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Trying to find the name of a science fiction film that featured a mixed crew of apparently Earth people and an alien race that looked like Asians. The aliens were treated as slaves or at least second-class citizens, and I believe the film begins with a rebellion on the ship, forcing it to crash on a primitive alien world populated by giant lizards and other dangerous lifeforms. To survive, the two factions have to work together despite their differences to repair the ship and escape this dangerous world.

It had the look of, and probably shared some props with, Queen of Outer Space (1958), The Time Travelers (1964), and even The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966). It was a native English language, American, color production and I would say was definitely produced no later than 1970, I would say around 1966, or so. While a lot of the sets seemed in studio, it didn't look cheap, once again Lost in Space (1965–1968) type production values. It was a film, not an episode of a TV series.

Does any of this ring a bell? I only saw it once 50 years ago on television in the New York Tri-State region, probably on channel 9 WWOR-TV. What struck me as so strange was how abruptly it began, I am not sure if it was just me catching it the wrong moment or a weird edited version being broadcast, but the movie appeared to begin right in the middle of a chaotic pitched battle in the main room (command center?) of the spacecraft.

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Possibly 1966's Women of the Prehistoric Planet? The plot summary from wikipedia reads:

A spacefaring crew from an advanced civilization is preparing to return home after an extended voyage. The crew includes "humans" (represented by Caucasian talent) and "Centaurians" (represented by Asian talent).

The Centaurians have been rescued from their home planet after an unspecified catastrophic event has devastated their planet. They are being returned with the spacefaring explorers with an expectation that they will be assimilated into their new parent culture. One of the ships in the fleet is hijacked by a few of its Centaurian passengers and crash-lands on a prehistoric planet in the "Solaris" system. Countermanding orders, the rest of the fleet returns to search for survivors after the crash.

By the time the rescuers (traveling at fast sublight speeds) are able to return to the planet, they encounter the descendants of the original crash survivors - explained in a simplified version of time dilation. Linda, a Centaurian from the rescue ship, falls in love with Tang after he saves her from drowning.

After fighting the planet's indigenous species (including giant iguanas meant to represent dinosaurs), Tang and Linda--revealed to be the Admiral's daughter--are marooned on this savage and primitive planet (which is revealed at the end to be Earth).

This seems to fit the crew of Caucasian "humans" and Asian "aliens" you recall, with a hi-jacking by the aliens, and "giant iguanas" mentioned as the giant lizards on the alien planet.

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  • Sorry! Yes, that's it!
    – Mutatus
    Sep 8 at 17:22
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    That synopsis sounds like a plot for a great movie. The poster is super-cheesy, though. As a kid, I thought it was a weird film because of the human-alien conflict as the subplot. When I first saw your answer, I immediately thought you were referring to Voyage to the Planet of Preshistoric Women 😆. I'd like to see this film again. What made me remember it was seeing King Dinosaur on YouTube, even though they are hardly related. Also, I haven't seen WOTPP in over 50 years. Seeing the poster for WOTPP reminded me of one of my favorite films as a kid I've seen a dozen times, World Without End...
    – Mutatus
    Sep 8 at 17:33
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    @Mutatus If this is the correct answer, you can "accept" it by clicking on the check mark next to it.
    – Booga Roo
    Sep 9 at 15:16

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