User Reviews

What if there were a parallel world to Earth's always hidden from us on the other side of the Sun?

This is the question that astronauts Roy Thinnes and Ian Hendry ask themselves when they discover a parallel world of Earth always hidden on the far side of the sun in this 1969 cult science fiction melodrama, released here in America as JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. The plot of the film was devised by British writers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the creators of such TV shows as "UFO", "The Thunderbirds" and "Space 1999". It is exceedingly weird at times, betraying the influence of "The Twilight Zone" and even Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. The visual effects work of Derek Meddings, who would also later work on SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, holds up surprisingly well under the last four and a half decades of special effects advancements (including CGI); and while they are not really on the same exalted level of the Kubrick film, they are very superb. If you don't anticipate a STAR WARS-type of a film and can overcome the occasionally trite dialogue, DOPPELGANGER is a good film; it was good enough for me to rank it a '7' and consider it an undiscovered sci-fi gem.

In this film, the astronauts sent to explore a newly-discovered planet must deal with several dilemmas, and they do so intelligently. The film approaches it's main plot theme in a unique way, and unfolds it gradually, though it can be guessed beforehand.

The acting is very good, though sometimes stiff, as some late-60s acting can be. It can also be somewhat wordy and even melodramatic, especially after the plot theme reveals itself. Visually, it has a scene that resembles one in the previous year's "2001: A Space Odyssey", and that tends to date the movie. Some of the actors went on to star in the 1970 TV show "UFO," which is delightfully campy and worth checking out on DVD.

Despite these small points, the space flight itself is realistic, and considering this was 1969, the scenes inside the cockpit of the spacecraft also had a realistic look. (Look for some 1990s/2000s video technology in use, too!) One thing: I suspect a love scene has been cut, but I can't prove it! It would have been a distraction anyway.

Unlike most Sci-Fi films, this film will make you think about the plot, and that's well worth a look. I'm pleased to have this film in my video library.

I'll admit that like many others here this is a movie I've seen many times as a kid in the 70's. :)

The concept and story are just wonderfull. My favorite type of sci-fi, the kind that makes you think and doesn't completely bombard you with special effects.

Speaking of special effects, without spilling any beans I can say if you like The Thunderbirds, you'll love the SFX in this movie.

Gets a 8 on 10 for me.

Interesting premise; interestingly worked out; the strongest feature of this film is the emotional tension of the astronaut who knows a truth, but is unable to convey it to others. Overlook the weaknesses and just enjoy the movie, but be prepared for a certain level of suspense.

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". He expresses satisfaction with Thinnes' and Wymark's performances, the characterization (and the themes entailed, including adultery, infertility and corruption) and the "Fourth of July-style" special effects, calling the film "enigmatic".

I thought the concept of this film was brilliant, because it would actually be possible. At least some of it. And then the "twist"... while not possible, still a pretty great idea. The film could have veered into horror at that point, but remained firmly in science fiction, in some ways even working as a companion piece to "2001"...

One of my favourite films, whenever it is on, although I do admit one time missing it when it was on Foxtel last year.

Despite the age of the film it doesn't look like that and the story even though it'd been done a thousand times before still felt entertaining. There were one or two little niggles for me in the story but I looked past them and just enjoyed the film for what it was.

Overall I give it a 7/10

I had never seen this movie before it aired on a local cable sci-fi network. It reminded me of the Irwin Allen TV series of the late 60's (Time Tunnel etc). Excellent effects (they beat Star Trek 5 done 20 years later, but then that wasn't very hard to accomplish).

I found the script very intriguing and mature for this type of production. They would have needed a few touch ups to tie some loose ends on the characters' level, but for a kid movie its surprisingly interesting (especially the the glimpse at futuristic euro- politics, surprisingly similar to today's European Union!)

The plot is indeed reminiscent of Twilight Zone in general (as other users have pointed), but in this case it's a compliment.

Great sets, by the way!

7/10

The special effects are downright beautiful, I'm a big fan of classic model-work with matte paintings (pinnacles being Douglas Trumbull's 2001, Blade Runner, ST:TMP etc) and this fully delivers in that area. The detailing on the model shots is world-class, and this is a rare / lost art now so it's safe to say these techniques may never be equaled again in the future of film.

On a technical level, the film is superb, with excellent performances and a general air of authenticity, with care given intelligently to minor details in the sets and props, which makes for a convincing, believable view of the future....1969's view of the future of course, but as such it stands up very well.

The story itself is where things are not quite at the same standard. This feels like a great entry in a sci-fi short story collection, that is stretched out too thin for a feature length film. There is a bit of meat to the story in the beginning, with elements of international politics, Bond-like espionage and some adult-themed interpersonal drama, but they feel under-developed and don't go anywhere, and when the film's real point gets into gear, it's not explored as thoroughly as it could have been and the end feels abrupt and fairly unsatisfying. I think another half hour of running time and a more developed story could really have made this an epic sci-fi that would be better known than it seems to be now.

In conclusion, this is still a must-watch for sci-fi genre and SFX enthusiasts such as myself, so I can still recommend it highly.

How well I remember seeing this made for TV movie when it finally got over to this side of the pond on American television. This British made for TV film has a most intriguing idea, but it could have been better conceptualized.

Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun begins with the discovery some time in the future of a planet never seen before which is 180 degrees on the same plane diameter on the opposite side of the sun. Naturally the European Space Agency and its head Patrick Wymark want to make a voyage, certainly not in a straight line I hope or things could get hot for the astronauts.

Picked to go are American Roy Thinnes and British Ian Hendry. What they find there is something pretty frightening.

A lot's at fault here. I would think that an opposite Mercury and Venus would have been discovered as well, but no mention of that let alone the planets farther than earth from the sun. And while this body moves with'the same speed exactly across the diameter of the orbit the others certainly would have been noticed before even our time.

I also don't think the marital issues between real life husband and wife Roy Thinnes and Lynn Loring have anything to do with the main plot and add nothing.

An interesting idea not well thought out.

Fans of Gerry Anderson's productions will recognise several actors and vehicles from UFO (which was made after Doppelgänger) - as well as sound effects from various Anderson series. Barry Gray's excellent music (mostly unique to this film) adds to the feeling of familiarity. For these reasons alone, I think any Gerry Anderson fan would find Doppelgänger worth getting.

Judged simply as a film, it has to be said that Doppelgänger is flawed. It is known that there were major problems during production, and I suspect this is why there is a time-consuming plot thread that ends abruptly and appears to have no relevance to the rest of the story. Presumably time/budget constraints prevented the relevance from emerging!

Distractingly, the special effects range from outstandingly good - better than any 1960s film that I know of - to disappointingly bad.

Nevertheless, even with these flaws, Doppelgänger's main story is well told and keeps the viewer (or, at least, this viewer) engaged throughout. The ending is perhaps not what one might expect from Anderson, yet at the same time it is typical of Anderson, and it is certainly appropriate. To find out what I mean you'll have to watch it for yourself. :)

Caught it on Viasat Finland having never seen it before. I'm a big fan of true sci-fi (or any sci-fi actually) and this is one of those rare ones that actually makes your brain work. It's got that eerie feel you only had in sci-fi made in the 60's and 70's (think of Planet of The Apes). All gloomy and serious, no laughs.

The cast was unknown to me and the acting is a bit stiff (except for Patrick Wymark, who's character is pretty annoying). Characters look as if they came from the 60's, but that's not really a surprise or a bad thing at all.

The plot is intriguing, a new planet on the other side of the sun. Propably not as effective today as it was back in the day, but it's still fun. There are a lot of illogicalities and the script is anything but tight, but there are some very effective scenes and the ending is something to remember.

If they put a little more thought into details and had had somewhat tighter (and timeless) production, this would be up there with Planet of the Apes.

Worth catching definitely.

Contrary to other reviews here, I would say that this film is vastly over rated given its current IMDb score.

When I read the IMDb description, I could imagine so many interesting ways such a plot concept could unfold, and I was excited to watch this film. But the plot adoption is very, very thin and just straight out disappointing. A good amount of time is spend on the characters, but it never gets to any kind of depth or reveals any kind of relation to the plot at all. There seems to be little point in showing us most things they do actually. I am not even sure if there is a point anywhere in this film at all.

It is very obvious that the film tries to mimic the tranquil space/tech scenes of 2001 that came out just months before it, but it completely misses the point of how and why those scenes are used. In Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, mundane and completely irrelevant scenes are dragged out to the point where concentration and interest vanishes completely. Half way through the film, I was very close to switching it off or go watch something else due to boredom. Even a lot of the effects are quite obviously copied from 2001, but also very poorly so. Even if you skip the obvious 2001 comparison, the effects are still rather unimpressive even for their time. There are films from the 50s with more convincing miniature model scenes for instance. The soundtrack is nothing worth writing about either.

If I had watched it as a child, I could probably have ignored its many short comings and liked it due to the sci-fi setting of the film. As an adult I find it hard to recommend it though. There are some interesting props and beautiful 60s fashion, but that is about the only good thing I have to say besides the awesome plot idea (that is very poorly executed).

Most people who enjoy this film enough to sit through it multiple times probably first saw it, as I did, during their childhood back in the late 60's - early 70's. It was one of the first science fiction movies I saw as a child and it made enough of an impression on me for me to remember it decades later. It was more thought-provoking than your average 1960's "space opera" and the special effects were among the best of its time (second, at the time, perhaps only to '2001' which came out about a year earlier). And although the people behind it were definitely influenced by Kubrick's earlier masterpiece, it contains enough original thought to be fascinating in its own right. Most adults who didn't see this movie when it first came out will probably be too critical to be able to enjoy it if they were to watch it now. As for today's younger audiences, they would probably tend to measure it by the standards of today's movies with their much more advanced special effects and simply dismiss the film as too archaic for their tastes. Unfortunately, this movie is probably destined to languish in ever-increasing obscurity as its original audience gets older and eventually fades away...

This film has excellent production values and decent performances by the cast. Poor Herbert Lom is killed very early in the film; and at first, I suspected Inspector Clouseau had done him in. It was difficult to take Lom seriously after the Pink Panther films, just as it was difficult to take Leslie Neilson seriously after The Naked Gun films. This film takes the high road of intellectual curiosity about a planet found on the other side of the sun that is exactly in the same orbit as earth, but everything is the opposite. That would mean the Orioles would be in first place, and the Yankees in last place. Seriously, though, it is an interesting concept to ponder. Try to catch it.

This movie separates much from those original sci-fi space movies. On earth they´ve discovered a planet alot like our earth, just on the other side of the sun. They send out a crew to explore it. But something goes wrong and the spaceship crashes back on our earth, or does it? I´m very glad that I´ve seen it, because I thought it was gonna be a bit boring, but it wasn´t it was very scary but not in a frightening way. Just scary because of the situation.

7 / 10 I give it.

I first saw this in the 70s on syndicated TV and admired its production values, which were high tech for the time. The remastered video is rich and colorful, far more intense then the pale 35 mm TV prints. This movie deserves more attention: it paved the way for UFO, Space: 1999 and even Star Wars with its detailed miniatures and cleverly conceived gadgets. Sure, the story of an alternative anti-matter planet Earth has been recycled a hundred times since Star Trek, but the beauty of this film is its self-conscious European flair for design: from the Rolls Royce space engines to the "Euro Sec" letterhead business paper, JFSS or Dopplegangers as it was called in Europe is enjoyable for the imaginary vision of Europe in space in the shadow of the Superpowers. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's ambitious epic gets a little tedious when the American astronaut finally realizes that he is on the doppleganger Earth, and everything is literally downhill after the poetically graceful shuttle boarding sequence. A mediocre story is helped along by a grand and lyrical classical score by the late great Barry Gray, the John Williams of Britain.

Gerry Anderson's first live-action foray in the way of a major motion picture that benefits from incredible model FX work and,a great Barry Gray music score. The reel-to-reel analog computers, in the far-off year "2069" (I guess Anderson really wanted a safe date of a 100 years later!) are a hoot to see as are the guru-jacket fashions, but one could easily accuse 2001 of the same violations, but no one could have foreseen some things as they turn out. This film was the springboard for the series UFO the following year, and in fact not only had the same FX people, and producers but many of the cast were regulars in that show.

It always comes off like an "alternate history" future more than anything else-the "Apollo-like" rocket used in the lift-off, it always seems like this is really another planet than earth. Given the "alternate earth" plot, one would assume that was the feeling they wanted. We end up with an ending that posits more questions than answers. That because the "other earth" exists every movement, event and thing said is duplicated as it's happening on both worlds. Because of that given, and the sun in between, the two versions of the same person (in this case Glenn Ross, astronaut) can never meet. A complete accident discovered the planet in the first place when it would have most likely stayed a secret forever.

Filmed mostly in Portugal with FX work in England, it's a must-own for any Gerry Anderson fan. I have the Image bare bones DVD from a few years ago now out of print, but one hopes Universal will re-release it with, perhaps extras and even a Gerry Anderson commentary.

Do I like this movie or not? Here is a special effects movie full of futurist sets, futuristic cars, futurist security and of course space ships. The story talks about a planet found on the far side of the sun in the same orbit as Earth.

So of course we get to sit through a lot of meetings and international politics and other boring stuff that would make George Lucas proud.

Then all that futuristic technology is mostly stuff that wouldn't be out of place in the 1960s, with endless tape reel computers and flashing lights. No objection to the fact that the girls only wear mini-skirts.

So anyway, they go to the far side of the sun and come back, but something is wrong, and so we get the actual plot.

It is great to know that in every era there were movies with pointless high budget special effects that had no impact on the story.

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. The ending is 'too' convenient. All the evidence is destroyed in a very 'forced' accident. That being said, it's still a good movie and good science fiction, when you stop to think about it. The models are great and the casting and performances are very good, along with the music and set designs and the futuristic vision with all the nifty gadgets. All I can say about the movie philosophically is that the idea of a counter-earth is Pythagorean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Earth. Now as to the "point" the movie was trying to make. My guess, and this is only a guess, is that its about trans-Atlantic relations. You have the European space agency, led by a British guy (Jason Webb ) but with all the funding coming from the French and the Germans (who are very miserly), and the Americans only pitching in when it becomes discovered the Soviets are spying on the new find of a tenth planet (in the same orbit as Earth, but on the opposite side of the sun). The super secret nature of the mission to this new planet also stops the public knowing about the startling discovery and so all the evidence of of the new planet being an opposite copy of Earth. (This is a theme in 2001 A Space Odyssey since the Americans keep the discovery of the monolith on the moon a secret and it was the mistrust and paranoia that Hal Suffered from that made him kill of the crew of the Discovery). Note that the last scene has Jason Webb, old and senile in his mansion, crashing into a mirror when he remembers the mirror image Earth, taking the secrets with him to the grave.

There's also the American astronaut hero (Colonel Glenn Ross) and his annoying country-girl wife. She makes fun of his manhood, not wanting to have kids from him, saying he's sterile because of radiation from space, only to discover she's taking birth control bills behind his back. I guess she wants a domesticated husband she can control. Contrast this to the lovely security controller from the European space agency, Lisa Hartmann, a hint that the Americans should stick it with Europe (under British leadership of course) if they want to win the Cold War and explore the solar system. It's this over commitment that gets the hero killed in the end, despite Lisa's warnings that he no longer owed Webb anything. Note the colour contrast too, with the hero's wife being a (wild) redhead and Lisa being a decent blonde!

On a final plus note works of art, whatever their quality, are always ageless, gaining relevance when you least expect it. Hence the curious situation the UK is faced with now with the vote on continued membership in the EU. If you can't lead the Europeans, be a member on your own terms, you go it alone. So the movie is, tragically, quite prophetic. (Notice also the scene in Portugal, making Southern Europe look poor, primitive, not unlike the situation today with the debt crisis Spain and Greece have found themselves in).

So, all in all, I'd say it's a good movie and has stood the test of time, but nothing of course compared to '2001' or 'Alien', although it's still better than Prometheus!

Hope you aren't offended, Emad El-Din Aysha, a freelance movie reviewer in Egypt: