Guest from the Future

I recently acquired the three tapes to this five part TV series from Souvenir, a company in New York. It's based on Kir Bulychev's [note that for his books the name is transcribed with an 'e,' which you will understand if you know Russian and which doesn't matter if you don't. My reasons are that I have translated his novel 'Poselek [The Settlement]' into English and published it under the title 'Those Who Survive,' as an on-demand book from Xlibris, and 'Sto let tomy nazad' will be the 4th or 5th book in the series to come out in about two years. And yes, I have a contract with the author.

The series original title means something like 'Back to the Future,' and it is deservedly a cult classic. Natasha Gromova became a star (with tons of fan mail, much of it addresed 'To Alice, Moscow', and stalkers!), appeared in three other films (two not listed in the data base) and left acting when they wanted her for nude roles. She is now married and a research biologist, and recently appeared at RusCon, a Russian SF con in Moscow, to award the prize for best children's work, called the 'Alice.' She is, as an adult, stunning.

A second Alice film was made from 'The Lilac Ball,' another of Bulychev's novels, but was not as successful. I will have comments on that film in that topic. Also, the novel 'Alice's Travels' was turned into 'Secret of the Third Planet,' a very good animated cartoon. The English translation of that should be out by May.

Definitely you have had to live in 80s USSR to accept this series on mental and emotional levels. If you were not that lucky you can have a look how Soviets and their imaginable future looked. With sences, feeling, emotions and kindness in the front.

I was a schoolboy when I watched this film for the first time. The next day I knew that all pupils of our form watched it and all were fascinated by the film as I was. I think the same situation was in all forms of our school and in the whole Soviet Union. Later I watched it every time it was shown on TV and want to watch more. I think that comparison with "Back to the Future" or other Sci-Fi films is not appropriate. "Gost'ya iz budushchego" is unique in many ways, once you have watched it, you never forget it.

This film is full of belief in peaceful science achievements, full of belief in the beautiful future of our world. It's not only the film, but also a forecast of many scientific inventions and achievements. The time shown in the film is the year 1984 (the year of its creation) and the year 2084 (where a schoolboy Kolya Gerasimov has traveled for some time and where his friend Alisa Seleznyova was from). The year now is 2005, many inventions and achievements predicted in the film are not realized yet. Such as "Mielophone" (a device, which can read thoughts of any animal and human), expeditions to Venus and Mars (as easy as going for a picnic in the weekend), creating and launching of the satellites as a homework for pupils, easy to drive flying machines (which completely replaced automobiles), biorobots, "historical identification" of any kind of material or creature performed in a couple of minutes, and many others. Meanwhile, some of them nowadays became much more realistic than they seemed in 1984! Just wait for 2084 :-)

The film also depicts typical Russian schoolboys and schoolgirls (and does it so naturally!). With their inventiveness, curiosity, humour, dreaminess. Look for example at Fima Korolyov, you could find such character in nearly all forms of every school of the Soviet Union, similar character was in my form too! Alisa Seleznyova... I myself, as well as many my classmates fell in love at first sight with her! By the way, later an actress who played Alisa became a scientist - I think she was as much influenced by the film as people who watched it on TV.

Beautiful idea, beautiful realization, beautiful actors, beautiful music, beautiful song "Prekrasnoye Daleko" ("The Wonderful Far-Away")... Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful...

The last thing I want to say is that different remakes and "new versions" of the song from the film and even the film itself were made later and spread on TV and in the Internet. All they are not even comparable with the original. I should not even comment them, my comment is only about the original. So, request the original and enjoy it!

Guest from the Future tells a fascinating story of time travel, friendship, battle of good and evil -- all with a small budget, child actors, and few special effects. Something for Spielberg and Lucas to learn from. ;) A sixth-grader Kolya "Nick" Gerasimov finds a time machine in the basement of a decrepit building and travels 100 years into the future. He discovers a near-perfect, utopian society where robots play guitars and write poetry, everyone is kind to each other and people enjoy everything technology has to offer. Alice is the daughter of a prominent scientist who invented a device called Mielophone that allows to read minds of humans and animals. The device can be put to both good and bad use, depending on whose hands it falls into. When two evil space pirates from Saturn who want to rule the universe attempt to steal Mielophone, it falls into the hands of 20th century school boy Nick. With the pirates hot on his tracks, he travels back to his time, followed by the pirates, and Alice. Chaos, confusion and funny situations follow as the luckless pirates try to blend in with the earthlings. Alice enrolls in the same school Nick goes to and demonstrates superhuman abilities in PE class. The catch is, Alice doesn't know what Nick looks like, while the pirates do. Also, the pirates are able to change their appearance and turn literally into anyone. (Hmm, I wonder if this is where James Cameron got the idea for Terminator...) Who gets to Nick -- and Mielophone -- first? Excellent plot, non-stop adventures, and great soundtrack. I wish Hollywood made kid movies like this one...

Even though dated by today's standards, "Guests of the Future" tends to be a very memorable children's show. I've always consitered Pavel Arsenov to be Russia's "Leiji Matsumoto".

Plot revolves around 11 year old Kolya Gerasimov who discovers a time machine in a basement of an old house in Moscow and gets transferred into the 21st century. Then he is allowed to look around, everything seems to be different! Accidentally, Kolya witnesses two space pirates who arrive from Saturn and later try to steal a device called a "Mielophone" (which can read thoughts) from Alisa Seleznyova - a young girl who could talk to animals and machinery. Kolya manages to save the device from the pirates and brings it back to the 20th century. But both pirates and Alisa get there too. Alisa knows where Kolya studies but doesn't know what he looks like. Pirates saw Kolya, however, they know nothing about him.

Very deep plot, nice soundtrack and rather thought provoking, consitiering that the audience that is aimed for is children/pre-teen audience. It was availiable for a while (In Russian and Mandarin with Chinese subtitles), but I think they should re-release it again one day!