The slender storyline of Dark Star follows the crew of a roving scout ship, searching the universe for potential super-novas they can terminate before they become a threat to mankind. As a result, the men have grown bored and lazy, losing interest in everything, even their curiosity about other life forms in the galaxy. "Don't give me any of that 'intelligent life' stuff," one astronaut snaps at his co-pilot, "Find me something I can blow up." This sense of the absurd permeates the entirety of Dark Star which Carpenter has often referred to as a "Waiting for Godot in space." There is nothing glamorous about space travel here; the crew's quarters are dirty, cramped and claustrophobic, the men are irritable and non-communicative with each other, the general atmosphere is one of futility and ennui. But Carpenter and O'Bannon give it all a light, playful touch distinguished by some truly hilarious comic set pieces like the sequence with Pinback (played by O'Bannon) trying to capture an alien that has escaped from its cage or the finale with Lt. Doolittle (Brian Narelle) trying to dissuade a talking bomb from exploding.
According to Robert C. Cumbow in Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter, "the Carpenter-O'Bannon partnership, for which both men had high hopes, broke down after Dark Star....The most heated point of variance between Carpenter and O'Bannon is over the question of credit for specific contributions to Dark Star; but all accounts agree generally that the talking bomb, the cryonically frozen captain, and the Phoenix Asteroids were Dan O'Bannon's; the surfer motif and the observation dome chat between Talby and Doolittle were Carpenter's; and the rest was collaborative." Later, O'Bannon would appropriate the alien-on-the-loose subplot of Dark Star for his more chilling view of extraterrestrial life in Alien; even the scene where the frozen captain is revived would be repeated in a scene where the damaged android (played by Ian Holm) of Alien is revitalized for a final communication.
But back to that beach ball alien of Dark Star. According to John Carpenter in an interview with Dale Winogura for Cinefantastique magazine, "I wanted to pay tribute to all those old, cheap science fiction films that I love dearly. We thought of a specimen room in the ship, with hundreds of forms of life, like a psychedelic zoo, where one of the men would have to go in and feed the animals. The cost of such an idea was prohibitive, so we cut it down to one alien mascot, the beach ball with claws. We wanted something funny and obviously not a real monster."
Unfortunately, Dark Star arrived too early to benefit from the huge success of Star Wars in 1977 and remained an obscurity due to its meager budget and low-profile distribution deal. Thanks to frequent college showings and repertory film houses over the years, the film now enjoys a devoted cult following and with this DVD should reach an even wider group of sci-fi fans who will respond to its goofy charm and low-tech special effects. Besides featuring the two versions of the Carpenter-O'Bannon collaboration (both presented in the widescreen format, 1.85:1), the Dark Star DVD also includes the theatrical trailer and biographical information. Please note that deleted scenes in the Special Edition version may present a momentary pause during playback on some DVD players. For more information about Dark Star, visit VCI Entertainment. To order Dark Star, visit TCM Shopping.
by Jeff Stafford
