#Forbidden Planet

[marypickfords]

Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)

[grayrazor]

There’s something uniquely captivating to stories about people living like vermin in the vents and shafts of some massive living world-machine. Its origins and purpose beyond their understanding. Constantly hunted like parasitic bacteria by its immune system.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Forbidden Planet costumes and props (1956)

[9151967]

"Why do they always send the captain, first officer, and doctor out on missions?" Aside from the usual production reason (the three main characters are played by the top-billed actors), Forbidden Planet did it back in 1956 and that film was an inspiration for Roddenberry:

Shared similarities also include: 23rd century setting, the planet system Altair (Altair IV in Forbidden Planet, Altair VII in Star Trek), a mission meant to look for survivors of a prior scientific expedition featuring a young girl as the only new birth of the colony (The Cage), the usual sci-fi inventions (travel at the speed of light or greater/warp speed, blaster guns/phasers, synthesizers/replicators, etc.), and Forbidden Planet's deceleration chambers share a remarkable likeness with the transporter rooms of Star Trek:

From Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry

[cosmonautroger]

Forbidden Planet, 1956

[escapedaudios]

I want to talk about a robot named Elektro the Moto Man, who's story is very important to me.

Elektro was built between 1937 and 1938. He was a feat of engineering, but there's something remarkable about him. Elektro could talk. Now, of course, computerized voice technology didn't exist yet in 1937. His speech was a performance by a (uncredited) voice actor performed over radio with the presenter exhibiting Elektro.

So what do I find so fascinating about Elektro? It was his voice. Computer-generated speech wasn't invented until 1961, when an IBM 704 computer successfully sang the lyrics to Daisy Bell. Our idea of what robots sound like in pop culture largely originated from this historic moment in computer programming. It sounded like this.

So, with no concept of computer speech, it's fascinating as hell to me that in 1937 this voice actor had such a solid idea of what a "robot voice" sounded like. There was no real-world reference. His voice was entirely a work of imaginative science fiction hidden within a real-world feat of science and engineering. Elektro sounded like this (filmed here at the 1938 World's Fair in New York).

Elekro's voice actor had a huge but uncelebrated impact on our pop culture idea of how robots speak in works of science fiction. Here's Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. This movie predates the invention of computerized speech by six years. Notice anything about the performance of the voice actor? Here, voice actor Marvin Miller is emulating the voice acting style invented by Elektro's tragically uncredited voice actor.

Elektro also smoked cigarettes, which was rad as hell and I think it's hilarious that they went to such lengths constructing and programming features into this robot to make him addicted to nicotine.

Elektro lives on in the cultural conscious, even in the minds of people who never heard of him. Light a cigarette for Elektro the Moto Man, may his memory never die.

[horrororman]

📼 Notable films that were released on March 23rd...

#ForbiddenPlanet (1956)(limited).

#Anguish (1987)(Madrid).

#DefbyTemptation (1990)(Chapel Hill, North Carolina).

#SorceressII: The Temptress (2004)(DVD premiere).

#TheHillsHaveEyes2 (2007)(US).

#horror

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Today's visit to Forbidden Planet in London :)

I was quite temped to buy this new shirt design I didnt know...

...until seeing the rest of the shirt! Eviiiiiil!

[vintagegeekculture]

A. Arnold Gillespie, special effects wizard known for the Wizard of Oz, Ben-Hur, and the tremendously technically sophisticated, and indeed, jaw dropping film like "Forbidden Planet" (1956).

[chernobog13]

A fantastic poster for Forbidden Planet (1956) by Robert Bertie.

[romanowork]

[spockvarietyhour]

United Planets Cruiser C57-D, Forbidden Planet (1956)

[grayrazor]

The Robot Buddy era of sci-fi.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Anne Francis - Forbidden Planet (1956)

[pulpsandcomics2]

Forbidden Planet

[cosmonautroger]

Forbidden Planet, 1956