Destination: Outer Space

Saint Euphoria Pictures

R1 DVD

“Glorious era-appropriate black and white”

Christopher Mihm is back with his newest spoof of the 1950s budget SF films. This film marks the return of Josh Craig as Captain Mike Jackson whom we last saw in Cave Women on Mars. In that film he was forced to leave one of his crewmen behind and he has been paying for it ever since.

He has turned into an alcoholic, suspended from the Rocket Command and estranged from his father and most of his friends. Then out of the blue his father offers him a mission in what may be reconciliation. He is given the chance to test pilot a new faster-than-light spaceship. The mission will be dangerous and Captain Jackson will need to keep his wits about him.

Naturally the ship goes off course and he must crash it into a wild but inhabited planet. He is taken prisoner by a female equivalent of Han what’s-his-name in that other movie and is to be sold into slavery. Throughout the film there are passing swipes at both Star Wars and Star Trek. Jackson escapes from the ship in the emergency pod and is rescued by a robot. Well, it’s a man with a cardboard box on his head, but that’s near enough. He learns that the robot may have the knowhow to send him back to Earth but the transport beam the robot must use is under the control of an alien race who feel it is their mission to dominate the galaxy, as they all do. It is up to Captain Jackson to penetrate their base, fight off the aliens and let the robot in to work the transport beam. At the end Jackson faces a choice that may mean he will never see Earth again. Like all good shows, To Be Continued.

All very dramatic, but it’s hard to stop laughing as Captain Jackson deals with a space suit helmet that looks like a lampshade held together with very obvious duct tape, a spaceship that looks like a radio from a 1950s car, dodgy scenery, a rubber spider on a string and one-eyed aliens wearing spherical lightshades on their head. The background soundtrack is perfect – that brassy distorted sound that was so popular in the 1950s radio serials suits this sort of film so well. It’s Christopher Mihm’s best work so far.

We also get the usual blooper reel, commentaries and a photo gallery.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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