This is an excellent Anderson production worth comparing with the best episodes of UFO or SPACE 1999 (first series). Of course it isn't some SFX extravaganza or Star Wars pseudo-mystic tripe fest, but a subtle movie that has a slow pace, yet it conveys the creepy, eerie and uncanny atmosphere of the best Anderson productions: for lovers of 'cerebral' sci-fi.
Roy Thinnes(David Vincent from "The Invaders") and Ian Hendry star as American astronaut Glenn Ross & British astronaut John Kane, who helm a spacecraft that is sent to explore a newly discovered planet in the same orbit as Earth, but on the other side of the sun. The mission unfortunately is jeopardized when they make a crash landing on the planet, and discover that the unidentified world is eerily similar to their own...
This movie has been a favorite of mine and is entwined with the Christmas Holidays for me for two reasons: (1) growing up in the 1960s, everything was space-related from advertising to television programs and even Santa Claus found himself in spaceships during that era and (2) I saw this movie during a Christmas shopping trip when I was ten years old and it brought back fond memories of my favorite TV shows when I was even younger ("Supercar", Fireball XL5", and "Stingray",). Therefore, I am a tad biased when it comes to this movie for personal reasons.
Add Thunderbirds & UFO together & this is the result ! Music & explosions all thrown in the mix !
KHQ isn't showing Carson reruns. Instead they show old movies (where I saw Mirage, Sink the Bismarck, and The Truth about Spring).
The European Space Exploration Council sends two astronauts to explore a planet similar to the Earth but located on the opposite side of the sun.Gary Gerani, co-writer of "Pumpkinhead" (1988), ranks the film 81st in his book "Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies", praising Doppelgänger as a "fine example of speculative fantasy in the late '60s".
JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN is a minor British science fiction effort with a head-scratching premise that goes for imagination over realism any day of the week. It's a film with the thumb print of Gerry Anderson all over it, with lots of effective miniature work throughout and character actors like Ed Bishop and George Sewell showing up.
I watched this movie when I was a kid (on video in the 1980s) and it was a bit of a childhood favourite, but I couldn't remember some key points so watched it again just recently on the net. I'm disappointed, needless to say.
1969's "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" was an ambitious feature project from television producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, creators of such puppet series as SUPERCAR, STINGRAY, and THUNDERBIRDS (and later UFO and SPACE: 1999). Its original British title "Doppelganger" rather gives the game away so far as a certain twist during the picture's second half, but with an impressive budget and cast, plus the set design and expected technical wizardry it's still fascinating in a purely visual sense.
