In August 1969, following the damp reception of 1966’s Thunderbirds Are Go and 1968’s Thunderbird 6 and with Century 21 Productions’ output of family puppet programming shifting into increasingly quirky avenues in the forms of Joe 90 and The Secret Service, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson made what was meant to be their triumphant leap into serious, live-action drama with Doppelgänger. Ultimately, this sole foray into live action sci-fi filmmaking for the Andersons has come to occupy an inconspicuous place in their filmography. In celebration of its 55th anniversary, we’re taking our own journey into the unknown with this curious, quietly surreal sci-fi drama.
Doppelgänger, also known by its more prolonged title Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (which was utilised for the film’s American release), was in fact the fourth feature film from Century 21 Productions. With nearly a decade’s worth of filmmaking expertise under the company’s belt and a highly regarded reputation built up as producers of cutting-edge, commercially successful, special effects-driven stories, it’s hard not to regard Doppelgänger as the Andersons’ giant leap for mankind – and giant leap away from the constraints of Supermarionation.
The film began life as a script for a possible TV play and certainly feels like it would sit comfortably within the anthology format of The Twilight Zone or Out of the Unknown. Initially conceived by the Andersons, the final script was co-written by them alongside Donald James and was directed by Robert Parrish, one of the five directors who helmed the chaotic 1967 spy-fi comedy Casino Royale. The film’s premise centres on the discovery of a 10th planet in our solar system, and the antibureaucratic director of EUROSEC, Jason Webb, is determined to reach this mystery planet before foreign powers. It would seem that even in the far-flung future of 2069, a Cold War still rages on. Top astronaut Colonel Glenn Ross and EUROSEC scientist Doctor John Kane undertake this voyage into the unknown, which will last six weeks. However, the pair unexpectedly appear to return to Earth a mere three weeks after take-off. It gradually dawns on all involved that this is no unforeseen act of sabotage against the mission and that the Glenn Ross and John Kane who have “returned” to Earth may not be who they seem…
With its emphasis on cold human drama against a backdrop of space exploration and conceptually heavy discoveries, Doppelgänger clearly courts an older, more mature audience than the likes of Stingray or Thunderbirds. If nothing else, the film demonstrates how committed the Century 21 Productions team could be when applying themselves to more adult-minded sci-fi entertainment. However, the film does rather squander its own sense of intrigue simply by not being strange enough to serve its mindboggling premise. It’s eventually discovered that Ross and Kane have not returned to Earth at all – at least, not *their* Earth. They have arrived at an exact duplicate of Earth, only to find everything is mirror-flipped. Having journeyed down to Earth from their Dove shuttlecraft, the idea is proposed to blast off back to the Phoenix, still in orbit around the mirror Earth, to retrieve its flight recorder and effect a return trip. Ross bamboozles Webb with the idea that the other Ross and Webb must be planning the exact same mission, albeit in reverse.
This is about as threatening as the film’s narrative becomes. There’s little consequence made of the fact that a second planet Earth exists. The absence of palpable danger robs the film of any urgency. In its place is an array of convincing character dramas that carry much of the narrative weight, but barely a year after the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had rather redefined what cinematic science fiction was capable of, it can’t help but appear mundane. Nevertheless, the film’s talented cast embolden the human aspects of the story. Patrick Wymark is in thunderous form as the results-driven Webb, no doubt chosen after his electrifying performance as John Wilder in The Plane Makers and The Power Game. Roy Thinnes, fresh from The Invaders, is a coolly charismatic enough lead, whilst Ian Hendry paints a sympathetic picture of the doctor unexpectedly forced to become an astronaut as equally capable as Ross. Ross has his own troubles to contend with as we learn that he and his wife Sharon struggle to conceive a child, something that wouldn’t play well with the famed astronaut’s media image.
Much of the rest of the cast is rounded off by a plethora of familiar faces who’d appear shortly later in UFO. Ed Bishop, George Sewell, Keith Alexander, Vladek Sheybal, Norma Ronald, Philip Madoc, and Anthony Chinn all appear, as do other Anderson faces Jeremy Wilkin and Cy Grant. It’s terrific fun seeing all of these recognisable talents undertaking what’s effectively a dry-run for UFO, which would prove to be a far more creatively successful stab at the character-driven ideas Doppelgänger toys with. If this film can be taken as a thematic forerunner to UFO, then it’s hugely amusing that Webb’s character, very much a prototype of Ed Straker, finds himself butting heads with NASA representative David Poulson when acquiring financial backing for Operation Sun Probe. Poulson therefore becomes Doppelgänger‘s equivalent of the antagonistic General Henderson – and is played by Bishop!
Other household names from the Anderson school of filmmaking help bolster Doppelgänger‘s credentials as a thoughtful sci-fi drama. Barry Gray delivers one of his most intelligent and mature soundtracks. The sequence of Ross and Kane slipping into artificial hibernation during their voyage, accompanied by the track Sleeping Astronauts, is one of Gray’s most gently affecting pieces, and the whole sequence comes off as a far more pleasant, dream-like answer to Kubrick’s Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. Derek Meddings’ special effects are as exemplary as ever. His designs of the Phoenix rocket and its accompanying Dove auxiliary craft are some of the most convincingly realistic designs he’d produce for the worlds of Anderson. They’re far more utilitarian in design compared to the space fantasy of Fireball XL5 or even the less caricatured style of Zero X. It’s as if Meddings and his team were unhampered by the need to be merchandise-friendly and pursued something altogether more organically close to the real world.
Away from the special effects, Parrish’s steady directing steers a decent course for the human drama to unfold, even if there’s no real destination in sight. The scenes of Ross crashlanding on the mirror Earth and gradually realising that everything around him is distorted are played out with welcome subtlety that doesn’t overblow things. However, the nagging feeling that this all amounts to very little remains rather inescapable and only rears its head further on repeated viewings. The film caps off its initial promise of discovery and adventure with a morose finale in which no victories are achieved and, ultimately, nothing feels resolved. The mystery of the doppelganger Earths remains in play, destined to eventually become known only to an aging Jason following EUROSEC’s disastrous attempts at recovering the Phoenix craft. A deflating end to a film whose grandiose concept feels somewhat snuffed out by a lack of its own intrigue.
The film’s thematic core of discovering into the cosmic unknown and the deadly jeopardy and human sacrifice that comes with that discovery feels classically Anderson in its wide-eyed scope, but the fascination with space-age engineering rather points to more of the film’s downfalls. An abundance of precious running time is given over to launch sequences and space travel, which don’t exactly enhance the story or characters. More exploration and resolution of the various troubles incurred by our cast of players would have made this a more compelling watch – the breakdown of Glenn and Sharon, the anxieties of John, the intensity of Webb. All the ingredients are there, but the resulting dish tastes undercooked.
Doppelgänger would turn out to be another false start in a growing catalogue of cinematic underperformers for Century 21. The film received a disappointingly mixed critical and commercial reception. In the run up to the film’s release, publicity material didn’t help by spoiling the reveal of what this new planet actually was, likely leaving audiences floundering while the film’s characters had to play catch-up with the big twist already known. Doppelgänger ultimately plays out as a low-key sci-fi drama with flourishes of espionage danger and cosmic weirdness. Whether through its retrospective comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey or its status as a tonal foreshadowing of UFO, Doppelgänger hasn’t come to mirror other works, but rather, exists in the shadows of other works.
Learn all you need to know about Doppelgänger in our beginner’s guide, as well as the intriguing shared histories between The Plane Makers, The Power Game, Doppelgänger, and UFO in Chris Dale’s article.
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