Worked up a couple of pieces for this challenge, the two entries being thus:
No real story behind this one. Just a poster. The next one however....
In the 1960's the Soviet's produced "The Immunity Syndrome", a movie meant to compete with some of the sci-fi coming out of the U.S. and Japan. Like many movies of the day, it featured larger than life heroes, flame spouting rocket engines and a giant monster. It also contained some mild propaganda as our heroes face off against a massive zone of darkness hiding some terrible secret. The zone of darkness represented the corrupting influence of an exploitive capitalist system on the allies of the U.S. as well as those proxy nations who were fighting the Cold War. At the heart of the darkness was a colossal mindless monster devouring everything in it's path, which represented the U.S. When the Soviet space cruiser Gagarin under the command of Sergei Kirkov enters the zone of darkness, they discover over the next few hours that the crew is slowly going mad and attacking each other. This explains what happened to the first cruiser that set out to confront this mystery. It is explained that the crew cannot survive in this alien environment as it is hostile to them, representing the incompatibility of Communism and Capitalism. Eventually our heroes find a way to stop the creature, though there are a few casualties along the way.
The movie was not shown in the United States until 1969, almost a decade after it had been in other markets. American International was a big player in making that happen.
(If you weren't a kid of the 60's or 70's (70's kid here), or aren't a fan of late 50's to late 60's Japanese science fiction, Hammer films and various low budget sci-fi horror, then the "American International" thing probably doesn't make any sense to you. But if you were or are those things, then hopefully this brought back some fond memories of watching those movies on "Monster Thriller Horror Theater" (or whatever you had) on the UHF channel on a friday or saturday night. )
Stuff that didn't make the cut:
Early drafts of the Gagarin. Originally I wanted a "series" look, but this first draft had more of a early sixties movie vibe to me so I nixed the idea of a Soviet series and went with the idea of one or two movies.
The hull text is photoshopped and looks a little wonky, but I still love this shot. Because of this shot I decided to push forward with a "screenshot" entry. This would've been a third entry, but I had to upload away from home and forgot to put it on my jump drive.
2. The "series" version. Same early version of the Gagarin, but trying to create a "screenshot" that would've been from a Soviet t.v. series. For the most part I think I did okay getting a classic Trek lighting vibe. Ultimately I liked the above pic better and went the movie route.
Anyway, can't wait to see all the entries this month as it was a good challenge, and good luck to everyone!
No real story behind this one. Just a poster. The next one however....
In the 1960's the Soviet's produced "The Immunity Syndrome", a movie meant to compete with some of the sci-fi coming out of the U.S. and Japan. Like many movies of the day, it featured larger than life heroes, flame spouting rocket engines and a giant monster. It also contained some mild propaganda as our heroes face off against a massive zone of darkness hiding some terrible secret. The zone of darkness represented the corrupting influence of an exploitive capitalist system on the allies of the U.S. as well as those proxy nations who were fighting the Cold War. At the heart of the darkness was a colossal mindless monster devouring everything in it's path, which represented the U.S. When the Soviet space cruiser Gagarin under the command of Sergei Kirkov enters the zone of darkness, they discover over the next few hours that the crew is slowly going mad and attacking each other. This explains what happened to the first cruiser that set out to confront this mystery. It is explained that the crew cannot survive in this alien environment as it is hostile to them, representing the incompatibility of Communism and Capitalism. Eventually our heroes find a way to stop the creature, though there are a few casualties along the way.
The movie was not shown in the United States until 1969, almost a decade after it had been in other markets. American International was a big player in making that happen.
(If you weren't a kid of the 60's or 70's (70's kid here), or aren't a fan of late 50's to late 60's Japanese science fiction, Hammer films and various low budget sci-fi horror, then the "American International" thing probably doesn't make any sense to you. But if you were or are those things, then hopefully this brought back some fond memories of watching those movies on "Monster Thriller Horror Theater" (or whatever you had) on the UHF channel on a friday or saturday night. )
Stuff that didn't make the cut:
Early drafts of the Gagarin. Originally I wanted a "series" look, but this first draft had more of a early sixties movie vibe to me so I nixed the idea of a Soviet series and went with the idea of one or two movies.
The hull text is photoshopped and looks a little wonky, but I still love this shot. Because of this shot I decided to push forward with a "screenshot" entry. This would've been a third entry, but I had to upload away from home and forgot to put it on my jump drive.
2. The "series" version. Same early version of the Gagarin, but trying to create a "screenshot" that would've been from a Soviet t.v. series. For the most part I think I did okay getting a classic Trek lighting vibe. Ultimately I liked the above pic better and went the movie route.
Anyway, can't wait to see all the entries this month as it was a good challenge, and good luck to everyone!
