Back in 1967 most of Doomsday Mission was filmed, then shelved. In 1972 money was gathered and the film was finished, but since the original cast and sets weren’t available, they killed off most of the crew, leaving the characters played by Bobby Van and Mala Powers. The problem with this (and this movie had so many problems it is a serious contender for worst film of all time) is that the actors in the finished film had no idea who Bobby Van or Mala Powers were except for the characters names, so male acter #2 was a tall man with a bland accent, and female actor #2 went from a Russian scientist named Georgianna Bronski to a demure Southern Belle named Georgianna Bronski (nicknamed “Georgie” of course).
Leaving out the parts where the ship had cathedral-high ceilings and comfy reclining chairs spaced widely apart, the supposed Chinese doomsday device was buried 23 miles below the Earth’s surface (and not one person even blinked when told this), or even when every outside shot of the ship showed an entirely different vehicle (at one time changing from a silver bullet to a round space station made from giant bubbles), what I want to know is who played the second Bobby Van and Mala Powers? You would think facial recognition would help…except that, at the end of the film when the two left the American ship to go to the Russian vehicle they were in silver suits with clear visors, but when they floated over to the Russian vehicle they were in entirely different dark suits with dark visors that you couldn’t see through and they never took them off.
Who played those characters when the film was finally finished, folks?
Oh, I forgot to mention that the fim had Casey Kasem and Mike Farrell in it.
It had more than one title, then, because it was also known as Escape From Planet Earth And they titled it Doomsday Mission on that 50 movie DVD that Roku channel bought, being in public domain and all that.
Sadly, no. I saw it decades ago. I have virtually no recollection of it (though I do remember the spaceship changing from scene to scene). The impression it left was of being atrocious and not worth watching ever again, let alone for the first time. I have no idea who the replacement actors were and doubt such information exists in this material plane.
I question that post. Star Pilot was made before Doomsday Machine, and the plot line the IMDB fanpost does not match up at all with what the official IMDB page says for Star Pilot. The only connection it may have was when the film was re-released in the U.S. in the 70’s the edited in some scenes from Doomsday Machine. I will watch Star Pilot to check that part out.
Original *Star Pilot" 1966
Most of Doomsday Machine 1967
Rest of Doomsday Machine 1972 or so
Overseas version of Star Pilot with pieces of Doomsday Machine decoratively attached 1977 or so.
Edited to add: Wiki says about Star Pilot, " Once in space, the film uses stock special-effects footage from Toho Studio’s films Invasion of Astro-Monster and Gorath to depict a pursuit of Chaena’s ship and an ecological catastrophe on Earth."
My current speculation is that they both borrowed the same scenes from Gorath.
Yeah, I watched this piece of dreck – I think it was free on youtube. I can’t remember any of the details because I couldn’t get past the “the Chinese have a bomb that will kill all life on earth and they are going to set it off … because… ???”
Oh, now I recognize the title. I’ve seen it several times, although only via Cinematic Titanic (part of the team that originally did MST3k).
And dear god, yes it’s terrible. And no, it makes no sense. And no, I have never cared enough to try to dig up who were the “actors” who were used for the finishing sequence.
I do enjoy that movie. It goes from goofy to dark to WTF. It is such a product of its time. It’s been a while sinc I’ve seen it so I may have to watch it again after work. Edited to add I have no idea who voices the characters at the end.
Edited again to add that the death by ponytail is one of cinemas greatest scenes ever. I’m surprised John Wick hasn’t worked in a variant of that way of taking someone out.
Ah, truly it was a movie that deserved the treatment of being mocked by an entire group of professional comedians for our amusement!
Truly, for all following along in the thread, do try the Cinematic Titanic version, which will take away the burn of epic WTF moments, and let you have the fellowship of like minded sorts mocking right along with you.
I also watched the Cinematic Titanic version of the movie. Thanks, ParallelLines, for the tip that it existed! It was indeed magnificently awful, and perfect fodder for a MST3K-derivative comedy treatment.
This is probably a relatively minor thing to bother me about the movie, with so much other awfulness to marvel at, but I thought it strange that they chose Venus as a planet to visit, not the usual go-to planet, Mars. I would have thought that by 1967 or '68, when filming began, it was pretty common knowledge that Venus was a 900 degrees Fahrenheit hellscape.