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Ode to science-fiction corridors

JA January 19

Over at Den of Geek, Martin Anderson has written an unashamedly nerdy and vast entertaining essay on the design and aesthetics of corridors in sci-fi.

‘Alien’ started the kind of corridor-fetishism in screen sci-fi that Kubrick had failed to start with ‘2001: A Space Oddyssey’, since the latter film was so visionary and expensive that practically no-one could even attempt to imitate it.

Instead Roger Christian got inventive with his lower budget and strip-mined an aircraft graveyard, strewing ‘Alien’’s Nostromo with sections and detailing from WWII bombers. This usage of full-sized ‘nurnies’ followed the long-established visual effects practice of cannibalising parts from model kits (most especially WWII tanks and destroyers) in order to provide ready-made detailing without resort to custom-crafting and vacuum-forming every last valve and pipe. By the time the 1980s set in, Alien’s strip-mined tech was practically de rigeur for screen sci-fi…