Hitting the theaters in 1980, Battle Beyond the Stars played like a poor man’s (or teenager’s) Star Wars — but had a great time doing it. Roger Corman probably spent more money on this movie than he ever intended to, but it paid off in the long run, becoming one of his most beloved cult classics. It spawned or advanced the careers of several Hollywood heavyweights, including James Cameron (as art director/model maker), James Horner (composer) and John Sayles (screenwriter), while featuring some fine performances by veteran Hollywood actors such George Peppard, Robert Vaughn and John Saxon. Sci-fi fans will also be delighted to see Marta Kristen of Lost in Space fame in a supporting role.
Richard Thomas seemed a bit out of place as the male lead, fresh from his long stint on TV’s The Waltons. He comes across as a slightly more cranky John Boy, without the Virginia twang. A different haircut or something might have helped.
But View-Master did a fine job with this set, shooting on-set with stereoscopic cameras, as opposed to the paste-up jobs that were becoming more common to that era. They also captured some great shots of the wonderful models (starship models, that is, not Sybil Danning, whose costume, while seemingly designed for 3D, would not have been too appropriate for a kid-friendly toy).
This set unfortunately was released after GAF’s switch to cheaper film stock, meaning any set you find is likely to be magenta-shifted to some degree. My scans required a large amount of color-correction, but at the end of the day are hopefully close to how the set would have appeared when new.
Stereo pairs in parallel format follow below.
