Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (also known as Doppelgänger) is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry, Lynn Loring, Loni von Friedl and Patrick Wymark.

Set in the year 2069, the film concerns a joint European-NASA mission to investigate a newly discovered planet which lies directly opposite Earth on the far side of the Sun.

The mission ends in disaster and the death of one of the astronauts, following which his colleague realises that the planet is a mirror image of Earth in every detail, with a parallel and duplicate timeline.

Having originally conceived the story as a television play, they were encouraged by their employer Lew Grade to pitch the project as a feature film to Jay Kanter of Universal Pictures.

The film has received mixed reviews from critics; while the special effects and production design have been praised, some commentators have judged the parallel Earth premise to be clichéd and uninspired.

EUROSEC director Jason Webb convinces NASA representative David Poulson that the West must send a crewed mission to the planet before Hassler's allies in the East.

In September 1969, The Age reported that the actor would demand a non-smoking clause for his next film: "He smokes about two packets a day, but the perpetual lighting up of new cigarettes for continuity purposes was too much".

[11] Scenes deleted from the finished film showed the character pursuing a romance with EUROSEC official Lise Hartman, played by Loni von Friedl, whom the Andersons cast in Berlin.

The role had first gone to either Gayle Hunnicutt or Tisha Sterling, but the original actress quit early in the production after falling ill.[2][21] This led to the casting of Loring, Thinnes' then wife and a star of TV series The F.B.I.

[15] The original script described Sharon as the daughter of a United States senator and had her begin an affair with EUROSEC public relations officer Carlo Monetti.

[11] In the finished film, this character, played by Franco De Rosa, is renamed Paulo Landi and appears only briefly; the affair is implied in one scene but not explored further.

[2] The exterior of the EUROSEC Headquarters was represented by Neptune House in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire (now part of BBC Elstree Centre), while Heatherden Hall appeared as the old Jason Webb's nursing home.

[26] Due to the high cost of colour TV at the time of production and the need to avoid black and white to reflect the film's futuristic setting, instead of using real viewing monitors the crew cut screen-sized gaps in a wall and positioned the actors playing the conference delegates behind them.

[26][29][30] For a scene depicting Lise Hartman (Loni von Friedl) taking a shower, cinematographer John Read did the lighting in silhouette as instructed by Parrish.

[36] The sequence showing Ross and Kane's journey to the Counter-Earth was accompanied by a piece titled "Sleeping Astronauts", featuring an ondes Martenot played by French ondiste Sylvette Allart.

[35][36] Archer and Hearn describe this piece as "one of the most enchanting" ever written by Gray, adding that the soundtrack as a whole evoked a "traditional Hollywood feel" which contrasted with the film's futuristic setting.

[11] Some British prints feature an alternative version of the final scene with a short voice-over from Ross, repeating a line of dialogue the character says to Webb earlier in the film: "Jason, we were right.

"[38] The film was also negatively received by the Daily Mirror, which called it "corny",[47] as well as by David Robinson of The Financial Times, Derek Malcolm of The Guardian and Margaret Hinxman of The Sunday Telegraph.

[49] Variety magazine considered the plot confusing, equating the Dove crash to the quality of the writing: "Astronauts take a pill to induce a three-week sleep during their flight.

[55] Gary Gerani, co-writer of Pumpkinhead, ranks Journey to the Far Side of the Sun 81st in his book Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies, calling the film "enigmatic" and a "fine example of speculative fantasy in the late '60s".

He criticises the cinematography, comparing it to that of Thunderbirds in the sense that the characters "stand and talk a lot", while defining the script as "at least 60 per cent hardware-talk and exposition ... How people move about – airplane, parachute, centrifuge – is more important than what they're doing".

[60] In a review for Den of Geek, Martin Anderson praises the direction and effects but states that the film's "robust and prosaic" dialogue sits "ill-at-ease with the metaphysical ponderings".

[62] Reviewing the film for Sight & Sound in 2021, Robert Hanks called the story "compellingly weird" even if "the pacing is dreadful [...] the dialogue wince-making [and] the science utterly implausible."

He also noted the film's inclusion of various "Anderson obsessions" like "huge supranational organisations, spies with bizarre gadgets, futuristic cars, and odd close-ups of hands performing intricate tasks", adding that it was "perhaps a shame Parrish didn't imprint himself more firmly on the material".

[63] Archer and Nicholls suggest as possible causes of the film's box office failure its "quirky, offbeat nature" and waning public interest in space exploration after Apollo 11.

[41] The topic of the Moon landing dominated a contemporary review in the Milwaukee Journal, which found similarities in the plot of Journey to the Far Side of the Sun: "... the spacemen find a few bugs in their 'LM' and crash on the planet.

Suggesting that the performances are hampered by an excess of technical dialogue, the review concluded: "... the makers of this space exploiter may get lots of mileage at the box office, but Neil, Buzz and Mike did it better on TV.

"[61] Rovin argues that the effects "[occasionally] outshine" 2001's", adding that it "attempts to kindle a profundity similar to that of [2001] in its abstract philosophising about the dichotomy of dual worlds, but fails with a combination of meat-and-potatoes science fiction and quasi-profound themes."

[66][67] S. T. Joshi likens the film's theme of duplication to the premise of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which a race of extraterrestrials called the Pod People abduct humans and replace them with alien doubles.

[69] On the links between the film and UFO, Martin Anderson makes another connection to Kubrick: "... the most interesting common ground between the two projects remains the bleak ending(s) and the slight flirtation with the acid-induced imagery and mind fucks of 2001".