The Terrornauts

1967's "The Terrornauts" proved too ambitious for an Amicus budget, topping a dismal double bill with the only slightly better "They Came From Beyond Space," box office duds to ensure no further outer space adventures were forthcoming. The John Brunner script was adapted from Murray Leinster's 1960 novel "The Wailing Asteroid," the outline following Universal's "This Island Earth" of aliens securing aid from Earth to fight an interstellar battle that will save their galaxy. Hoping to learn something about other beings in the universe has been a lifelong ambition for Dr. Joe Burke (Simon Oates), ever since he received a curious cube as a child that inspired a dream of a world with two suns. The skeptical leader of Project Star Talk (Max Adrian) tires of their finances being drained away without results, allowing only three more months to discover concrete evidence from their intricate radio telescope. Immediately, a signal reaches them from a small asteroid repeating like an SOS call, prompting Burke to put together a transmitter to send an answer to the mysterious messenger, resulting in a ship arriving to transfer Burke and four others to the asteroid center manned by a lone robot (looking suspiciously like a rejected version of one of Dr. Who's Daleks). Various tests meant to confirm the visitors' intelligence and good intentions allow for them to decipher the secret behind the messages, an enemy force set not only to destroy the asteroid but also the planet Earth. Universal provided an adequate budget to bring "This Island Earth" to vivid life (even though the climactic view of the alien world is all too brief), but for this film Amicus started out with a decent script with a pitifully small budget that renders every action sequence downright laughable. The wires are clearly visible during space flight, the miniatures too obvious, the entire cast uninvolved, and one scene where Zena Marshall's exotic scientist is captured for a human sacrifice ends so swiftly and abruptly that it must have been done strictly to promise a colorful poster (reminding one of Cy Roth's inept "Fire Maidens of Outer Space"). A rather sad finale for 41 year old Zena Marshall, best remembered as the very first Bond Girl to bed Sean Connery's 007 in 1962's "Dr. No."

The Terrornauts which looks like it was shot on a budget for a real and not Walt Disney high school musical, is one of the quirkiest science fiction films ever made. That's in fact part of its charm, a Star Wars type budget would have killed this film.

Three British scientists who are on a project trying to communicate with other intelligent life forms out in space are about to get the plug pulled from their funding. They've got three months to get some results from their radio telescope or the foundation that funds them will cut them off.

One night working late, the scientists, Zena Marshall, Simon Oates and Stanley Meadows actually achieve a breakthrough. It's while suffering the presence of auditor Charles Hawtrey from their benefactor foundation. Even the lunch lady Patricia Jones is around. But the scientists get more than they bargain for when they're teleported to an asteroid where some civilization has left quite a space station outpost to contemplate.

The space station was put there by some civilization long extinct like the Krells to guard against an invader whose got some space ships heading for earth right now. The premise is similar to the one for The Last Starfighter.

What makes The Terrornauts fun and not some total Ed Wood type disaster is the presence of Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Jones. They're of absolutely no help whatsoever to the scientists except both as witnesses to what transpired and for comic relief to the audience. Hawtrey was on hiatus from the British Carry on series and in his droll fey way keeps the proceedings hysterical. He's aided and abetted by Jones who even though she's bewildered by what's going on, keeps a nice even keel about everything. They play beautifully against the oh so serious scientists.

The Terrornauts is a real sleeper of a science fiction film, a camp delight something Ed Wood would have liked to have had credited to his name. But just imagine if the scientists had not been teleported and it was just Hawtrey and Jones. Where would the world be then?

"The Terrornauts" is on the edge of being an awful film, were it not for its slightly suggested comic approach. If you listen carefully to the music cue accompanying the main title sequence, it gives you a hint of what to expect. Classic composer Elisabeth Lutyens' score has airs of (sinister) children games and charades, and I am only guessing that is what the movie must have inspired her, with its cartoonish models of space ships, props which are riddles, pastel sets of a military base (with test cubicles and a control room) and the acting by vaudeville buffoons as Charles Hawtrey, Patricia Hayes and even Max Adrian as the "villain" who is against the space program led by Simon Oates. The program aims to find signs of life in outer space, following a hunch Oates has since childhood, when he had a visionary dream. Unfortunately, the script is loaded with dialogues, explanations and debates within closed sets, and little action. Even for children and adolescents "The Terrornauts" is too verbose, making its running time seem much longer than its 73 minutes.

At first one is confronted by the "Poe's Law" dilemma: Is this a really bad film or is it a really good parody of a bad film?

The answer is neither - this is not a bad science fiction movie, it is a really good adventure for young children. Suddenly the simplistic dialog, comic relief and low budget make sense. This film is contemporary with the second incarnation of Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and has many similarities with children's TV programmes of that era. The dialog and scientific explanations have that restricted vocabulary and easy to understand structure one associates with Blue Peter, Rainbow etc. Elizabeth Lutyens' cut down wind and percussion score is reminiscent of the Clangers, Noggin the Nog etc. The characters are one dimensional stereotypes: the mean boss, the handsome hero. his loyal workmate, cockney cleaning lady and fussy accountant. There is also the attractive female but there is no sex or even mild love interest here - that's strictly for grown ups - who are not the target audience for this film.

The special effects are awful and the story is silly. The dialogue sometimes sounds like it was written for radio (when Sandy disappears before their very eyes constantly asking "where is she?" seems a bit pointless). My favourite bit - which even 1960's kids would roll their eyes at - is where the hero has to drop his pencil to demonstrate that despite being in space they still have gravity - as though that wouldn't otherwise be apparent.

So, not a parody, not a bad "B" movie, not a contender for MST3K, just a good space adventure for 9 year olds.

I was constantly surprised by where this film took me.

Initially expecting the the alien spaceship to have hostile intentions against the Earth, it simply kidnaps some miscellaneous and startled astronomers and makes off with them. After that it is nothing like the usual: aliens attack earth, humans fight back but are losing, humans find a clever trick/weapon/chemical/virus and defeat evil aliens (or get soundly defeated and taken over by evil aliens).

They are dumped into an alien base on an asteroid and the fun part is watching them work out where they are, and why. The ending is novel for its time, but a little tacky.

I enjoyed the film very much for its novelty and surprises (not its very basic special effects). It was a "nice" film. It is probably very dated now but I haven't seen it for 30 years.