MovieChat Forums > The Lost Missile Discussion > Beserkers

Beserkers

posted 16 years ago by winterview
5 replies | jump to latest

{disclaimer, I saw about 1/2 of this movie 40 years ago, my recollection may be off}

I saw this entry in IMDB for The Lost Missile and recalled seeing part of it long ago. Probably on the late night Creature Feature.

Anyhow, just from what is here about the plot, I am starting to think the 'missile' in this movie might be an early example in fiction of a 'Beserker'.

There was an episode of Babylon 5 that dealt with the topic, and the first Star Trek movie incorporated elements of the concept.

I will attempt to review the movie and see just how close they 'got it'.

[–] tony-mounthigh 15 years ago

I'm sure there was a SPACE 1999 episode of a probe from earth, with engines that destroyed everything in it's path....no idea of the episodes title.

[–] winterview 15 years ago

IIRC, the engine technology was the Quellor Drive. Also, seems like Dr. Quellor was on Moonbase Alpha.

An early Quellor Drive powered craft had accidently destroyed Belgium or something . . .

[–] omega2064 15 years ago

Berserkers are planet destroying war machines left over from a previous intergalactic war and still doing their programmed task of wiping out all life. The Doomsday Weapon in Star Trek runs on the same idea. The V'Ger entity in the first movie is unrelated.

The Missile in this movie is more akin to the runaway drive in the Space 1999 episode. A ship using a powerfull Ion or atomic drive unintentionally wreaking havoc as it fails to switch off before reaching a planet.

See also the movie Assignment Outer Space as it has too a runaway space probe with a deadly drive flare.

[–] meowlin 15 years ago

>>The Missile in this movie is more akin to the runaway drive in the Space 1999 episode.<<

The Missile in this movie is frighteningly similar to something our own military had under development in 1957. It was even proposed that it be used in a similar manner:

In addition to gamma and neutron radiation from the unshielded reactor, Pluto's nuclear ramjet would spew fission fragments out in its exhaust as it flew by. (One enterprising weaponeer had a plan to turn an obvious peace-time liability into a wartime asset: he suggested flying the radioactive rocket back and forth over the Soviet Union after it had dropped its bombs.)

http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html

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[–] omega2064 15 years ago

Heard about it way back. This surprises me not at all really.

Luckily we've moved mostly, but not fully, away from such things since that time. Or at least not on the "lost missile" scale!