Blindpassasjer (Stein-Roger Bull, 1978)

This is the second time I’ve seen Blindpassasjer, a norwegian science fiction-series from 1978. Broadcasted in three episodes, all with classic cliffhangers. I can’t even imagine what an impact this production must have made in Norway in 1978, it’s still a small country and it must have been very rare with something like this on NRK, the Norwegian public television. It's reminds me a lot of those classic british TV-dramas from the seventies (I’m looking at you, Nigel Kneale), and has the same visual style and atmosphere. It's like Doctor Who - but a bit more stylish in my personal opinion. Even if the sets are cheap, they feel thought-through...in that glorious, wonderful futuristic 70’s way.

We follow the spaceship Marco Polo from it's journey from the planet Rossum - a farmer-based planet ruled by primitive robots. But something is of course strange with the planet. During deep sleep an unknown entity, a "biomat", sneak aboard the ship and kills one of the crews, stuffs the person in the garbage disposer and takes it's identity. When the crew wakes up and discovers that someone is aboard the ship it's already too late. One of them is the "biomat"... an perfect replica of a human being... Now they have twenty hours to discover who it is, or else the space station Nexus will blow them up. Everything to stop the infection to reach earth...

It echoes of The Thing and Alien (especially the later, but Alien it was released the year after), but it's more of a whodunit set in space. The special effects are uneven, of course. Some of it looks great - especially the miniatures and the sets, but the visual effects and the graphics are very, very primitive. But I don't care of course, it's all about the story. And the story is very well-written, telling it with only the most necessary scenes. There’s not fillers, nothing you don’t need to see. I love it! Another film it reminds me of is Marek Piestrak’s excellent 1978 sci-fi Test Pilota Pirxa, which of course is based upon a short story by Stanislaw Lem. It’s the same kind of paranoia and my favorite kind of future, the socialistic and slightly grey.

The cast is a few of norways best actors, and Björn Floberg is probably the most famous of them. Henny Moan, who plays "Leda", also starred in one of the biggest horror classics from Norway, the 1958 De Dødes tjern (aka The Lake of the Damned). The acting is unusually naturalistic, close to sleepy - but it just fits the style. There’s very few big show-offs here, the actors own their parts with confidence and takes them to the end without losing their goal.

There's a few great twists and creepy sequences also, not unusal in these TV-productions (it’s something with the analog, video-quality, that makes everything more realistic and in-your-face without being that spectacular) one of my favorites is when one of the characters goes to an unknown spaceship that they found floating in space, and with a videokamera (much like in the found footage genre) examine the ship and what’s hidden inside.

Like with Doctor Who and many British productions the lack of budget almost seems to boost the quality on the script, and like those Blindpassasjer is filled with great ideas and eerie moments. It’s not without cheese of course, but that comes with the kind of production it is. If you can find it with English subs it’s worth watching. I, for one, must rely on my Norwegian blood to understand the carefully constructed dialogue and twists without subs.

It might stretch my power as a movie geek here now, but I would say that Blindpassasjer is one of the finer European TV-productions of the 70’s, a show that manages to be both immensely entertaining and of superior quality.

Comments

[Megatron]

"I can’t even imagine what an impact this production must have made in Norway in 1978, it’s still a small country and it must have been very rare with something like this on NRK, the Norwegian public television."

I can´t imagine that this type of production was common in those days.....like you said, the impact must have been big.

"It’s not without cheese of course, but that comes with the kind of production it is."

Nothing wrong with a slice of cheese.....

"It might stretch my power as a movie geek here now, but I would say that Blindpassasjer is one of the finer European TV-productions of the 70’s, a show that manages to be both immensely entertaining and of superior quality."

You could be right......in any case, it must have been unusal in scandinavia in 70´s, good review and thanks, never seen it.