EDITOR’S NOTE: Voyage to the End of the Universe was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, November 25, 1967 at 11:20 p.m. and Saturday, August 1, 1970 at 11:30 p.m.

What were American audiences thinking when they got this Czechoslovakian movie dubbed into English, once Ikarie XB-1 and now Voyage to the End of the Universe?

I hoped they loved it.

2163: The 40-person multinational crew of the starship Ikarie XB-1 has spent 28 months at light speed — 15 years of human time — to get to the Green Planet, a mysterious body that humans may be able to live on. To get there, they have to deal with an ancient ship packed with nukes, a radioactive dark star and the crew slowly falling to pieces. Like Dark Star. Or even 2001.

American-International cut twenty-six minutes of this (including a scene where a UFO carries dead capitalists), changed the White Planet to the Green Planet and gave it the new name. However, the most significant change is that, at the end of the original, the crew discovers that the planet is inhabited. In this one, they land and see stock footage of the Statue of Liberty, giving it a gimmick ending.

Director Jindřich Polák used the same props from this film for his next project, a 1963 TV series entitled Klaun Ferdinand a raketa. His career went between science fiction and children-friendly movies, along with some crime movies. He based this on the Stanisław Lem book “The Magellanic Cloud” and co-wrote it with Pavel Juráček.

I really enjoyed this, as it seems to get across what it would be like to be a space traveler. The claustrophobia, the worry, the food not being digestible — encompass all the small details that others overlook.