Flying Saucer - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Surprisingly, long before the Kenneth Arnold sighting of 1947 and the adoption of the term "flying saucer" by the press, spacecraft of human or alien origin were often illustrated as classic flying saucers in the popular press, dating back to at least 1911.

After 1947, the flying saucer quickly became a stereotypical symbol of both extraterrestrials and science fiction, and features in many films of mid-20th century science fiction, including The Atomic Submarine, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion epic, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, as well as the television series The Invaders. As the flying saucer was surpassed by other designs and concepts, it fell out of favor with straight science-fiction movie makers, but continued to be used ironically in comedy movies, especially in reference to the low-budget B movies which often featured saucer-shaped alien craft.

MGM, however, gave it's 1956 Forbidden Planet A-film high production values in the United Planet's Cruiser C-57D, presenting a plausable human exploration, faster-than-light starship of the 23rd century.

The saucer design did, however, make a temporary comeback on the television series Babylon 5 as the standard ship design used by a race called the Vree, described in the series as one of Earth's long-standing allies who had visited Earth in the distant past, and who bore a strong resemblance to the "Greys". Aliens in the film Independence Day attacked humanity in giant city sized saucer shaped space ships.

The sleek, silver flying saucer in particular is seen as a symbol of 1950s culture; the motif is common in Googie architecture and in Atomic Age décor. The image is often invoked retrofuturistically to produce a nostalgic feel in period works, especially in comic science fiction; both Mars Attacks! and Destroy All Humans! draw on the flying saucer as part of the larger satire of 1950s B movie tropes.

The Twilight Zone episodes "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "Third from the Sun", "Death Ship", "To Serve Man", "The Invaders" and "On Thursday We Leave for Home" all use Forbidden Planet's iconic saucer.