The Phantom Planet (1961)
The space opera "The Phantom Planet" surfaces in early 1961, a time when science fiction films were experiencing their third wave of popularity. Stories of man travellin into space and meeting strange beings and monsters in exotic planets first became popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s thanks manly to the pulp comics such as "Amazing Stories", "Weird Tales", "Buck Rogers", and "Flash Gordon". Interested wained during the 40s with the onset of war. The second wave arrived during the 1950s but the story lines centered about doomsday plots, a cause, no doubt, of the onset of the atomic age. "The Phantom Planet" belogs to the third wave, a renaissance of films and television shows that, once again, had space exploration and escapism as their central themes. "Lost in Space", "Star Trek", and "Doctor Who" all belong to this third period.
The storyline centers about the mysterious planet that has suddenly appeared and two USAF spaceships that disappear. Captain Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) and Lt. Ray Makonnen (Richard Weber) set out to explore the alien body on the "Pegasus" only to discover an alien race of miniature people, giant monsters, and... ahem... beautiful women. Grade A campy B-movie stuff for the sci-fi hardcore.