It came from outer space? Shouldn’t it be “they?” As in, more than one?

Or perhaps “Them!,” as the film shares a desert setting with that post-atomic-colossal-ants-run-amok milestone.

But who are we to quibble over grammar, when our aim is to party like it’s 1953?

I hope you’ll join us for a special FOURTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION of Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner and a no-doubt-slightly-tipsy discussion of “It Came from Outer Space.”

This is just about the quintessential 1950s sci-fi flick, replete with theremins, bug-eyed monsters, and shrieking heroines, all presented in eyepopping 3-D. The film was released the same year as “The War of the Worlds” and “Invaders from Mars.” Clearly, there were some serious anxieties churning beneath the veneer of post-war prosperity.

Ray Bradbury came up with the story, in which liberal and conservative ideologies strike sparks and everyone is suspect, and Jack Arnold directed. Arnold brought his share of young couples closer with such subsequent drive-in fare as “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954), “Tarantula” (1955), and “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957).

You know you’re watching a 1950s science fiction movie when it opens with the protagonist, an amateur astronomer and confirmed bachelor, enjoying a night in the desert by candlelight, before a crackling fire, in his tweed jacket with patches on the elbows, smoking his pipe, with his impeccably-dressed, devoted girlfriend at his side. Talk about enjoying all your pleasures at once! But for our astronomer-Adam, it just isn’t enough; so he goes in search of the forbidden fruit of a super-meteorite that crashes among spiders and Joshua trees within range of his telescope.

And what do you know, in a movie full of scientists, who should turn up but the Professor from “Gilligan’s Island!”

Technically, I wasn’t brought aboard the sci-fi flagship until June 2020, but Roy broke the champagne bottle across the bow on April 3, launching a virtual life raft for a worldwide community of housebound science fiction lovers. I’m honored to participate in this fourth-anniversary celebration of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” – also serving as a memorial of sorts for actress Barbara Rush, who died on March 31st.

You just know the discussion will exceed the 80-minute running time of the actual movie. Bring your clashing values to the comments section and be sure to have a libation on hand, as we reminisce about Covid, camaraderie, and “It Came from Outer Space.” It will be one meaty meteor, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

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