Socialist science fiction is of course different from the capitalist version in several aspects. One does not go into space to colonize it, but to gain knowledge, space travel considered the ultimate achievement of a purely materialistic science.

Consequently, there are no bug-eyed monsters or other boogiemen. But then again, as we know from the American counterpart, commies are monsters themselves, emotionless robots, while in reality these movies seem almost sentimental compared to the gung-ho mentality of Western space opera.

No Star Wars, only dead civilizations as warnings to Mankind – especially warmongering capitalist nations. As socialist societies are gerontocracies, these endless pacifist tracts are usually spewed by old men, while the young are training in almost full frontal nudity, homosexuality only existing in decadent Western societies.

In fact, there is no sex whatsoever, no Amazons on the Moon or slave girls from Venus – what a drag! Perhaps, what is most surprising to the Western viewer is the portrayal of the ideal Communist society as a middle-class holiday resort.

IKARIE XB-1 isn’t much different, with careful sets and plenty of human interest, well-meaning and dead. There are good patches, like the obsolete robot roaming the corridors calling for its old master like a lost child, and the derelict spaceship, gone missing centuries ago.

All in all, however, it’s a very long haul, the final revelation of the destination as a cosmic suburbia, while a child is being born aboard the ship, being a bit hard to take. To add to the confusion, it was savaged by CORMAN in 1964.