Project Moonbase

Project Moonbase (also called Project Moon Base) is a 1953 black-and-white science fiction film made independently. Jack Seaman produced it, Richard Talmadge directed, and the cast includes Ross Ford, Donna Martell, and Hayden Rorke. Supporting roles are played by Larry Johns, Herb Jacobs, Barbara Morrison, and Ernestine Barrier. Lippert Pictures handled distribution. The story comes from Robert A. Heinlein, who co-wrote the screenplay with producer Jack Seaman.

The film stands out for its era by trying to show space travel in a realistic way and by imagining a future where women hold equal authority to men—for example, the U.S. President is a woman. Still, Colonel Breiteis, the female commander of the Moon mission, is chosen partly because of her gender, is often treated as part of a "weaker sex," and is even threatened with a spanking by her superior officer. (Her last name is pronounced "Bright Eyes.")

Mystery Science Theater 3000 aired the film in January 1990 during its first season on The Comedy Channel. It had previously been broadcast in 1986 as an episode of the syndicated TV series Canned Film Festival.

**Plot** In a future 1970, the United States plans to build bases on the Moon. Colonel Briteis, Major Bill Moore, and Doctor Wernher are sent to orbit the Moon to scout landing sites. But Wernher is an impostor on a secret mission to destroy the U.S. Earth-orbiting space station by crashing the rocket into it on the return trip. Colonel Briteis, who made the first orbital flight around Earth four years earlier, is arrogant and distrusts Major Moore. Moore once had romantic feelings for Briteis when they joined the U.S. Space Force, but she rejected him to pursue being the first person on the Moon.

Moore realizes the man claiming to be Wernher is a spy for an unnamed country because he knows nothing about Wernher’s expertise or the Brooklyn Dodgers, despite supposedly having taught in Brooklyn. During a struggle for control of the rocket, Briteis accidentally hits the boosters, saving their lives but leaving the ship critically low on fuel. She takes unfair blame, but Moore assures her it is not her fault. Briteis then admits she does not have all the answers and needs Moore’s help.