Venusians are a race of aliens living on the planet Venus in the 1956 children's film, Supersonic Saucer. Although only the young Venusians are seen, they are shown to possess psychic abilities and are able to shape-shift, with one Venusian child in particular - a male nicknamed "Meba" - ending up paying a visit to Earth and having an adventure with a trio of children from an English boarding school in Surrey, which involved Meba and the children helping to catch a wanted gang of thieves.
Biology[]
Although only the young Venusians are seen, they are diminutive beings that resemble a featherless owl/penguin wearing a white niqab - although one of the children describes them as looking like "Amoeba Proteus". They have large eyes and appear to have no mouth, so it's unknown what they eat on Venus as they cannot eat human food. They are shown as been intelligent, as evidenced with Meba been able to read English and learn how to find places/use human devices along with been able to use strategy to overcome a situation.
In terms of their abilities, the Venusians are capable of psychic powers including telepathy - of which they can communicate with others using both words and pictures, and during which they make a make a whirring/humming noise - as well as telekinesis and pyrokinesis. They are also capable of rewinding time to affect certain people or animals - during which their eyes spin wildly. Most notably, the young Venusians are taught by the adults to shape-shift into a form resembling a flying saucer, which grants them not only the ability to fly at great speed but the ability to travel between planets. Their shape-shifting also allows them to get through narrow holes and openings without any issue.
Finally, while in their flying saucer form they can transport large amounts of objects from one location to another - as evidenced with Meba been able to carry various loads on separate occasions.
Personality[]
While only Meba is focused on in the film, it's clear that the Venusians do possess emotions. Meba explains during a flashback that when he was struggling to transform to a flying saucer form, his friends (who had all mastered it) made fun of him for not been able to shape-shift.
Meba displayed a curious interest about Earth and humanity, while also showing affection to the children he befriends and trying to make them happy when he heard them casually wish for things. However, been unfamiliar with Earth customs and due to taking what the children said literally, his attempts to please the children would often backfire. He can also be pretty blunt at times to the point of potentially being offensive, as he refers to one of the children as "the one with the goggle eyes", referring to the fact that the boy is wearing glasses.
Meba was shown to get upset when his attempts to please the children failed, which included him crying as a result. He was also naive as he openly believed the word of a criminal despite having never communicated with the man before, which led to him getting captured. However, he was shown as been clever and able to create and use strategy - especially regarding how he helped to save the children from the criminals and get the attention of the authorities.
History[]
The Venusian flying away from Venus.
On the planet Venus, a group of Venusian children were been taught how to shape-shift into a flying saucer form. While each member of the group soon worked out how to do it, one of the group - a young male - was proving able to spin but not to transform, with the rest of the group who had managed to do it making fun of him for his struggles as they flew around him. After they left, the male continued trying until at last he finally figured it out and transformed into his saucer form. Ecstatic about his achievement, the young Venusian began to zoom around in his saucer form - his excitement leading him to flying around Venus and out into space. When he finally came to his senses, he found himself far from Venus but very close to Earth. Curious to explore the planet and learn more about the 'humans' who lived there, the youngster continued his travel to Earth.
Greta and Sumac talk to the Venusian.
Sure enough, the young Venusian headed towards England - flying over London and eventually coming to a stop in a tree in the garden of a boarding school in Surrey, which was mostly devoid of students due to the summer holidays. His landing was heard and witnessed by the School's Janitor, Walter Pole (secretly a member of a gang of criminals planning to steal the trophies from the school's safe), who proceeded to leave but kept what he'd saw secret for the time being. The others who heard and witnessed the Venusian's landing were a pair of girls from the school - Greta and Sumac - who had been unable to go home for the holidays and calmly approached the diminutive alien before talking to it; discovering that the alien could speak to them telepathically as it explained that it was from Venus and had come to Earth to see what humans were like, as well as stating that it couldn't eat human food after Sumac offered it a humbug. After showing off its ability to rewind time when it made Juno - a dog that was running towards him and the girls - run backwards, the girls decided to show the alien to their schoolmate Rodney, who was one of the two sons of the Boarding School's Headmaster and had a keen interest in science.
The children learn more about Meba.
Rodney's opinion of the alien was that it looked like an amoeba - specifically "Amoeba Proteus", with the girls suggesting they called the Venusian "Meba". "Meba" himself approved of the name and stated he would prefer to talk to Greta and Sumac as he found Rodney to be hard to understand - referring to Rodney as "the one with the goggle-eyes". When asked about why he came to Earth, Meba showed Sumac a telepathic vision which explained about how young Venusians learn how to shape-shift, showed his initial struggles with it and eventually his success and flight through space. Upon hearing this, Rodney stated that when the school had gone to the observatory for a school trip before the summer holidays the day before, he'd seen Meba as a flying saucer when he looked at Venus through the observatory's telescope, even though no-one believed him. Meba also explained that he intended to stay on Earth for a day or two to rest before making the journey back to Venus.
Meba taking the cakes and buns.
When the children complained about having a dull supper and wishing they had various sweet items like toffee, cake and ice cream, Meba took what they said literally - not realizing that the children weren't been serious. But, seeking to please his new friends anyway, he transformed into his flying saucer form before flying out of the window. After flying over Surrey for a while, he came across a cake shop called "Dutch Oven Teas" and entered - taking a large number of cakes and buns back for the children. The children were initially thankful, but quickly realized that Meba must have stolen them from somewhere; telling Meba (who admitted to taking them but said they were 'borrowed') to take the cakes and buns back, along with money from the children for the buns they had started eating. Meba complied and returned the items back to the shop before returning - although he ended causing another problem when he heard Rodney wish about having a fire instead of radiators; using his power to set several items on fire.
The girls tuck Meba into bed.
Although Meba soon extinguished the fires when the children told him to and reversed the damage the fires he had created caused, he began crying - stating to the children that he found them difficult to understand as he only wanted to please them but when they wished for things, they no longer want them when he provides them - with Sumac and Greta apologizing and promising to be more careful when they wish for things. When Meba began shivering due to also feeling the cold night air, the girls put a sweater on Meba to keep him warm and took him to their room for bed, tucking him into a doll's bed for the night. Later in the night, Meba was awoken by the girls - who both were upset that they couldn't go home for the summer holidays as Greta's parents were in Norway and Sumac's parents were in South America. While talking about how much it would cost to go to either country, the girls hypothetically suggest they'd have to rob a bank to get the money they'd need for both of them to go home; theorizing that there must be a million pounds in a bank - along with how good it would be to have that much money.
Meba with the stolen money.
Once again taking what he'd heard literally, Meba transformed into his flying saucer form and headed out into the night - flying around and above London until he found the bank. After sneaking inside, he managed to get inside the vault and successfully stole a million pounds - using his power to rewind time to avoid been caught by the caretaker - before returning it to the Boarding School. When the children woke up and found Meba, they were shocked at seeing what he'd done - with Meba getting upset and explaining that he thought he was been kind by getting the money for them. The girls were understanding but told Meba that robbing a bank is wrong and that he'd have to take the money back as otherwise he and the children will get into trouble. Meba tried, but was initially unable to return the money as there were too many people around - forcing him to bring it back and promise to the children that he'd take it back at night, with the children hiding the money in the school safe along with the school's trophies. Unbeknown to the group, the money had been seen by Walter when he was cleaning the windows - with him reporting both the money and the existence of Meba to the criminal gang's leader Number 1. While Number 1 was doubtful, he arranged for the safe to be raided that night for both the money and trophies as Walter had explained that the School's Headmaster and his wife would be away until late.
Walter talks to Meba.
That night, the children recovered the money from the vault and give it to Meba, who successfully returned it to the bank while the children returned to bed. When the crooks broke into the school shortly afterwards, they only found the trophies but stole them anyway. The next day, Number 1 dismissed Walter for his story about the money and the 'flying saucer' - with Walter conversing with another of the crooks, Number 29, about getting back in Number 1's good graces by capturing Meba; reasoning that the alien could be used by the gang to perform multiple robberies for them with the powers Meba had. At the boarding school, Meba remained by himself in the tree - upset that his multiple attempts to please the children had failed - before been approached by Walter. Walter agreed that what Meba did was wrong but offered to help Meba to make the children happy again and told Meba his plan - which involved Meba appearing out of a box as a surprise. Naively, Meba agreed and flew into the box, only for Walter to lock it and take it to the gang's base. Upon seeing the truth, Number 1 demanded that Meba tell them where the money is - only for Meba (still trapped inside the box) to begin emitting what sounded like a beeping noise.
Meba calls the Police.
Unbeknownst to the criminals, the beeping noise was actually a telepathic message of Meba shouting "Help!" repeatedly. This was heard not only by Greta and Sumac, but also Rodney - with the sound of Meba's cries sounding faint and the children deciding to separate and travel in different directions to see if the calls for help got louder, with Greta heading North, Sumac heading South and Rodney (along with his younger brother Adolphus) heading East. Each of the children eventually made it to the criminal's hideout at Holloth House and managed to evade the criminals inside despite been spotted before they entered. Greta eventually made it into the kitchen where Meba was been held captive and successfully freed him when Number 1 was distracted - telling Meba to alert the Police. Meba managed to escape the room by flying up a speaking tube and out the window before traveling to a telephone box. Reading the instructions on calling the Police, Meba lifted the receiver off the hook and used his telekinesis to call 999 before leaving the telephone box.
Meba with the girls following the gang's capture.
Flying back to the house, Meba created the necessary emergency by transporting some hay outside the house into one of the upstairs rooms, before using his powers to set it on fire - with smoke from the fire drifting out the upstairs window. When a police officer was sent to check the telephone box following Meba's call, he noticed the smoke and called out the Fire Brigade before going to investigate himself. Inside the house, Meba found the children (barring Adolphus, who remained hidden downstairs) trapped upstairs with no way to escape. Coming up with an idea, Rodney took Meba to the top of the stairs as the criminals marched up towards them - with Meba using his power to rewind time to make them run up the stairs several times, the criminals getting more and more tired with each run before eventually ending up in an exhausted heap at the bottom of the stairs. The children and Meba then hide in the rafters as the worn out criminals eventually crawled upstairs before noticing the smoke from the fire; trying unsuccessfully in their exhausted state to get water to put it out. Soon enough, the Police Officer and Fire Brigade arrived and successfully arrested the gang - with the firemen quickly putting out the fire and the children recovering the stolen trophies. The Police Officer also congratulated the children for their work and informed them that there's a reward for the gang's capture, with the reward money been enough for Rodney to buy a new science book he wanted (promising as well to buy his brother Adolphus a spaceship) and for Greta and Sumac to go home for the remainder of the summer holidays.
The children hug Meba before he flies home.
On the day of Greta and Sumac getting ready to leave, Meba told the group he would also be leaving to go home to Venus - pointing out that he's very hungry and cannot eat Earth's food, but stating that he will miss the children very much. After receiving a hug from the children, Meba tearfully transformed back into his flying saucer form and flew out the window as the children said their farewells and asked for him to come back again someday. As Greta and Sumac were driven away from the school, Meba followed behind for a while before flying back off into space - beginning his long journey home.
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Supersonic Saucer - 1956