Women of the Prehistoric Planet

Looking at its plot, one can safely conclude that, at some point in pre-production, Women Of The Prehistoric Planet had a good idea behind it for a science fiction film -- it contained elements that would become very familiar to viewers of Star Trek in the years 1966-69, including a script dealing (albeit, rather heavy-handedly) with racism on a cosmic level, and addressing notions of extraterrestrial origins of humanity and civilization on Earth that would be crystalized in the next decade by notions of alien intercession (i.e., Chariots Of The Gods). The script also goes Star Trek one better, addressing the problems surrounding the time paradoxes involved with interstellar flight near the speed of light (the Cosmos 1's latest mission has lasted six years ship-time, but meanwhile everyone on the their home planet has aged closer to 30 years, which is why married crew are not permitted in interstellar service) -- that side of the script, which is essential to the plot, reminds one of good, old-time science fiction stories of the 1940's and 1950's. All of those ideas are in the movie, and had the script been better edited and fine-tuned a bit, they might even be what people remembered about Women Of The Prehistoric Planet. As it is, however, what we mostly remember about this movie are the presence of some major actors -- including Wendell Corey, John Agar, and Glenn Langan -- who had seen better days, a few faces, including Stuart Margolin,Gavin MacLeod, Lyle Waggoner, and Adam Roarke, that woulod become more familiar in the decade to come; and the rushed direction and threadbare production values. The special effects, credited to the Howard Anderson Company, are laughable (as, one suspects, was the budget), and the sets look like they're going to fall over at any moment, with the props not much more impressive (this reviewer can swear the "lasers" with which the crew are equipped are actually a then-current model of toy gun with some paint applied). The producers did apparently attempt to emulate the feel and approach of Forbidden Planet in the scenes aboard the Cosmos 1, but this is defeated by the obviously rushed performances and the awkward interjection of some lunkhead humor (mostly courtesy of Paul Gilbert) into the script. Not even the interesting twist in the plot at the very end -- of a kind more often seen in European science fiction -- can rescue the movie from being regarded as a camp classic. And the producers' insistence on including a scene in which comely Suzie Kaye does some public dancing, in the midst of a dangerous mission in which several of her shipmates have died, rather forces the movie into that category. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide