Movies - TV
The Twilight Zone Stole An Entire Spaceship From Forbidden Planet
By DEVIN MEENAN
The 1956 sci-fi film “Forbidden Planet” featured many impressive special effects and props, such as the C-57D, a ship with a flying saucer design.
The C-57D also found its way to “The Twilight Zone.” Since there weren’t space movies in the early ’60s, the show could save money by reusing props from the “Forbidden Planet.”
All the aliens in the show travel in flying saucers because all those ships were the reused C-57D model or stock footage of it, such as in the Season 3 episode “Death Ship.”
However, according to producer Hebert Hirschmann in “The Twilight Zone Companion” book, the crew had to build a miniature of the model for take-off and landing shots.
He shared, “It was very expensive, but I felt that it was essential to the credibility of the show.” Despite looking cheesy by today’s standards, special effects were never cheap.