Space Probe Taurus (1965 Canada)

The first brief sequence in this film, on another planet, shows the downside of space exploration - the lone surviving astronaut (the others died off screen) has found himself on a planet so toxic to human existence, he dare not not even bring the ship back to Earth regions, where it may infect our planet. Also, he's already dead anyway - his spacesuit was not able to keep out the alien radiation.

Whew - after such a depressing beginning, I was waiting for more horrors associated with outer space but what we get is a 4-person crew heading out on some mission, encountering a derelict vessel, and then getting attacked by an alien who precedes the attack by sticking his tongue out at them. I kid you not. (I first saw this scene many years ago in the early seventies, on the Creatures Features show hosted by Bob Wilkins in the Bay Area, which would show several scenes from different sf/horror films during its intro each night; for decades, I wondered which film this alien with the tongue problem was from; it's only this year that I finally found out that it's this film). The female crew member is played by Francine York (memorable in the Lost in Space episode The Colonists) and the other three are unknowns.

Anyway, one of the human astronauts is forced to shoot & kill the alien and it's later discussed how this was mankind's first encounter with an alien species - not very encouraging. Since the alien was very ugly, at least one astronaut won't lose any sleep over the incident. The bulk of the plot has the space pioneers encountering a static meteorite storm and making an abrupt 'landing' in the ocean of some planet. There are giant crabs and a man-shaped sea-dweller that attacks one of the crew.  The FX in outer space and the ocean floor are like out of a grade school project and the astronomy is iffy - they speak of being in another galaxy. It's slow, but there is some entertainment in this being a fifties-styled low budget space adventure. BoG's Score: 4 out of 10