Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (also known by its original title Doppelgänger) is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Lynn Loring, Loni von Friedl and Patrick Wymark. It was written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and Donald James, and produced by the Andersons for their company Century 21.
Set in the year 2069, the film concerns a joint European-NASA mission to investigate a newly discovered planet which lies directly opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun. The mission ends in disaster and the death of one of the astronauts, following which his colleague realises that the planet is a mirror image of Earth in every detail, with a parallel and duplicate timeline.
The film was the first major live-action production by the Andersons, known for their puppet television programmes such as Thunderbirds. Having originally conceived the story as a television play, they were encouraged by their employer Lew Grade to pitch the project as a feature film to Jay Kanter of Universal Pictures. Though underwhelmed by the script, Kanter greenlit the film after the Andersons hired Parrish as director. The film was shot between July and October 1968 at Pinewood Studios and on location in England and Portugal. As filming progressed, the working relationship between Parrish and the Andersons became strained. Meanwhile, creative disagreements between Gerry Anderson and business partner John Read, the director of photography, led to Read's resignation from Century 21. In an effort to distinguish the film from their puppet productions, the Andersons wrote adult themes into the script, although cuts were required for the film to be awarded an A certificate by the British Board of Film Censors.
The film premiered in August 1969 in the United States and October 1969 in the United Kingdom. It performed poorly at the box office during its initial theatrical run but has since garnered a cult following. The film has received mixed reviews from critics; while the special effects and production design have been praised, some commentators have judged the parallel Earth premise to be clichéd and uninspired. Various plot devices and imagery have been viewed as pastiches of other science fiction films, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Several members of the cast went on to appear in UFO, the Andersons' first live-action TV series, which also re-used many of the film's props.
Plot
In 2069,
- Herbert Lom as Dr Kurt Hassler
;Uncredited
- Keith Alexander as Launch Controller
- Edward Cast as Security Vaults Sergeant Kanter was open to funding promising film ideas, so Lew Grade, the Andersons' employer and financial backer, set up a meeting for Gerry Anderson to pitch a story about a hypothetical "mirror" Earth. On the inspiration for the film, Anderson said: "I thought, rather naively, what if there was another planet on the other side of the Sun, orbiting at exactly the same speed and the same size as Earth? That idea then developed into the planet being a replicated Earth and that's how it ended up, a mirrored planet". At one point it ran to 194 pages, enough for a three-hour film. The Andersons had conceived the story as a one-hour drama for Associated Television, but Sylvia thought the premise "too good for a television play" and suggested making it as a feature film instead. John Read, the Andersons' business partner, proposed the title "Doppelgänger".
Kanter was dissatisfied with the Williamson script, so the Andersons' began to re-write it themselves and brought in Donald James as a co-writer to improve the characterisation. In the original script, Ross was blinded in the Dove crash, while Kane survived but was declared insane. A structural defect in Doppelganger caused it to burn up in the atmosphere with Kane inside, and the film ended with Kane's wife, the Rosses and Webb attending his funeral. After weeks of searching, in June 1968 the Andersons hired Robert Parrish, who had co-directed Casino Royale (1967). According to Gerry, Parrish "told us he loved the script and said it would be an honour to work with us. Jay Kanter gave Bob the thumbs up and we were in business". Anderson said that while the negative critical response to Casino Royale raised questions about Parrish's ability, Doppelgänger could not have been made without him: "It wasn't a question of, 'Will we get on with him?' or, 'Is he the right man?' He was a name director, so we signed him up immediately".
Casting
Leading the cast was American actor Roy Thinnes as Colonel Glenn Ross of NASA. Thinnes was cast on the basis of his starring role in The Invaders and his resemblance to Paul Newman. In the Andersons' script, Ross's first name was Stewart and he was the first person on Mars. To reflect the script's characterisation of Ross as a heavy smoker, Thinnes went through numerous packets of cigarettes over the course of the production, to the detriment of his health. In September 1969, The Age reported that the actor would demand a non-smoking clause for his next film: "He smokes about two packets a day, but the perpetual lighting up of new cigarettes for continuity purposes was too much".
Ian Hendry was cast as Dr John Kane, a British astrophysicist and head of the Phoenix project. In his biography, Anderson recalled that Hendry "was always drinking" and was visibly intoxicated during the filming of the Dove crash sequence: "... he was pissed as a newt, and it was as much as he could do to stagger away. Despite all that, it looked exactly as it was supposed to on screen." In the original script, Kane's first name was Philip and he had a wife called Susan.
Ross's wife Sharon was played by Lynn Loring. The role had first gone to either Gayle Hunnicutt or Tisha Sterling, but the original actress quit early in the production after falling ill. This led to the casting of Loring, Thinnes' then wife and a star of TV series The F.B.I. In a deleted scene, Glenn finds Paolo and Sharon in bed together at the Rosses' villa and throws them both into a swimming pool. According to Gerry, Wymark's heavy drinking caused him to slur his lines: in one scene, the actor "had to list these explanations ... and on take after take he couldn't remember that 'two' followed 'one'. We had to do it over and over again".
The supporting cast included George Sewell, Philip Madoc and Ed Bishop, who respectively played EUROSEC operations chief Mark Neuman (Mark Hallam in the original script), Dr Pontini, and NASA representative David Poulson. Poulson was to have been played by Peter Dyneley, but the producers thought that he bore too strong a resemblance to Wymark and re-cast the role, concerned that scenes with Dyneley and Wymark would cause audiences to confuse the characters of Poulson and Webb. Due to the high cost of colour TV at the time of production and the need to avoid black and white to reflect the film's futuristic setting, instead of using real viewing monitors the crew cut screen-sized gaps in a wall and positioned the actors playing the conference delegates behind them. At one point, Parrish refused to film a number of scenes, saying that he would only end up deleting them.
Other scenes led to disagreements within Century 21. For a scene depicting Lise Hartman (Loni von Friedl) taking a shower, cinematographer John Read did the lighting in silhouette as instructed by Parrish. Gerry Anderson, who had intended the scene to show Friedl nude, demanded a reshoot, insisting that Read honour his obligations not only to Parrish as director, but also to the producers.
Another dispute arose when Read filmed shots of the Phoenix spacecraft model using a hand-held camera. In his biography, Anderson recalled: "I knew enough about space travel to know that in a vacuum a spacecraft will travel as straight as a die ... [Parrish] told me that people were not familiar with space travel and therefore they would expect to see this kind of movement".
Commenting on the film's effects, Martin Anderson of Den of Geek describes the Phoenix command module as "beautifully ergonomic without losing too much NASA-ness" and the Dove lander as "a beautiful fusion of JPL gloss with classic lines". He regards the Phoenix launch as Meddings' finest work prior to Moonraker (1979). The score was recorded over three studio sessions held between 27 and 29 March 1969. The first session used a 55-member orchestra, the second 44, and the third 28. Rank delayed the film's release by over a year. On 26 March 1969, the BBFC passed the film with an A certificate, which allowed children under 11 to see the film provided that they were accompanied by a parent or guardian. To secure this rating, cuts to shots of contraceptive pills were required. Rank enquired whether the film could be cut further to secure a U certificate, removing the need for parental supervision; the BBFC rejected the idea, stating that this would cause the film to lose all narrative sense. Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls argue that while this title gives a clearer explanation of the plot, it lacks the "intrigue and even poetic quality of Doppelgänger". It went on general release on 26 October, paired with Death of a Gunfighter to create a double feature. One is kept by the British Film Institute; the other by Fanderson, the official Anderson fan club. Prior to the 2008 release, the BBFC re-classified the film PG for "mild violence and language". The US Blu-ray release was by Universal Entertainment. The Australian release by Madman Entertainment features a transfer of Fanderson's original film print, an exclusive audio commentary by Gerry Anderson, and a double-sided sleeve, which enables the Blu-ray case to be stored under either of the film's titles.
Reception
Since its original release, the film has had a mixed response from critics. Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls consider it a cult film.