Counter Culture

1,523 words, 8 minutes read time.

It’s always a pleasant surprise to discover an unexpected vintage Science Fiction gem that’s free to watch online.

And a gem this most certainly is, providing me with one of the most thought-provoking eighty minutes or so I’ve spent looking at a screen in ages.

I found it through a short YouTube video on ‘Banned Science Fiction Movies of the 1960s’, link at the bottom of the article, although most of the films featured were only banned for a time in some of the outer reaches of the American Evangelical Bible belt. But other movies on the list also sound worth twenty minutes of your time.

Creation of the Humanoids sounded the most intriguing of all, and I was delighted to find the full movie available to watch on YouTube. A link to the best-quality version I could find is also provided at the bottom of the article.

Even by the standards of the time, this is clearly a low-budget film, which takes place in a small number of indoor locations that do little to hide the fact that they are sound stages, with screens and curtains used to conceal the film crew and other artefacts that need to remain invisible.

The sets are, however, strikingly colourful, inventive, and very sixties. I also loved the look of the pale-blue-skinned, bald-headed, metallic-eyed humanoid robots who, aside from their skin colour, put me in mind of Marshall Applethwaite (AKA ‘Do’), the leader of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate, who committed suicide along with many of their members in 1997.

The same make-up artist who worked on the original, definitive, 1931 Universal version of Frankenstein was involved in creating the look of the titular Humanoids.

The eerie electronic soundtrack is also resonant of great Science Fiction films of the period, such as Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still.

There are no special effects and very little action, save for a couple of shootings and stabbings, with the story relayed almost totally through characterisation, dialogue and exposition. This, plus the limited settings, gives the film the feel of a stage play, and, indeed, it would work very well as such.

The dialogue is snappy, intelligent and, in the context of the story, believable, with a small number of cast members about whom you grow to know and care for almost immediately.

The premise of the plot is that, following a nuclear war at some unspecified point between unspecified powers, the human population of our planet was reduced by 92%. To survive and maintain civilisation, the survivors turned to the creation of increasingly sophisticated robots.

The first prototypes, the R1’s, which we see at the start of the movie, are clunky metallic efforts of the type that will be familiar to all who have delved into the world of cinematic SF between the 1940s and 1960s, as well as low-budget TV SF such as my beloved Doctor Who through the 1970s’80s.

But, as their development has progressed, with each new successive creation given an ‘R’ number, R1, R2, R3 and so on, up to the R90’s we have reached at the time the film is set, in the Twenty Third Century, with the R100 as the now within reach ultimate, thanks largely to the work of the scientist Doctor Raven (Dan Doolittle).

The Humanoids have developed to the point that they far surpass mere humans in intellectual and physical capability, and this allows what remains of the human race to live a life of leisure at a high standard of living, without the need to work, save for those directly involved in the design, development and manufacture of the Humanoids.

The hero of the story is Captain Kenneth Cragis, played by Don Magowan. The film features many actors whose names you won’t know, but whose faces you will, and this is true of both Magowan and Doolittle.

One after-effect of the nuclear war was increasing infertility amongst those of the human race who survived, with the birth rate having plunged to 1.4%, well below replacement level and, interestingly, about the same rate we have reached in our own most advanced, industrialised nations, those comprised primarily of European or Southeast Asian stock, today.

Cragis is a leading figure in an organisation called The Order of Flesh and Blood, which regards our low birthrate, coupled with the level of development the Humanoids as an existential threat to the human race. Members of the Order are pledged to resist this.

There are very few online reviews of this film, but I did find one that noted the Confederate-like uniforms of the Order, and the similarity of the nickname they use for the Humanoids, ‘Clickers’, to a certain ‘N’ word, concluding that it was essentially a fascistic ‘hate’ group.

In reality, different factions exist within the organisation of varying degrees of radicalism. Cragis is something of a moderate who believes that the Humanoids are necessary tools for our survival, but wishes to tighten controls on their further development to maintain the specificity of humanity.

He is, however, horrified to discover that his sister is cohabiting with a Humanoid. The used is ‘In Rapport’ with, which involves humans voluntarily subjecting themselves to a process by which their minds can be merged with a Humanoid of their choice, so that the Humanoid can service their desires without even needing to be asked. It seems that there is no physical component of ‘Rapport’, though the theme of sexual relations between man (and woman) and machine is certainly present in the movie.

The scene at Cragis’ sisters’ apartment put me in mind of the SF/Horror classic The Stepford Wives, though this film was made a decade before the novel upon which that later movie was written.

It was also in this scene that Cragis meets his own love interest. This plays an important role in the further development of the story.

The film could be seen as another example of the ‘Cold War paranoia’ flick of which The Invasion of The Body Snatchers is perhaps the most famous example.

But that would be a far too simplistic reading. To our modern eyes, it can better be understood as concerning itself with our fears at the increasing use, development and sophistication of Artificial Intelligence, and ultimately to the threat/possibility of Transhumanism, a complete merger between organic and non-organic life forms.

Another idea for consideration, particularly when considering the birthrate issue, is to see the movie as a metaphor for the fear, which is expressed by an increasing number in the West, that our failure to reproduce, globalist interconnectivity, increasing migration and our apparent dependence on foreign labour could lead to the complete disappearance of distinct national identities and cultures.

In addition, the film deals with some of the deep philosophical questions addressed in many of the novels of the great Philip K Dick. In particular, the question of what it means to be human.

For instance, if a being of artificial design looks like a human, feels like a human, thinks like a human, can love and hate like a human, the point we are about to reach as the movie draws to a close, in what sense are they distinguishable from humans, especially if they have now become unaware of their synthetic origins?

The film also addresses religious questions. The Humanoids are fast developing a quasi-religion of their own, referring to the master computer that’s ultimately responsible for their development as ‘Mother-Father’ and the charging station to which they must periodically repair if they are to remain functional as the ‘Temple’.

We humans of a religious persuasion are also invited to entertain the question of whether these ‘machines’, that meet all of the human requirements listed above, have a soul?

The possibility that, upon death, we can be replicated as humanoid beings who retain the same individual memories, interests and predilections we developed as fully organic beings also opens up the possibility of immortality. Should we, would we, then, as one of the advanced Humanoids suggests, welcome this development?

The film puts an interesting twist on Isaac Asimov’s famous Prime Directive, the idea that artificial intelligence should be programmed in such a way that it can never intentionally harm humans. Here, the idea has been rebranded as the ‘First Directive,’ and, though it is true, as the members of the Order suspect, that the Humanoids do plan to supplant us completely, they genuinely believe that this is in the best interest of humanity, merely the latest step in a long process of species-evolution, and thus not in conflict with their ‘do no harm’ directive.

In that sense, this is not a film of black and white, right or wrong and easy answers, but shades of grey and moral ambiguity. It’s a movie without villains, and all the better for it.

It might seem unnecessary to worry about spoilers as regards a film that’s over six decades old. But, it will be a more rewarding viewing if watched without knowing its resolution. There is also a nice twist in the very last shot.

I loved this film.

Anthony C Green, July 2025