Do I have to tell you the plot of the 1956 film ‘Forbidden Planet’? OK, for those Science Fiction fans who might have missed it. In the 23rd century, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D, with nineteen male crew, is checking on the planet Altair IV after hearing nothing for over 20 years. They receive a radio message from Dr. Edward Morbius (actor Walter Pidgeon) not to land, but the ship’s captain, John J. Adams (actor Leslie Nielsen), disregards this and lands. Morbius sends a mechanoid, Robby the Robot, to take Adams, his deputy Lieutenant Jerry Farman (actor Jack Kelly) and ‘Doc’ Ostrow (actor Warren Stevens) to his residence for a meal. They also meet Morbius’s daughter, Altaira (actress Anne Francis), and Adams gets a little smitten. Farman gets a little more smitten. Morbius explains about a menace on the planet that killed all the colonists, the last leaving on their spaceship. He explains that he found the relics of the Krell, the original inhabitants of the planet, but their inventions are too powerful for mankind.
That night, back at the spaceship while the crew sleeps, an invisible creature boards, does a little damage and kills Chief Engineer Quinn (actor Richard Anderson). Adams sets a better guard the next night, along with a force field, and under laser fire they see the outline of the creature before it vanishes.
The rest is a spoiler. There’s a lot more than this, and are you sure you haven’t seen the film?
The significance of ‘Forbidden Planet’ should not be underestimated. It was properly budgeted and had great effects that still hold up today. The creature effects were created by a Disney animator. Robby the Robot was the breakout star, appearing in other films and TV shows and definitely an influence on the Robot in ‘Lost in Space’. The film was also viewed as the prototype for ‘Star Trek’. The cruiser even uses reverse polarity. Do I need to tell you this is a crucial film? Now it’s out on Blu-ray disc and I’m watching the advance copy.
The audio commentary is with Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw. Forshaw saw the film in the cinema and Newman on TV, and Newman bows to Forshaw’s knowledge. They compare the film to ‘The Tempest’, but not as a complete fit. I hadn’t realised that Pidgeon thought the film was below him. There’s a lot of talk about SF and 1950s films in general, and ‘This Island Earth’ isn’t forgotten. There’s enough geeky stuff here to keep you well satisfied.
There’s an entire Blu-ray disc of extras.
The first is ‘Unearthly Aura’, an exclusive to Arrow Video with film historian and composer Neil Brand, who gives a brief account of MGM wanting to hit the SF film market, which was dominated by B-movie studios, but with more money, making it impossible for them or the TV channels to duplicate. It then looks at Louis and Bebe Barron’s electronic music, called ‘tonalities’ because neither of them belonged to the musicians’ union. They convinced MGM that what they could do was appropriate for ‘Forbidden Planet’ and used it to score the film.
Running for 55 minutes, ‘Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, The 1950s And Us’ is an eye-opening retrospective from Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Jim Cameron and Ridley Scott, all recorded separately, about 1950s films and their influence on them. It’s well worth watching because there are also a lot of film extracts. Oddly, there were six or seven films I hadn’t heard of, and I’ll need to investigate their availability. I was also watching for any they ignored, and there were two significant ones: ‘This Island Earth’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’. It might just be that they couldn’t get the clearances.
‘Amazing!: Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet’ runs for about 27 minutes. Created in 2005, it has members of the cast and special effects creatives looking at aspects of the film. Among the latter are Dennis Muren and John Dykstra and, if you’ve never heard them speak, this is your opportunity.
‘Robby The Robot: Engineering A Sci-Fi Icon’ runs for about 14 minutes, with the same people as above. You see the early B-level designs for Robby that didn’t look right, and then designer Robert Kinoshita made a model and hit the nail on the head. The contrast between the design built to carry a human inside and the SF version is quite something. I Googled what they showed here, but no luck. For the record, inside the robot was Frankie Darro, and the voice was Marvin Miller.
The ‘Deleted Scenes’ are a mixture of deleted scenes and try-outs, and run for 13 minutes, again from 2006. It’s rather interesting seeing a different voice doing Robby. It’s certainly not deep enough, but it shows how much effort was taken to get the right voice. Seeing some scenes without the animation from Disney animator Joshua Meador shows how much he added to them.
‘Lost Footage’ runs for 6 minutes, also from 2006. It’s similar to ‘Deleted Scenes’, with more emphasis on special effects from the unused MGM film library, and it points out that there were three different scale models of the C-57D.
‘The Invisible Boy’ (1957) runs for nearly 90 minutes in black and white and features Robby the Robot in his second feature film. Robby cost a lot of money to build, and Warner felt it important to use him as much as possible and to remove the comma from the ‘Forbidden Planet’ titles.
The Stoneman Institute of Mathematics has the interest of the military, and a visit by Colonel Macklin (actor Dennis McCarthy) and General Swayne (actor Harold J. Stone). Nine levels down and under staff restriction, Dr. Tom Merrinoe (actor Philip Abbott) shows off his top-notch computer. The military are a little upset that it is more accurate than their own mathematicians. Merrinoe’s son, Timmy (actor Richard Eyer), lacks his father’s yen for maths. Merrinoe talks to his computer about his son and is told he is a poor doctor. Merrinoe leaves his son with the computer, which heightens his IQ. Timmy beats his father at chess and, as wish fulfilment, gets to play with Robby. Much to the disdain of his mother, Mary (actress Diane Brewster), Timmy gets Robby to make a better kite that he can fly in. He gets his dad’s computer to improve Robby and, whenever he does something wrong, he can become invisible, hence the film’s name. Things can only get worse.
I’m beginning to wonder if Robby had an agent, as he pops up in a 26-minute episode of ‘The Thin Man’ from 1958, starring Peter Lawford as Nick Charles, who has to prove Robby did not commit murder. I should point out that in each of his appearances, Robby has a different voice.
From ‘MGM Parade’, we have 2 minutes from episode 27 with Walter Pidgeon doing a general promo for the film. He’s there again in episode 28 for 4 minutes, introducing his invention, Robby the Robot, only to be corrected that 50 MGM technicians actually did the work, with Robby in a different dubbed voice.
There are two ‘Theatrical Trailers’. The first is obviously for ‘Forbidden Planet’ and runs for 3 minutes 40 seconds. I’m giving these times exactly in case you see other promos and want to compare the differences. In the credits on this one, Robby is just called ‘The Robot’. It looks like the promotion department weren’t paying attention. The other is for ‘The Invisible Boy’ and runs for two and a half minutes.
Lastly, ‘Film Cells’. I’m not sure if it’s because I have nothing showing how to navigate or because of the advance disc, but I couldn’t get beyond the opening picture. For the record, they cover ‘The Original Script’, ‘Poster And Lobby Cards’, ‘Black & White Promo Stills’ and ‘Color Promo Stills’. Enjoy when you can see them.
As you might have noticed above, much of this material came from 2006. A little investigation shows there was a two-DVD special edition released then. I think the only reason I didn’t go after it was that I already had a copy of the film. This time, you have it on Ultra HD Blu-ray with everything included, so the quality is upped.
If you truly have never seen ‘Forbidden Planet’, then you’re missing a treat. It shows what happens when a major studio invests money in a film, and it was probably the ‘2001’ of its day, but a little profound. Just don’t upset any Krell surrogates.
GF Willmetts
September 2026
(pub: Arrow Films, 2026. Two 4K UHD Blu-ray discs, 98-minute film with extras. Price: £29.99 (UK). ASIN: B08R5LT589. There’s also a limited edition out on 4 October 2026.)
Check out the website: www.arrowfilms.com/p/4k/forbidden-planet-limited-edition-4k-uhd/17929157/
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