Is "Forbidden Planet" the predecessor to Star Trek?

[Scifi fan]

I just saw the 1950's movie, "Forbidden Planet", and it seems just like an episode of Star Trek. I know that Gene Roddenberry has said the movie was one of the inspirations for his TV series, but the movie really, really, looks like a ST episode, so much so that I would say it's the predecessor to Star Trek.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I always thought Space Family Robinson (the robot certainly) was the successor to Forbidden planet with Star Trek taking over from that.

 

[Scifi fan]

I don't see the link between Space Family Robinson and the other two, except, of course, for the robot.

In terms of story line, Forbidden Planet just comes across as a Star Trek episode.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, Forbidden Planet is actually very much like a tale one would run across in the "Golden Age" pulps of the time. I don't recall right offhand who it was that told it, but the story goes that John W. Campbell and a few of the sf writers of the time went to a screening of Forbidden Planet in its first run, and the consensus of opinion was this was the first genuine sf-type film they'd seen in a very long time (possibly since Metropolis). Campbell (iirc) is even said to have remarked that it was exactly the sort of thing which could have seen print in his Astounding Science Fiction.

So while I would agree that Star Trek is heavily influenced by the film, I'd also say that both owe their tone and a great deal of their Weltanschauung to the sf pulps of the 1940s and 1950s, rather than any cinematic forerunners....

 

[Scifi fan]

Interesting ... can you provide any stories from the Golden Age of this genre?

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

First of all a thousand apologies. In my sick bed stupor I had named the series SFR when of course I should have referred to it as "Lost in Space"

Well, LIS seems to me to have all the makings of a Star Trek type format. We have a group of hero's pitted against varying forms of alien entities. Admittedly they stay in one place and the aliens come to them though. However the actual details of the plots seem very similar. OK there are a few side issues in LIS where not every body is on side with the authority figure and the robot is Spock in a slightly less lovable form with slightly different super powers but I think the format matches ST pretty well.

Every week was another chance for some fiendish encounter with another guest start who's role was to liven up the scenery and provide a stimulus for the sitting tenants of the show.

Of course we mustn't forget in all this the role Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea played in the development of the format.

With LIS a direct descendant of Forbidden Planet what do we have. The robot could even be the same prop for a start, however, moving on. Here we have a spaceship landing on an at first apparently normal planet inhabited by only two people and a whole load of alien goodies that no one understands. Dr Smith would have had a field day. The cast then set about discovering and overcoming strange adversities in there quest for rating figures. The only minor difference between LIS and ST is that there was usually a hook to the next episode at the end of the show whereas ST always finished with the happy ending lets go home feeling.

However to throw the cat among the pigeons, I think the pure source to the Star Trek series and the rest is must pass through

Fireball XL5​

Now here we have, hover cars, the original photon torpedoes, robots, a genius logical scientist, the sex factor, alien life forms in the crew, spaceships that break apart the full works. I bet if we asked old Roddenberry he'd tell of the hours he spent glued to the screen whenever it was shown. Add in a few other classic Anderson ideas and the show is almost sat there waiting to be filmed.​

But what of Space Patrol I hear you all ask.​

Well there we have it and here are the facts see if you see any similarities​

Space Patrol: Introduction​

Now that was real science fiction.​

 

[Scifi fan]

Excellent!

You're right. I haven't seen the puppet episodes lately, but I wonder how close they are to ST. I guess it's a question of degree.

 

[Pyan]

Well, Forbidden Planet is actually very much like a tale one would run across in the "Golden Age" pulps of the time.

Forbidden Planet was actually written (the plot and characters, anyway), in about 1610 by that well-known SFF author William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616). There are theories that it goes back even further, according to Bullough:

There is much debate over the sources and dating of The Tempest. Some researchers believe many of the words and images in the play derive from Erasmus's Naufragium (The Shipwreck) (1523) and Eden's "The Decades of the New Worlde Or West India" (1555). Both sources are mentioned by early scholars as influencing the composition of the play. In addition, some scholars point to new evidence that they believe confirms Eden and Erasmus as primary sources.
(Eden: Kermode 1958 xxxii-xxxiii; Erasmus: Bullough 1975 VIII: 334-339)

The IMDb actually lists Shakespeare as an uncredited writer.
Forbidden Planet (1956) - Full cast and crew

It's an example that is often quoted as support for the theory that there are no new plots, only new twists....

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, I know about the Tempest connection there (just as I Walked with a Zombie is a retelling of Jane Eyre set in the West Indies), but that doesn't alter what I said, any more than does the fact that A Mirror for Observers is basically a retelling of the Book of Job from the Bible; Pangborn's novel is a science fiction classic nonetheless..... Retelling of classic tales/myths are quite common; so I suppose you could say that I (cautiously) subscribe to the theory you mention.

However, in transforming this into a sf story, they used the classic, but not quite stereotyped, tropes of Golden Age sf, with just enough of a twinkle in the eye to allow a certain exaggeratedness in the dialogue and some of the incidents, much like many of the classic sf writers of the period.

As for stories from this period within the genre, Scififan... there are hundreds of anthologies you can turn to for that. Try looking into any of those edited by Groff Conklin, or the original three-volume Science Fiction Hall of Fame set (Volumes I, IIA, and IIB) edited by, respectively, Robert Silverberg and Ben Bova. There's also Anthony Boucher's 2-volume A Treasury of Great Science Fiction; Damon Knight's A Century of Science Fiction (among numerous others Damon edited); the numerous anthologies drawn from Astounding itself, either by Campbell or others; or simply looking at any respectably-sized listing of novels which were serialized in the sf magazines of the period....

 

[Scifi fan]

Yes, I know of the Tempest, but I never thought it could be the forerunner to Forbidden Planet, when it definitely has similar themes, but is not quite the same.

This is a good forum - I'm glad I came here.

 

[Ursa major]

But what of Space Patrol I hear you all ask.

Space Patrol! Now you're talking. (That, Supercar and Fireball XL5 were my introductions to Sci-Fi, if not SF. And hot on their heals was Doctor Who.)

 

[steve12553]

First of all a thousand apologies. In my sick bed stupor I had named the series SFR when of course I should have referred to it as "Lost in Space"

I remember reading at least one or two issues of the Space Family Robinson comic book before the TV show came out. As far as comparisions to Star Trek, it was typical Irwin Allen "Monster of the Week" schlock after maybe the first episode or two. And really not even good Irwin Allen. Star Trek , in spite of the TV limitations and Gene Roddenberry's rose colored astrometrics, did have some decent episodes and was not always formulaic. As to Forbidden Planet I watch that film with reverence. Big budget, well written, well thought out Science Fiction in the same decade as I was a Teenage Werewolf. As far as the comparisons to Star Trek I really feel its world was a little darker than Gene Roddenberry's, although not totally pessimistic.