A Forbidden Planet prop United Planets Cruiser C-57D

MGM, 1956. Silver and gray spherical "starship" with gray dome top and a smaller dome on the underside with working lights enhanced by a red gel, atop a plexiglass tube built into a rectangular black case which houses the electrical equipment needed to operate the cruiser lights. A key to open the case is included. Restored by collector Wes Shank. The design for the C-57D starship not only inspired future spaceship designs, but its own creation was based on UFO reports from the 1950s which were often chronicled in newspapers and magazines, with a little help from the California Institute of Technology. The shape has since become synonymous with alien transportation, although in Forbidden Planet, it was actually used to transport earthlings to an alien planet. This particular miniature is the smallest of the three that were used in the production, and it was hung with music wire from the ceiling. In the film, the C-57D is a starship which travels from earth and lands on planet Altair IV under the direction of Commander Adams, played by Leslie Neilsen. His mission is to investigate the disappearance of a group of explorers sent to Altair IV twenty years prior. Many consider the C-57D the inspiration for the USS Enterprise on television's Star Trek; indeed, creator Gene Roddenberry once expressed curiosity about it while creating Star Trek: "I think it would be interesting to take another very hard look at the [Forbidden Planet] spaceship, its configurations, controls, instrumentations, etc. while we are still sketching and planning our own." Since the film's release and into the present millennium, many companies have produced model kits of the starship, a testament to the ongoing popularity of Forbidden Planet and the C-57D's enormous contribution to the science fiction film genre and space transport. Accompanied by an 8 x 10 photo of the cruiser in orbit.
Base: 11 x 15 x 28.5 in.; saucer diameter: 21 in.