Forbiden Planet
vs.
The Tempist

O brave new world, That has such people in't.

The Tempest

D Vautier
6/23

In this discussion ID monsters is pronounced as one word.

I suppose we all have ID monsters.  Sigmund Freud made sure of that because he decided to chop up the human psyche into four components;  conscious, unconscious, libido and id.  Now I know that he was a very smart guy and nobody did the kind of human research he did, especially on all those delusional repressed Victorian women, but I have to admit outright that there is an ID monster lurking in all of us.

That fleeting moment when we help rich old grumpy grandma up the stairs and wonder maybe what if, maybe a little push?  That split second when we see an oncoming semi, and hateful jealous overbearing wife doesn’t have her seat belt on, and what if?  That flashing moment when our ornery short-tempered boss is crossing a blind street and you see oncoming traffic, and?  That’s the ID monster.  It’s in all of us and we quickly repress it and put it back in it's cage.

In the science fiction movie Forbidden Planet Morbius warns the rescue team not to rescue him and his daughter.  It seems the former occupants of the planet were technically far advanced and decided to develop a brain boost that would eliminate their respective IDs.  Well guess what happened? These IDs did not cooperate and kind of got loose and destroyed the Krell down to the very last Krell.  Poor guys.  Too smart for their own good.

So it seams that good doctor Morbius had tried out a little brain boosting himself and his ID got loose and raised holy hell.  That’s why Morbius warned his rescuers away, but alas they came anyway and had a fun visit.

There are a lot of similarities between Shakespear's Tempest and Forbidden Planet and many differences also:

  1. Morbius warned the visiters away whereas Prospero arranged a storm to beach his visitors.

  2. Prospero had plans for his guests whereas Morbius just wanted them gone.

  3. Both Prospero and Morbius had been marooned a long time (12 to 20 years).

  4. Prospero and Morbius had beautiful young daughters Altara and Miranda, both hungry for love.

  5. The daughters escaped with their respective lovers although Altara had to settle for Capt. Adams after Forman died (not a bad choice).  But Miranda had Ferdinand all along.

  6. Ariel was just as good as Robby and could do magical stuff better.

  7. The very evil witch Sycorax was a perfect ID monster if ever there was one.  Caliban was just sullen feral bumbling joke.

  8. Stephano was the perfect wise guy.

  9. Trinculo was the funny man like the cook (Earl Holliman).

  10. Morbius succumbed to the brain boost destroying his own ID monster thus saving the party, but Prospero survived and went back to reclaim his kingship.

Each story, although similar, has different lessons.  Morbius does not have control over the vast technology given him so he just had to destroy it.  Prospero did and freely gave up his powers because he realized he was unable to use them wisely.  And that was the whole point.  Don't mess with mother nature.

Below is the shipwreck of Prospero's adverseries.