I'm watching Solaris (2002), and can't help but notice that the planet is a blatant rip-off of Sha Ka Ree, the distinctive-looking world shrouded in blue mist at the centre of the galaxy in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. What's up with that?
Solaris and Sha Ka Ree
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
- Start date
See, one day The Shatner will be vindicated for the forward-thinking of his vision for the future.
It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But one day, 'The Final Frontier' will be the crowning epoch against which all good science fiction is compared.
And probably some bad science fiction as well.
It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But one day, 'The Final Frontier' will be the crowning epoch against which all good science fiction is compared.
And probably some bad science fiction as well.
Just because two things resemble each other, that doesn't make one a "blatant ripoff" of the other. Every human creation builds on prior ideas and images, and thus, often, two different creations will draw on similar antecedents and thus be similar to each other. In this case it's pretty obvious that both Sha Ka Ree and Soderbergh's Solaris are inspired by astronomical images of the Sun -- worlds surrounded by auras with swirls resembling solar prominences in the former case and visualizations of magnetic field lines in the latter. Human artists have been drawing on the Sun for inspiration since before the dawn of history. These are simply two instances in a millennia-old tradition.
But Solaris is a far better realization, more detailed, intricate, and beautiful by far. A superior execution of a common theme is hardly a "ripoff."
Soderbergh's Solaris, of course, is based on Stanislaw Lem's novel about an alien planet covered in a living ocean from which mysterious and inexplicable constructs periodically emerged. Thus, the blue color of the planet in the film was, of course, drawn from the ocean-planet precedent of the novel. I was actually a little disappointed that Soderbergh's film didn't follow the book's descriptions of the constructs more closely, because I've always thought they could be realized quite beautifully in CGI. But the decision to change them to enigmatic patterns of light in a halo around the planet worked quite well for me; it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a film. And I suppose it works given the film's shift in emphasis away from the alien ocean and more strongly toward the characters in the station. (The book was very much about how the human characters projected their own expectations and priorities onto the ocean, being unable to perceive the alien as anything but a mirror of themselves, but they weren't as remote from that mirror as they were in the 2002 film.)
But Solaris is a far better realization, more detailed, intricate, and beautiful by far. A superior execution of a common theme is hardly a "ripoff."
Soderbergh's Solaris, of course, is based on Stanislaw Lem's novel about an alien planet covered in a living ocean from which mysterious and inexplicable constructs periodically emerged. Thus, the blue color of the planet in the film was, of course, drawn from the ocean-planet precedent of the novel. I was actually a little disappointed that Soderbergh's film didn't follow the book's descriptions of the constructs more closely, because I've always thought they could be realized quite beautifully in CGI. But the decision to change them to enigmatic patterns of light in a halo around the planet worked quite well for me; it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a film. And I suppose it works given the film's shift in emphasis away from the alien ocean and more strongly toward the characters in the station. (The book was very much about how the human characters projected their own expectations and priorities onto the ocean, being unable to perceive the alien as anything but a mirror of themselves, but they weren't as remote from that mirror as they were in the 2002 film.)
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I'm TFF's biggest defender (maybe not, I lost over 50 lbs this year), but I can't hold with this either.
The SOLARIS work is seriously splendid, done by the late Doc Baily, one of the finest artists working in CG. He did the buildings collapse in FIGHT CLUB and Vince Vaughn's subjective acid trip transference in THE CELL and probably the only good stuff in THE CORE and, well, you can go to imageasavant.com and probably find tons of examples of how he worked.
TFF's planet is just a nifty R&D experiment with very little visual credibility.
The SOLARIS work is seriously splendid, done by the late Doc Baily, one of the finest artists working in CG. He did the buildings collapse in FIGHT CLUB and Vince Vaughn's subjective acid trip transference in THE CELL and probably the only good stuff in THE CORE and, well, you can go to imageasavant.com and probably find tons of examples of how he worked.
TFF's planet is just a nifty R&D experiment with very little visual credibility.
See, one day The Shatner will be vindicated for the forward-thinking of his vision for the future.
It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But one day, 'The Final Frontier' will be the crowning epoch against which all good science fiction is compared.
And probably some bad science fiction as well.
Your pain runs deep...share it with me...
Never did see all the negative others saw in TFF...some, but not all...
No I am TFF's biggest defender!!!
I freaking love that movie. Obviously the planet in Solaris is an homage to TFF.
I freaking love that movie. Obviously the planet in Solaris is an homage to TFF.
what about Prometheus
quest for god/mankinds origins on distant planet, discover god like alien, ask questions - ‘god’ turns out to be evil. the one who sought the knowledge killed, with the main character then being pursued by the angry 'god'
the score wasnt dissimilar in parts too ( Jerry Goldsmith also scored Alien)
Star Trek V/Alien 5 both have similar stories/themes
quest for god/mankinds origins on distant planet, discover god like alien, ask questions - ‘god’ turns out to be evil. the one who sought the knowledge killed, with the main character then being pursued by the angry 'god'
the score wasnt dissimilar in parts too ( Jerry Goldsmith also scored Alien)
Star Trek V/Alien 5 both have similar stories/themes
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What's "obvious" is that they're drawing on similar inspirations, but it makes no sense at all to assume that proves one copied the other directly. I mean, TFF was a critical flop whose visual effects are considered the worst in the Trek film franchise's history. Why would anyone want to homage it?
The problem with a lot of Trek fans is that we're so immersed in the world of Trek that we forget that it isn't all that important to the rest of humanity. There are countless people out there who aren't fans of Trek and have no interest in drawing on it for inspiration. Sometimes they'll come up with something that coincidentally resembles something from Trek, because different creative works constantly resemble each other by accident; after all, we're all human beings drawing on the same thought processes and shared cultural vocabulary and heritage. Trek itself is based on all sorts of earlier cultural and visual antecedents, just like every other creative work. So it's bound to share influences with countless non-Trek works, and thus have resemblances to works that were not directly inspired by it.
Anyway, it's not unlikely that the two could resemble each other by accident, because they're both fairly basic designs. They're both planets, so of course they're spherical. They're both blue -- although the 2002 Solaris often changes color -- but there are only so many colors available. Solaris is blue because it was an ocean planet in the original 1961 novel. Sha Ka Ree is probably blue because we associate that color with the sky and therefore heaven. They both have auras, because we associate auras or halos with the mysterious and mystical. The auras both have texture because movies are made for large screens and need detail, and they both resemble astronomical images of solar flares and prominences because that's a commonly available and striking visual, and one that conveys power and importance to us because, hey, it's the Sun. Parallel evolution, not imitation.
The problem with some Star Trek fans is that they can't detect a joke.
^^ You beat me to it, that really is a cool avatar 
I love "Solaris", both the original Stanislaw Lem novel and Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece from 1972, but definitely not that Soderbergh travesty that turned George Clooney into a "blue pill" abuser.
Bob
I love "Solaris", both the original Stanislaw Lem novel and Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece from 1972, but definitely not that Soderbergh travesty that turned George Clooney into a "blue pill" abuser.
Bob
<Insert clip of Data with Mr. Tricorder here> Good one, Maurice!
Soooooooooo f-ing funny!!!!
I'd entertain that thought. Especially since the planet hasn't looked like that in any other adaptation. The '72 version looked more like Venus, frankly.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Or because the whole planet gag revolved (no pun intended) around the use of ultraviolet light.
Back on the general topic, there's no way Soderberg would have been thinking 'gotta have that TREK 5 look' on SOLARIS, and I KNOW Baily wouldn't have thought that way either.
