and approval.
* * * * * * *
It is therefore fitting that the mission of the space travelers in Project Moonbase is to photograph the dark side of the Moon, and that they ultimately crash on the dark side of the Moon, so they must walk some distance to set up a transmitter that can reach the Earth. For, by the conventional standards of its day, the film does indeed have a dark side. Apparently a straightforward affirmation of the routine of space exploration, the American military, male superiority, and conventional morality, Project Moonbase covertly argues for the strangeness of life in space, the absurdity of American military thinking, concealed female control of the government, and socially approved incest. We may never know exactly why Ring around the Moon was rejected as a television series, but it may well be that television executives could dimly perceive in the pilot that there was something disturbing about Heinlein’s vision, something that would not be appropriate in a medium whose involvement with science fiction at the time was otherwise a matter of routine juvenile fare like Captain Video (1949-1955), Tom Corbett: Space Cadet (1950-1955), and Space Patrol (1950-1955).
In sum, instead of dismissing Project Moonbase as a standard Hollywood product that suppressed all signs of Heinlein’s influence, critics should instead embrace the film as an integral part of the Heinlein canon, a film which despite its many flaws significantly prefigures attitudes about bureaucracy, women, and sex that are made explicit in later Heinlein novels. Perhaps, for those who wish to view films solely for their aesthetic appreciation, Project Moonbase will always be a film that must be endured rather than enjoyed; certainly, that is the typical response of my students who are obliged to watch it. Yet there are clearly other reasons why the film should be interesting, especially for Heinlein scholars. Worthwhile projects would include a search through the Heinlein archives for scripts that would reveal exactly how much Jack Seaman contributed to the final film, and for evidence of any further work on story or script development Heinlein might have done for the television series that was supposed to grow out of Project Moonbase. Also, although the initially released film was sixty-three-minutes long, all versions now available were cut to fifty-one minutes. Perhaps, if some enterprising scholar can track down and examine those missing twelve minutes, there will be more surprises in store for Heinlein critics.
20. John Brosnan, Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978), 77. Later page references in the text are to this edition.
21. John Brosnan, “Project Moonbase,” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993), 964.
22. John Stanley, “Project Moonbase,” Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, Third Revised Edition (Pacifica, California: Creatures at Large Press, 1988), 271. Later page references in the text are to this edition.
23. Phil Hardy, “Project Moonbase,” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, 1984 (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Woodbury Press, 1986), 141. Later page references in the text are to this edition.
24. Bruce Lainer Wright, Yesterday’s Tomorrows: The Golden Age of Science Fiction Movie Posters, 1950-1964 (Dallas, Texas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1993), 3. Later page references in the text are to this edition.
25. David Wingrove, “Project Moonbase,” Science Fiction Film Source Book, edited by Wingrove (London: Longman, 1985), 185.
26. Robert A. Heinlein, “Foreword” to “The Last Days of the United States,” Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, by Heinlein (New York: Ace Books, 1980), 145.
27. H. Bruce Franklin, Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 70. Later page references in the text are to this edition.
2828. Project Moonbase (Galaxy, 1953).
29. A similar lack of imagination can be seen in other space station films, including the Outer Limits episode “Specimen: Unknown” (1964), The Green Slime (1968), the television movie Earth II (1971), and the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999). Arguably, out of all the filmed depictions of space stations, only Project Moonbase, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Solaris (1971) display any sensitivity to the unusual characteristics of a space station environment.
30. For the record, when she hosted the film for the Canned Film Festival, as I recall, Laraine Newman also noted—facetiously, of course—that the “parallels” between Project Moonbase and 2001: A Space Odyssey were “amazing.”
31. My bibliography of science fiction works involving space stations, The Other Side of the Sky (2009), lists in addition to Project Moonbase twelve Heinlein stories and novels published before 1955—more entries involving space stations than any other writer in that period can claim.
32. In one respect, though, the feeling that the film burlesques the military mind may be the accidental result of later events: the actor playing the General, Hayden Rorke, went on to play the befuddled commander in the television comedy I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970), so it is particularly easy, I suppose, to see him as a buffoon in this movie. Still, I would argue that the comical aspects of his portrayal are to a large extent intrinsic to the film, and do not emerge simply because of the impression left by his later television role.
33. Indeed, elements of this philosophy can also be detected in Destination Moon: early scenes criticize the shortsightedness of the American government and military in failing to mount a space program, and the privately-sponsored flight to the Moon is almost halted by bureaucratic interference. However, these aspects of that film could be interpreted simply as efforts to interject a sense of drama into a narrative that otherwise has very little conflict; in Project Moonbase, a story about enemy agents trying to sabotage the American space program, there was no compelling reason to introduce criticisms of military thinking.
34. Also, while the all-American character of this space mission cannot be overlooked, the two rockets that are launched from Earth to the space station are interestingly named “Canada” and “Mexico.” At least on a metaphoric level, then, there is some international participation in the conquest of space.
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