Laura's superior, Dr. Farraday, translates the signal and discovers that it is from an alien race, who are sending an ambassador to Earth.
The Institute launches a rescue mission aboard the spaceship Oceano, which includes Laura and astronauts Anders Brockman and Paul Grant.
Oceano travels through a sunburst, suffering some damage, before completing the journey to Mars and locating the downed alien craft.
Their spaceship lands safely, but Earth authorities decide to study the alien eggs rather than destroying them outright, as Allan has urged.
Harrington had made his name with the feature Night Tide, which impressed Roger Corman enough to offer the director a film project.
[4] Queen of Blood was made using special effects from the Soviet films Mechte Navstrechu (A Dream Come True) and Nebo Zovyot (Battle Beyond the Sun).
Harrington made Queen of Blood back-to-back with Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which also incorporated footage from the Soviet films.
[5] Harrington says Corman "wanted me to write a completely new framing story to use all the technical footage of a rocket flying through outer space, landing on another planet and all that.
I then proceeded to write a script and created the idea of an outer space vampire-like creature.”[6] Harrington estimated that 70% of the film was his;[5] many years later he said it was 90%.
[8] Harrington called Edwards "the kind of producer who had an un- canny ability to anticipate the needs of a director.
Harrington says this is because Queen of Blood was made with a non-union crew, and Corman had signed a contract to work with the unions.
"[3] Harrington wrote if he had cast "a sexy young floozy in the part... it would have become just another run-of-the- mill sci-fi exploitation film.
"[11] The film was shot at Major Studios in downtown Los Angeles, shortly before they were bought by Robert Aldrich.
Saxon estimated that his scenes were shot in seven to eight days and that Dennis Hopper "was trying very hard to keep a straight face throughout" during the making of the film.
[2] Harrington recalled Rathbone as "a great pro who regaled me of stories of Hollywood in the few minutes here and there between set ups.
Even before the release, its quality was sufficient for Universal to hire Harrington and producer George Edwards to make the feature film Games.
[21] Harrington says Roger Corman promised him a $1,000 bonus if the film went into profit and the producer honored this, albeit after some prompting.
The biography about Forrest J. Ackerman erroneously suggests that Harrington based his original screenplay on a book by Nuetzel.
In her review of a double bill with the feature Three in the Attic, Renata Adler of The New York Times called Queen of Blood the livelier of the two films.
[24] Harrington later wrote, "Some years later, it was very flattering to realize that I had created the prototype for a whole series of science-fiction movies dealing with monstrous creatures from outer space.