Spaceflight IC-1 (1965)

Really Surprised!

Please don't spend money on this.

one of my absolute favorites!

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This movie about a crew of couples and children being sent to another planet in hopes of colonization is barely watchable. There is some science fiction that is so bad that it's funny. This is NOT one of those movies. Spaceflight IC-1 doesn't even qualify as watchable "schlock." The spaceship's (and I use the word 'spacechip' loosely) interior looks like a small, converted, second-rate office building. The characters' uniform insignia denotes their job aboard ship, but there's little mystery there, because of the little sewn tags on their uniforms, such as Captain, Doctor, Teacher, Engineer, etc. Thank you, Captain Obvious. The dialog was stilted, amateurish and generally badly delivered. The only redeeming feature was the dialog delivered at the funerals of two crew members - and that was from the Bible.

Consider this is the same year that Star Trek began on NBC-TV. We may laugh at the funny SFX on TOS, but compared to this film (and several others made about the same time), it was downright modern.Also, consider four years later, Kubrick would make 2001: A Space Odyssey, which to this stay still looks fairly fresh. Check out the 1960s-era reel-to-reel tape recorder the "Educator" uses to record her lessons for the children. At least the Star Trek folks tried to simulate a technology 200 years in the future.The story-line is about par for the "sturm-und-drang" type of space opera of this time, but it is rather unrealistic to expect us to believe that this crew would be so misfit and unable to get along with one another. Considering the amount of rigorous psychological testing the early Mercury astronauts underwent just to orbit the earth, it's rather bizarre.

The actual basic story idea of SPACEFLIGHT IC:1 is pretty interesting. However, considering how boring and badly the film was made, I assume that they must have hired chimps to write the script--it was that bad and that boring. It's a shame, really, as the film addresses some interesting ideas about spaceflight--but they are dealt with in a completely ham-fisted and inept manner.The basic story idea is excellent. A group of space travelers are sent from Earth to a habitable planet that will take 25 years to reach. So, in the meantime, some of the crew members are in suspended animation, one has been turned into a robot (?) and the rest need to get along and accept that it's going to be a very, very long ride! Seeing them with children and planning on creating more during the long voyage is an interesting concept as is the notion that tempers might flare given there are only a few couples aboard. What if a couple wants to split up? What if the captain is a bit too authoritarian and regimented? What if some of the crew members are total morons? All these questions are more or less answered, but don't expect any of it to make sense.The biggest problem is that the film finds them one year into their journey and already they are facing a mutiny. Didn't they bother to check out these people to see if the captain was a fascist or if the crew were all stupid malcontents?! And, didn't anyone question why the space agency turned one of the people into a robot with a human head stuck inside a goldfish bowl? The morality and pointlessness of this plot point is something to consider! And, given that several more people are being held in suspended animation, didn't anyone think to make sure the process worked before attempting a space flight with passengers in suspension? And, naturally, the process actually turns the people into killing zombies (don't you just hate when that happens?). Of course, the biggest unanswered question is why didn't anyone consider that the actors were all wooden and the script made little sense beyond the initial story idea! Poorly made and dull despite an intriguing premise--this is just too dull to recommend--even to lovers of early spaceflight movies.

This is a great movie. Yes it can be slow and at times talky, but I think that's the point. It was more of a character type drama than a space adventure. I loved the point of the movie. The initial plan was to get the most healthy so called most perfect people to have the most healthy so called most perfect children etc. The people in the movie came to the conclusion that it really isn't possible. Perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be especially when you would let someone die, because they've become sick when you could have easily helped them. Also the movie was about power and how even well meaning people can abuse it and become dictators.