Doppelgänger (aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun) (1969), directed by Robert Parrish and produced by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson

This first excursion into live action features by Supermarionation supremo Gerry Anderson (known as Doppelgänger in its UK release and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun everywhere else) has his trademark mix of jaw-droppingly good model effects for its time (1969) and utterly bonkers science.

A duplicate Earth is detected in the same orbit as our world, only so placed that it is always hidden by the sun so no-one knows it’s there. Roy Thinnes and Ian Hendry pilot a mission to the duplicate planet, but only Thinnes survives the journey. He finds that it is a 100% duplicate of the Earth, including the people, organisations and relationships. His first clue that things are not as they seem is that all text appears as mirror images. Slowly, he pieces together what has happened; oddly, everyone believes him. He attempts to return to his mothership, in orbit over Earth 2, but the shuttle, although otherwise completely identical to his own (destroyed in landing), cannot successfully dock because their electrical positive is our negative and vice versa. (I said this was bonkers.) He tries to return to the ground but crashes on the space launch site. All die. O the embarrassment.

The film ends with Thinnes’ irascible boss, played by Patrick Wymark, as an old man in a home for the bewildered. (We have no idea if it’s Earth Wymark or Earth 2 Wymark.) Yup, that bonkers quotient stays at full tilt to the end of the film.

On the other hand, it’s interesting to see Gerry Anderson’s production team punching well above their weight. Barry Gray’s music hits all the right cinematic buttons; Derek Meddings’ effects are scaled up considerably and look highly convincing. Everyone upped their game for this potential breakthrough movie; sadly, this never happened. Anderson’s  eventual excursions into live action shows – UFO, Space:1999 and (much later) Space Precinct – were all tv ventures only. Indeed, given the presence of such British film and tv bit player stalwarts such as Ed Bishop, George Sewell, Philip Madoc and Vladek Shaybal, the overall impression that the seasoned Anderson viewer gets is that we are looking at some sort of UFO prequel, especially as that show also re-used some of the props from this film. Herbert Lom has a walk-on as a spy with a particularly clever yet unpleasant concealed camera, but he is disposed of early on.

Certainly an interesting curiosity, but this will never be counted as great science fiction or great cinema.