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''Doppelgänger'' is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Lynn Loring and Patrick Wymark. Outside Europe, it is known as ''Journey to the Far Side of the Sun'', which is now the more popular title.〔〔 In the film, a joint European-NASA mission to investigate a planet in a position parallel to Earth, behind the Sun, ends in disaster with the death of one of the astronauts (Hendry). His colleague (Thinnes) discovers that the planet is a mirror image of Earth. The first major live-action film of Century 21 writers-producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson,〔 noted for ''Thunderbirds'' and other 1960s "Supermarionation" puppet television series, shooting for ''Doppelgänger'' ran from July to October 1968. Using Pinewood Studios as the principal production base, Parrish also filmed on location in both England and Portugal. The professional relationship between the Andersons and their director became strained as the shooting progressed,〔 while creative disagreements with cinematographer John Read resulted in his resignation from Century 21.〔 ''Doppelgänger'' premiered in August 1969 in the United States and October 1969 in the United Kingdom. Although the film in general has been praised for the quality of its special effects and set design, the plot device of the parallel Earth has attracted criticism, with some commentators judging it to be clichéd and uninspired in comparison to the precedent established by earlier science fiction. In addition, although ''Doppelgänger'' has frequently been interpreted as a pastiche of major science-fiction films of the 1960s, including ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968), some of the devices and imagery used have been dismissed as weak imitations of the originals. It has been termed a cult film.〔 Actors and props from ''Doppelgänger'' would re-appear in a later Anderson TV series, ''UFO''.〔〔 Although the Andersons incorporated adult themes into their script in an effort to distinguish the film from their children's TV productions, cuts to more mature content, in this case a shot of a pack of contraceptive pills, were required to permit an A and, later, PG certificate from the BBFC. The film has had only a limited DVD run. ==Plot== In 2069, the unmanned ''Sun Probe'' locates a planet lying on the same orbital path as Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. Dr Kurt Hassler (Herbert Lom) of the European Space Exploration Council (EUROSEC) has been relaying the spacecraft's flight data to a rival power in the East; after tracing the transmissions to Hassler's laboratory, Security Chief Mark Neuman (George Sewell) catches the scientist in the act and kills him. EUROSEC director Jason Webb (Patrick Wymark) convinces NASA representative David Poulson (Ed Bishop) that the West must be the first to send a mission to investigate the planet. With EUROSEC member states France and Germany unwilling to provide financial support, Webb obtains majority funding from NASA; American astronaut Colonel Glenn Ross (Roy Thinnes) and British astrophysicist Dr John Kane (Ian Hendry), the head of the ''Sun Probe'' project, are assigned to the mission. Launched from the EUROSEC Space Centre in Portugal in the spacecraft ''Phoenix'', Ross and Kane spend the first half of their six-week round trip in stasis with "Heart Lung Kidney" machines managing their life functions. Three weeks after launch, the astronauts are revived in the planet's orbit. Scans for the existence of extraterrestrial life are inconclusive, and Ross and Kane decide to make a surface landing. As the astronauts descend through the atmosphere, an electrical storm damages their ''Dove'' lander shuttle, which crashes in a mountainous region that is revealed to be Ulan Bator, Mongolia. When an air-sea rescue unit returns Ross and Kane, the latter critically injured, to the Space Centre, it is apparent that the ''Phoenix'' mission has come to an untimely end after three weeks and that the astronauts have returned to Earth. Neuman and EUROSEC official Lise Hartman (Loni von Friedl) interrogate Ross, who denies that he aborted the mission. Shortly after, Kane dies from his injuries. Eventually, Ross concludes that he is not on Earth, but indeed on the unknown planet – a Counter-Earth that is a mirror image of his. (Signs of this reversal include a clock whose hands move anticlockwise, a tape deck's reels that turn clockwise and an oscilloscope that scans from right to left. In addition, while driving at night, Ross almost collides with another vehicle that he believes to be on the wrong side of the road.) Many at EUROSEC, including Ross's wife, Sharon (Lynn Loring), are baffled by the astronaut's claims that all aspects of life on the planet are reversed. However, Webb's view starts to change when Ross demonstrates the ability to read aloud from a sign, without hesitation, when it is reflected in a mirror; Webb is later convinced of the truth when X-rays from Kane's post-mortem examination reveal that his internal organs are positioned on the "wrong" side of his body. Ross conjectures that the two Earths lie parallel, inferring that his counterpart from this world is experiencing similar events on the far side of the Sun. Webb suggests that Ross recover the flight recorder from ''Phoenix'' and return to his Earth. EUROSEC builds a replacement for ''Dove'' designed to be compatible with the reversed technologies of ''Phoenix''. Modifications include the reverse-polarisation of the electric circuits, although no one is certain that the differences between the two Earths extend to the direction of current. Ross christens the new shuttle ''Doppelganger'', a German word denoting a duplicate of a person or object. Lifting off and entering orbit, Ross attempts to dock with ''Phoenix''. However, ''Doppelganger'' experiences a technical malfunction, indicating that current is constant after all. The shuttle detaches from ''Phoenix'' and loses contact with EUROSEC, falling through the atmosphere towards the Space Centre with Ross struggling to disengage the automatic landing control. EUROSEC is unable to repair the fault from the ground, and ''Doppelganger'' crashes into a parked spacecraft. Ross is incinerated in the collision and a chain reaction destroys much of the Space Centre, killing personnel and destroying all records of Ross's presence on the Counter-Earth. Many years later, an elderly and embittered Jason Webb, long since dismissed from EUROSEC, has been admitted to a nursing home. In his dementia, he spies his reflection in a mirror mounted in front of a window. Rolling forwards in his wheelchair, and reaching out to touch his reflected image, Webb crashes through the mirror and dies.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Doppelgänger (1969 film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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