The Stranger (1973)

The Age of Commercialism

Such a frustrating disappointment

Fresh and Exciting

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I watched this pilot movie for a television show that never came to be on the riff show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Apparently, it too received the same treatment as such other MST3K classic episodes Pod People and Cave Dwellers where we get a title sequence that comes from an entirely different film all together before being treated to the actual film. It is a rather misleading tactic and one has to wonder why they do it. In Pod People, the film they show actually looks like it might be better and more horrific than the one we get. In Cave Dwellers, the film they show looks more serious and older than the one we get. Here, we get a super science fiction looking show and what we get starts out somewhat promising and then kind of falters by really going nowhere all that special. From this film, it looks like the show was going to be a take on an earlier show, The Fugitive with a few science fiction elements, but not all that many considering it takes place on another planet. Basically, nearly everything thing is the same on this planet our hero finds himself on right down to the cars! The story has three astronauts experiencing some trouble in space. One of them ends up in a hospital where there is something not quite right. Turns out, that he is not on Earth, but another planet where some sort of oppressive government which at first is trying to get information from the astronaut, but then switches to wanting to kill him because he may pose a threat to their 'perfect' society. He goes on the run and gets the aid of a nurse and a man who happens to help with the space program, but has disdain for the order so he and the astronaut devise a plan that may get him off the planet.This made for an interesting episode of MST3K. Honestly, during the first section of film I was actually more interested in what was happening in the movie than their riffs as it played out rather good...at first. Then it never goes anywhere and just becomes "The Fugitive" only with the very light science fiction elements. Thankfully, their riffs were good when the story was going stale so it made for an entertaining episode of the show. I liked how they kept trying to get up and leave when the movie looked as if it were going off due to commercial.So, it was not a totally bad film, but it just needed more. It was interesting up to a point and then it just became kind of a mess. It becomes guy on run and bad guys closing in and then guy finds a way to slip passed them. Pretty sure this one would not have lasted for too many seasons because there is only so much you can do with the premise. The government pretty much had a lot of people under its influence so it would have started becoming unbelievable say he had kept running into people who just happen to hate the order. So, probably for the best it was just a one episode wonder, the main bad thing about it though is no closure.

I can concur with the comments that production values were poor, but I still believe it would have been interesting as a variation on "The Fugitive". I can also see where it would not be believable for him to ever get home, since his best and only chance to get onto a spacecraft was in the pilot. Every Terran spaceport would be alert to him after this. Also, being on their toes, the Perfect Order would have been steadily improving their chances of catching Neil by imprinting his face in every mind. Now, that said, it could have been interesting if Neil discovered a totally different thing going on: the steady erosion and breakdown of the Perfect Order - a growing dissidence that the Order cannot deal with. The suspense would be: what happens first? Neil is caught, Ward E'd and killed, or the dissidence becomes organized and he's in the dilemma of staying out of it or helping it.The movie would have been helped if there were clues that the history of the planet was identical to Earth up to the time of WW2, explaining the similar technology, and if most of the cars seen were less popular and more unusual models, seen so often that they seem to be the preferred models. The three moons should have had some texture, some cratering and maria, and shifted position from night to night, so that at the end of the movie, one is missing and the other two are further apart. Also, there should have been at least a few "northpaws" - in a society that views right-handedness as being as sinister as our society used to regard left-handedness. (Maybe in Ward E, they fix people who are right-handed. Now, what if Bettina was right-handed but they let her pass, then they fixed her while doing the other conditioning, and Dylan wondered about it when she reappeared.)I noticed that all the guards - the rank and file - seemed to be "old guys" - in their mid to late 40s or early 50s - and thus old enough to remember pre-Perfect Order conditions. They look older than Benedict and Dr. Revere, so it looks like they cast guys happy for the work, not because they looked like young, well-educated supporters of the system.But I liked the touch of authoritarianism, and the perverse fact that it had solved poverty, crime and disease, but was ruthless against "thoughtcrime" (a "1984" term) that could cause such problems.

I suppose it depends on when one actually sees the movie for the first time that their impression is formed the way it is.I saw it as a child on TV back in 1973, when it was "The Stranger" and I loved it. Such was the time when the space program to the moon was a reality, when shows like "Search", "UFO", and "6M$ Man" were showing a child of 12 of what the world could hold in their future. Adventure and technology.You got to see shows only once and that was when the network aired them. The only way people could slash your shows was by making their own parody of it; they didn't get to take your show and add in their own comments over it.I did not know what this concept of a "pilot" was. I saw the movie and was hoping thru out that Stryker would get home; did not know that there was a possibility of it continuing beyond two hours.Back then, would I understood what so many people hate about the movie now? I doubt it because I don't remember it as such. Do I understand now? Not really for to understand the story, one must not see it from their perspective but rather from that of the characters in the movie.If one is watching as an American, it might be humorous about the lack of security in a police state.....but if one is a subject in that state, then compliance could be expected and security can be less. When things are suppose to be perfect, perfect to an extreme degree, perfect that one is not suppose to doubt, then one is not likely to question as quickly when things are out of order.The subplots of the movie are interesting such as the old man who remembers the time before but watches his words since he suspects that there are spies everywhere. Or that the police state values knowledge to some extent for they are careful about how they control or harm their brain power.These days, one is likely to know exactly what the movie is about before they see it, so much of the suspense, surprise is lost. But the duet between the astronaut and his doctor at the beginning of the movie is a perfect exchange if one considers that this movie was made well into the Cold War and the astronaut's biggest fear is that he has crashed in the USSR. One gets quite a distance into the movie before it becomes apparent that such a possibility is the least of his concerns.This is the primary difference between "The Stranger" and "Doppelganger". The latter can be considered timeless since any comments it has about the USSR are comparatively minor and lost early on in the movie. In the former, those links are through out the movie, supposedly directly in the beginning and then as a theme variation after wards.All that said, despite my fond memory for the movie, it is rather easy to see that it would not have made it as a series. Each week, Stryker would make friends, Benedict would chase, Stryker would get away. Eventually, Benedict's society would get rid of him. Someone else would pick up the chase. A rut would develop. There might be a jab at something new such as perhaps another crew member from Stryker's mission showing up, but it probably would not be enough to keep the show going.If one goes in with the knives that others have used to slash the movie, odds are they will slash it as well. But if one remembers that this was made during the Cold War and what fears and estimations of the other side were during that time, of what the popular environment contained for the viewer, then they may find some entertaining and intellectual themes in it.

Typical ABC Movie-of-The-Week circa 1973 when some cheesy and some interesting Sci Fi films were produced rather prolifically. They are still way better than the crap that Sci-Fi Channel makes seemingly weekly for "Premieres".This one was more or less a rip-off/remake of the much better Journey to The Far Side of The Sun(1969) which was made in England and Europe by Gerry Anderson. That film benefited from incredible FX work from Derek Meddings, a great score from Barry Gray and a good cast and had a haunting ending.The Stranger doesn't have any of that. The plot-an astronaut Glenn Corbett-blown up in space-finds himself on a parallel earth, we learn it is called Terra(one assumes the play on the word "terror" as well as Terra meaning Earth) with three moons. He wakes up-a prisoner in what turns out is a mental hospital-to a very paranoid and not-giving-much-info hospital staff. Managing to escape he finds out he's on this creepy, alternate version of earth but ruled by a totalitarian government called The Perfect Order and is pursued by Cameron Mitchell, a ruthless agent of the secret police for this government. The agents drive around in ominous looking Plymouths(that do not sound like Earth cars) and wear these strange knit jackets with wide lapels and they've cautioned everyone that a dangerous mental patient has escaped and that he must be found. Our astronaut manages to evade capture by dressing like the inhabitants-who dress unfashionably drab sort of like old 60's Communist Russia. When he starts asking questions-such as a scene in a bookstore when he asks "What came before the Perfect Order?" suspicion is aroused and up pops Mitchell and his thugs who threaten the already paranoid citizens with "Ward E" a sinister mental asylum. They'll do anything to cooperate and earn "citizen points" rather than face the ominous Ward E so Corbett is off again in The Fugitive-style escapes. The evils of Ward E are illustrated when another administrator (Tim O' Connor) confides to Mitchell that he wonders if this visitor has something to say and maybe this "Perfect Order" is wrong. Later we see him sitting in the middle of a weird surrealistic room, in hospital clothing, completely docile and vegetative and Mitchell warns him over his shoulder how he has paid the price for doubting. Meanwhile our astronaut befriends a young doctor(Sharon Acker) who not only believes his story of coming from-and wanting to go back to-another earth-but seems to have feelings for him. Eventually she is captured and hooks up with him later saying she escaped. He wants to use this society's slightly better space technology (which is hinted at, by Perfect Order elders that they'll eventually use to invade Earth) to escape this madness. When they get to the launch facility, she implores him not to go(he's already put on a space suit) and in the struggle, she reveals she was in fact taken for "treatments" at Ward E and has been brainwashed to lead him back to the authorities. He sets off an alarm which incapacitates Acker(revealing the nature of the Ward E treatments)who crumbles, grasping her head and he attempts to get aboard the spaceship. She's recaptured and the last we see is Mitchell telling her she's failed and it's back to Ward E-forever-as she screams. The launch fails and he winds up, staring wistfully at the three moons, all set up for a TV series that never happened.The biggest thing this film had working against it was lack of a budget. The FX are non-existent, space stuff is all stock and a shot of the Terra launch facility simply looks like Cape Kennedy/Vandenberg AFB footage at night. The three moons are nothing more than three balls just hung on string in front of a star field-very cheesy. It has the claustrophobic-shot-in-an-old-office building feel that many of those Made-for-TV'ers suffered from. Also, everything seems very convenient. He appears to have escaped into a regular New England-looking back lot town-that seems very near the space facility. It has a creepy moment when he takes the scarf off Sharon Acker's head to see her temple areas disfigured horribly from shock treatments, though I saw this coming a mile away, the fact she shows up inexplicably and with a head scarf on.It was a film, very much of it's time that Gerry Anderson did much better earlier, but downplayed the political angle of it.