 year old film has found sudden popularity no doubt due to its sharing the name with the latest pop virus variant; However similarities end there for the film's title refers to its titular character. Omicron is an extraterrestrial agent working for an intergalactic organization whose goal is to conquer the earth! Unfortunately for the invaders, Omicron is neither competent nor motivated. In fact, Omicron suffers from job burnout and merely goes through the motions of spying simply to complete his mission and go home. Hilarity ensues.

Written and directed by Ugo Gregoretti, Omicron is classified as a sci-fi comedy, but that label is inadequate. It is more akin to political satire and Gregoretti knows his stuff well. In fact, this reviewer believes Omicron is as important a film as 1959's UK political comedy, I'm All Right, Jack. Both movies hilariously lampoon working conditions in large, manufacturing companies with sharpened veracity. They exemplify the new adage, 'It's funny 'cause it's true.' I will go so far as to say that Omicron goes a step further and parodies humanity in a way similar to Jonathan Swift's Lemuel Gulliver.

A plot point is that Omicron is a disembodied entity who 'possesses' factory worker Angelo Trabucco's body. Unlike Invasion of the Body Snatchers or other countless sci-fi flicks where the invader takes flawless control of their host victim, Omicron has trouble figuring out the controls! Like first learning to drive with a stick shift, Omicron's taking jerky control of Trabucco is textbook slapstick! All the actors in Omicron are wonderful, adding bits of business to their perfunctory roles thus elevating the production; But it is Renato Salvatori who steals the picture as Omicron/Trabucco, embracing his 'fish out of water' performance.

Because Trabucco was found in a park mistaken for dead and revives in the autopsy room, the police and the press become involved. It is while Trabucco lies on the autopsy table that Omicron establishes contact with his superior at The Ministry of Amalgamation for Planet Ultra. Gregoretti employs an interesting camera trick to take us 'inside' Trabucco to listen in on Omicron's conversation with The Minister. This device precedes Mork and Mindy by 15 years. The press makes tabloid hay out of Trabucco's recovery while the cops try to figure out if Trabucco is connected with a gang of Union provocateurs at the factory, called SMS, where he works. Omicron's control of Trabucco's physiology allows him to work faster and tirelessly at SMS which arouses the greed potential of the bosses and the ire of the Union members! Due to this 'eccentricity', the press dogs Trabucco. We now also see the genesis of an alien visitor becoming famous long before The Man Who Fell to Earth!

The story then focuses on Omicron's disgruntlement with his assignment, paralleling the Union versus Management conflict at SMS and his subsequent 'mission' to recon the humans to learn their weaknesses in order to invade. The scene in which he speed reads a library's worth of books is pretty funny and also poignant, in that Gregoretti reveals ourselves through a universal point of view.

The film has a jazzy score by Piero Umiliani. The version I watched had an odd opening where only the first few lines of dialogue were dubbed into English while the rest of the film was in Italian but subtitled in English. The script has a few plot holes but these go by fast enough not to mar the pace. The message of humanity's foibles laid bare should make you think.

*SPOILER ALERT!*

This review presumes the reader has seen the film and can reference the scenes described.

Nephilim are fallen angels banished to earth along with Satan, but also refers to their offspring through procreation with human females as described in the Bible. (For a deeper dive down this rabbit hole, web search L. A. Marzulli) These creatures are demonic and some have telepathic powers. They have been around since ancient times and some still exist today. (See the Kandahar Giant.) Some are legendary, such as Goliath, slain by David. According to researchers, their fossils have been discovered but a conspiracy works to keep knowledge of their existence from the general public. How does The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas intersect with this theory?

In the Bible, Joshua is commanded to destroy the Nephilim. Therefore, the Nephilim are under a holy general death order and must hide from man. The isolation of Yeti (and Sasquatch for that matter) accounts for their cunning in staying hidden and keeping their existence a secret. The End Times predicted in the Bible contain a prophecy of the devil's clarion call to gather dark forces for Armageddon. This would include the Nephilim. In the movie, Rollason (Peter Cushing) postulates a similar motive for the Yeti when he says, "Suppose they're not just a pitiable remnant just waiting to die out. They're waiting, yes. But waiting for us to go..."

Evidence of the Yeti's mental powers abound. The climber McNee (Michael Brill) is a member of the expedition because he had a prior encounter with a Yeti two years earlier. McNee speaks of it hauntingly and reveals he actually paid to join the party. Later on, nursing an injury in his tent, he becomes delirious and hobbles up the mountain as though in answer to a telepathic beckoning by the Yeti. He falls to his death. The party's hunter, Ed Shelley (Robert Brown), dies of a heart attack when, the Yeti he's trying to trap in a net, escapes. Was Shelley, a seasoned hunter, frightened to death? Or, was some kind of psychometric power employed to cause an embolism? Later on, hold up in their fortified cave during a blizzard, Rollason and Friend (Forrest Tucker) begin to imagine things. Rollason thinks he hears their destroyed radio broadcasting weather news and rescue reports. Friend thinks he hears the dead Shelley calling for help. (Friend goes crazy, runs outside and fires his pistol at imagined monsters thus calling down an avalanche on top of him!) Back at the lamasery, is the High Lama (Arnold Marle') meditating or in some kind of telepathic communion with the Yeti? Rollason's wife Helen (Maureen Connell), has a dream/nightmare about her husband's fate and frantically leads a rescue party to save him. Finally, Rollason at last falls victim to the Yeti. Do they, like vicious animals, tear him limb from limb? No. Slowly, the giants advance on him. His eyes are mesmerized. Petrified, he cannot flee... When Helen finds him, he is half frozen and standing stock still on the ledge of a cliff! In the film's final scene, back at the lamasery, the High Lama asks Rollason if he found the Yeti. Rollason, dead eyed, replies that Yeti do not exist!

From all the interpretations of TASofH that I've read, a consensus has formed that the message of the story is the Yeti are long lived, gentle and wise creatures who merely guard knowledge of their existence from mankind presumably because they consider man to be a violent, immature race whose contact might pollute the Yetis' pacifist proclivities. Yet, each of the deaths of the men and the subsequent "cover-up" of the truth leads me to think otherwise. Did McNee follow his own obsession to find the Yeti, or, having missed their opportunity to hush him up in their first encounter did the Yeti implant a mental compulsion into his subconscious so that he would return? For a sinister race of evil beings who wish to remain hidden, it would serve their purposes to have McNee "disappear" on a mountain climbing expedition. When the Yeti's searching arm slips into McNee's tent and fails to get him, latching onto his mind and "calling" him up the mountain for an "accident" works just as well, perhaps better. Indeed, a high altitude lamasery near the Yeti stronghold would necessarily have to have a dark ally. This would explain why the High Lama does his best to dissuade Friend's expedition from going. It also explains why the High Lama's Majordomo (Anthony Chinn) follows the expedition and snipes at them from a nearby peak with a long rifle! Was Helen's dream sent to her by the Yeti or by the High Lama at the Yeti's command? Either way, it sets the wheels in motion to complete the cover up... When Rollason and Friend have their respective hallucinations, Friend, being the recalcitrant exploiter, is the one they bury under tons of ice and snow. But it is Rollason, the respected scientist, whom they mesmerize into telling the world that Yeti do not exist!

Back in the fifties, I don't believe Nigel Kneale ever considered such a thing. I doubt he even knew the term "Nephilim", but it would be interesting to know the genesis of the Abominable Snowman (other than he wrote it first for BBC TV in 1955 as The Creature.) That being said, the film works both ways. Perhaps Kneale was mesmerized by a High Lama?

After scanning all 124 user reviews, only one noted that the plot of this Doctor reboot was analogous to Fox's 1979 Time After Time. In fact, they seem to have hung the story on the same frame. *H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) travels thru time to modern day San Francisco to stop Jack the Ripper (David Warner). *The Doctor crashes on earth in modern day San Francisco to Stop The Master. *Wells gets romantically involved with a comely American banker. *The Doctor gets romantically involved with a comely American surgeon. *The Ripper goes about killing lots of new victims until Wells destroys him, using his time machine. *The Master threatens to destroy the earth until The Doctor destroys him using the T.A.R.D.I.S. *Wells travels back to his own time, offering to take his lover with him (she accepts) *The Doctor goes back to time/space travel, offering to take his (potential) lover with him (she declines)

The fact that The Doctor is reading a copy of The Time Machine at the beginning of the film is a tip off. This may have been the writer/director's way of letting us know that Hollywood Bean Counter-ism was in play. Unfortunately, the big studios cannot commit financial resources to a project that does not have some kind of chartable success rate. With the best of intentions, the Who reboot got sideswiped by systemic blindness. Time After Time was a commercial success. It is not unreasonable to imagine a committee of production executives saying to the writers, "Give us something like TAT."

That being said, there is a consensus among the user reviews that coincides with my own opinions. *Paul McGann was a great casting choice who never got a real chance at being the eighth Doctor. *Many inconsistencies in the established Time Lord cannon were irritating but could have been overlooked had the story been worthy. *Eric Roberts? Meh. A choice. Could have been anything/anyone. *A kiss is still a kiss. Every Doctor gets to break some sort of barrier previously unbreeched by previous Doctors. (They weren't really very erotic kisses. More like platonic kisses of joy. And besides, who among us never imagined that The Doctor and Romana weren't going at it like rutting animals when they weren't fighting Sontarans?) *And finally, yes... Where were the Daleks? The intro needed a little bit more "Exterminate". In this, the script failed to provide the needed 'action hook' to get things rolling, opting instead for Chinese gang warfare. (Yes, poor Sylvester McCoy. Kind of like Kirk's death.)