Metropolis (film)

Metropolis was a silent German science fiction film released in 1927. It was directed by Fritz Lang. It was famously a huge failure upon release and complete versions were lost. However, it eventually found new appreciation and had an immense influence on the science fiction genre.

Plot
The Ninth Doctor described the plot as "fairly standard". It followed "workers turning against the idle rich at the bidding of an evil shapeshifting robot", known as the Machine Man. Its message promoted the mediation of peace. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

Production
Production took place at Babelsberg Studio in Berlin. Initially, the lead role was given to Olaf Richter. Brigitte Helm played three different roles in the film, with plans for her to play a fourth: the Machine Man itself. Gustav Fröhlich joined production as an extrta. Anna Dreyfus worked as assistant to the director. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

Attempted sabotage
In August 1925, Dieter Jovanovic infiltrated the production with a Cybermen under his control. He presented it as a puppet capable of playing the Machine Man; impressed by its cababilities, Lang opted to include it in the production. However, Jovanovic was secretly a fanatic embittered by the First World War and its consequences for Germany. He believed the film's message of peace to be "a lie", and feared that if it was adhered to, it would promote a world in which Germany experienced even more humiliation and hardship. Revenge was instead Germany's only way forward and he was intent on stopping the production of the film completely to ensure that no one ever saw it.

Shortly after Jovanovic became involved, the Ninth Doctor arrived at the studio to witness the production. Passing himself off as a member of the Berlin Film Commission, he gained unrestricted access to the set. He confused Dreyfus by speaking of Brigitte Helm and Gustav Fröhlich as playing the leading roles, which Dreyfus knew was not the case. When the Doctor discovered the presence of a Cyberman on set, he came into conflict with Lang by demanding it be destroyed, creating a rift between himself and the production team.

Eventually, Jovanovic made his move and had the Cyberman murder Olaf Richter. It proceeded to try and attack Dreyfus but the Doctor chased it off with some gold and pursued it into the sewers. There, he realised the Cyberman was lost, in pain and breaking free from tis Cyber-conditioning, so he tried to reason with it. However, Jovanovic reasserted his control and had it attack the Doctor. He returned to the studio where he set it to kill Lang. The Doctor remerged and convinced the Cyberman to break free of Jovanovic's control. It did so and incapacitated him, allowing for his arrest.

Jovanovic confessed his crimes to the authorities. Despite the incident, the Doctor implored Lang to complete the film, knowing of its future significance. Lang came to an arrangement whereby the incident was hushed up in the press so it did not receive bad publicity. The story followed that Richter left the film because he "wasn't working out". When production resumed, Brigitte Helm was once again cast as the Machine Man, donning a full "uncomforatable" costume. Gustav Fröhlich was chosen to replace Richter as the lead actor.

Production continued into 1926. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

Release
Metropolis was completed and released in 1927. However, it was a huge failure. In the Doctor's words: "Nobody goes to see it. Nobody listens to what it's saying. It borderline bankrupts the studio. Within months, its cut to ribbons and the full version's never seen again"

- The Doctor

The Doctor noted that, although Jovanovic failed to halt the film's production to prevent it from being seen, he ultimately needn't have bothered.

Skipping forward briefly from 1925 to 1927, the Doctor retreived a full version of the film and rented out a theatre to treat the formerly-enslaved Cyberman to a private screening. It was moved by the film, having never seen anything like it, and felt it spoke to its soul. Afterwards, it requested that the Doctor deactivate it, and the Doctor obliged. He returned the film to 1927 before anyone else could see it. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

Legacy
More than simply a cinematic failure, the Doctor spoke of the failure of Metropolis as a tragedy, considering the context of when it came out. In Germany, the consequences of the First World War continued to worsen. More and more people succumbed to the same "dangerous bug" that had driven Jovanovic to extremism, turning "a trickle into an avalanche". The film's message did not cut through to the population. (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

In the years following its release, Germany's enduring problems produced the ideal environment for the Nazi Party to build support. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power and established the Third Reich. This precipitated the coming of the Second World War, which broke out in 1939. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, Just War, AUDIO: The Alchemists, et al.) By 1945, it had led Germany to complete ruin, (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) as well as tens of millions of people dead all over the world. (PROSE: Just War)

Metropolis was re-discovered decades after its initial release. By then, the Doctor lamented that it was too late for its message to resonate, as all the mistakes had already been made and nobody could change them.

However, Metropolis ultimately found new appreciation. It attempted a style of filmmaking that contemporary audiences had never experienced before. Later generations came to consider the film "iconic" and it made its mark on the science fiction genre, with even a full version eventually re-emerging. The Doctor named Star Trek and Star Wars among the franchises that would never have happened without Metropolis. He credited the silent film era as having a huge influence on cinema as a whole, Metropolis "more than most". (AUDIO: Monsters in Metropolis)

Behind the scenes

 * John Dorney, writer of Monsters in Metropolis, knew very little about the film at the time he was commissioned to write a story for Lost Warriors. He first watched the film with friends for a podcast and began developing story ideas around it. He came to imagine "what would it be like if they had a Cyberman instead of the robot?" which led to the involvement of the Cybermen in the box set, which was not part of any initial plan. He conducted a lot of research into the film as well as Fritz Lang, with a lot of this research making it into the final script. (VOR 152)
 * Metropolis did indeed have an influence on Star Wars. 's original concept art for C3PO was notably based on the design of the Machine Man.