|
|
| It is the distant future, and man has had the capability
for insterstellar travel at faster-than-light speeds. Starships have been sent
out in order to explore and colonize this vast universe, but one such colony in
the distant system of Altair has not been heard from in 19 years. Captain
Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his military crew are dispatched to investigate and
bring back any of the surviving expeditionary crew, but when they arrive on
Altair-IV, they find that there are only three inhabitants of this Earthlike-planet,
an old scientist, his beautiful but naïve daughter, and their servant robot "Robby."
The old scientist, who keeps a secret of the wondrous technologies of an ancient
but extinct race, is wary of Captain Adams and his crew and is protective of
his impressionable daughter. Meanwhile, the crew is being slaughtered, one by
one, by some mysterious, unseen force, as Adams and his crew race against time
to find all the answers—before it's too late.
|
|
|
| Leslie Nielsen (Commander John J. Adams): Captain of the starship, who falls in love with Altaira.
|
| Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Edward Morbius): the old scientist,
who has taken a liking to the planet and dislikes his unwelcome visitors.
|
| Anne Francis (Altaira Morbius): young, beautiful,
and naïve daughter of the doctor, who has taken quite a liking to her visitors.
|
| Marvin Miller (Robby the Robot): the robot servant
of Dr. and Altaira Morbius, whose faithfulness is unwavering. He is a product
of the scientific knowledge of the ancient Krell race Altair-IV.
|
|
|
| When Adams and his crewman were exposed to the technology
of the Krell race, they were in awe of the technological achievements that
occurred on Altair-IV a million years ago, achievements that dwarfed mankind's
achievements tenfold. But a more important question to ask was, how could
such an advanced race been driven to extinction? They had surely reached
technological and scientific perfection; such societies, in our minds, are
often rivaled with philosophical and societal perfection, and hence are led
to believe that the Krell embodied a utopian existence. Of course, as they
are extinct, this was certainly not the case. Under unknown conditions,
without outside interference, neither Dr. Morbius nor Captain Adams could
grasp what would've brought a society such as the Krell's to their knees.
The answer: themselves!
|
| A society cannot be run nor driven by the desire for
technological perfection as a means to societal perfection, as a way to solve
all of the complex problems that exist in societies of intelligent beings.
The Krell did not understand this, and neither do most human societies.
Their perpetual motion power machine, where Dr. Morbius now resides, was a
synthesis of Krell minds, a product of pure Krell scientific thought.
However, they did not realize the potential consequences of building such a
powerful machine and only paid attention to their crowning achievement. The
consequences of a machine that was a product of pure thought was that it was
exactly what it was supposed to be-a machine that was the physical manifestation
of mental processes, including the "monsters of the id"-the subconscious fear,
anger, and hate of the entire Krell race combined-which is what eventually
destroyed them. There are important lessons to be learned from the Krell,
not only for Captain Adams and his society, but for us as well. The question
we should continually ask ourselves in the pursuit of such technological "perfection"
is not whether we can build something, but rather, whether we should.
|
