marthahunter

Although I had low expectations for this film, I couldn't resist the title. At the first sight of the red glaring eyes of the Space Llama, I was already beginning to giggle.

Since a teenage brother and sister are house watching, the sister naturally texted virtually everyone in her school to come to their house party. When one of the girls is driving to her house, she is laser beamed to death by the Space Llama. The last text from her to the house sitting sister reads "AHHHHHHH!!!"

What could have been heavy handed gore, became a laugh riot of hapless teens being repetitively sprayed with super-soaker fake blood and/or green Llama goo. Meanwhile, Dan relishes his quick wardrobe (shirt) changes in multiple scenes. In fact, Dan eventually ends up swinging a "Space Bat" (i.e. An aluminum foil wrapped baseball bat), while wearing Captain Kirk's Starfleet tunic from Star Trek the Original Series!

In addition to being a scifi/horror parody, it tosses in takes on exploitation Kung-Fu flicks of the 70's. How can you not love the Space Llama POV scenes of it pummeling some hapless victims with slapping fisticuffs sound effects from Kung-Fu flicks?

As Joe Bob Briggs might have said: It's got Space Alien Goo Fu, Hot Tub Electrocution Fu, Super Soaker Blood Fu , and Kung Fu Fu...check it out. BTW, I have died and have gone to Laugh Track Heaven.

Humorless insipid dialog...check..colossal waste of time,...check...beyond the pale stupid premise...check...10 minutes later...click off...

The arch villain here is a toad-faced, scowling, bore whose wit and intelligence are almost as subpar as the script. How does this world-destroying tyrant recruit mutants? Why he changes the hair color for Storm, fixes up the ruffled feathers of Angel, and mutters "join me"!. Apparently, this is sure-fire recruitment inducement for superhuman mutants.

Meanwhile, I pity the Hank McCoy/Beast character who is either an uninteresting accountant-type character or an embarrassing, useless, big, blue lug. Numerous scenes of mass slaughter and the military literally mopping up pools of blood do nothing to improve the viewer's experience either.

Otherwise, the film is over-stuffed with random CGI effects and a plethora of sidekick characters that are left awkwardly standing around. If it weren't for James McAvoy's performance of Xavier mildly holding my interest, I would have rated this film even lower.

Although I certainly enjoy seeking out obscure pre-1970 scifi and horror films, "Estrana Invasion" was a particularly tough slog to sit through. In fact, the only special effect of the film is a TV screen that broadcasts a wavy lined image which hypnotizes children and older people. Even worse were repetitive scenes of listless quasi-zombiefied children breaking into their neighbors homes to watch their TVs. Meanwhile, the dull dialogue, amateur acting, mundane sets and cinematography, meander into an absolutely bewildering conclusion that involves souped up swamp gas, germanium. and a crazed electrician who vows to control and destroy everyone at will!

However, I did find some amusement viewing an Argentine film with a predominately Spanish speaking cast, that purports to be set in the US. For instance, in my subtitled DVD-R, American actor Richard Conte is constantly addressed as "Intendent" and "Washington officials" are constantly berated by the irritated town folks.

Although, this film released to the US in 1974, it had been sitting in the can since 1965. Watch and see why its release had been delayed for so long.

Who would ever have thought that an isolated, dark, gothic estate could be such a hot bed of illicit trysts with secret lovers? Aside from the patriarch Dr. Dalton, virtually the entire staff of the mansion are steaming up the windows.

Aside from the frothy soap opera subplots, there are heinous murders being committed off camera. Has the "Hyena of London" come back from the grave?

Without spoiling the ending, there is a minor scifi element revealed in the denoument.

This colorful Euro Western features features the debut of Brad Harris, Frank Horst, Don Vadis, and Tony Kendall into this genre! Horst plays the cold calculating Captain Kelley who masterminds pirating river boats and instigates Indian attacks. An unfamiliar leading man (Hansjorg Felmy) plays the new sheriff of the Mississippi River town of Helena. He teams up with peplum/SW star Brad Harris (playing the rugged Tom Quinthy). In this film, as well as "Black Eagle of Santa Fe", Tony Kendall plays the Winnetou type character of Black Eagle.

There is plenty of well staged action scenes, good cinematography, two different femme fetales, and an impressive Indian attack on a cavalry guarded river boat. In addition, there is an effective night scene with one of the outlaws being lured into a quicksand laden swamp. Euro western fans should enjoy this well above average, early effort.

BACKGROUND: According to Producer/Director Sidney Pink's book "So You Want To Make Movies". Sid's plot for JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET evolved from his idea of a powerful being that could utilize it's brain at full capacity. He then chose to set this alien mental giant on one of the least known planets in our solar system, Uranus. In Sid's own words: "A completely developed brain that is the last vestige of a super society could well have existed on such a planet. The brain's ability to sustain itself in the heated bowels of the planet's core was also within the realm of possibility."

This film was shot in Denmark, and it was Sid's second directorial effort that came on the heels of REPTILICUS. The budget was a minuscule $75,000 and the Danish studio was so small that the scene of the Uranian, ice crystal forest was confined to a 32' X 18' set space.

According to Sid, the director's cut contained an original, electronic, musical score by Danish composer Axel, and special effects (stop motion animation) by a non-mainstream artist, Bent Barfod. For better or for worse, AIP heavily re-edited this film and we are only left with intriguing stills of the original monsters.

Apparently, the musical score and special effects were too avant-garde for the taste of Sam Arkoff. Sid Pink stated that Arkoff and AIP didn't understand or appreciate the exotic look and sound of his film. As a result AIP deleted the unconventional looking effects and the exotic music, and substituted a more familiar American look and feel to the picture. Ignoring Sid's protests, AIP inserted new effects sequences (stock effect scenes from earlier AIP features and one original scene of a stop motion animated monster by Jim Danforth) and replaced most of the music score with "canned music".

Without reviewing the original footage themselves, many critics have simply parroted the AIP argument that the original effects were terrible and had to be replaced. More likely, AIP simply didn't want a novel, foreign looking film to scare away conservative American patrons.

THE PLOT: In the year 2001, a UN spaceship with five astronauts is sent to investigate strange radioactive emissions that have originated from Uranus (the seventh planet of our solar system). The crew consists of Eric the Commander (Carl Ottosen), Capt. Don Graham (John Agar), Karl (Peter Monch), Barry O'Sullivan (Ove Sprogoe), and Svend (Louis Miehe-Renard).

While in orbit above Uranus, a swirling golden light paralyzes the he crew in mid-motion. A malevolent voice intones "Come,, that I may learn and judge... I shall drain your minds and possess you". This alien mind probe would have passed unnoticed by the crew except that a fresh apple from what seemed like a moment ago has shriveled up and decayed. Although the commander knows that the inexplicable blackout that they experienced might have lasted for days, he orders an immediate landing on the planet's surface.

As their ship sets down on the landing zone, the frozen landscape ripples and transforms into a lush vegetated area. When the crew disembarks, they are dumbfounded to find themselves in an earthlike forest. Even more strange is that the forest seems virtually identical to the one near Svend's home. Closer examination reveals that the trees and shrubs are rootless.

Buildings and beautiful women materialize to further distract and confuse the men. Later, a force field is discovered around the outer border of the forest,. In order to discover who or what is manipulated their minds and manufacturing people and places of their dreams and desires, the commander realizes that they must penetrate the force field and seek out the source of the pulsing radiation.

When they pass through the force field, the true surface of Uranus is finally revealed. This is a bizarre world of ice crystal forests with razor sharp edges, pits of frozen ammonia (quick snow), and strange swirling gases. The hostile entity that they seek is located deep in a cavern that is warmed by geothermal gases. Can the astronauts survive the attacks of monsters that are dredged up from their darkest nightmares and still manage to defeat the alien before they fall under it's total control?

WHAT WORKS: Set design & costumes: The control room of the spaceship Explorer 12 is nice and roomy with an upper deck and elevator. Plenty of gauges on the wall, well labeled air lock controls, and a large multi-colored panel made the ship interior interesting and attractive.

The forest set contained a dense under story and was unusually well detailed with flowers, and fruiting trees. The force field is discovered under a thick mat of moss.

The ice crystal forest set was a remarkable Bava-esque design of stark expressionist "trees" , swirling mists, and various colored lighting. The alien's cave displayed more of stylistic sensibility of design.

The table-top, miniature set of the landing site was extremely well done. The rippling transition between frozen landscape to forest and back again are some of the best effects scenes.

The jumpsuit styled uniforms sported a distinctive blue and white UN space agency logo and appeared realistic for an interplanetary flight. The space suits where electric blue with striking yellow belts, boot inlays, and helmets. The suits gave the impression that they were made of some kind of advanced material that was lightweight but well insulated against the cold.

Music: Ib Glindemann's lush instrumental score over the opening sequences can pleasantly linger in the mind well after the film is over. Capeheart and Tableporter's lounge music over the final credits help maintain the dreamy feel of the film through the last frame. Although AIP replaced the original electronic score with stock musical cues (largely from "The Day the World Ended") from Ronald Stein, it worked prettywell for this film.

The colorful, impressionistic title sequences of the spaceship passing by Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were created by Bent Barfod and are quite lovely to behold. Once again, the overall dreamlike quality of the film is strongly enhanced by these sequences.

John Agar: Despite chasing everything in a skirt, John Agar's character loosened things up and his charm helped spark the film. John delivers the film's best line to crewmate Barry: "Paradise Uranus, complete with rats, several Eves, and even your apples".

Ann Smyrner: Smyrner was a striking nordic beauty who possessed both talent and intelligence. She made Ingrid an unforgettable character who was by far the most real and independent creation on the planet.

Primary Concept: The concept of an entity that can fully utilize it's brain at full capacity with nearly unlimited mental power has seldom been explored in cinema. In this case, the powerful alien brain doesn't merely create illusion, but is able to transform matter into other forms.

Obviously, the astronauts are not breathing illusionary oxygen in the manufactured forest, nor do they build an imaginary acetylene torch (the alien does replace the torch that was fabricated in the blacksmith shop with an illusionary one though).

One has to wonder if Mr. Pink's script that was copyrighted in 1960 was somewhat borrowed by Gene Roddenberry's Talosians in "The Cage" (mind probes, illusions of pleasure and pain) and "Savage Curtain" (earthlike zone on an inhospitable planet with past characters brought to life).

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Dubbing: The dubbing of the foreign cast members speaking phonetically is delivered in a most stilted fashion. This problem is a serious detraction.

Greta Thyssen: Apparently, Greta plays herself here. That means we have a prima donna scene stealer who thinks she is a "star". Sid Pink commented on how Greta was something of special effect herself. Her sex pot attributes were largely phony. Sid stated that "she was intentionally almost bald under the wig, allowing her to pull up her cheeks and creating those sexy almond eyes. Her boobs were mostly cotton and her fabulous rear was built into her costume.

Worst line of film: After walking though a woods with luxuriant plant growth, Don says "Has anyone seen anything alive?" Hello Don, plants are alive.

FINAL WORD: For some reason, this film often gets short shift from the critics who dismiss it too hastily. Perhaps, this is largely due to some bad mouthing from Ib Melchoir (who's screenplay was heavily revised by Sid Pink) as well as the AIP business decision to Americanize the non-mainstream special effects.

Through the combination of some surprisingly imaginative sets, the sublime use of color and music , the concept of though control and illusion, as well as some early- sixties cheese, make JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET a fun and compelling film to view. Unlike many of the more technical cut and dry science fiction films out there, this one can seep into the viewer's subconscious and lodge itself into a kind of alpha dream state.

Although "Princess Cinderealla" has been on my want-to-see list for decades, I had fairly low expectation on its quality. However, my modest expectations were completely blown away by an amazingly entertaining comedic fantasy. There are no cliched plot lines here, and no one will be able to guess what will happen next.

This English language version features witty dialog, well developed charming characters, impressive set designs (e.g. plenty of custom designed props, several impressive expressionist sets (i.e. the Ogre's abode), imaginative and highly amusing action, and with a delightful deft touch to the direction.

One of the clever devices in this film is a witch's broom that powers a cart that efficiently transports both a witch and her ogre cohort! The ogre is often seen as big dumb oaf that has plenty of funny scenes, but there are some surprising moments when this same brute turns quite deadly.

Another big break with traditional fairy tales is that Prince Charming is largely side lined. In fact, the most actively heroic characters are Count No Count (fortified with his "atomic strength pill"), who is brave, handsome, and altruistic, and his side kick, the affable Mr. Goodluck.

Princess Cinderella is woefully obscure fantasy film and wonderful fun for whole family. Highly recommended!

Since I am big scifi fan and love seeking out the old B&W, the obscure, foreign, and the campy to the classic films, I certainly had to see this film. After all, "Nijioitoko" (Rainbow Man) has been touted as Japan's first scifi film!

Essentially, "Nijioitoko" is a 40's film noir/old dark house film that concerns a brutal murder of a member for the allegedly cursed Maya family. Subsequent victims associated with the Mayas see a rainbow before they die, and cry out that the "Rainbow Man" is going to kill them.

As the investigation into the murder proceeds, two star reporters from competing newspapers, cover the story and fall in love with each other. In their course of discovery, they uncover a legend that the ancestral Maya family conducted religious practices that included making pacts with spirits of the rainbows. At some point, a Maya ancestor broke this pact and that unleashed a Rainbow Man of vengeance on the family.

In the course of this B&W film, a multi colored patterned grid or 'rainbow" does in fact manifest itself. The minor scifi element here is what causes the "rainbow".

Most of action takes place in the shadowy Maya mansion. In the basement laboratory, the father of the Maya family is shown to be an eccentric scientist who is obsessed with unlocking the cosmic secrets of rainbows. His wife (Shimako) futilely tries to maintain a calm demeanor. Katsuto is the semi-mad oldest son and artist who unnerves everyone with his Picasso-like paintings. Toyohiko is the estranged youngest son who skulks around in a beard and sunglasses. Meanwhile, Yurie Obata is the young woman, who happens to be prime suspect in the case, and has had a complete emotional meltdown.

Aside from scifi novelty of this film, "Nijioitoko" is solid effort and well worth seeing. Unusual for the period, the star female reporter (Mimi) is highly successful and self-sufficient. Through out this film, Mimi maintains her poise, professionalism, as well as her empathy for friend Yurie. The character of Mimi is certainly a refreshing role model for women.

Pros: The steampunk fleet of space ships' design is novel and stylistically creative. There is plenty of tongue-in-cheek dark humor, irony, and an epic amount of obtuse military strategic dialog that may elicit some wry smiles from the audience. Although space ship fleets are constantly seen tracking across dim star fields, they sometimes effectively appear like an ominous swarm of dark locusts invading the galaxy.

Cons: Aside from Tobler's soon to be discarded family, this film is populated by a retinue of nihilistic and amoral characters that the viewer won't care about. The SPX in this film are on par with early 70's Dr. Who eps (i.e. table top sets decorated with plastic toys and paper mache landscapes), but with a seemingly unlimited budget for lighter fluid fires (e.g. burning space colonies, ships, etc.). Needlessly jump cutting to a different crudely drawn space war maps every ten minutes becomes tiresome. Superfluous zoomed-in close-ups of eyeballs and mouths should and have ended on the editing room floor. In addition, the Asian concubine of the 6th Fleet Admiral had several exploitive naked scenes that were uncomfortably unsavory.

For something startling offbeat, WTATDOT6F offers a very different kind of scif film, but most genre fans will probably walk away while shaking their heads in disbelief.

Under the stage name "Hurricane West", Gary McGuire (Anthony Steffen) is a highly skilled shootist who stars in a circus act. A boy, Tony Murphy (Marco Steffenelli who is Benito Stefenelli's son) worships Gary, but Gary is actually a coward. When Al Roy (Ken Wood) and his friends humiliates Gary, he turns to heavy drinking. After Coleman (Richard Wyler) threatens to torture Tony, Gary mans up and refuses to give Coleman any information. In a later disagreement, Roy kills Coleman. Gary regains his self respect, and his circus friends help him to eliminate Roy and his criminal gang.

A campy voice over the beginning scene with Mickey Hargitay, conjures up the feeling of watching a grade-Z, Ed Wood film. Suddenly, there is a head scratching scene of a voodoo doll in Hargitay's hand. Pressing onward, there are plenty of meandering conversations between time filling characters. Random people constantly wander into scenes and get shot or beat up. One the most bizarre aspects of this film is that several characters die by having grand mal style mal seizures!!

For pure camp weirdness, there is a "witch" in a cave climax. Trying to get this film in the can ASAP, the two "protagonists" spit out incomprehensible explanations for the bewildering scenes that we have just witnessed. BTW, did the camera man pass out during the extended addendum? When the credits finally roll, there is a super imposed, lighter fluid fire in the foreground!

On the plus side, this film features a fiery femme fatale named Pilar (Lucia Bomez). Bomez certainly knows how to light up her scenes. In addition, Felice Di Stefano delivers an excellent score that helps to offset the tedium. All in all, this film is an offbeat curiosity that is fully loaded with guilty pleasure cheese.

In old Mexico, O'Brian (George Montgomery) is the right hand man and best friend of ambitious General Camargo. Camargo wishes to marry into the rich patrician family, the Rianos. A jealous young man of the Riano family is murdered and a who done it subplot begins. Some interesting politics are discussed by O'Brien and Camargo. In the meantime, a leader of a band Mexican outlaws is annoyed when ex outlaw O'Brien rejects his offer to join his band. The murderer of the young man, Alfredo Riano is finally resolved to be the uncle. A final showdown with the outlaw gang results in the elimination of the said outlaws.

Dreary, slow moving, sleazy characters and dull plot. Luigi Pistilli plays Lt. Hernandez who recruits his revolutionary friend, Pancaldo (Guglielmo Spoletini) to kill a nino who is an heir to $10k. Franco Balducci has a thankless role of a loser who meets an early demise. Even worse off, Luke Askew is stuck playing an unbearably, unlikable, alcoholic (Luke) in an extremely annoying role. After fever dreams of his earlier life (where he shoots a young boy through the head in a thoughtless stunt), the alchi Luke unconvincingly sobers up. At least Benito Steffenelli plays a lively character (although forced to wear an ill fitting fright wig) as Pancho. With the blessing of Pancaldo, Luke kills Hernandez in duel. What a pretentious pedestrian bore!

Anthony Steffen, William Berger, Mario Brega: Steffen plays a Union officer (Davy Flanagan) who was shot by a POW camp commander (later revealed to by William Berger) who pretends to be his friend, Sam Kellogg. Due to this head wound, Davy lost all memory of his past. Davy discovers that he is considered a deserter and has a high bounty ($10,000!) on his head. While seeking his beautiful wife, Liza, (Ida Galli aka Evelyn Stewart) who had since become the common law wife to Clay Hackett (Claudio Undari aka Robert Hundar). Liza spends most of her days drinking bottles of liquor and passing out.

Dragging Kellogg around, Davy fights off bandit gangs (one led by "Jack", Raf Baldarassarre) and kills them all. Dirty (Mario Brega) is a bandit leader want-to-be, who gets dispatched as well. In the final showdown with Hackett's gang and Kellogg, Davy destroys them all with nitro and flying bullets. After Kellogg hits Davy in the head, his memories return, and Kellogg is shot dead and falls into a horse trough. At the end, Liza and Davy are reunited hand in hand.

Although Kellogg says that he has an account to settle with Davy, there is no sense in that motive. How would a man who shot an enemy soldier and then masqueraded as a Union soldier by wearing his uniform, have such a hate agenda for man that never did anything to him? Obviously, this paper thin motivational character trope turns up all the time in SW's. Overall, the amnesia plot with Steffen works well here, and we can enjoy plenty of action and a rare romantic happy ending.

This is a weakly plotted pasta western with paper thin characters, a bland music score, and lack luster action scenes. Considering that the outlaw, Ross Steward (Stelvio Rosi) is a jittery coward, the $25,000 bounty on his head seems grossly inflated. There is also an Indian witch character thrown into the mix that tries in vain to relieve the viewers' boredom.

The only thing that perked up my interest in this film was when the charismatic Peter Lee Lawrence finally shows up. Unfortunately, he is under utilized here, and the film flounders without him.

Roberto Miali (Sterling Ascot/Jerry Kenshaw) stars and in this, but the only actor that I recognized was Spartaco Conversi (who plays Ringo). This low budget SW was never released in the U.S. After watching this, one can see why. It has a meandering story, awkwardly staged fist fights, witless dialog, and little or no character motivations.

There are non sequitur plot devices like a custom made cash register that fires two six guns at the door. In this way, they can pin the blame for the deaths of two expendable henchman on a dispute over a horse (???). Secondly there is hand-less clock that serves as focal point for trick shooting games. In the finale, the ridiculous last pistol shot that dispatches Jerry's quarry has to be seen to be believed!

Jerry wants to avenge the death of his brother, and has to shoot up plenty of cardboard cut-out characters that stretch between the towns of "Templeton" and "Santa Monica". At first, the town boss is implicated, but it is the dastardly Ringo (Spartaco Conversi) that is finally revealed to have murdered Jerry's brother. If you find yourself shaking your head over this senseless plot, you are not alone.

As a fan of sketch comedy (e.g. SNL, Kids in the Hall), I was looking forward to some witty satire with a talented cast. Unfortunately, there was none of those qualities on display when I tried watching "The Civil War on Drugs" ep.

After fifteen minutes of expletives hurled in every direction, wretched acting, and one tenth as funny Bevis & Butthead dialogue (which I detested anyway), I killed the Youtube feed.

Abysmal performances, low brow witless dialogue, depressingly incompetent story lines, and thoroughly unlikable characters are all mixed into this miasma of sub-moronic ineptitude. In order to prevent permanent brain damage, I would advise viewers to swipe left on "The Blankest Kids U' Know". You have been warned!

As a fan of vintage scifi, I felt that the dark Gothic lunar landscapes and the overall moody sets (i.e. a fogbound launching pad, shadowy lunarites, smoky craters and frequent meteor bombardments of the lunar surface), created a unique cinematic look for a scifi film of this period. Most B&W scifi films are shot in a flat neo-realistic look, but this film strives for a much more expressionist style.

Unexpectedly, there was a bizarre sequence of a freeze ray from the moon that froze the spaceship of the twelve in space. Meanwhile, Washington D.C. became encased in a giant ice cube!

How can you not love a film that features a baker's dozen team of international astronauts, mysterious cat loving aliens, Universal Studio-like sets filled with of swirling fog, and instant ice age rays that freeze the entire North American continent? Too fun!

This title has remained one of my favorite sci-fi films. The excellent F/X of both the suspended-in-air time portal and the collapsing time portal, the early electronic music, the interstellar spaceship in the crater, the raging mutant attacks, the futuristic underground society, and the incredible ending sequence were some of the iconic sci-fi sights and sounds that left an indelible impression on my young mind.

In addition, veteran actor John Hoyt (who appeared in classic Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, and Star Trek episodes), bright Merry Anders, TV sitcom fave Steve Franken, and even a cameo by Forry Ackerman certainly contributed a nice cast to cheer for.

This was a well staged, imaginative, colorful film that should delight any true fan of vintage sci-fi.

By utilizing expertly lit Gothic interior sets, this film is saturated with an incredibly surreal look and feel. Viewing a pristine print of this film on YouTube, I was impressed with the production design, the gorgeous cast, and the intense power struggle and love/hate relationship between the two undead residents of the abandoned castle.

Between the moody chilling scenes there is a fair amount of eroticism, and frivolous fun. One of the more gripping scenes was that of a recently converted vampire in her windowed coffin being carried to the cemetery. The POV shots from the nascent vampire are of the towering Lombardy Poplars, passing under the arc of the cemetery gate, and seeing the dirt pile up on the coffin's window pane.

For true vintage horror fans who don't need lots of blood and gore, this film is well worth a look.

Genre films of the late 40's are particularly interesting to me. Many of them have strong elements of film noir (i.e. snappy dialogue, moody settings, diabolical villains, etc.) and they often had offbeat plot lines.

"Angel on the Amazon" is quite entertaining with a competent cast, jungle thrills, love triangles, and a haunted femme fatale. One surprisingly intense flashback scene was that of a panther that was stalking sleeping members of a safari (complete with well staged high angle shots).

I recommend that any fan of vintage genre films to seek out this B+ film title out.

Although there have already been some excellent positive reviews posted on this incredible episode, I wanted to express some of the profound impressions that it had made on me when I first viewed it on its mid- 70's syndicated run. Rather than a point for point review, I wanted to share some rather random, subliminal, and long lasting impressions that I had of this incredible show. First of all, I had never been so thrilled by a TV program before. After Menagerie Part 1 ended with "to be continued" caption, I could scarcely wait until the conclusion that would be offered in Part 2.

Many of the mysterious events introduced in part one were beyond thrilling to my young mind. The Enterprise had been locked on course to the only "forbidden planet" in the galaxy; strange transmissions from Talos IV were creating images from 13 years ago of the Enterprise's first voyage to this strange world; Spock was on trial for mutiny; and what "chance for life" could the injured Capt. Pike possibly have on Talos?

The look and feel of the ship and crew was familiar, but strikingly different. Pike's crew wore old style uniforms, had lasers in instead of phasers, the communicators were transparent, the landing party wore blue jackets, some approaching views of the Talos IV were shadowy like a waning moon, musical plants created the exterior planet sound heard in this and many subsequent episodes, the transporter sequence to beam down took much longer and flickered in and out quite a bit. The sound effects on the bridge and for the transporter were quite different too.

Alexander Courage created a magnificent underscore for this episode. From the dreamlike "Rigel 7" musical queue to the very cool electronic music for the Talosians, this underscore was quite evocative. I'm assuming that the eerie electronic sound effect/music queue for when the Keeper's conversation (via the monitor screen) with Kirk ended was the creation of Courage too.

I was impressed by the transitional effect for the illusion sequences and the appearance of the laser-holed transparency (both sight and sound) as well. The phlegmatic voice and the pulsing head veins of the Keeper were unforgettable too.

After Vina's revelation toward the end, there is a very strong feeling of having seen a Greek tragedy on screen. As the briefing room darkens one last time, on the monitor screen, Kirk views Capt. Pike and Vina hand-in-hand back on Talos. The Keeper intones "Captain Pike has an illusion and you have reality, may you find your way as pleasant". The dreamlike music is achingly moving, and the marvelous story concludes with romantic, yet bittersweet feeling, and a sense of awe.