The evening’s screening of Forbidden Planet was introduced by members of the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences with a keen interest to prove their department held an interest in the arts, and did not simply run on numbers and tests. Set in a distant future, yet based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet was introduced by our hosts under a very insightful premise - the idea that looking forward requires looking back. This then prompted a thought on the evening’s event, and how it presented almost an inversion of this. Indeed, in our watching of Forbidden Planet, we were looking back to our past’s vision of the future.

After this initial welcome, and being assured there would be no tests involved, it became clear that this was a ruse to get us settled, and of course there was going to be a test! But, this was all in jest, and functioned to stimulate discussion. A short presentation was given, focusing on Forbidden Planet’s influence on sic-fi cinema. We were given a range of images taken from the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, and even Beauty and the Beast, and encouraged to look out for similarities during Forbidden Planet.

The film itself takes place in AD 2257, on a remote planet named Altair-4, where Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaria are found to be the sole inhabitants when a Universal Planets cruiser lands. This narrative of voyage and discovery aligns itself neatly with The Tempest, cleverly featuring little nods to Shakespeare’s original tale, such as numerous fish-like sculptures in Morbius’s garden, referencing Caliban’s description of being half man, half fish. As well as the intimacy of father-daughter relationships, characteristic of Shakespeare’s late plays, presented in Forbidden Planet through fusing Caliban and Prospero’s characters. In the film, the monster is in fact a manifestation of Morbius’s own subconscious.

 After the film, the results were in! We were taken back through the presentation and invited to discus where we felt the images given were based on sections of the film, followed by the correct answers. The floor was then opened up for comments on the film as a comparison to The Tempest. Though discussion was a bit tentative to begin with, the group soon became engaged in some really interesting features of the film. A particularly compelling discussion arose from the parallel made between magic and technology. Produced during the Cold War, a time of rapid technological development, it is not surprising that the film warns of the power of technology, asserting that humanity will be  punished in face of such advancements.

As a whole, the evening generated great discussion and really gave an insight to how influential Forbidden Planet, and in turn The Tempest, has been on the sic-fi genre.