If you have ever gone about the sad work of trying to recreate lost love; ever seen a smile that reminded you of some other smile, some other time, and been drawn to it; ever been aware of the vague and muted unhappiness of irreconcilable regret settling into your life like an unwelcome guest…you have trod some part of the psychological territory of Stanislaw Lem’s dreamlike, mystical and timeless 1961 science-fiction novel, twice adapted for the screen and also turned into an opera.
Psychologist Kris Kelvin has been despatched to the orbital research station over the alien planet Solaris to investigate disturbing phenomena among the crew, but finds his friend Gibbarian dead and the remaining scientists mad or in obsessive seclusion. The bitter and acid-tongued Dr. Snow will only hint at the nature of the malaise that has been infecting the crew, insisting that Kelvin will not understand until it begins to affect him too.
That night, Kelvin wakes up to find his dead wife sitting by his bed, watching him sleep, unaware of how she got there; but this is no phantom, and it soon emerges that the vast and ethereal plasma of the ocean over which the space station hangs has mimeo-eidetic properties that can easily pluck out the secret, tormenting wraiths from the subconscious minds of the crew-members and give them a new – if confusing – corporeality.
The ‘visitors’ are child-like and guileless, but unwilling to be even momentarily separated from the tormented souls from whose memories they sprang. Are they ‘people’ in any meaningful sense? Is Solaris itself experimenting on the scientists who came to study it? Does it want to repel or please its ‘guests’? Is it a plasmic sea reflecting the impossible, subconscious needs (if not desires) of the crew, or an emergent cosmic intelligence trying to evolve into a god?
1/2 A psychologist heads to a run-down space station to see what's become of the crew, and soon finds trouble.
2/2 Kris is falling in love with his replica wife. His colleagues plot to destroy the planet.
Cast:
Kris.........Ron Cook
Rheya.........Joanne Froggatt
Sartorius.........Stuart Richman
Snow.........Tim McMullan
Woman.........Maxine Burth
Dramatised by Hattie Naylor
Original music composed and performed by Alice Trueman
Sound Design by Steve Brook
Directed by Polly Thomas
2 Files 26MB each. Length 57 Minutes each. Bitrate 64kbps.
Anson (Bob) Roberts has uploaded a better encode in the Science Fiction & Fantasy uploads folder here on TP
Replies
Look at the top of this page. (or any page)
You'll see a tab marked "Uploads."
Thanks, Bob. That's much appreciated.
"I see but I do not observe..."
Roger
Posted a 160/44 upgrade to the SF Uploads section here.
Enjoy!
Thanks, Bob, but, um, where is the "SF Uploads section"? It's probably blatantly obvious, but I can't see it!
Roger
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Thanks, Bob. I'd got that far, but I'm searching vainly - and perhaps blindly - for an "Uploads section".
Roger
Thank you. I'm looking forward to this!
Roger